What is it you love about farming? If it is the basic tilling of the soil, caring for crops and then harvesting them, you obviously must have your own farm or work on someone else’s.
But if your love is a bit more analytical - figuring out ways to avoid pesticides, choosing crops that will grow successfully in the soil at hand while appealing to the market, planning distribution channels - then you could consider (if you don’t mind going back to school for a few years) becoming an agronomist. In particular (and this is just my bias, YMMV) you could specialize in tropical agriculture and work with developing countries in Africa and Asia to improve their yields. Also, agronomy was considered a dying field a few years ago, but what with the effects of global warming, it is sure to heat up (so to speak).
Agreed–sometimes people find after some reflection and study that working for agriculture is more personally fulfilling than working in agriculture. Pairing a professional ag career with a small homestead-type farm of your own for personal needs could be a less stressful way to a life on the farm.
I don’t think any of this should discourage you, if it’s really what you want to do–it’s just that the story of “city guy decides to move to the country and be a farmer” and the ensuing reality check is sort of a jokey stereotype. See also: Chevy Chase.
All joking aside though, I can’t imagine any other life, and have been working towards the goal of small-scale niche farming for all of my adult life. It’s a wonderful way of life, if a hard one.
Niche marketing is the only way to go. Large-scale production, be it dairy, beef, truck vegetables, whatever, is now and will be the province of agribusiness, due to the enormous capital investment required up-front.
"Save the Family Farm!’, as a slogan, makes about as much sense as “Save the Family Oil Refinery!”
Grew up in farm country but have zero direct experience with it. Smaller family farms were bought up and large companies consolidated them to bring mass production values to the effort.
Look at the flooding that’s wiping out crops in parts of the Midwest this year. Big companies might be able to absorb the loss, spreading profits from earlier and future years around, but the little guy sans insurance would take an unholy beating.
But ok, since your heart is set on it. Niche farming sounds good. Heck, you might even be able to start with a small plot, do this on the side, get a feel for what you can sell stuff for at the farmer’s market.
In praise of the farmer’s market, it seems theoretically that you’re eliminating the middle men. The consumer can buy the product for X at the supermarket, and that cost includes paying everyone who handled or distributed it. If you charge the same, you’re getting more in your pocket than the farmers who turned it over to others to handle.
Possibly too, if there are ethnic groups around who can’t get fresh ingredients, you could cater to them. Do the Hispanics have a good source of cilantro, for instance? I’d think about herbs and spices. Big markup.
Like Qadgop, my grandpa lives on a farm (his wife’s family farm) but isn’t a farmer. He rents out the corn field, the garden area, the barn and the grazing area. He and his wife still have a huge garden plot that does account for a good bit of their non-meat food.
I would suspect that for someone just starting in the business that this would be a good way to start, either as the rent-er or the rent-ee. If you’re the renter, you can purchase all the land if you find a good deal and slowly work your way up to taking it over from your rent-ees. If you’re the rent-ee, you just get your feet wet with a single crop or herd and see how you like it.
Good luck - do keep us posted. I’m excited that the SDMB now has a prospective nun and now a prospective farmer
A very good friend of mine is the local extension agent and he and his family farm nearly a thousand acres. One of their crops is pumpkins. They take up a ton of space, are manual labor intensive (you can’t harvest a pumpkin crop with a machine - every one of them has to be picked by hand), and the market is extremely seasonal (Happy Halloween!). All thoughts to consider before you go out to the pumpkin patch.
I’m from a farming area, and have spent some time on farms there. I was hauling around bales of hay when I was 10, and helping with small farm chores, so I’m not completely unfamiliar with what it all entails. I’m certainly not a city guy!
I do appreciate all of the advice. I’m pretty excited about my current small crop of cilantro. I would love to have 80 times that amount of beautiful cilantro, along with my not-too-shabby basil. Right now I’m primarily looking for a small (preferably organic) farm to work on for awhile, so I can definitely make sure I’m interested enough to put in the great deal of effort that’s needed. But I really do enjoy physical labor, and making things grow. I’ve contacted a few farms, but haven’t heard much back yet.
Aww, I didn’t really mean that–just that in my own experience in your place, every time I discussed with someone the fact that I want to be a farmer, the responses were always a tiny bit patronizing about how hard it is to get started and to succeed at… doubly so because I’m female. I think the assumption goes something like “if you have to ask, you can’t possibly be up to the task”. I don’t mean that anyone in this thread has been patronizing, not at all, only that what people really really really want newbies to know is that it’s really difficult. Really.
I have zero experience managing a farm, but I grew up around livestock and kept a small flock of suffolks for years as a teenager until I left for college. I went to college as an animal science major at UC Davis and was a year deep into serious agriculture study, when I got distracted by shiny things and thought I needed to get a degree in some kind of “professional” field so I could make more money. I ended up with a degree that serves me well enough in a field I don’t really care all that much about; when all was said and done, I should have stuck with farming in the first place, as it seems to be where I wanted to end up all along. Meanwhile, 2/3 of my college credits are completely irrelevant to my life these days. :smack:
Keep me posted, would you? Maybe we can help each other out here and there with the mechanics of the whole process. I’m working on my business plan, now.
Yeah, I’d never really do it, personally, or any other kind of farming for that matter. I’m a (former) farmer’s daughter. Let’s just say there are many good reasons why I avoided dating/marrying a farmer. Definitely not the life for me. Living in the country — yes; farmer’s wife — no.
It could be worse. In the last big drought around here, people had to lock their trailers after unloading cattle at auction. A friend didn’t and came back to find that someone had loaded a calf into his trailer while he was gone.
