Can you make $20,000 Homesteading

In the US property taxes are due and payable on a yearly basis and have a tendancy to go up based on revaluation of the property. If you are not used to know you better realize there will be no garden production in the winter months and probably not much market for meat, etc either so you are looking at making your year's incom in 1/2 a year or less. Plus you have to feed and house animals in the winter with no return for that time AT that time.

He's very clear in his book that he knows that what he is doing is slipping by on a technicality. If he took payment for slaughter, he would have to be inspected, so he does it for free, but the inherent value is computed in the price per pound. The business is being run a smart business man; he knows the laws where he is, but he creatively works around them. That was my point.

The on-farm slaughter limit is a moot point if he doesn't charge for it. Besides, he nets a yearly quarter mill on his farm these days, so he's probably over the limit of even the highest on-farm slaughter allowances.

Might be worth reading the books Helen and Scott Nearing wrote. They made it work in a northern area. From my experience a farmers market in an area that has people with good incomes is a key. They will pay a premium for "farm fresh" produce. Also some folks are able to sell by "subscription" to folks...depending on what is available folks have pre-agreed to buy so much each week. Others have an agreement with 1 or 2 restaurants to supply a certain quantity of fresh lettuce etc.. Others have an "egg route" where they deliver fresh eggs to their customers each week. Canada may have more laws regarding quotas and such. You may not be able to sell chickens without having a "quota". I don't know, but be sure to check it out. Look at having several streams of income. Consider if you can maybe rent out a weekend cabin to summer visitors to help with cash flow, things like that..

Good luck

Eric

("I wanted to know is it realistic for 1 person working on a 15-20(Is this size a lot for one person to work on ??) acre peice of land to be able to make
15,000 to 20,000(canadian) dollars a year.")

yes, it is realistic. yes it will be hard work, yes, you may have to sacrifice personal wants, yes, you may have financial problems initially

Until you find a niche market to enter to sell whatever you produce you may have to continue to work some for others. You could locate a job that would give you time to devote to the homestead and learn valuable experience simultaneosuly. Christmas trees here in North Carolina are grown 1775 per acre and harvest starts in 7 years. 1200 per acre typically are harvested as quality trees and are marketed at $20 per on the stump. That is a gross of US$24000 and with 14 acres that would give you a gross of $48000 annually. One hard working individual can easily care for 14 acres and have time to spare. You could contract to raise eggs for a hatchery, we do that and have 1 fulltime employee and that employee earns the money you are discussing and we pay his health insurance (not a problem in Canada). The employee has lots of time to garden and to follow his hobbies after taking care of the layer house. These are just a couple of examples, there are many!

The comments about "knowing your market" and "niche markets" are right on, you may be able to use your Asian roots to set up a niche market with restaurants and other immigrants from Asia, at least this would be one item to consider.

It is just as easy to lose $20,000 as it is to make $20,000 in one of these enterprises.

In the USA land/building taxes are up to each state, so it is different. Some have none. Some have a lot. Some tax only buildings, others tax every little thing you own every year. In my state we pay May & October, but a sales listing would indicate the yearly total.

There are _so_ many laws regulating the sale of food in the USA & Canada. You will have the most difficulty with this. The govt requires inspections & things in place that you can't afford on a small operation. This will be your biggest obstical. You will be fighting the govt all the time. For livestock, there are a great number of laws regulating how & where you can raise the animals as well. No wetlands loss, manure needs to be handled & applied properly, you would need about an acre of farmland to apply 1 animal unit's worth of manure, you need setbacks from waterways.... A lot of folks 'get by' with a couple cattle or horses, but if you are trying to sell 20,000 chickens a year & you are a stranger in a different country - well, doesn't matter what country you come from or which one you are going to - you had best follow these laws to the letter, someone will get their nose out of joint & throw a fuss.

Beyond that, you need 1000-2000 acres to make a living at _regular_ bulk commodities like corn or soybeans or cattle or hogs. The only way to make a living on 20 acres is to sell direct to the customer, and you will be charging them more than the local supermarket will charge.

