Advice on setting up a minifarm for profit

We have been homesteading for 9 years now and this year we are going into it as a full time business. We make our money through selling bread, eggs and produce at our local Farmer's Market.

My advice is this: I would start with the idea of keeping your wife at home through your mini-farm. She will be able to generate some cash income in a few years but most of your benefit will be in cash saved. You can supply all or almost all of your food, you will save on expenses you won't need for your wife to maintain a job (clothes, meals, gas, possibly an extra car, etc.) Give it a year or 2 and see how you like it. It's quite possible your wife may prefer to have a job in an office instead.

If it is working and you both like it then write up your business plan and start applying it to your taxes. No point in getting into the ins and outs of the IRS before you even know if you will keep doing it.

I don't think people are trying to be downers either they just want you to see the realities.

ok then "do what you love and the money will follow" good luck!

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5-star double-rated astronavagatrix earth girl

PS, actually if you are a good mechanic or can work on wells(fixing the switches, installing pumps, figuring out the works), and you provide good work for an honest price, you will have a ton of work!

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While I would agree that vet tech experience is not the same as farm experience, I think that it is better preparation for such a business venture than a career history of interior design, hair dressing, or firefighting for that matter. Admittedly, we will have alot to learn, and after doing the research, we may decide to do something different. We aren't locked in at this point. But if we decide to go ahead with this idea, I wouldn't bet against us. Tenacity and commitment are powerful things. We have spent the last year renovating a house ourselves without any previous experience in carpentry or construction and we've done it anyway. I've discovered that ignorance is a good thing. If you don't know your incapable of the task at hand, you may just go on and get it done anyway (and learn alot in the process)

My kids are 12, 10, and 8. The two oldest are girls, and my son is the 8 year old. All of my kids are very good with animals and are very excited about helping out (I realize that this is likely to change somewhat once they are actually helping on a daily basis). One of the reasons we are interested in dealing with the Dwarf Nigerians is that they are small enough that my kids could handle them and they are reputed to have great dispositions. The other is that this breed seems to be gaining in popularity.

I believe that my children would be old enough to help out with some of the feeding, milking, etc. particularly when I am at the engine house.

Nigerian Dwarfs are also great milk producers for their small size. That opens up the door for cheese, yogurt, soap, etc. Your wife's experience will be good when it comes to giving the animals shots!

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Chick with a gun.

The owner of a successful hair salon has better odds for a running a profitable goat business. Knowing how to care for goats(and doing it) is the easy part.

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5-star double-rated astronavagatrix earth girl

A business plan is invaluable.

You need to know where you are, where you want to be and what needs to happen to get there. I've seen people with good ideas completely fall apart from lack of doing their market research and not having a plan.

I said "hair dressing," not "owner of a hair salon." But I will willingly concede that a hairdresser may have more uniquely groomed and stylish goats than what we will have.

Okay, rileyjo, where do I go to get that market research? And where are some good resources for putting together a business plan?

Jim, look through the threads, yesterday i brought up a thread on a really great online booklet for ideas on how to make money on your farm..or out of your house..it is a inifinate list of good ideas..and will get your brain thinking. So good that you are doing so well now that you are out on the farm, i gotta go and see your updated blog soon.

thanks for being blunt, sometimes people on forums can walk all over you.

You have really done a lot, as I know from keeping up on your progress, so hey don't let anyone tell you different..I'll blow your horn for you.

I know you can do this..please read the booklet..i'll go see if i can find the link to it and bring it here for you to save you the search..i learned a lot from it..and of course it is free.

i'll go check on that now..Brenda

ok here is the link
Free eBook: How to Earn Extra Money in the Country
add it to your favorites when you go there, and then read it in your spare time with some note taking paper avail or print it..kinda long..

Thanks, Brenda. Hopefully we will move in sometime mid to late June. I'll check out the link. Shelly already has a garden in and is looking for the perfect place for her and the kids to plant the seeds you sent.

A lot of good on line info go to Googel and look up Mini Farming lots of good info for folks interested in this concept of farming.

boy you are a billy goat stuck in a rut! have you posted a query in the Goat forum or the Market Garden forum here at HT? I would def post in the market garden forum, you would get good BUSINESS advice.

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5-star double-rated astronavagatrix earth girl

My suggestion would be to look up the local laws for dairy/milk/cheese selling, for what you can sell at the Farmers Market (veg/bread/pie/smeat/plants/jellies/crafts/etc... since some are very strict and some have nearly no laws), and meat/animal selling laws for your area.


Once you know the laws (or lack of) and about any certs/licenses/inspections you may or may not need it can help guide your decision depending on effort and costs to do.


