Ideas please- need to make $10K on 10 acres per year

There is a really good book by Booker T. Whatley called "How To Make $100,000 Farming 25 Acres". It's a good read if you can get a hold of a copy (out of print).

I don't agree with everything Whatley said in the book, but I think the best points he makes are-

1. Have your customers lined up BEFORE you plant crops or start producing livestock.

2. Diversify, diversify, diversify.

3. Sell something EVERY DAY.

As far as I know, no one has ever followed Whatley's plan and made $100k. But, I do think he had some good ideas and if you could make some of them work for you, there you go.

I have made very little money from farming/homesteading EXCEPT for beekeeping, and I have done very well with that even on a small scale (less than 100 hives). We just do not live in an area where people are willing or able to pay good prices for farm/garden products. We have done okay with rabbits, selling all we could raise for $2.75/pound, dressed and frozen, but we have to deliver to the cities 160 miles away. Our biggest problem with that was scale- we can easily process 80-100 lbs, but once we try to handle 300 pounds/month, which is what we figured we needed to do to make it worthwhile, we found that we were doing a lot more processing than we really wanted to. In the end we gave it up. In our case, we are retired and did not really need the income, but if we were trying to earn a living we might have been more willing to continue the effort. It would have made a huge difference if our customers had been willing/able to drive here to pick up the product, but that was not feasible.

I currently have two sows of breeding age, and a couple younger gilts that I'll add in to the breeding program in the next 6 mos-year, and one boar. I can tell you from experience that I about break even selling feeders, sometimes I end up in the hole. It sure as heck is not a good way to MAKE money! LOL But we enjoy the hogs and make a little money selling the cut meat. Hoping that the profits will increase as we get more adept at marketing it locally. To quote my husband when he saw that one of sows had farrowed again, "Well, our feed bill just went up!"

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"Perhaps I'll have them string a clothesline from the hearse I am in, with my underwear waving in the breeze, as we drive to the cemetary. People worry about the dumbest things!"
by Wendy

Whatever it is you decide to do, be sure not to quit your job and then HAVE to make that amount from your new venture right away. Take it from someone that tried just that. DH and I bought a business and right away depended on it for our entire income (we were both working at it). What a mistake that was....an excellent way to accumulate a lot of debt . Which is exactly what we did because we didn't know all of the in's and out's of our field yet, and since we had no other $$ coming in, each mistake put us deeper in the hole.

Also, it is hard to help a business thrive when you are trying to squeeze every last penny you can get out of it. "It is hard to win a race when you're starving to death" was a saying we ended up repeating to each other often.

Almost 6 years later, we are FINALLY paying off the last of that evil debt, and we're finally quite comfortable w/ our business. Now we have more customers than we have time for, so are having to really be intentional about what directions we choose, etc. Never had the luxury of the choice before....

So success was always a possibility for us, but not keeping cash coming in from someplace else made the process a MIGHTY painful learning experience!

Anyway, just keep that in mind. Keep a source of stable income while you start out your new venture, so that it has a chance to grow....you have a chance to learn.....and your credit cards don't get out of control in the meantime.

Erin

Hey, there is an open thread on exactly that topic. Make your point there.

Pete

There's a few key concepts to making money from the land. A lot of them are general marketing concepts, applicable to other businesses as well.

1. Paraphrasing someone else, intangibles are cheap to buy and very profitable if you can sell them. If people are buying to satisfy their emotions, you can just about do the marketing and the selling will take care of itself.

2. Your best chance to sell big is to find an empty or under-supplied market niche. Empty is best, because it will take longer for competitors to notice your success and move in, chomping at the market you've grown.

3. Diversify. Diversity of products and supply is good, diversity of outlets is good. You don't want to be totally dependent on one or too-few things, and have something interrupt that income stream at either end. Ideally, you should be able to suffer a couple of those interruptions and still have enough coming in to carry on, even if you have to cut back on the champagne and caviar.

4. For a small farm, value-adding is the way to go. If you grow something and sell it, you make minimal profit if any from your investment (time as well as money). Grower, buyer, wholesaler, manufacturer, wholesaler again, distributor, retailer, customer - there are many possible levels in the distribution chain. Try to consolidate several of those levels and keep ALL the profit from those several levels all in your hands and the profit level goes up astronomically. In that particular chain I set up above there are six steps where someone would take a profit as they on-sold whatever it is that left the the farmer's gate.
If they each took 20% profit then what the producer sold for $1 the consumer would buy for about $3.
If they each took 40% profit then what the producer sold for $1 the consumer would buy for about $7.50.
If they each took 100% profit then what the producer sold for $1 the consumer would buy for about $64.
Different chains, different numbers. My first suggestion ("Natural Whole Grains") cut out some levels as not worth while (production) or too costly (retail), but kept several other levels for the man in the middle - you.
This value-adding model will only work while you keep the operation small, so you don't drown in overheads. What you're doing is taking a raw material of little value, adding as little labour and material to it as you can manage (efficiency), and placing it as close as you can afford to, to the consumer. The profit levels (%), if not the absolute amounts ($), are enormous if you can do it and keep it all in hand.
In fact, value-adding is so powerful that it can enable you to compete with much bigger operations in their areas of strength. They've got economies of scale, you've got a very tightly-integrated operation.

