Finding a profit in farming?

[justagirl]

Hey everyone!

I'm new here, but I would love to get your input. My parents have a small family farm. My husband and I live close by, and I am farming. Well, I use that term loosely. I have 6 goats and a flock of chickens. We also have a large garden area and an orchard with about quite a few apple trees. The main portion of the acreage, probably about 70 acres total, is pasture that used to be used for beef cattle, but is currently being rented out to a neighbor. He runs cattle there occasionally, and along with the rental agreement gives us hay for the goats. My parents rent the land to pay for taxes and insurance. What I would really like to do is earn enough profit from farming, to cover those expenses. Everyone is always quick to say farming doesn't pay, and I understand that. My hope is to produce as much food as possible for my husband, mom, dad and myself, and to earn just enough profit to cover the above costs. Any suggestions for me? Is this an impossible dream or possible? And also, what should I look into growing/raising/doing to start earning some profit? Is it just trial and error on what there is a demand for?

[agmantoo]

I suggest reading this
Can you make a living with cattle?

[rambler]

A person needs to enjoy what they do.

If pigs make the most money, but you hate pigs, you won't make money with them......

You need to find something that works on your property, that you really enjoy, that has a demand in your area worth something.

What works for me or the next poster might be utter failure for you in your place.

Corn maze/ pumpkin patch, beef, goats, veggie stand, sweet corn, hunting leases, eggs, and so much more can work on 70 acres.

Location, desire, markets near you. You need to find what all meets together for you.

Paul

[1shotwade]

I've always heard "truck Farming" was the way to go. That being said,I ran into a guy last year that is a truck farmer.He was telling another that he had an order for 6000 bags of cabbage.In this conversation he said they had to be bagged at 40lb which is about 18 head of cabbage. He gets $4 a bag.That price had to include growing them,harvest,packaging including the price of the bags and delivery 60 miles away.That has to be a very small profit margin!
Since hearing this,I am convinced just growing more than you need and selling at a farmers market or finding a "niche" market for a product is the best proffit off the farm.
Hope this helps some.

Wade

[rambler]

In farming you can try for a few dollars per acre, and have lots and lots of acres.

Or you can do some specialty product that requires a lot of time and risk on a few acres.

In either case, it takes a lot of money up front to get started.

Both ways have good years and disaster years. You work with Mother Nature. And you work with the people that buy whatever you are raising.

The small acre, intensive work, deal you can hit a home run and make many thousands of dollars in profit one year off a couple acres; then struggle to break even for the next 5....

This is the nature of farming.

It is an average income over a 10 year period that counts. And you need enough up front to make it the 10 years, last through the bad years to experience the good and great ones.

Paul

[jwal10]

IF the place is set up for cattle, it may be the best option to make a profit as all you need is cattle. Plus your parents have done it and know how to do it. Cattle price right now is high, bad time to buy (more money). IF the price stays good OK but if it drops a lot, making a profit before paying off stock will take longer. Working the ground is expensive, both fuel and equipment, I would leave in pasture and maintain it well. Me, I would buy a few cows and slowly grow the herd, keeping your own replacements. The rest of the land and time, I would grow as much for yourselves, saving that money to pay the taxes and insurance....James

[Yvonne's hubby]

Farming is similar to any other business venture... there are no guarantees and the profits are entirely dependent upon the managers skills. My grandfather made a very good living most of his adult life farming, as did his brother who had the farm next to his. My father on the other hand was a dismal failure when it came to farming.... lost his backside and all the fixtures every time he attempted to farm. Me? I have always managed to show a small profit with my farming enterprises but would hate to think I had to live on what profit I made farming.

[Jennifer L.]

Small farms, say, 1950's era sized farms, which are probably a lot bigger than most people here want to operate even now, generally aren't profitable any more. You'd see them still in existence if they were. Not saying you can't grow your own food, and cheaply, but making a living off of that size farm would be difficult unless you do that size farm or smaller and sell direct to the public. I think selling direct is the way to go with small farms these days.

