Go Big Or Go Home

I think things are changing in this country when it comes to small family farms and trying to make a living at it. People say they want fresh & local, but the other 90% want cheap. Some people really do eat with their eyes, and it's hard to compete with corporation farms & volume sales.
How do you think a small farm can make it these days?

(quoted from post at 18:01:04 08/06/14) I think things are changing in this country when it comes to small family farms and trying to make a living at it. People say they want fresh & local, but the other 90% want cheap. Some people really do eat with their eyes, and it's hard to compete with corporation farms & volume sales.
How do you think a small farm can make it these days?

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They can make it but they will have to be frugal. They are not going to have a new truck or tractor for that matter unless they are near a large city. But I know it can be done. Most don't make enough and work off farm too. But there are others, who cut their own wood for heat, eat what they grow, shop 2nd hand store for clothing and such to make it. Most people are not willing to live that lifestyle.

I'm small but have outside income from Army retirement. I know others who are living on 20-35K a year, maybe less. that is their gross. They have to be in a specialty market to do it. Organic, grass fed, pasture pork or free range poultry. But to farm say 200 acres with todays chemical farming, 60 or so acres tillable, no, they can't make a living.

Rick

Well,I have a small farm.Only about 100 acres leasaed.But I do some custome work and a thing or two to help supplement.We are frugal.We use older equipment(It's all pd for).And I do my own repair...We struggle,simply because my wife is unable to work and has lots of medical expences.If she could work and was 'heathly',no problem.So yes,a small farmer can make it.

Google Booker T Whatley regenerative agriculture. Dr. Whately was a professor of agriculture at the Tuskegee University. Much of his work was focused on how to make a living in small-scale agriculture. You can't do it with traditional farming but he offered several plans on non-traditional farms that could/would support a family. Saw some of my contemporaries from Michigan State University implement business plans modeled or copied from some of his work and were successful.

I have that book.Awsome ideas!

Thank you!
I will read that.

It's tough to be in the middle.
Everybody makes money but you. I like farming, but everything is costing too much. Not enough R.O.I.
Niche markets only work for a short time before everyone else starts doing what you're doing.

Farm on conservation land in a suburban area with lots of yuppies around with more money than brains. You can get double or better than supermarket price.

Im one of the last around here that survied the 70s get bigger or get out .the tried everything bank forged papers always had to pay 2 x what others paid and got 1/2 of what things were supposed to be . i never could borrow from a bank like others . got the farm by blackmailing my dad he didnt want me to have it .havnt missed a day of chores in 15 years .but did niche marketing worked two jobs and simply made more money then the could take .ran machinery older then me and yes i hung on was it worth the price maybe would i do it again yes but i would know better than trust family its a tough go and make sure your partner is willing to make the same sacrifices and realise that you will probably not see the cash reward (after all most farmers are millionares the day the die ) but you will have the greatest job satisfaction in the world. one passing final note and this is something i never thought i say but a family (4 generations together ) are now renting my farm they are maybe the exeptions to the rule but they do a better job taking care of the land then the small guy i had before i think now about how responsable is the person not how big or small he is

I am a small farmer that stareted with nothing in the 80,s. I had to go to town and work for about 10 years till I could get my business in order. I really loved farming and returned full time, looking back I did ok. I ran old machinery and still do, but things now are much different. the guys around here aren't satified unless they are getting bigger with multi million dollar grain bin systems, trading machinery every year, installing irrigation on every farm they can and if apiece of land comes up for sale it doesn;t matter what it costs. I sometimes wonder when you get the ball rolling that it might roll right over one of them if they stop wheeling and dealing. It probably is a good thing I'm about retiring age because their thirst for expanding and acqiring more land to feed the beast will probably prove to be the hardest thing for a small guy to compete with. I think you will get pushed out no matter how efficent or how good you are. lol to the small guy

I agree.

What is considered a small farm today, and what income is considered a living?

Fifty years ago in the Midwest a 160 acre cash grain farm could not pay for itself and support a growing family anymore. A full time livestock operation or at least one off-farm job was necessary on a 160 acre farm back then already.

Don't kid yourself. The ones who cry about wanting fresh and local want CHEAP. That makes 100%.

They will pass by the local tomato and buy one imported from Bango-Bongo if it's 10 cents cheaper.

Agreed.

Farming has always trended towards larger and larger farms. In the 1880s farmers couldn't believe how many acres a team of mules with a steel plow could cover and a reaper could harvest - the old days of a wooden plow and using a scythe were over. In the 1920s tractors allowed a single farmer to cover land that used to support 4 or 5 family farms just a few years earlier. In the 1980s a single farmer could farm the land that supported 4-5 family farms just a generation earlier. In the 2000s a single farmer could cover the same acres that supported 4-5 family farms in the 1980s.

In 20 years people will look at the early part of this century as the "good ole days".

Yep. They think without the middle men involved the farmers market should be cheaper than their grocery store.


Last year I had a horseman show up to buy hay. He was bit#(hing and complaining about the $6 a bale price and how it should be so much cheaper. I told him all he had to do was buy some hay ground at $3000 an acre, then buy a some equipment, build a shed or two to store it in, burn his vacation days at work to put it up and then he too could get in on the cheap hay market. He must have figured it was time to STFU because I tired of hearing it.

Most of what they buy at the farmers market they could grow for "free" (yeah right) at home but most don't want to tear up any of their lawn or put in the effort it takes actually grow their own.

Unless of course its a pot grower - those lazy SOBs will work their butt off to grow a single pot plant in a closet.

My BIL and my sister are both teachers. Not a lot of income but they have summers off and every holiday known to man along with a week vacation time in the fall and spring. He bought his farm when they got married and never saw a dime of "income" from it for decades. Pretty much everything the farm made got rolled back into the farm (and then some) while they lived off their salaries (if the farm didn't eat into it). He ran old equipment and drove 10 year old cars and pickups and worked late into the night and went to work tired for years. His kids all went to college and played sports and worked the farm with him. He retired this year with about 500 acres paid for and his teachers pension and SS coming in 5 years and he's going to farm full time for the first time in his life. Basically he's a millionaire (and then some (maybe a lot of some)).

My dad loaned him a few peices of equipment for a day or two at a time and his dad gave him an old worn out Allis C when he bought the farm (I never saw that tractor used once) - everything else he got on his own.

Look at some of the Amish farms- minimal fuel purchased to run a piece of big equipment with a tractor- the 4 horse hitch runs on ditch weed, corn stalks in winter and some oats in season. Mennonites will have a tractor but are almost as thrifty as Amish- adapted to modern world while retaining what works from old Amish culture. Colorado likely to have some small 'specialty crop' farmers making some profit in next 5 years- will be same crop they grow now but reduced legal fees costs for crop that usually goes up in smoke. Teasing Alert! RN