Beginning Farming advice

RPW · Sep 24, 2013

Education, education, education. It will be tough to farm without the knowledge of today's agricultural education. Not saying that it can't be done but you'd have to have good instincts to do it. My 2 cents worth would be like the others have said start small. Consider leasing the majority of your land so you can start small and still make some kind of income. Hay crops are always a good recession proof commodity.

BuckeyeBoy11 · Sep 25, 2013

First off thanks for all the advice and information about farming. This really has opened my eyes to a very risky type of life. Here is what I'm getting out of this:
1. Do my marketing research to find a niche in the market
2. Expect to keep a 40hr/week job because I may not even break even
3. If I do start, start small and begin farming for a local farmer.

Here is some more info on my situation:
The farm has around 200 acres of the 500 tillable that is creek bottoms and can produce over 175 bushels/acre. We currently rent the farmland for $200/ acre. I was thinking of farming on an adjusted rent with my dad so if I had a good year I would be paying over $150 an acre but if bad it would be near $100. That way I could build up some profits to continue to farm. We do have around 140 acres of extra tillable ground that is in CRP, that is really helping the family's income but won't be able to be farmed for another 10 years. Most of the neighbors are raising black angus, so I was going to think about doing that. Since others suggesting that I do specialty grass raised meats, I have thought about goats or lambs.

wolftree · Sep 25, 2013

BuckeyeBoy,

Back in the mid 1980s, Ford tractor commisioned a magazine to compile stories of several Compact Ford tractor owners who were farming to a niche market. Among those niches were Horse hay growers that baled small square bales in a seed variety just for horses, vegtable growers who marketed to the public directly, Beef breeding stock growers and a multitude of other specialty growers. By finding their niche, they minimized their equipment expenses. They concentrated on learning all they could about their choice and did not have to learn all the information about general crop farming.

There are a thousand specialties waiting to be filled by someone with determination,. Find yours and go for it.

BuckeyeBoy11 · Oct 11, 2013

Ok well thanks for all the input. I guess some of the local farms are getting 250-300 an acre on corn and over 70 in spots for soybeans. Didn't know that but I guess that is the potential. With bushels of over 250 on corn could I do this as hobby farming. Keep a full time that I could make over 30,000 and try to hobby farm on the tillable. Could I just find a special niche on the pasture ground and keep the tillable in conventions.