[bigjon]

50 acres for hay,15acres for cattle,last 5acres-fruit/garden.

[Callieslamb]

I think a profit can be made if you live in the right location - near a big city- or where there are enough people that can't or don't grow their own and are foodies or locavores. You'd have to be close enough to deliver, run a farm stand, participate in the Farmer's Market or run a Upick.

Money can be made if you have enough Hootspa.....guts....not every one can stomach selling a dozen eggs for $8. But if you live in the right place and grow 'organic' or 'natural' or "no GMO' and are willing to get out there and sell your product - you can probably do it. You need to show that your product is better than anyone else's there. Most Farmer's Markets I have been to has stands with all the same produce- just rows and rows of the same things. Find something no one else is selling or sell it earlier than they can.

Or you can just work your guts out to feed your own family from what you grow and preserve and compare that to what you would have bought it for.

[JLMissouri]

I would consider it completely possible. If all your looking to do is cover insurance and taxes and your location states KC, so those costs cannot be too bad.

What you do is completely dependent on your skills and desires. If it were my ground I would get the equipment to bale small square bales which fetch a premium but require a lot more labor. I paid for all my equipment in one year on 20 acres, 70 acres done right will give you some profit, but that isn't buying new equipment it is spending the time to find good deals on old equipment.

I would use the profits on hay to transition into cattle. This is exactly what I did on my place so I know it is possible, but requires the desire and drive to do it.

That is just one option of hundreds, look into what interests you, go from there.

[rambler]

70 acres of hay is actually a lot of work. And way too much garden crops for one family to deal with.

Perhaps, improving what you have,w hole renting it,out still, would be one way.

Improving a pasture takes a few years and some cash maybe, but can be done in stages.

Get rid of bad plants, interseed good mixes, better grasses and lefpgumes.

Fertilize properly.

Set up rotational paddocks, with water access to each. Pasture production easily jumps up by 1/3 with 4 or more paddocks and a good rotation strategy.

Start charging on a per head, per day rent. this will better reflect good pasture, as more critters can eat longer on a good pasture. On the other hand if the pasture runs out, the person renting will be motivated to get the cattle off and let your pasture renew, as it costs every day to feed his cattle on your pasture...

A big topic, just a thought of something to do to increase income with some modest expenses and not rocking the boat greatly.

Also good ideas if you want to use the pasture yourself.....

Paul

[Maura]

You already have apple trees, what can you do with them? If they are different types, find out everything you can about each tree. Whatever you have, are they eating, baking? Long keepers? You may be able to run a u-pick. You may be able to bag them and sell them to a local grocery or at a farmer’s market. If you choose a farmer’s market you can add other items such as baked goods (apple pie, apple tart), or excess from your garden.

[highlands]

Originally Posted by justagirl

Everyone is always quick to say farming doesn't pay, and I understand that.

Fortunately this isn't something that 'everyone' votes on to determine.

We farm. Farming pays. For us. Farming is what we do. We have no off farm jobs.

Something I see many people do is try to diversify too much. In order to produce a regular weekly or monthly income I find that it helps to have some specialization at the tip of the tool. We have lots of chickens and other poultry, but we don't sell chickens, ducks or geese. We produce tens of thousands of eggs, but we don't sell eggs. We grow a lot of pumpkins, apples, pears, beets, turnips and other crops, but we don't sell any of those. We grow a lot of forages but we don't sell hay.

What is right for us is we sell pastured pork, delivered weekly to local area stores, restaurants and individuals. Everything else is support staff. They all help get the pork to fork.

For each product one does, e.g,. chickens, eggs, pork, beef, etc, there is a huge amount of learning involved as well as specialized setup and marketing to sell that product. You also need to produce a significant amount to be able to sell on a regular basis that creates a regular income. Stores and restaurants need regular weekly deliveries to make their business models work.

