How to finance becoming a farmer?

[qtkitty]

With land costs as high as they are how do farmers get started and able to get land to work? Are there grants or special loan programs?

I am extremely interested in finding farm land and building my own working farm. I would like to make the main focus of the farming to be rabbit farming (meat, pet/show quality, and fiber AKA angora) with a secondary focus of red worm farming as well as a side of finished compost.

I would also like space to allow us to become more self sufficient with extra to sell at farmers market or a road side stand if we have the location along with the worms. In the long run i would also like to start a green house for personal use and the sale of plants( and to use some of that compost that would be produced).

My question is how do farmers get started if they did not have a farm passed down to them? I do not know if states have programs, but i would have to get a farm with in an hour of a rabbit processor ( from what i have been reading that is the only way to profit at all with in the first year). Does anyone know of anyway i can make this dream of mine a reality?

[Pat]

I'm afraind that the next loud sound you hear may be your bubble bursting.

The best way to end up with a given sum of money after a year of farming is to start with considerably more.

Many farmers get their start through inherited land. Another common way to start a small farm is by having a good reqular job or retirement income to make enough money to cover the losses of farming.

Small farms that make enough income to support a few people are getting to be more rare all the time. The deck is stacked in favor of the large operator. The playing field is not level.

From the info in your post I have to complement you on how tightly coupled and integrated your approach is. Meat, hides/hair (hare hair?) composted manure and worms. About the only trick you missed is selling lucky feet.

There is also something to be said for diversification and NOT having all your eggs in one basket. If for some reason the animal end didn't work or suffered a temporary setback (disease or whatever) everything else is placed in jeopardy as it is dependent on the animals.

That said, I had a friend who was involved with rabbits once. They had a buyer for the skins (prior to the big animal fur backlash) a buyer in Germany for the frozen carcasses (Germans eat a lot of rabbit) and I don't recall what they were bringing back from Germany. My friends end of the deal included flying the frozen carcasses to Germany and bringing back whatever it was they imported stateside. Buisness got a flying start (intentional pun) but some unanticipated customs/tariff issue spoiled it for them.

last rabbit story: When I was a preschooler my mom raised rabbits BUT we ate chicken. Lots of drumsticks and no wings. My sister and I would have thrown a coniption fit if we had known mom was butchering our bunnies.

[img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img] Pat [img]/forums/images/icons/smile.gif[/img]

[AndyF]

>>>My question is how do farmers get started if they did not have a farm passed down to them?

I've seen it done two ways - save money and buy a farm or work for a farmer, save money and buy the farm when he/she is ready to sell out.

[qtkitty]

I know that the Farm Service Agency has loans for new farmers, but do they ask for repayment from day one or do they allow you a certain amount of tiem to get stock and crops set up?

Our Local Farm Service Agency told Kevin that this area does not have a demand for rabbits, that it is more goats and Llamas. It is okay because we would sort of rather relocate to be able to do the type of farming we would like to do then be doing something we hate. Not to mention moving where there is a demand and a future of regular large quantity meat rabbit sales.

[qtkitty]

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About the only trick you missed is selling lucky feet.

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OUCH!! *lol*

Actually the hair and the meat are not intergrated, although they both use rabbits. The hare hair *lol* ...actually angora would require angora rabbits, although there are breeds of angora that can be used for both meat and angora, i would be doing just the fiber. The meat rabbits would be the breed required by the processor, and that would be the only ones sold to them. Angora bunnies shed their fur once every 3 months of so. Meat rabbits are sold at 4.5lb-6lb fryer weights at about 10-12 months. So that would REALLY be pushing it to get just one crop of fiber from the rabbit in time for it to make that 6lb limit before the price would drop dramaticly ( almost in half from what i have researched) for roasters.

The reason rabbit feet were not mentioned is because the processors keep the whole of rabbits, well unless you are willing to pay for them to butcher them and then take your items else where. OR you are willing to process the rabbits yourself, which to do so you have to set up a processing plant with in the regulations put to you by law unless you sell under a certain amount.

Yes diversification is very good, i am also thinking of other livestock &amp; crop items that can be produced on a small farm. I have thought of sheep and goats as well. Sheep would produce wool and lambs. Goats would produce mohair and milk. I am sure you see a link of fiber, i would wish to in the end be able to offer raw fiber, fiber ready to spin, and yarn. Produce of perhaps sweet corn and pumpkins, maybe some other gardening items. Some of the produce would depend on if we found a location that was on a main drag.

I was in FFA with a local farmers son which they lived on a Hwy. They made a good portion of their earnings from selling sweet corn from a road side stand. Not only did they have Great location, but they had repeat business because as we all know real fresh sweet corn beats out any store bought "fresh" sweet corn.

</font><blockquote><font class="small">In reply to:</font><hr />
last rabbit story: When I was a preschooler my mom raised rabbits BUT we ate chicken. Lots of drumsticks and no wings. My sister and I would have thrown a coniption fit if we had known mom was butchering our bunnies.

