One of the things that I've thought alot about when considering a split-income from Drupal and Farming is how, on a small scale, you can structure it to make a bit of income to offset less Drupal development. (I'm not interested in farming on a large scale).
So, if it's not too personal, I'll ask: If you run/own a farm do you do it for your family or for profit (or for a little of both)?
Some small hobby farmers simply run the farm as a lifestyle choice, not really an 'occupation'. They do it to be self sufficient and to raise a family. Others obviously do it to sell meat or eggs or veg. And many do both (but the income would be small).
Whether it be because you raise food (and don't need to buy it) or because you actually sell some producut, how much does your farming offset your need to work on the web?
Thanks for sharing!
Comments
My goal is, over time, to
My goal is, over time, to move away from web development and into farming as an income stream. I'll always do some coding because it's quick and easy and I enjoy it, but once the house is paid off (estimated 10-15 years), we just need enough to pay off the property taxes, household expenses and retirement savings. That's not much. It's not so much that I want to code less, but I want to pick my projects and donate a good chunk of my coding time to nonprofits -- they usually desperately need website help and can't afford it.
I'll be using the mortgage period to work up to it by starting with raising animals and produce for home use to get comfortable with how much work it is and to figure out what we like and don't like. This will save us money by not having to buy what is traditionally pretty expensive stuff: organic produce, pastured eggs/meat, dairy products. I plan on having a diversified product offering, from the food products to farm tours/classes, to boarding/babysitting other people's animals and doing services like castration and disbudding for the more tender souls out there. I'll scale up as needed as long as the land can sustain it in a healthy manner. Also, by eating seasonally (pretty easy in Florida), I can minimize how much I spend on off-farm produce. None of that in itself is a huge profit, but if it makes the farm pay for itself, then I have a free hobby. And that's going to be the big money saver; I'll be so immersed in all the aspects of farming that I won't be out spending money on other things. Kinda like people who live on World of Warcraft ;)
I'm with ya...
Looks like we have similar goals :) While web development is fairly easy and there's more income for less work than most jobs, I'm trying to structure a long term plan to move completely to farming. Hoping that with most food coming from the farm (much harder here in Michigan than in Fl. :) it would cut down seriously on grocery bills. We already don't spend a ton because we spend so much time at home (because we love working on it).
I like your idea of a bunch of diversified jobs (services, products, etc) rather than a single source of farm related income. Never quite thought of it that way, but I can envision it.
Thanks for sharing!
(boy I wish they'd approve this group so we could find more folks! :)
Both
I grew up on a family farm in north central Iowa. Growing up my family raised cattle, hogs and chickens in the traditional fashion of farming rather than the more industrial type of agriculture most farms have adopted today. We also raised hay, oats along with corn and soybeans as our major cash crops. Not being able to support multiple families my brother and I both moved away from the farm and pursued other careers (Yay Drupal!) Our farm today is considered tiny compared to most farms , with a total of about 300 acres (crop ground and permanent pasture). My father retired a little over a year ago and I am now transitioning back to where I grew up and transform our farm into a different type of enterprise for both my family's quality of life and as a business venture. My hope is to start a grass fed/finished cattle business to raise beef for families who would like to a nutritious, complete source of protein that is raised with respect for the animal and for the quality of the product to the end consumer. I feel that the consuming public is looking more and more for this type of food and smaller farms can provide it and making a living in the process. Since grass fed cattle take a long time to get to market readiness (about three years on average) my Drupal work is a necessity to keep my family going, especially, since my wife got very ill a year ago and had to leave her job. So we'll see if my renewed farming adventure is a success or not, I know I love doing it and hopefully it will also help pay the bills in the long run :)
I wish I could buy a commerical farm!
The cost of land and planning laws in the UK mean that to buy a viable commercial farm and start commercially from scratch you need well over £1,000,000 ($1.5m). Most farms remain within families and those that are sold, certainly here in the Cotswolds usually get consumed by larger neighbouring farms or sold to rock stars and business people who want a weekend retreat away from the media.