Have you browsed the local farmers markets and any nearby farms or roadside stands to get the feel of what others are doing? Are you within a few hours of a MAJOR city where you could find a specialty niche and deliver? Is selling raw milk/cheese legal or can you have a goat or cow share there? How is the 4H scene where you are?



Good luck!!!!!!!!

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You are confined only by the walls you build yourself.

Check out the link Maine Farm Mom gave you .... http://www.microecofarming.com/ Robin has a successful farm.

A business plan is a must! Check with your extension office, check with your community college, check with the small business administration. A lot of times you will get free information. Our local community college has a lot of retired business folks that will help you get started with your business plan, and even help find grants

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http://homesteadingfamilies.proboards.com/

Your kids are plenty old enough to help with the goats. My 4 & 6 year old help me with our Nigerians. They can produce a lot of milk for their size and are easy to handle, but you must do your research before hand if you are intending to bred them for milking.

Last year I researched making our place a for profit farm, and decided we were actually better off tax wise calling it a hobby. I make enough selling the excess animals to cover the cost of their feed and the vet bill (if it isn't too high). The real benefit to the family is not having to spend as much at the grocery store.

My suggestion is to start small as a hobby/family farm to supply your own table. That will give you a chance to learn the ropes and build a customer base. Figure out what works or doesn't work in your situation and then work it into a for-profit business if feasible.

Good luck!

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Wags Ranch Nigerians


"The Constitution says to promote the general welfare, not to provide welfare!" ~ Lt. Col Allen West

re: market research
there's plenty of data on the internet for macro level info. eg, you can probably find the total goat milk sold in the US each year. and probably info about the rough structure of wholesale, CSA, farmers markets, grocery stores, etc.

however, that doesn't help you much locally. my little berg is about 5,000 official town population (likely more in surrounding areas), and about 35 miles away is a much larger city (700,000 city limits population). i know from talking to the farmers at the farmers market that the local market has much different pricing than the big city. the local burg has much more price conscious people, and the yuppie vendors don't last very long, while the basic veggie vendors are there all the time. just last week i saw a new vendor selling garlic, 6-8 different kinds, and the cheapest was $2 per bulb. i doubt i'll see them again. but they'd probably do well in the nearby city, where lots more "granola yuppies" live, if they can afford the gas and time to get there.

another vendor sells pastured beef at a premium price, and has survived for several years. about a year ago, they got a restaurant in the city buying their beef. well, only the sirloins, nothing else. and probably quite demanding on delivery times, volumes, etc. so now they're scrambling to ramp up overall production (ie, more head slaughtered), but still trying to find an outlet for the non-sirloin beef. for a while they had discounts on hamburger, and still had a huge freezer full of the stuff. (still, as business problems go, it's a nice problem to have trying to keep up with demand, rather than try to find demand.)

so, how much do you want to be a salesman? the back-end production, as difficult as it is, is a completely different business than the front-end sales process. selling at the sale-barn gives very low prices, as i understand it. selling to large scale buyers requires a lot of ability to deliver the goods, and meet their timing demands. they're not likely to trust a startup farm much, so how will you survive until you have the track record to sell to the volume buyers? an upscale restaurant is going to want deliveries right before the prime weekend crowds, and will be demaning last-minute inventory if they run out. they won't be very happy with missed deliveries, as they don't like telling their customers what's on the menu can't be ordered.

farmers markets give a better price than wholesale, but takes a lot of time to drive to the market and stay available for the customers to find you. CSAs probably get better prices than wholesale, but tougher to sell in some areas, and likely takes several years to ramp up a client list.

so, for market research, i'd suggest going around and talking to people that are your prospective customers, and see what their issues are, what pricing they'd consider, etc. talk to any existing farmers markets, and CSAs, and others doing something similar to what you want to do. and before that, you'll have to do enough research to convince them that they're not wasting their time, so they'll be willing to invest 10-15 minutes of time to explain what their needs are.

--sgl

Knuckledragger,
Someone may have already posted this, sorry if it is not new but check out these links, they may address a few of your questions. http://www.attra.org/

http://afsic.nal.usda.gov/nal_displa...=2&tax_level=1

I like the first one more, or at least so far in reading it, it may help you fine tune some questions.

Good luck with your endeavors....I am interested in the CSA concept, but have been doing research to try to make sure before we (wife and I) jump!

Thanks to everyone for your help. I've learned alot and some of the links have been very useful. I'll let you know how the venture goes if we decide to undertake it. In the mean time, keep your eye on the front cover of Fortune magazine. You may just see me there someday with my "sweeping the nation like walmart" nigerian dwarf dairy goat/honeybee franchise. Or maybe not.