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PAT !! OMG!!! *lol* I might have to use that one on my fiances kids, they would freak out if i sat a rabbit infront of them to eat. Kevin is unsure, but willing to try it.

BTW my bubble isn't burst yet i am bound and determined to make a farm work for us!! Even if it does require me and kevin working out of the home on top of farm work.

[Bird]

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sold at 4.5lb-6lb fryer weights at about 10-12 months

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I think you meant "weeks" instead of "months". As a kid, I grew up eating cottontails, jack rabbits, and swamp rabbits, but never ate any domestic rabbits until I started raising them. As plentiful as rabbits have always been, I've never understood why they are not as common a food item as chickens.

[EJB]

Maybe I am missing something, but to raise rabbits and worms sure doesn't sound like it would take all that much space...an acre of land will hold a LOT of rabbits and a lot of worms. You could probably even do it in the burbs....

[qtkitty]

Bird~ Yes you are correct .. i made a typo.. guess i was more asleep last night or should i say earlier in the morning *lol* when i wrote that then i thought *lol*

EJB~ There are people who do raise rabbits in the Urban and in the burbs. If breed reasonably does can produce 5 litters per year and in those litters from 3-8 or more babies ( i always do my estimation to favor my loosing money to be more realistic) so each doe can produce 25 market ready rabbits per year. So if you had 7 36X30 cages you could produce 150 rabbits per year. ( Double the cages for grow out cages since babies are weaned at about 5-6 weeks then mom removed/bred and to give birth again.. by the time the new babies are ready to be weaned the older rabbits should be ready to be butchered.. ohh and do not forget a cage for the buck who would sire all.) In other countries i have read that they will breed rabbits in a spare room of their house or in their little backyard garden.

[Bird]

Michelle, it sounds as if you've checked into it pretty well, but there are a number of tricks to successfully raising rabbits. You mention 5 litters a year. Yes, under ideal conditions maybe. In Texas, it gets so hot in the summer that I ran fans in the barn, but I still gave the does a rest during the hottest part of the year so 3 litters was more realistic. And I lost an entire litter once to freezing weather, so I was more careful after that and ran LPG heaters in the coldest weather. Now I just had an old existing barn. If you have a properly constructed building for rabbits, such things might not be a problem.

You mention 3 to 8 babies per litter. The smallest I ever had with New Zealand Whites was 5. However, I also had litters of 11. Now rabbits are quite possibly the world's worst mothers (I read in one book that the pros expect a near 25% mortality rate). First, she only has 8 teats, so if you have a litter of more than 8, destroy the excess immediately or you'll have even more die because they will not share. However, if you breed does so that more than one produce within a couple of days of each other, you can take the excess from one with more than 8 and give them to a doe with fewer than 8. I read in one book that when you want a doe to "adopt" some that are not hers, you sprinkle the entire group with talcum powder so they all smell alike to her. My younger brother said when he was in the FFA, they were told to rub a little Vicks Vapor Run on the mother's nose so she couldn't tell the difference the first day. I never did either; just moved my surplus to a mother who had less than 8 and never had a problem with one adopting the extras.

Another thing is that a mother rabbit will NOT pick up a baby and move it, as so many other animals do. So if one gets out of the nest, it will die unless you find it very soon and put it back yourself. Rabbits do not lie down to let the little ones nurse. They just sit there with the little ones snuggled underneath. Sometimes when the mother decides to hop off the nest, one or more little ones are still hanging on and are jerked right out of the nest. Not a problem if you're checking on them every 2 or 3 hours, but otherwise, you'll loose more.

From what I've read (and I believe it), you'll need at least 50 breeding does, and it's a full time job for 2 people, to make a living at it.

[qtkitty]

How hot does it get in the summers in your part of texas? Around here it gets to be about mid 80's to lower 90's

There is a rabbit farm 2-3 hours south west of here which they do not even use fans in the summers, instead they use tree cover atleast 10-20 ft around the barns to keep it cool and to cause a cool breeze.

Rabbits feed their babies usually only once a day for about 15 minutes or less. Properly constructed nesting boxes should also keep the baby bunnies from being accidentally pulled from the nest.

Yes i have read about mothers taking on others babies.. evening out the numbers definately helps the moms cope, Nursing takes a LOT of energy out of them. Not to mention if there is a malfunction with the watering system ( freezing/busting/clog) and the mothers can not get water then they will dehydrate EXTREMELY quickly and stop giving milk if not going completely dry then you would lose even more then 25% and if any made it then they could possibly be stunted and take more feed to feed out so you would loose profit.

From what someone on another forum told me it would take about 450-800 does to really be profitable. For my peice of mind i have been trying to do all my calculations towards my loss not my gain, so that if i do better then i will be very happy.