I am looking for a 30-40 acre place near the Twin Cities, MN. I want to begin farming in a very small way for a few years and build up until I can cast off from city life.
I want to do organic market gardening. No livestock for now.
I grew up in Wisconsin, spent lots of time on farms as a child.
I know this is going to be really hard. Anybody got some advice?
thanks
Thaddeus
Not much advice, but I'm doing something kind of similar. I've owned my place (10 acres) for a while now and just got laid off from the high-tech industry. I've realized that I've been sick of living in the "cubicle farm" and am starting out some small scale farming. I've started growing a bunch of different kinds of veggies, have some pear and plum trees already, and am also started several kinds of flowers. Don't know for sure what I'll wind up doing, yet - this is my "practice year" to see what works and what doesn't.
There are a number of books on small scale farming, including books on all sorts of specialized crops. There are also a bunch of websites that can help - here is the USDA Farm Service Agency, this site has a bunch of links that might be helpful, too.
Good luck - to both of us [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]!
Hi,
My advice from a purely economic viewpoint, would be to raise organic herbs as a cash crop. Taking a few bushels of peas and radishes to the local farmer's market probably won't produce a living wage.
It will take some research, but I know that the opportunities in herbs, specifically organic medicinal herbs, are growing for the small farmer, if you cater to specific markets. For example, you can earn out around $18,000 net per acre for organic peppermint. Other crops, like echninacea, would bring considerably more. In 1991 the roots of wild ginseng were selling for $200 to $280 PER POUND of dried clean roots in various parts of the Eastern US. Compare that to corn or soybeans!
Contact your local organic growers association. They will help with marketing info, and certification advice.
PDF With Prices for Specific Herb Crops
Some more info here to start
All the best,
Hakim Chishti
Staff/Moderator
Starting small is a good idea. If you have a significant other, make sure they keep their day job as its a lot easier to deal with start up issues when you still have money coming in from somewhere. Contact your local organic growers organization and meet some people who are doing it successfully. Most growers organizations have annual meetings late winter/early spring and these are a great place to meet people. Be prepared to invest a few years developing your skills and business.
If you're doing market gardening 40 acres is a lot unless you plan to hire some migrants. 1-5 acres/person is a more typical ratio for the people I've met.
Oh, I'm not planning on gardening 40 acres! I am thinking 1 acre year 1 (test plantings of a large number of different things), 2 acres year 2, and so on to a maximum of 5 acres. I want to keep the rest in trees, or in fallowed lands for rotation. I am keeping my city job for the foreseeable future. I have plenty to learn, and don't want to put my family under undue economic pressure while I do it.
thanks for the insights, keep 'em coming...
Thaddeus
Keeping your present job is an excellent idea. Most of the farmers living around us have outside jobs, their farming operations don't always have to turn a profit that way.
On 1 to 5 acres, I would consider Hakim's suggestion. There are fewer and fewer of these herbs being found in the wild because so many people are picking them. Ginseng requires several years to grow, but some other herbs are ready in just a year or two. You might also consider blackberries or blueberries, perhaps a u-pick operation.
Whatever you grow, I would suggest you look for something that will return a high price per pound. Herbs, berries, etc.
The idea is to get the most return per square foot of ground.
Steve
I have an old 1 acre blueberry patch on our farm I'm in the process of reviving. I've often wondered whether or not to restart the pick-your-own operation. I've observed that out of season blueberries are quite pricey, in season they aren't worth squat. I'm not sure the pick-your-own operation in-season would pay. I have to look into it more.
I think it's going to vary area by area. In heavy growing areas, price in season is going to be lower than where there are fewer blueberries grown. It's sort of like Christmas trees. The tree that I'll pay just a few buck for is worth a whole lot more sitting on a lot in downtown Miami or Manhattan.
