Posted by JoshuaGA on March 18, 2008 at 18:37:05 from (74.244.197.228):
In Reply to: Starting small posted by E.B. Haymakin' on March 18, 2008 at 08:45:29:
I don't see how to be a small farm in the commodies market, but then again I don't see how people farm anymore. There are too many costs to make a decent living. The key to me is you must be your own salesman. ON PAPER AS A ROUGH ESTIMATE I can make money off a 475 acre farm, BUT we already own 240 acres, and I'm basing it on doing direct marketing. I mean, if you wanted to farm 160 acres, you would either have to be a contract producer or else be direct market your products. As thers have said, a niche market. To make money, you could sell organic pork, or free range eggs, or grassfed beef or raw milk or goat cheese or breeding stock sheep. The possibilities are endless. To me, I think a good farm should have a mix of products to offer. Around here, every farm grows peanuts, cotton, and cattle. We grew peanuts, cotton, a few cows, and hogs. Hogs were our living. They were needed, we were wanted. Then came the 98 crash and we lost hogs and nearly lost everything. We struggled, and except for my sister, we all worked to try to make it. Me and dad worked for a neighbor at $6-7 apiece plus mom working in the scool system. 240 acres and we couldn't make a go of it. Now we have chicken houses and do some farming on the side, but we do much more observation. We see what works, what doesn't, what isn't worth the effort, and what should be done. If you really want to farm small, you need to farm smart. I ain't trying to scare you, but an honest opinion now can save some woe later. I sincerely hope this helps to some degree.
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Today's Featured Article - Listening to Your Tractor - by Curtis Von Fange. Years ago there was a TV show about a talking car. Unless you are from another planet, physically or otherwise, I don’t think our internal combustion buddies will talk and tell us their problems. But, on the other hand, there is a secret language that our mechanical companions readily do speak. It is an interesting form of communication that involves all the senses of the listener. In this series we are going to investigate and learn the basic rudimentary skills of understanding this lingo.
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