The mistake I see a lot of people do starting out is trying to do everything. Instead I would suggest finding something you enjoy raising and focusing on that. Get it very good. Develop your skills at producing it. Develop your market. Then consider adding something more to the mix _after_ you master the first.

Also realize the first thing you try may be a flub. We tried meat chickens (total fail), sheep (we're good at raising them but the market was not there back in the 1990's and processing was 90% of the sale), etc. If something isn't working, try something else. This takes time. Years.

Starting out by producing food for your own table is a great way to begin.

Originally Posted by justagirl

Is this an impossible dream or possible?

Very possible. Approach it methodically, with energy and persistence.

Keep your ultimate goals in sight. Use lists. Log data. Write out business plans. Revise because the real world will be different. The biggest thing I find is that nearly everything takes longer than I anticipate. Good things are like that.

People see our success and sometimes I hear them say things that indicate they think it was all some linear path and easy. It wasn't. It isn't. We tried things that failed and kept moving forward. We still do. We're forever refining and improving.

Cheers,

-Walter Jeffries
Sugar Mountain Farm
Pastured Pigs, Sheep & Kids
in the mountains of Vermont
http://SugarMtnFarm.com/

[Johnny Dolittle]

I would suggest growing sweet candy onions. You could easily grow 1000 on a small garden plot. They are not so perishable so you have a month or two to get them sold. They sell for $1-2 if decent size. Not so hard to grow and you may have good initial success if you do a little research on how to grow them.

[unregistered353870]

Ask the neighbor that's currently renting the land...he's probably making money on it or he wouldn't be paying rent for it...assuming he's a farmer and not just running cattle as a hobby. He may not be helpful if he doesn't want to lose the land, though.

[michiganfarmer]

My dad has 10 angus cows and a bull. He gets 10 calves every spring, keeps them a year, then gets $1100 each for them at the feeder sale. Thats pretty good income suppliment

[farmerDale]

Originally Posted by michiganfarmer

My dad has 10 angus cows and a bull. He gets 10 calves every spring, keeps them a year, then gets $1100 each for them at the feeder sale. Thats pretty good income suppliment

So 11 000 dollars, minus????

IMO, that is one of the mistakes of farming. Forgetting expenses! Not meaning to pick on you at all. Just truly curious what his costs would be to keep a cow for a year.

Dale

[GeneMO]

I am the 4th generation to have our farm. I have a BS in Animal Science. At one time my dad and I cropped close to 1,000 acres. This was in the late 60's through the early 90's. We had farrow to finish hogs, a farrowing house, and had close to 75 momma cows and sold feeder calves. We would bale close to 6,000 bales of wire tied square bales put up in a barn, and filled a 40 foot, upright concrete silo with corn silage. We had all of our own equipment. We were true, full time farmers.

I was the first of the line to ever have a full time job off the farm.

My motto, I use to joke, was "The less I farm, the more money I make"

I now share crop my land out, hang out at my hunting cabin, prop my feet up and enjoy country life. Hunt and gather mushrooms.

That aside, I think the growing trend of people wanting Organic, Non-GMO, free range, grass fed, food is where A person needs to concentrate.

You need to be close to a larger city, with lots of universites, college educated people who have the money to pay out the nose for free range eggs, organic sweet corn, etc.

good luck, Gene

[unregistered353870]

Originally Posted by farmerDale

So 11 000 dollars, minus????

IMO, that is one of the mistakes of farming. Forgetting expenses! Not meaning to pick on you at all. Just truly curious what his costs would be to keep a cow for a year.

Dale

The costs can be almost nothing (including minimal labor) on a halfway decent chunk of pasture with a good fence...grain is where cattle get expensive, and it's pretty much a waste of money to load them up on corn the first year...leave that for the buyers to do. Carrying the breeders is an expense, but doesn't have to be a huge one. It's easy to make beef unprofitable, but it's also not particularly difficult to make a little income growing calves for a year, as long as you don't give them the "spa treatment" so many homesteaders do.