Making money farming??

[mopiflyer]

Well, I farmed grain and cattle for 35 years....made some money and paid for the farm. I was a part-timer. The most cropping I ever did was 350 acres and i did it witha D-17 and a CII Gleaner.. and didn't get to bed sometimes until pretty late. I still have cattle (25 brood cows). There is money to be made especially with 3.50 corn. But wuth smaller acreage, id specalize. I liked the chicken idea although that could be pretty confining on a year round basis... same with rabbits or any animals. I know of a fellow in Connecticutt that has Milking Devon Cattle and gets $8/gal for the organic milk...one cow would produce aroudn 3 ga /day orabout 12,000/year gross I would think. But that is also very confining. I heasr that the real money maker right now is goats..growfast pretty easy to set up and manage and a lot easeir to fool with than cattle. We import a lot of goat meat and the domestic market is increasing. For non-animal suggestions, I would go with flowers...daylillies or iris or lavender..we have a lavender farm in our community and I think they do pretty well pushing scent. Much of it depends on your time and also your marketing ability. I have a friend that has bees. he also teahes and right now his bees are making just about as much as his teaching, but he works farmers markets about 2-3 days a week. Finally there is always christmas trees, but that depends on the locale and your time to again market them...bust your butt in June and four weeks after Thanksgiving.You might talk with your county agent. They can be pretty helpful and can direct you to some good literature.

Don

 

[mopiflyer]

I had another idea that sort of grew out of another thread on TBN. Hay, especailly good horse hay ( alfalafa or timothy) managed correctly can be as profitable as any crop and the cost of the equipment isn't so bad. I still have a rake i bought for $150 and my square baler is an old AC330 that i bought for $600. Get a wagon and some srtong backs and some storage area and you can do pretty well...those last three things are what drove me to big round bales. You can also pick up a great many lots here and there. I bale over 200 big round bales a year and over half of those come from people that just want thier lots or unused grasslands mowed...that makes for pretty cheap feed for me.

Don

 

[Oleozz]

I tried the Christmas tree route, not profitable. I've decided to get into the sweet corn business, last summer it was dry and between the racoons and deer we barely had enough for ourselves. Organic is getting big in this area, I took a farm tour last summer of an organic operation, as someone else mentioned it is very labor intensive and most of the work was done by hand.

 

[N80]

There are some folks around here that do a number of specialty things. One is heirloom corn that they grind into grits. They have a mill. They do school tours, hay rides etc. There is another similar outfit right across the street from my Kubota dealer that has an orchard and a pumpkin patch. They sell apples, cider, apple butter, etc andalso do school tours and hayrides. No idea how they are making out but both have been around for a while.

 

[deereguy]

Ever seen an Amish man bankrupt? I haven't.

 

[N80]

Ever seen an Amish man bankrupt? I haven't.

That's 'cause he hasn't blown a huge wad of cash on tractors!

 

[lawn_king]

I make my living farming & my tractor is one of my primary tools. I dont grow food crops, i grow beautiful grass.

 

[avorancher]

Want to make a million dollars farming... start with two million.

Out here in southern CA, we say "start with three million", but that will soon need another revision considering the 40-year freeze we just had.

Contrary to what most people envision, there is a lot of small farms in this area. Most farm for the lifestyle it provides and are not serious about making their entire income from it... they try to take care of the cultural costs and property taxes. That gives one the ability to live in the "country" instead of having neighbors houses two feet on either side, for about the same yearly expense.

You can make it profitable on paper by separating the real estate investment from the crop, but most of us have built our dream houses on the land so we will never realize our real estate portion until we're gone or forced to sell to developers.

As most have already stated, a niche market is about the only way for a small farm to break even anymore. Here, nursery plants and flowers are the most profitable but are labor intensive. Grapes, specialty citrus and avocados are also popular.

My tractor saves money but doesn't "earn" any. It is probably the best tool investment I have ever made if you don't count my own labor costs in running it. I saved $1500 last year by just hauling my own fruit out to the highway for pickup and I used to rent chippers for $250/day, etc.

Of course, there are all the regulations... but don't get me started on that!!!

 

[JPJUDGE]

I am trying a U-Pick operation with Strawberries, Blueberries & Blackberries, don't know how it is going to turn out yet. This will be my first season to sell. The blueberries take around 5 years to reach maturity, but the plants live for about 50 years. We also raise 5 acres of Burley Tobacco, there is not much profit with Tobacco.

 

[ihookem]

mopifliyer, raising chickens are an eight week deal. Pick them up at the post office, food and water, keep them in a pen light enough to move them around once or twice a day , eight weeks later to the butcher.