how do you make y'alls farming money?

[Blaundee]

Oh, I forgot- find a farmer's market near you and see what there is a shortage of, then grow that. We are working on starting a Farmer's Market nearby, our main issue is the area is a lot of spread out ranches and everyone is far from each other, which makes it hard to coordinate a market lol So that's our big project for this year, to get a market going.

 

[Blaundee]

Wow!!! That seems harder then i thought!! I thought it was grow,sell,buy and thats it! Thank you for everything you said,i definetly have a diffrent view on it! thanks joel_bc!

I think it would be smart to know you have a market before growing the crop. I was talking to a fellow farmer who knew of a couple who had 30 acres of vegetables and no market. They went under.

I run a small certified organic vegetable CSA.
My husband is a conventional grain farmer.

We also have chickens for eggs (approximately 30 dozen weekly), meat chickens once per year, maple syrup operation, a couple hives, soapmaking. Each of them adds about $1000-2000/year to the rest of the operation.

Is that $1000 PROFIT, over cost & labor, that you make from the eggs and meat chickens? If so, would you mind detailing how you get that?

 

[Joel_BC]

Like I said up above (post #2), we grow the big gardens and the fruit trees for the food - both that which we eat fresh, and the food we can, dry, or freeze to preserve for later. This takes time, but saves us money.

I think it's important to remember that homesteading is not all about food growing. I find it mostly to be about providing a satisfying life from your own efforts - which definitely includes the food raising. (And, if you're in the right situation, it can mean being able to turn a profit from raising and selling food.) But anyhow, there may be water systems to put in place or at least maintain, buildings to construct, and repair, expand, or upgrade... and equipment to build or maintain for efficient accomplishment of everyday or seasonal tasks.

Skills, combined with basic tools, enable you to do these things. I discussed my experience with this in this thread:
http://www.sufficientself.com/forum/viewtopic.php?id=11497

Once you're set up, you can save yourself thousands of dollars each year.

 

[me&thegals]

Wow!!! That seems harder then i thought!! I thought it was grow,sell,buy and thats it! Thank you for everything you said,i definetly have a diffrent view on it! thanks joel_bc!

I think it would be smart to know you have a market before growing the crop. I was talking to a fellow farmer who knew of a couple who had 30 acres of vegetables and no market. They went under.

I run a small certified organic vegetable CSA.
My husband is a conventional grain farmer.

We also have chickens for eggs (approximately 30 dozen weekly), meat chickens once per year, maple syrup operation, a couple hives, soapmaking. Each of them adds about $1000-2000/year to the rest of the operation.

Is that $1000 PROFIT, over cost & labor, that you make from the eggs and meat chickens? If so, would you mind detailing how you get that?

Nope, including labor. I want my time (labor) to be paid at a reasonable rate, and that is what I consider my profit. I don't have shareholders, so I don't need to get paid much beyond my actual costs and my labor costs. Eggs, meat chickens, syrup/honey are the least profitable things we do. Some of these things are easy for our kids to help out with (cheaply)--like taking care of the chickens. And some are during our downtime (making wood, maple syrup).

It is hard, though, to sort out our labor for our own family's food, and for everyone else. Rather than trying to figure that out, we just get all our food "free" and apply all costs/profits to that which we sell.

And, yes, as Joel_BC notes, it is an extremely satisfying lifestyle, although a lot of hard work.

 

[GardenWeasel]

I am in rural NW TN moved here 4 years ago from northern IL. I have about 35 chickens and maybe break even selling eggs if I cost the eggs we eat by IL prices. Eggs up north near a big city went for $3.99 a dozen for free range, here they are just farm eggs and I met resistance going up to 2 bucks. I have tried selling rainbow cherry tomatoes a big hit up north- once again there is no market here for them little things. Also tried sunflowers with no interest. We grow and preserve a great deal of our own food and as much as we can for the chickens, as much for our own health as for economics. I have to add that I am no spring chicken and my energy sometimes doesn't equal my ambitions. Research is key and youth and strength are mighty important. Just my heads up.

 

[mrscoyote]

Our farm math kinda works like others. I bought a bred doe for $200. She had twin bucklings we were able to sell for $100 each. So she has paid for herself. Sounds good till you add the cost of her upkeep. Same with the turkeys, chickens and ducks. The big payoff for us is the good food.

 

[LilyD]

Here in New England there are a lot of things that I grow and sell. First off I have chickens and I sell their eggs for eating mos of the year. That pretty much gives me enough to cover the costs of the grains so I keep the girls fed. I do also offer eggs for hatching but haven't really had that take off yet. Chicks seems to be my big seller. People are even willing to pay me more to keep them until they are sexable at 8 weeks so they are sure they get pullets. I can easily sell those for 15 to 20 dollars each.

We have sheep and selling the wool each spring and fall is another thing. It was slow at first but once you build your clientelle you can sell it out pretty much a monh or two after you sheer it. Our biggest seller by far is baby goats. People will come from 3 or 4 hours away to buy baby goats if the mother is a proven milker and is friendly and easy to milk. We make cheese from the goat milk and feed the whey to the pigs but that is just for us and not really stuff to sell.

I agree that it doesn't make a ton of money but I think between the canned veggies and meat each year to get you through the year without buying food at the grocery store and having most of the feed bill taken care of by sales it does pay off in the end. Plus I have to say that my son is very well rounded and his view on the world is much more realistic than some of his friends who think that life should hand them whatever they want just because they want it. He knows that you have to work for anything in life and is willing to do it for the things that he wants bad enough. That's priceless to me.