What I can't figure out is "cage free" eggs. The wife and I saw them in the grocery the other day with a $2.99 per dozen price tag. I can't figure out how the store can sell them when all the farms around are selling for $1.00 per dozen. [img]/forums/images/icons/confused.gif[/img]
Steve
HMMMM, Sorry to comment so late. I basically disagree with the concept of maximum return on each sq ft of farmed land. You have the lalnd. You can't turn off taxes, insurance , etc. There are fixed costs of ownership. What you want to maximize is profit not just profit margin (not the same) Your chief investment may well be your time and energy, they are limited resources.
You want to get the greatest cash return on the least investment of your personal time and energy. Then you can decide how much of your time and energy to invest. If you invest all of your available time and energy and don't make a suitable profit there is nothing you can do to to make more $ since you can't invent more hours in a day. You would have to change your paradigm, choose a different process and invest your time and energy differently.
There are just a heck of a lot of folks who keep their city jobs to be able to subsidize their marginal (or worse) agricultural efforts. Often their annual income, lifestyle, and disposable $ situation would be improved if they quit fooling themselves and stopped farming.
Specialty crops are the best bet for small acreages. Check current prices before going off half cocked to raise echinacea, or any herbal stuff. Prices have falllen dramatically even in the face of rising consumption due to increased planting. My neighbors used to dig and dry wild echinacea and made good $ doing it but then some folks started culltivating it and the price dropped from over 50/lb to less than 6. They don't bother anymore. GET CURRENT INFO.
I had a friend who leased 2500 acres, mostly to place it under cultivation and grow Jeruselem (sp?) Artichokes (tuberous). He did plant some acres of artichokes but along the way his seed suppliers offered him cash advanes of $5000/acre to setup and grow cucumbers for them. They gave a guaranteed "in the field" per lug price in advance. They also encouraged him to plant pearl onions as a high dollar crop. the lesson to be learned here is don't decide in a vacuum what makes sense to grow.
Check with green grocer wholesalers and with buyers in the herbal trade to see what the prices are for various candidate crops and then assess your potential as regards climate, land, any required equipment and so forth to see where the intersection of crop success lies with respect to marketabillity.
It does no good to successfully grow tons of something that you can't sell at a profit, or haven't the equipment to harvest, or the drying sheds to prepare for sale or whatever. Maybe you'll find something that you can grow that will sell for enough to make you a success. Don't forget to assess the liklihood of crop failure due to weather, insects, or whatever.
You don't want to be the sunburned guy parked beside the road with a pickup full of watermellons going bad in spite of a lower price than the supermarket.
Given your "ecological sensitivity" you will probably not use chemicals so start scouting for fertilizer sources (egg ranches etc) and get a handle on natural pest control. Hopefully you are not toooooooo sensitive to the idea of actually killing a critter. If I hadn't thinned out my friends ground squirrel population (and a few rabbits) he would have lost his pearl onion crop. If your choice is to never kill a living creature then be prepared to spend a lot of $ and time on other preventative measures or be doomed to certain failure.
Synoptic rehash: Don't pick something to grow and then try to figure out how to be profitable. Lay out a decision matrix and populate the cells with facts relating to both the demand side (marketability and prices of various candidate crops) and the supply side (what you can grow with your land, time, energy, $ and other resources) Then try to select a crop or crops at or near the maximum return available. Manage risk! A fantastic return that is unlikely to come to fruition is not good. Consider diversification to ameliorate the downside.
Good luck,
Pat
"I'm not from your planet, monkey boy!"
Pat, I'm tracking right with you.
And I'll kill a varmint if it's eating my crops. One of the things on my shopping list is a new shotgun. BoomBoom.
I was down in Harmony, Minnesota, walking around and watching the Amish farm. If anybody knows how to farm small and sustainably with minimal inputs, they do. Anyway, I was going past a farm where I've many times watched them haying or plowing or whatever with horse drawn equipment, and there in the field are 2 Amish kids in Black suits and hats, etc., and sporting a new .22 rifle. Guess they were after varmints or something tender for supper. I had to laugh. That .22 looked mighty well cared for, too. It didn't jibe with the stereotype, which is why I laughed.
I love it when stereotypes fall apart. [img]/forums/images/icons/laugh.gif[/img]
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