So you need a _reason_ for them to come by from you. Organic, fresh, sell shares, something. You need to be a _real_ good salesman.

You need a lot of _labor_. It depend what you get into, but you understand that you are not producing _volume_ you are producing a specific _quality_ and this requires a ton of hard work.

So what do you do? If you spend all your time _producing_ the products you want to sell, no one will know about you & you won't sell a thing. If you spend all your time selling/ promoting your product, you won't have enough time to actually produce it! What do you do?

Really, how can you possibly succeed at this? Add to that the big outlay in cash for the land, buildings, and such. That will take 5-10 years to pay off..... How do you build up a very fussy customer base, raise the produce, and pay the bills for the 1st 5 years?

What most people do is start small. Buy your 20 acres, get a real job (you need to be near a large city anyhow to make the direct sales of your produce...) and start planning. Grow 1 acre's worth of stuff, hit the farmer's markets, make a name for yourself. Expand as you can. Maybe in 5-10 years you can wean yourself of the city job & plunge in. But it's just too hard to pay all those up front expenses, work so hard at both building the business, selling it, and raising it, and not really make anything at all for the first 5 years.

I do not wish to be a wet blanket & be real negative about this. If it's what you want to do you won't mind my comments anyhow. I wish you luck. I would consider starting slower, using a real job in the new community as a jumping off point to establish yourself, make contacts, and help fund the beginning years.

--->Paul

Livinguy
you are starting off as a victim - something that many Americans make a good living at - for some reason you have started your post with:
I cannot express my religious views here for the fear of persecution.
Where is this coming from? Why is this a necessary statement to begin your question and your quest? You will have to get clear on some things in your life before you begin dealing with the public in such a way as to make a living selling your products/produce.

Garcarson,

Your comments are based on presumption and misunderstanding. I a not trying to sell anything on the board and the reason for providing my back ground on the board was that I hope to make friendships here and People would want to know a little background as to why I am planning to move else I would have got suggestions like do it where you are.

Take care

Livingguy

Livingguy, Naysayers are the way they are through their own personal experience. That doesn't mean they're right or that they did things right when they had the chance. In fact, most of them never took the chance when they had it because they were so negative to begin with.

Don't let anyone tell you that you're at a disadvantage because you're a stranger in the area you choose to settle down in. I have strangers approach me frequently to ask for my chicken, my CSA shares, and my catering services. They don't know me from Adam (well, Eve, I guess) and they are willing to plunk down hundreds and often thousands of dollars without ever tasting a thing I have cooked or a chicken or veggie I have raised. It's all about reputation. Two or three loyal customers will do your advertising for you; more importantly, they'll look out for you and select customers to give you, lest you fault them for referring a deadbeat. That's why it doesn't matter if you spend all your time working at your enterprise; the customer does the legwork for you.

As for gercarson's comment that you're starting off as a victim, I say, who in farming isn't? CSAs started because shareholders wanted to help the farmer, because she couldn't make a living wage the old way. Co-ops are designed to increase buying and selling power for farmers who can't do it on their own. People start their own gardens and raise their own meat because they feel trapped by supermarket quality standards and pricing. Organic farmers have lobbyists in Washington to protect them from the big bad ag guys. I enjoy my status in the community as "that nice girl who deserves my money because she works harder than anyone I know even though I can get stuff cheaper somewhere else." My husband and I joke that you know you're succeeding when your customers think you're doing them a favor by letting them give you their money.

A couple acres of asparagus would almost get you to what you want to earn IF you are fairly close to a fair sized town (15-20K pop.)

You can get 10,000 Jersey hybrid asparagus roots on an acre at approx. 15 cents per root. You can get your initial expenses paid back after the first harvest year and thereafter the field is like a growing bank account for 20 or more years at least.

Work hard for 2 months a year then just keep the weeds down the rest of the summer. Sure beats raising and slaughtering animals...and you don't have to train people to eat asparagus, most of us are already trained.

First of all I want to say Welcome to the forum!
Looking forward to your input!
As for money making ideas, you might check into specialty poultry. Here's a link from the archives on black meated chickens. http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/hom...cac73939f2.htm


I still think they would be a great money maker if a person were in the right location.
Best of luck to you.

