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What is a hobby farm?

N

NY 986

Well-known Member
In Tom's combine thread he was asked if his efforts were for a hobby. The answer was no. I farm just shy of 300 acres and given
the arrangement I am in I can service the farm plus put some money into the household. It's not perfect as I run older equipment
and the buildings plus my pickup truck get the band aid treatment. This area peaked economically in 1980 so it is hard to
supplement farm income. Anyways, my farm would pale in comparison to most Midwest operations but I am happy. I don't have to
depend on outside income although it would make things easier.
 
What if the farm predated the other economic ventures? The farm produces income but the contracting business, fertilizer business, farm equipment retail business, etc. which came later are more prolific in terms of income.
 
Maybe something that you don't have to do, but borderline mental illness tells you that it's ''fun''?
 
Sort of along those lines, while I had a day job I also had a horseshoeing business and filed Schedule SE with my 1040. Shoeing horses is not a hobby. I did it for the income. When I could no long shoe, I became an instructor at the community college, again for the additional income. Classic tractors is a hobby, it's hard to generate income owning old tractors.
 
A hobby farmer is a person who punches a time clock to support his habbit of wanting to be a farmer.
 
I am 73. At age 13 I helped my Uncle Irv bale hay in the summer. He raised some beef cows and some hogs. He also sold seed corn and feed supplements.

A bachelor. He took a few trips overseas based on seed corn sales. So, was the farm a hobby farm?

I have a 10 acre farmette. Bale some hay on a small field and a few neighbors with small 2 to 4 acre fields. We are all definitely hobby farms.

Ken
 
I agree with Russ from MN. If it's something your doing as a sideline, on the weekend, after work at your 40 hr. a week job, etc., it more less puts you in the boat of hobby farming. If it's (not) your primary source of income, it's really something that you wouldn't HAVE to be doing in most cases. Some might consider that a second job rather than a hobby. You can look at it the way you want to, and paint your own picture. But if you were in Honalulu on a vacation and a stranger asked you what you did for a living, what would you say?? I make my living from farming, or would you say from something else?? And if you said from something else, would that stranger think your extra efforts in farming would be classified as hobby farming? What that stranger would think, is the answer to your own question.
 
I think the IRS would deem you a hobby farm if you continually lose money on your farming activity. In other words, they would determine it's not for profit. I think you are supposed to only take a loss 2 out of every 5 years. I assume this is to deter those how spend money on farming activities entirely to offset earned income in other ventures. I have no idea how a farmer can realistically not lose money every year honestly.
 
That means that I work for Social Security then as my first job? And farm as my second? Repairand sale Tractors as my third.. Did not know that I am a federal employee. ; )
 
If the farm is making money its a business,if its losing money its a hobby.If its losing money and only able to exist because of gov't handouts its a hobby for the owner and the US Taxpayers.
 
After reading all the replies so far, my definition falls in line with Geo and redforlife. Basically if you have a regular 40 hr week job and farm weekends. Having off farm income doesn’t necessarily mean you are a hobby farmer. We own a storage business and two AirBnBs. But we also farm and ranch 20,000 acres. The off farm business doesn’t come close to the on farm income.

This post was edited by GreenEnvy on 10/25/2022 at 08:44 am.
 
I have always done multiple things to make a living,never ever wanted to depend on just one thing.So I guess by your definition everything I have ever done to make money was a hobby.
 
My one neighbor who is now deceased filed a schedule F every year but had tremendous off farm income which predated his farming efforts. He always bought equipment of which the depreciation or Section 179 expense zeroed out his taxable income. He was the favorite customer of the local NH dealer as he was always buying new iron. Rhetorically, I would consider him a hobby farm as his non-farm career came first and if push came to shove he would continue his non-farm career over the farm. His farm as it was would not have existed without the off farm income. But with all the money he had to throw around nobody would ever call him a hobby farmer as he would cross the street for business if you offended him. He was far from the only one that built a farm business from non farm income around these parts. I would say that the only ones doing things around here are doing so because they have off farm investors or income to work with.
 
