| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| patricegonzales |
Posted - Mar 11 2010 : 7:50:11 PM
Hey farmgirls,
Anyone make a living completely off the farm and want to share numbers with me?
I am having a hard time finding anyone that doesnt hold a job off of the farm as well as busting it hard all day on the farm...
We are this close to making the jump but I am nervous!
I would love to be inspired by your success stories! |
| 11 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| lovingewe |
Posted - Apr 03 2010 : 06:51:25 AM
Hi we are full time farmers, 250 acres. But my husband does work three days in the city. It is a different lifestyle. One where you have to really count the cost and expect the unexpected. We have 84 dairy cattle and at present over 300 sheep. Ten years ago I wasn't sure we were going to make it to the next day. BSE hit and cattle were getting bottom dollar, sheep were not moving. Then Foot & mouth came along, again market prices buckled. A dry year means low crops, more to feed the livestock, a wet year ( last summer) we couldn't get the hay off the fields, and the corn came in almost a month late. If you are going to farm, decided what you are going to farm and really check out the market. Can you sell locally? Is there a local farmers market because this is where you make your fastest capital gain with least input.But don't go head first into it without researching. Many farms out here tapped the maple trees this year. They saw it as easy cash. The farmers market is stuffed to the brim with maple syrup this year. I tapped the trees but for our own purpose and didn't go overboard with it.
Also are there local chefs that are willing to purchase your "farm goods" straight from you. There are a lot that are.If you can sell organic chickens at a prime to a chef you are laughing.
My sheep are Romney ( wool sheep but also used for meat). I sell the wool wholesale to spinners and weavers. I have never advertised, they just call, come over buy raw wool and leave. It is pure cash for me.
Self Sufficiency means leaving the car in the laneway for days at a time. It means learning how to cut your bills and live with what you have. It is a hard thing to do when you are use to getting what you want when you want it. You really have to way the odds.
A blog I thoroughly enjoy is down--to--earth. Although she is Australian and I am Canadian, she has found out how to do it and is very reasonable on living a few acres. Enjoy her blog!
http://sweetlocuslane.blogspot.com |
| podsandpetals |
Posted - Apr 02 2010 : 9:10:14 PM
Hi! I make my "living" on the farm and my husband works a job. I worked at local nursery for 12 years while also working at my home business. After having 2 kids and spending more than a third of my wages in gas, daycare and related work expenses and still trying to keep my business going I decided to stay home and give it a go. That was 3 years ago and I'm glad to say I finally turned a decent monitary profit this year. A farm business is so hard to make money at. But for me it's so much more than making money- I have my kids with me all the time. Before, I got them up early- hurried to get them fed and packed in the truck- raced to daycare to be to work on time and usually failed misserably at that- dropped off two cranky kids at daycare- sped to work- at lunch raced back to daycare to nurse my youngest- raced back to work- after work raced to daycare to pick up two very sleepy kids- sped home- whipped up dinner- and put them to bed- and did this five days a week. So my biggest gain now is in peace of mind. -Cindy
Check out "Support a farm girl night" http://www.maryjanesfarm.org/snitz/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=38448
www.podsandpetals.etsy.com
ebay seller podsandpetals |
| katmom |
Posted - Mar 30 2010 : 09:14:31 AM
hey Patrice,
Nope, hubby works a 9-5 and tho I am retired I am to busy junktiquing w/my girlfriends...but we have a sign in our office that reads:
"I put all my profits back into Ranch improvements".
it's a picture of 2 old coots leaning up against a broken down fence looking into a worn & negleceted field...I have a picture of it on my blog somewhere... lol!
>^..^< Happiness is being a katmom.
"I've never met a sewing machine I didn't like!"
www.katmom4.blogspot.com & http://www.graciesvictorianrose.blogspot.com
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| alterationsbyemily |
Posted - Mar 21 2010 : 2:07:35 PM
I recently read, the self-sufficent life and how to live it, here http://www.amazon.com/Self-Sufficient-Life-How-Live/dp/0756654505/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1269205552&sr=8-1 I would recommend this to read. It opens your eyes to many of the things that you can do. I would eventually like for us to have a farm to live off of, but for now, I am starting with little steps and when we buy our home its going to be head first!
--
See my custom costumes, download free patterns, and hear some spook EVPs from Gettysburg, PA on my site, www.alterationsbyemily.com |
| KD Earthwork |
Posted - Mar 18 2010 : 9:48:52 PM
My husband is retired with a modest income and I work in a very good position about thirty hrs. a week.Our farm income helps offset the expenses alot. We grow our veggies, bake bread, eat lot's of our chickens eggs. Our horses cost us too much but give such great soil amendment.
We live off the grid so no power bill,no water or septic bill.
