Millions of us have dreams of ditching the office 9-5, saying goodbye to traffic, au revoir to a semi-detached house and moving out to the country. It isn’t even out of the realms of possibility either. More people are turning their hands to growing vegetables and raising chickens. Learning more about agriculture and business – simply as a matter of interest.
If you have dreamed about providing fruits and vegetables to the broader community or raising cows from calf to ready for the abattoir, or maybe just like the idea of tending to field brimming with corn, then there are some things to consider before you jump right in.
In general, you can be sure that people need food. In fact, aside from oxygen and water, the next thing on the list is food. And by taking up the helm of a farm, you are helping to contribute to what keeps the human population healthy and happy. And that isn’t a small thing. While there is a lot of talk about raising too many cows for the number of people who eat meat – you have options when it comes to your farm.
Avoid Debt
Farmers are more likely to lose their homes and land due to debt than they are to losing it to lousy crop yield years, droughts, plagues, pests, and more. Farms are expensive to run because they need a lot of equipment, and while things are growing and not selling, there is a period of time that needs to be handled. The work needs to continue even if the cash isn’t rolling in.
Yes, you will probably need to take loans to cover the cost of the large equipment when something goes bust, and if you lose a field of crops and have minimal produce to sell the same again. But borrowing money will quickly land you in even more trouble if you don’t manage it well. You can use your cash flow to work out where you can and cannot leverage your assets, and spend time with a financial advisor too.
Where possible, try to avoid taking debts on unless they are built into your long-term plan and make sense.
Market
If you arrive on a farm, purchase 50 cows, 20 chickens, and some sheep, but didn’t notice that you are next to another farm with triple your livestock – who has access to all the buyers in the area, those cows might be around a while. It will take a long time before you work out what is going to be beneficial for you to sell and who too. You need to identify your market. Are you going to be putting together fruit and vegetable boxes to deliver weekly? Are you going to be producing hand-knitted jumpers from the wool of your sheep? How about producing exotic fruits and vegetables?
All of this is no good unless you have buyers and/or can ship the excellent well.
You need to know where you are going to sell your products, who is going to purchase them, and how you are going to get them from the field to the buyer.
And, all of this must be done before your first batches ripen. They will need to go off to their new home within a day or so of them ripening so that they arrive in perfect condition. A marketing plan is going to be your best friend here.
Suppliers
You are going to have to source great and reliable suppliers. From the gas that keeps your own house warm, to the fuel that runs your tractors. Feed, bedding, seeds… even the baby animals. You’ll need to know where they are coming from and that you can work with the supplier long term. There is no other way to do this. If you are using from different places, the quality will vary in your produce. Look for names you can trust like Quarles, and build a relationship as soon as you can.
Let The Land Take The Lead
This is really important. You can, of course, turn the land into whatever you want. But the moment you put animals on that land, they will do what is natural to them. Goats will eat the place dry, pigs will want to dig and roll, and ducks and geese will have the strong urge to make the area as wet as possible.
So before you decide to change your surroundings, consider working with the land instead. If there have been wild animals living in the area, see what livestock is close to that. The habits might vary slightly, but in general land and animals work better together when you allow them the space to do so.
So look at the plans you have for what you want to sell and produce, then see what works with the land and space you have available.
Love it, Grow it
It might go against the last point a little, but there has to be passion in what you are doing too. And sometimes that comes from working outside the lines slightly. Farming is hard work, there are no two ways about it. So there needs to be some things you raise or grow just for fun. If you really love to eat figs and goat cheese with honey – plant a fig tree, learn to make goat cheese (and buy a goat), and have a beehive somewhere on your land.
Like everywhere in life, the decisions that you are making almost 90% of the time will be driven by finances. The money will dictate so much of what you can and can’t do. If you can inject some love and passion projects into that leftover 10%, then go for it.
Think about what you love to eat, cook, or cuddle. And go from there.
Business Goals
Farming is still a business. A hard going one, sure, but still a business. You need to set achievable goals, just like every other business does. The earlier on your set these, the better.
They don’t have to be grand plans. It might be that you want to have enough apples to sell at a market, or enough lemons to make your own lemonade. Perhaps it is that you want to sip an ice-cold beer or wine on a Wednesday afternoon and take some time off.
Write your goals for your business somewhere that you often see so that you can keep yourself on track. Farming isn’t a sprint is a marathon. It will take you years to work out that you can have a bumper crop of onions in this field and not that one, or that a specific crop combination deters pests. Knowledge comes with time.
Learn
Every year there are new pieces of machinery, new pesticides, new chemicals, new initiatives, and new best-practices. You need to know what applies to you, what doesn’t, and what you want to employ in the next few years.
Certain breeds of cow are more prized than others, some apples are no longer grown, learn from the land too.
There are a lot of websites that offer farming news to be delivered to your inbox. If you live near other farmers (you probably do), chat with them about issues you have too. Learn from farmers who have been doing it for longer than you have been born, but don’t be afraid to go against their knowledge in the search for more.
Conclusion
Farmers give a lot to their local environment, the local people, and for the world in general. So if you want to run your own farm, have fun!
Thanks for stopping by today!