You could, for instance, take some or all of the above. Register a trademark that taps into regional pride - maybe something as simple as "{state}'s Pride" or "{province}'s Pride".
Did you say you've got bees?
Make and sell branded "Homemade natural beeswax candles" through anyone who'll take them on, but aim for high prices through high-end kitchen-supply and food stores.
Make and sell branded "Natural beeswax shoe-polish" in a limited range (black, dark tan, light tan, neutral) of larger containers priced just below national brands in smaller containers. Keep your supply-chain short and just place them locally or regionally.
Don't sell bulk honey. Bottle it all and sell it branded. Oh, possibly one exception - sell branded bulk containers with a tap to groceries, Mom'n'Pop stores, and health food stores who'll also buy a few jars to sell. Let them take on weighing customer's containers, refilling them, reweighing, and charging for the difference.
Make other beeswax and/or honey value-added products - lotions, heck - maybe even confectionery and baked goods (baklava, anyone?) Some of it you distribute through shops, some you sell direct at farmer's markets, some both. You're selling your own regional-branded products - if they grow past your own supply, buy from other local beekeepers.

uh, Pete-

I posted on THIS thread yesterday and I believe it was my post which later led seedspreader to start HIS thread in response. My post was very much on topic, so I don't understand your comment.

There is absolutely nothing wrong with responding, as she did, to a post made in this thread.

There is, however, something distinctly questionable about criticising someone, as you did, for responding to a post in this thread.

I know a fella who makes about $10,000 a year growing mushrooms in his basement. So far, it's just been a hobby for him (only takes up 1 1/2 rooms in his basement), but now he's scaling up, to sell to local restaurants, and expects to retire on his mushroom business, once he hits $25-30K a year.

If you have a market for it in your area (farmer's market, local restaurants, pizza places, ethnic grocery stores, etc), and it isn't already saturated (make sure there aren't already 20-30 other guys growing), then you should be able to make a decent buck off of fungus, without ever leaving your house.

I net more than that on one acre growing vegetables.

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Robin

Tell us more, please! What do you grow? How/where do you market your products? Anything that might help would be great.

Thanks.

Kitty

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Kitty

In Indiana it is also 1,000 birds a year, but I can do 1,000, hubby can do 1,000, the kids could each do 1,000. Now that would just be waaaaay to many birds for us to do!

Anyway, I make excellent money on broilers. My last batch I raised 100. I sold all of those to family. I usually do 2 batches a year & never have a problem selling them. I think I'll do some turkeys this year also.

You might try raising red worms. They aren't too much work.

Get some rabbits & sell bagged rabbit manure to the people in town that want it for their small gardens or flowerbeds. You can also sell the rabbits.

I am putting in more berries & fruit trees this year. Those are always a hit with people.

I also plan to do fall farm tours that are done in our county every year. I wasn't quite ready last year. This will bring in potential customers for things.

I sell eggs. Enough to pay the feed bill plus some. Chickens aren't a whole lot of work.

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I can't believe I deleted it!

Most of what I grow is listed here. I use a lot of season extenders like low tunnels, row covers, hoop houses, a 22 x 48 four-season greenhouse and a seedling house for transplants. The seedling house is heated, the hoops and greenhouse are not.

Succession planting is crucial. When something comes out something else goes in quickly. For example, when the broccoli that doesn't form side shoots is pulled out the plants will go into the compost pile, I'll add and inch or two of compost and plant the fall crop of peas. Bare soil doesn't earn money.

I sell seedlings in May and June.

My blog is not very informative right now but there are a lot of entries with information on what I do. If you decide to read and have questions you can leave a comment. They come to me in email. I have time to answer (and it would get me out of painting the woodwork!). Growth in the greenhouse is slow right now, the seed orders are in and I'm on vacation.

If anyone looks at the greenhouse and thinks you can't afford one, you probably can. I don't remember off the top of my head but the total cost with shipping, lumber, etc. was about $3,300. If you aim for $3 a square foot and subtract the cost of seeds and starting them you'll almost earn the cost of the greenhouse the first year. If you're an experience grower you can aim for closer to $5 a sq ft. and make it more than pay for itself the first year.

Eliot Coleman and Alison Weidiger are four season growers. Their winter growing seasons are different. Eliot has three books and a winter growing manual that are very helpful.

I'll stop here because I could go on and on because I'm passionate about what I do. No sense in doing that if I'm going to bore everyone though!