Livingguy - No - my comments were made on what you said and did not presume anything. You see, here on this board no one really cares about your religion and most are just glad that you profess to have one. I also didn't infer that you were trying to sell anything here on this board - but to customers anywhere, espedially customers for your own hard work. Your question was a valid one and we all usually benefit from such homesteading questions. These people have been there done that and are still at it - either physically or mentally - most of us mental ones (double entendre) keep up gardening and have chickens or more. So, your question is going to assist a lot of people - and as long as your religion does not involve human sacrifice, persecution on this board is only going to be good for the soul - we all grow from the wonderful way so many "defend" themselves and what they believe.
Hmmmm - asparagus - sounds like a winner to me and we can't get enough fast enough.

Bruce? HAve you any idea what the average yield of asparagus per acre is? I have been looking for that information, without any luck!

Average yield is 1300# per acre with apx. 10,000 crowns/acre. You'll like this article, Terri.

http://216.239.41.104/search?q=cache...per+acre&hl=en

Terri,

I have a half acre of asparagus, and planted it about 7 years ago. I sell it for $2.00 lb. retail.

If you have say 10,000 plants per acre there is no reason you couldn't net at least $1.00 per plant per 8 week season, selling retail. That's at $2.00/lb. and you can probably get more than that in some places where you have no competition except the c**p that sells in the average IGA, and you have a good size town to sell it in.

Restaurants will buy it as will health food stores if it's organically grown, as well as individuals. Once you establish a market it's there year after year if you treat people right. I deliver in town once or twice a week. If you live very close to a town, they will come out to you to pick it up, making your work a lot easier.

But beware, when the temps get to 80+ degrees asparagus will grow an inch an hour and you have to pick it 2 or even 3 times a day. Two acres would probably require at least 3 people for the 8 week season: 2 picking and one in town marketing.

Thanks! I put in a few test plants to see if they do well for me: I am considering selling them along with my honey.

One more question: Do you know why asparagus becomes bitter? I sit heat or lack of water? I got some bitter asparagus from a gent who's asparagus had been great earlier in the year!

http://ohioline.osu.edu/b826/index.html
has
Some more info on Asparagus.

Terri,

Don't know why the asparagus would be bitter. Never had it happen with me..

Those figures on that website on yield per acre seem awfful light. They don't say whether they are figuring wholesale or retail sales: I am guessing they are figuring wholesale, which is generally around 30-50 cents a pound. You don't want to sell wholesale.

Also, the yield at 1300 lbs per acre: they don't say whether that's for the new Jersey varieties or the old Washington variety. It makes a big difference. You can get 2-3 times heavier yields with the Jersey all-male hybrids over Washingtons. I get a heck of a lot more than 750 lbs a season from my half acre and I've only got about 4000 plants.

For your asparagus growers, it is one of the crops Dr. V. A. Tiedjens experimented with on the use of lime to increase production. Basically he found they LOVE calcium and the higher the calcium levels, the better the yield. If you will send me your snail mail address via e-mail at scharabo@aol.com, I'll send you a copy of the pages out of his book: More Food From Soil Science: The Natural Chemistry of Lime in Agriculture. I have extra copies of this book if anyone is interested.

Quote from the book: "Crops vary in their calcium needs. Asparagus requires large quantities of calcium. It actualy uses more calcium in its growth than it does nitrogen, phosphorus or potash, yet most growers try to grow asparagus without lime. The result is inevitable. Average asparagus yields the country over vary from 80-110 crates per acre. Growers who make a practice of keeping the avilable calcium readings in the soils high or very high are harvesting up to three times that yield."

Ken S. in WC TN

Interesting website!

At one spot on the website, I see that Jersey Giant produced over 7000 pounds per acre while the Washington variety only produced over 3000.

I have seen WILDLY different figures about asparagus, which is part of my problem. I am afraid that the only OTHER figures I could find either came from California, or were over 80 years old. Somehow, I think that Bruces figures will be more accurate!

Since my Kansas soil and climate is not that different from Nebraska, I suspect that my land will yield like Bruces.