If you own a farm, how do you make a living?

[berry987]

Do you or your spouse work off the farm? Do you earn a living by selling farm products?

I'm fantasizing/planning and would love input!

[goddessjulia]

you wouldn't like my input, it's pretty negative looking forward to hearing from others who are having better luck than we are!

[FarmerCathy]

My dh plans to work when we get our farm and I will be doing a CSA (community supported agriculture). I have other ideas of selling produce and flower seedlings, hanging flower baskets, herb pots, eggs and raising chickens for meat. We may possibly sell canned goods and cheeses if we can build ourselves a certified kitchen. Livestock like piglets, etc. We also want to raise rabbits for meat and pelts. So, we have lots of ideas and hopefully we will own our own farm in the next couple years. Right now we are moving to a mini farm rental where we will have our goats chickens and a small garden. I'm planning to sell plants and possibly eggs next year at the farmers' market down the street from our new place.

[1jooj]

We're not even trying to make a living on farming right now. We bought our farm home on a mortgage...so our mortgage is the same or a little more than a lot of our peers (with newer, 'nicer' homes in the city), but we're on 10 acres raising a lot of our own food.

I trade/gift/sell the bit of surplus of this and that, but we'd be kidding ourselves if we thought we could make a living on the farm right now, under these circumstances.

In addition to the farm work, which is FT or more for both of us on a weekly basis, we both work off-farm jobs. Dh is FT and I am PT. He travels for work, so when he is home I have to cover his farm work. It works out to be something like 50-50, I guess. But we are in the "investment" phase of things. There are a lot of investments to make--fencing, tractor, livestock, tools, etc.--and we're not taking out a giant loan to start, so we work and buy things as the money comes in. We have fences and animals and a tractor. We will be putting in alfalfa and will need implements for making hay and cultivating gardens.

So we make a living through off-farm work and we farm for the love of it. Someday, I'd like to farm for love and money, but right now it's for love. But we do eat better than anyone else I know.

[greenmamato2]

There are ways to make money farming, but I agree with what others said that it really can't be your only income.

[berry987]

Thanks for the input! We could manage to buy a farm that would allow my DH to keep his job, but our choice of location would be limited. I think, though, that it's the best option since there wouldn't be the risk of having no income for a period of time. Not to mention my DH is not a big risk-taker (that's more my department) so it would probably never happen if it required him to quit his job.

[Caneel]

Not a farmer but I am friends with many farmers. Everyone family has at least one adult working an off the farm job - teacher, banker, truck driver, various jobs in the construction trades.

[cindyanne1]

We do own a farm... it's pretty big and commercial though. We farm about 1400 to 1600 acres of corn and soybeans (it's my husband's family farm) and while it's a LOT of work we do very well financially. I do not work outside the home.

It's so much work though. And stressful. I'm not gonna lie... sometimes I think even though we'd be making a lot less money, it would be worth it for my husband to have his factory job again just so he could leave work at work once in a while.

And don't get me started on the taxes.

[hildare]

our farm is largely for our own consumption. I WOH, while DH stays home and minds the babe and the farm.
Other folks who seem to be able to have the farm be the only source of income primarily work as CSA. It seems to be labor intensive but profitable, at least around here.

[1jooj]

I could see CSA working if one's close to a metro area and has a long growing season. We could probably fill subscriptions, but with a short growing season and no greenhouse, we start to get kinda limited on offerings.

There was a great presentation on public radio this week. They talked about getting into "new" niche markets...many of which are actually old, traditional crops that people stopped raising once corn, soybeans and huge farms started taking off.

But even so, the attitude was very much one of tiny enterprise. I think a big key to making a living is redefining what you need to live.

[mtn.mama]

I drive two hours one way once a week to deliver our goods to market. It's one longass day. But without it, our farm wouldn't fly. I find that niche is good, but diversity is key. The more different things I offer, the better we do. I'm offering goat milk, 6 kinds of cheese, butter, buttermilk, sour cream, cream, sheep milk, sheep cheese, pastured eggs and chickens and goats and sheep and next year pigs, comfrey starts, next year garlic. I'm able to make enough money to support our household month to month (but not enough to tackle long term debt, yet). It feels good to be able to stay home and work with my family and know we're covered if we lose my husband (a bush pilot).

[MrsJewelsRae]

We live on a farm, but we're not really farmers. We grow a lot of our own produce and we now have chickens for eggs and meat, as well as turkeys. Our friends and family are putting in orders for eggs and meat, but other than selling that, we're not looking to get into that business. Dh planted a whole lot of strawberry plants this year and has a verbal agreement with a friend in town who owns a very large successful fruit market and she says she'll take as many berries as we bring to her. So we may make a bit that way too, next year. My dh is self employed and works mostly from home, he does web design as well yard maintenance (funny mix, I know, but it usually pays the bills!). I am a SAHM. Actually the girl in town with the produce market started out just selling corn at a small homemade booth on a busy corner in town, just as a teen who lost her mom to cancer and her Dad temporarily to the bottle. She has grown and expanded so much over the years, just gradually adding bit by bit and she is the most popular produce seller in town with nearly a dozen small roadside stands as well as 2 large permanent market locations selling local wares from produce to syrup, baked goods, soy candles, etc and seasonal stuff too like Christmas trees, wreaths, and other seasonal decor. She is quite the entrepreneur! If you had a good location you could gradually work your way toward something of this setup, maybe on a smaller country scale.

[Tizzy]

We are in the process of (hopefully!) making the farm pay.

Right now we raise meat birds on pasture, sell eggs and sell heritage breed of chickens. We lease our workable land out and buy back hay from the neighbor. I also have a small pie business. It's *far* from making a living, but it pays for groceries and other odds and ends. I am also on mat. leave from driving a school bus (kids come with me).
Meanwhile, all of our extra money is being thrown into starting up a sheep dairy.
If things go as planned, we'll have 30-40 lambs to breed this fall and will be milking early next spring. Everyone we have networked with has been extremely encouraging and the whole thing seems very feasible! A few processors have encouraged us to look towards milking 200-250 for both DH and I to stay home. That would be incredible! Right now DH works off-farm as an industrial/construction electrician. It's good money, steady work but it's not what he wants to do for the next 40 years.