So for me with only a few acres, farming has to remain secondary to my Drupal business for the foreseeable future as it simply couldn't generate the income required to support our family of 5 without more land. However, that's also my motivator in business. If I can one day sell out my company and use the money as the deposit on even just a small farm, I believe we could buy a farm and make it work financially to maintain an 'average' standard of living.
Like others in this group - my priority is to produce naturally reared, high quality produce that people really want and will pay a premium for. On a small scale this already works for us as of the animals we raise we sell half to friends and family and it covers the whole cost of production - meaning we have free food. It certainly reduces the cost of our weekly shop - we've not bought meat in about 4 years. And as a result I think our weekly food bill is well under half the national average family spend. The cashflow model if very different though, as we invest all the money on feed and livestock upfront - something we couldn't afford to do without the income from Drupal.
Kzivs point about diversification is a good one, globally farming has to revert to spreading risk rather than huge factory style mono-cultures. For us ideal set-up would include mixed farming, camping, holiday cottages, farm tours and open days, courses, garden plant and vegetable sales. That way failure of any one wouldn't mean failure of the business.
Acreage
I think scale is a big factor in all of this, as Leo mentions. It's sorta the same way in the US if you want to be a 'commercial' farmer (you have to have $1m startup) but I'm not sure many people actually want to be commercial farmers in the way it's done. Doing so is pretty much a money losing, environoment killing lifestyle. No thanks :)
I think most of us here (so far) are really talking about stepping back a few years to a time when that's not what a farm was. We're talking about truly traditional 'small farms' which are diverse and healthful.
Personally, when I think small farm (and what I'd like to do) I'm thinking really small: A dozen layers, a couple dozen broilers, a few hogs, a handful of goats and/or sheep, and a dairy cow. It seems to me something this size provides you with meat, dairy and eggs with plenty of extra to sell to cover costs. Which has me thinking:
What would be a minimum size to operate something like this? For some reason I've always had 20-30 acres in my mind. Growing up my parents had a hobby horse farm that was 40 and it seemed a little big for what I envision. I feel like if you had 30 which had a few buildings/paddocks up front with the rest being 3/4 pasture and 1/4 wooded (firewood!) it wouldn't need to be much bigger. (Granted I have no idea what I'm talking about :)
How about you guys? What acreage do you envision when you think about running a place in the future? (aelling will obviously be thinking much bigger to raise beef!)
A great book...
Not sure if you can get this book in the US, but it's a seminal manual for small scale farming / self-sufficiency.
http://www.google.co.uk/products/catalog?hl=en&gs_upl=3911l5729l0l5859l1...
It sets out models for farms of 2, 5 and 10 acres I believe. The largest of which should fully sustain a family. Obviously by modern standards there will still be things that a family 'desire' beyond that, but it shows you don't need a 'lot' of space to sustain yourself.
20 - 30 acres would be perfect and is also my ideal aim, but I also know local farmers with 100+ that still have to have at least one full time income just to pay bills and taxes as making money in addition to feeding yourself is hard in tough economic times.
You have to sell a lot of meat and vegetables to pay to keep your car on the road or take the family on holiday - that's where Drupal work or another income would still fit in for me.
We wanted around 20 acres for
We wanted around 20 acres for two reasons: privacy and enough land to rotationally pasture the animals and grow some forage crops (red clover and perennial peanut since alfalfa won't grow this far south). If we mostly grain fed, we could easily get by on 10 acres. The goat farm I interned on paid for itself with 3 does being milked (and a couple kids and bucks being fed) and that was on 5 acres; the income stream there was raw milk sales, goat care/boarding services, and an occasional farm tour. In reality she could have done it on one or two acres.
I think it all depends on which animals you raise and the nature of your land. Pigs love wooded areas, as do turkeys so they can share that with your firewood source. You can rotate cows through a pasture followed by sheep and then chickens in a mobile coop rather than having totally separate areas for them.
Oh yeah, and don't forget about a growing trend in revenue generation: using goats to clear invasive plants. If you can set up a regular clientele they're effectively providing you with free forage land for meat goats so you can have less of your own land. And that service goes well with an online reservation form conveniently made in Drupal! ;)