Our plan for us both to retire to the farm (work even more), is to have one or more rentals set up on our property. This will hopefully generate our extra money with some ability to still maybe have a small CSA garden, plus eggs,plus bread,maybe seeds and plants?By then our fifty fruit trees will start giving fruit.
We won't be able to do this till we get our mortgage paid off.We have between five to ten years to do this(five if we can double pay).I hope we will then be able to live off the farm and also have something to hand down to the kids.
I remember reading that if you can get your farm paid off that it's possible to make a humble living on it .
I just was inspired by reading "Omnivore's Dilemma". There was a great example of a working farm in that book . The people had such intelligent, innovative,creative solutions for their farm.You need to be imaginative,resourceful and a good honest business person to run a farm.
Good luck with your dream,ask and you shall receive, Katie |
| peafarm |
Posted - Mar 16 2010 : 8:51:21 PM
Both my husband and I work fulltime off the farm and we are looking at having a plan for generating more farm income. My goal is to work parttime and between that and farm income replace ~75% of my current income. I will be meeting with the county extension service to tap into their resources. I am also looking at the Beginning Farmers program to tap into some mentoring and eliminating some of the learning the hard way steps. I am hoping that the cost is recapped by shortening my timeframe to profitability...we will see...until then, it's off to work I go.
Penny
www.peafarm.weebly.com |
| paradiseplantation |
Posted - Mar 16 2010 : 05:55:59 AM
Patrice - dh & I still have jobs 'off' the farm, but we are striving to have our farm pay for itself, and our household expenses. So far, we've implemented selling eggs and some live poultry. We are in the process of setting up for a direct farmers market; we sell our excess hay; I have my first booth to try and sell my handwoven items (and if that works, I'll be expanding the fiber portion of the farm); and we have several other ideas for income producing crops. It's a tough road, and to begin with, an outside income is just about mandatory. But if you are willing to put in the long hard hours, I would say jump. I've always thought it better to fail, rather than to always wonder 'what if'. Keep us posted and let us know what you decide. Oh! And, after 1 year, last month my egg sales actually made a profit. Only by $3.00, but it's a start. So far this month I've already made a $4.00 profit, and I still have 15 days to go. I know that doesn't seem like much to some, but I see it as progress, and a slow growth of farm income.
from the hearts of paradise... |
| LakeOntarioFarmgirl |
Posted - Mar 12 2010 : 4:46:02 PM
This is an interesting subject for me, and one I've been tossing around. Now that all the kids are grown I feel like I should be earning some money somehow, but believe me being at home is a full time job for me! ;)
However, I really would like to earn money. I've just ordered 25 chicks, will probably get more in April and May with the idea of selling some for meat and also selling eggs. I am also already starting to make soaps, dishcloths and aprons, and other handrafted items, and will make my homemade dog bicuits and probably some jams and jellies to sell at our small town farm market this summer. Last summer they only had local produce and are looking to improve on it, so I am hoping I will be successful there. We are also trying to decide if we want to sell our extra produce there or here in front of our house, an ideal spot, as we get a lot of rush hour traffic for a country road! I know it will never amount to a steady full time job income, but I like to think that I can help out some doing these things.
Brenda
FarmGirl # 711
Nothing we achieve in this world is achieved alone. It is always achieved with others teaching us along the way. Lee J. Colan
http://theviewfromhere-brenda.blogspot.com/ |
| AlyssaMarie |
Posted - Mar 12 2010 : 09:08:29 AM
We're just in our first year out here and still getting up and running. When we did our taxes recently we found we made enough in sales this last year to cover feed costs for the animals... not exactly enough to live on but we did profit some personal meat and eggs. I'm home on the farm since we have 3 kids and my dh works in town full time. But i've had to pick up small odd jobs to help out. We'd like to be at a point that we profit enough for the farm to be my "job" making at least the eqivalent of part-time min wage year round. Looks like that may take us a while. But I do personally account for the idea that raising our own food decreases our food budget and that to me is like income.
AlyssaMarie @ Link'd Hearts Ranch
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| willowtreecreek |
Posted - Mar 12 2010 : 07:54:59 AM
Nope we both have "real" jobs in addition to the farm. We have soybean and hayfields though so the actual hands on labor is fairly minimal and only limited to certain times of the year. We can not do a cover crop in the off season on our soybean fields because they are in bottom land and are underwater most of the winter season. I raise chickens and have a nice herb garden and I sell my eggs and herbs at the farmers market. This income is mostly for fun. I dont expect a lot of money from it but do it because I enjoy it.
Farmgirl Sister #17
Blog
www.eggsandherbs.com
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| maggie14 |
Posted - Mar 11 2010 : 9:08:19 PM
I wish I did but hope to someday! I wish you the best of luck!! :) :)
Hugs,
Channah
Farmgirl sister #1219
Friendship is not something that can be bought, it is earned. |
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