Today I want to talk about how you can get into farming on a low initial investment and make profits in the first year. The farming landscape is changing as new ways to market and distribute makes it easier to get started.
I’ll go over some points to consider.;
- 1:37 Never take on debt that you can’t afford
- 2:24 Start with enterprises that bring income immediately
- 2:48 Do your own accounting in the beginning
- 3:10 Start small and grow with your market
- 4:33 Invest initially in income generating elements
- 5:04 Plan, plan, plan
- 6:35 Intercept local waste streams
- 7:23 Find efficient ways to sell
- 8:27 Record your time in detail
- 9:20 Don’t spread yourself too thin
Are you looking to start farming, and if so, what’s holding you back? Or are you a new farmer with some reflections or tips to pass on?
Join the conversation in the comments below. Thousands of people come here to learn, so please share if you have knowledge or experience that might benefit others.
Important: Share your thoughts and ideas directly in the comments. Links to other posts, videos, etc. will be removed.
Best,
Richard
Excellent advice about focussing on what brings in profits off the bat, before expanding time/returns horizons. My background is in decorating, and once you realise that just because you know how to do everything, doesn’t mean you should. Specialist decorators clear up compared to generalists.
On a similar note, I was advised – always start your veg garden close to your house and as you get the hang of it, expand outwards. Set up a garden even 100m from your house and it will be very hard to keep it going. Time has shown there is a lot of truth in that advice.
My long term plan is to have up to 500 layers. I have had chickens since I was a kid, but never at scale, I have never used tractors and don’t want to be in hoc for a €10000 vehicle capable of pulling a 500 bird chicken tractor. Following the same principle of small and close to home, I am starting with a small flock and designing a tractor with a capacity up to 50 birds, suited to narrow terracing, hawk and stoat proof, that I can move without a vehicle. Also nest boxes will be lower than the roosting area, to avoid one design issue I see in other mobile poultry houses. Roost high, lay low…
Luckily we have amazing metalworkers here, so once we have ironed out all the design issues and time and motion, I will scale up, using the money I would need for a 4×4 to build a bunch of these “small” no fuel/ultra low maintenance chicken tractors scattered around the property.
Hats off to your web team btw, I can actually enjoy your site in Tor browser.