So my plumber does work on he side other than his hourly job,doubt very seriously he considers the plumbing to be a hobby its just a business for him.I bought and sold tractors,equipment for years,farmed,and worked a job none of those things were a hobby they were ways to make money to make a living.
 
Seems to me that some feel a great need to "label". Also, seems that each makes up his own definitions, so call it anything you want. :evil:
 
(quoted from post at 14:34:29 10/25/22) If the farm is making money its a business,if its losing money its a hobby.If its losing money and only able to exist because of gov't handouts its a hobby for the owner and the US Taxpayers.
Click to expand...
A lot of farms would be in the red if it weren't for agricultural exemptions on property taxes.
 
(quoted from post at 08:47:38 10/25/22) So my plumber does work on he side other than his hourly job,doubt very seriously he considers the plumbing to be a hobby its just a business for him.I bought and sold tractors,equipment for years,farmed,and worked a job none of those things were a hobby they were ways to make money to make a living.
Click to expand...

Chill. It's not a personal attack against you.

Real simple: If you're doing it to make money, it's not a hobby. Many people farm for reasons other than to make money. God knows it's hard enough to come out ahead when you TRY.
 
So what if you break even and your wife's income pays for the household expenses, does that make somebody a hobby farmer, even of the farm income is a million dollars a year but doesn't show a profit? I think a person knows when something they're doing is a hobby.
 
So a lot of farms would be on the dole because they were catching a break in terms of a tax reduction?
 
When I was milking cows and heavily involved in Michigan Milk Producers Association, a few of the bigger guys who I'd go to meetings with would laugh and say that according to MSU, I shouldn't even exist. We'd all l-a-u-g-h.
 
Tom's thread got me thinking. Nothing personal for me but just wonder how other people view things. Right now I have a little
time on my hands as I am waiting on trucks to pick up soybeans.
 
Just not the way it is perceived around here , many many folks working 40 hrs a week still have big or lots of income from farming, either raise tobacco , or cattle on the side and not considered hobby farmers by any means, in fact maybe 50 % of the existing farms have some off farm income.
 
That is me to the tee do all of what you listed and all came AFTER the farm so am I a hobby farmer, don't think so .
 
I guess here we would consider Bill Gates and the Pohlad family (Minnesota Twins baseball team owners) to be hobby farmers because the farms are a small percentage of their businesses.
 
The last few years that my youngest son was at home and after we sold the dairy cows we made twice as much from the shop as we did from the farm. I like having both but being alone the farm takes most of my time. There are still a few 200 acre or less full time farmers in my area but most are older and getting close to retirement. Tom
 
This is easy. A hobby farm is any farm smaller than yours and a BTO is anything bigger than yours. Bill
 
YT regular farmers strongly dislike (I don't like the H-word) 4 categories of people. Hobby farmers, big-time operators, city dwellers and anybody that does anything at all who live in California.
 
I was under the impression that a 'hobby farmer' is a person who farmed for some other reason than the pursuit of profit.

If you are a 'farmer' (without the hobby designation) then you would really really really like to make some profit from the work.
 
I'm a third-generation part-time farmer.
When asked, I usually reply that mine is a Fetish Farm- like a Hobby Farm, but more expensive and painful.
 
Mine is a hobby ,,but a challenge,, to eat something instead of mowing the lawn
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Several years ago the tax law in NYS changed and to qualify as a farmer you had to file a schedule F to qualify for a Farm Exemption for sales taxes and etc. A lot of horse farms suddenly became hobby farms and not tax write offs.

We hobby farm 200 acers for deer hunting. Wish we could use off road diesel and buy seed, fertilizer and equipment Sales Tax Free or even write off our loses (costs). We feed the deer for NYS!
 
That actually took place in the 1980's. It happened because there were distantly connected people simply parking money in a farm to avoid paying taxes. They had no influence in terms of managing nor did they do 5 minutes worth of work.
 
Hobby is when you have off farm income to live on and you do not need or use it to supplicate your living. It can be hobby farm to owner but a working non hobby farm to a renter. I think a lot of these big farms are just hobby farms as the machinery is setting idle when it should be taking care of the crop and the cost of their machinery exceeds the income from the ground. So off farm income subsides the working of the farm so hobby.
 
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