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Robin

I just saw this in a local paper. Couldn't believe it: SHRIMP farming in INDIANA?!?!
http://www.shelbyvilledailyunion.com...157085720.html
Don't know any particulars, but I'm looking into it.

make maple syrup

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Some folks near us have a heated greenhouse for tomatoes, lettuces & herbs in winter, but are close enough to a city with a reputation for being cultured & eclectic that delivery isn't a huge issue. Also I met someone with a hydroponic sprouting operation, same proviso re delivery. Both systems cost $$ to set up. I believe the greenhouse was less so, and not so high-maintenance. Checking into ethnic specialities is an idea. A large Chinese population will pay well for duck eggs or eggs with chicks partially developed, Caribbean or Middle Eastern will buy meat goats. Some of the ideas already given sound pretty pricey in money or labor against eventual income, as perhaps these ideas do, too. Unfortunately off-farm is usually an easier way of getting a solid and consistent return for your hours. Sue

around here you can buy dairy calves for about 100 a piece. I used to buy a dozen at a time and hold them until they hit about 800 pounds then Id take them to auction. I cleared about 400 each on them. That was when I only had 5 acres.

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What we have here...is a failure to communicate.

Just saw a program last night about NC farmers converting from tobacco to prawns, catfish, tilapia, ect. One fellow said he was making more off of 4 acres of fish ponds, than he was off of 80 acres of tobacco. Of course start-up expenses are high, but there are probably programs to help. Apparently the amount of seafood harvested from the ocean has been regulated to a sustainable level and there is no more to be had, without depleting the resource, so as demand rises, the only way to satisfy it is do farm fish. Sounded pretty good to me.

Actually, if you have access to them--and can identify a market--birch syrup may be a better choice. It's an extremely small product niche ... there is a single-family business in Alaska that is--I believe--the only birch syrup producer on the continent, and they alone make something like 25% of the world's birch syrup. I think all of the rest of it comes from Siberia.

It takes quite a bit more birch sap to produce syrup, but it also sells for quite a bit more than maple syrup.

I know a half dozen or more families who have CSAs and vary from doing it as part of their income to it being the full support of the family. Typically, they market garden 2 to 10 acres, sell boxes of pre-ordered for the season produce to families who may be 20 to 70 miles away, and work hard at it. Many of them have family help or have interns that work through the summer for minimal pay and lots of experience. The ones that don't have other work also have berries and fruit trees and bees and make maple syrup, and some also have chickens. One family makes a salve from their herbs and beeswax. It takes some years of experience to get good enough at gardening to be able to make your living at it, but it can be done.

Sorry to pop up again. I'm being mouthy, I know.

However... SAVE MONEY. Saved money is worth more than earnt money. Money saved is money you would have paid tax on, THEN spent. Money saved is money you don't have to earn first, THEN spend. If you can save money, then it doesn't cost you money, only time (well, maybe lesser amounts of money, but the principle applies). It's as if you earnt cash in the black economy, and never had to pay tax. Buy work clothes and footwear at Goodwill/Salvation Army/StVincents if you can.

Kill your own meat. Grow your own vegetables. Divert a little food your way from your income stream. If you handle grain, learn to sprout it over winter rather than buying as many greens. You can live well on eggs, milk and home-made cheese most of the time, with just the occasional Sunday roast chicken (and Monday chicken sandwiches, and Tuesday chicken casserole with vegetables and garbanzos, and Wednesday chicken-soup from the bones and white beans and your freezer-box of leftovers), Thursday rabbit, Friday rabbit casserole, Saturday rabbit soup - ah, heck, we'll stir in a couple of whipped eggs to make it "egg flower" soup - well there's the week gone and we've still got leftovers and we've scarcely touched the eggs, milk and cheese, let alone the home-killed and home-cured ham and bacon, occasional goat buck kid with big lumps salted as corned kid, tender young gelatinous bones boiled up as soup and stock. Oh yes - if you do make your own cheese, learn how to salvage the protein from the whey by making ricotta.

You can buy dairy bull calves cheap. Raising them is false economy, unless the pasture costs you nothing. If so, then good - free beef. However, let's get back to the calves. A lot of them are a poor chance to make it, but have only cost you a few dollars to buy. Well, good - butcher the weak ones right there. You get veal at almost nothing a pound, boil up the gelatinous bones for stock, and you get calf-skin to tan, and maybe make "buckskin" clothes from.

Barter with your neighbours. Cut down your energy usage. Turn off lights and "phantom-use" electrical appliances when you're not using them. Use clothes instead of house-heat, and turn the thermostat down - the lower you keep the house in winter (or higher in summer) the more you save - heat differential, rather than absolute temperature, is what costs money. Adopt good driving practices rather than driving aggressively without forethought. Trade down or downsize from a SUV to a little Volkswagen or Honda - preferably diesel - with a box trailer. Or at least run a little old understressed vehicle when you don't need a big one. Do the work you can (oil and filter changes, etc) on your own vehicles.

Go dumpster diving, garage saling and curb cruising. Buy a bread machine and a blender at garage sales, use the blender to grind a little wheat each week, and cook a couple of loaves of soaked-ground grain. They'll improve rapidly over the first few times, and if they're totally inedible to you the poultry, pigs or goats will still appreciate them while you're learning.

You're not going to grow rich saving money, but it can cover the gap between income and outgo. $20 a week is $1,000 a year, and most people can save at least that much easily, twice that with little effort; and lots more if they put some time, thought and effort into it.