Last night I started reading “Making Your Small Farm Profitable” by Ron Macher. This isn’t going to be a full on chapter one book report, but there was one little section of questions that I thought would be good food for thought for the long weekend. These are questions that I have thought about before in different ways, but having them laid out before me really made me think. Over the next few weeks I am going to be thinking through them … then maybe I’ll share some answers!
- How much money do I need in order to live comfortably and support my family? $15,000? $20,000? $50,000?
- How long will it take to achieve this level of income, and will I be happy when I achieve it?
- Do I want to farm part time? Full time? Start part time and grow from there?
- How much money do I already have in order to start farming, and how much do I wish to borrow?
- What skills and resources do I have? Am I good wit livestock, or can I learn to be? Am I good with machinery, or maybe carpentry – to build hog houses or poultry houses? What skills do I have that I really enjoy? What skills am I weak in or do I really dislike?
Some of these questions are pretty straight forward … how much is in the bank account … while others get down to what you are willing to have and sacrifice and how much you really know. But, I think they are very good foundation questions as I work my way towards farming. It is important to put things into the proper prospective and not just look at farming from the “romantic” point of view. Farming will influence every part of your life so you need to look at it from every angle.
Just some food for thought this weekend…
Hi Ethan,
I’d like to add one more thing to think about: How can I just get going now?
Planning is important, but I find that people often plan, plan, plan… and never act. It’s the same as ready, aim, aim, aim, aim, aim…instead of ready, aim, FIRE.
You’ll never be able to answer the questions in advance of how can I farm and make money. The key, I think, is to get started with something on a consistent basis and build from there.
I hope you and your readers have a very happy new year, and I look forward to following your blog in 2008.
Tim
Nature’s Harmony Farm