Tips To Help Beginning Farmers
Chances are, if you’re thinking about running your own farm, you’ve got some experience under your belt. Undoubtedly, there is much to do in this line of work. As a good starting point, you can begin to assemble your farm and team. Following a few tips to help beginning farmers should allow you to outline the process.
Variety
One of the biggest mistakes made when farming is to put all of your eggs in one basket (so to speak). We recommend that you have a diverse selection of crops and even animals. If you endure an abnormal season of inclement weather and certain plants are destroyed, you don’t want to be without other options.
A farm is more sustainable when it has diversity. Additionally, if you keep plants and animals, this can become a symbiotic relationship. For example, the animals eat pests and wasted crops.
Customers
As you begin to build a customer base, you may want to shoot for big chains. However, you can earn retail pricing rather than wholesale by directly selling to customers. Shoot for both, but don’t count your loyal customers out; make sure you value them. You make more money off of those sales, even if it’s not evident right away.
Land
When acquiring land, you may think it would be easier to own right off the bat. That’s not necessarily true. When you’re starting out, you want to minimize the amount of money you have to put out initially.
Leasing land allows you to save upfront, and if you are leasing part of an existing farm, you can share equipment. Placing your energy in soil fertility and getting up and running rather than bringing in enough money to pay for newly purchased land can save you a lot of worry.
Equipment
Understanding the equipment you need to sustain your farm is essential. What tools you’ll specifically need will depend on what you are farming. Knowing the tractors, rotary tillers, utility vehicles, different types of metal silos for storage, animal boarding parameters, and more will allow you to evaluate what you have access to and identify what you need.
Assistance
It’s okay to need help when starting out. You want this to be a viable venture, so some guidance or mentorship may help. Additionally, assess the amount of work that needs to be done and how much you can realistically do alone. Farm work is also dangerous. Ensuring you have backup for mishaps and heavy-duty work is essential. Perhaps pick the brain of an experienced or even retired farmer. They surely know what works and what doesn’t.
With these tips to help beginning farmers, you should have a place to start. Farming is hard work, but it offers a lot of rewards. You will have done something meaningful when your seasons end. The important things to remember are to not take on more than you can handle and ask for help when you need it.
