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RE: New-ish to farm life questions.

alpacatex — Fri, 04 Apr 2008 13:02:41 GMT

We have been on our 104 acres for 3 years now. Buy as much as you can afford. Get an ag exemption; helps with taxes. Call or Go to your local USDA office (look at their website) and see what opportunities might be available to get paid for taking care of the land. You will get money for this based on the acres and crops you may have or put into place, mainly just enough to pay for any maintenance you might pay someone to do. Remember you don't have to do all the work; there are others who will do it for you since they have all the right equipment and are in the business.

I am longing to purchase the additional 100 acres adjacent to ours as soon as we can; it's a bargain. In the meantime, we effectively are actively living on just 7 of our acres--the house,garage, separate shop, barn, and 4 fenced pastures for our alpacas. Our neighbor has cattle and came to us asking if we would mind if he grazed on the balance in return for maintaining it (he mends fence , shreds, puts out weedkillers, sows any necessary grass feeds, etc.) In return, at this time we don't charge any lease fees to him and we provide water for the cattle. Additionally, our other neighbor is in the haying business, and is helping us transform 25 acres into hay acreage. We plan to put in a tank/pond also.

You do want to maintain that acreage in some fashion or it will just turn into a mess of weeds. Put an ad out that you have so many acres to lease to someone (they will pay you; do your homework first on this arrangement and get both parties to sign an agreement specifying what can and cannot be provided by each party), put an ad out that you have acreage someone can hay, or if you are good handling horses, you could board horses for others. There are lots of options; talk to neighbors and get the word out (everyone knows everyone it seems), and things will probably fall into place. Good luck.

RE: New-ish to farm life questions.

Helen Saville — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 07:17:50 GMT

More really is better. the suggestion for hay is a good one. Plant trees on a few acres. Being a good steward of your land doesn't always mean a manicured front lawn. We have a 100 acre farm and when we first got here the first thing I did was get out the lawn mower and in two days we had a 3 acre lawn. That lasted for that summer only. Do you know how long it takes to mow that much lawn? Now much of it is garden, fruit and nut orchard and a rotating pasture for my hens. The rest of the farm is used for pasturing the sheep and harvesting hay.

Don't be afraid of the extra space. If God affords you the opportunity , He will provide!

RE: New-ish to farm life questions.

Breezee_Acres_Farm — Tue, 25 Mar 2008 05:04:46 GMT

Here's my 'take' on buying ground - more IS better and like I told my husband " God's NOT makeing any more!"

If there are acres that are cleared, but you don't want to 'maintain' them- contact a Hay farmer and work out a deal- there is a hay shortage and any 'extra' going into the market is great PLUS it would be a way for you to make some extra $$

Chrystal

Breezee Acres Farm> Indiana

RE: New-ish to farm life questions.

Mare Owner — Wed, 19 Mar 2008 19:47:47 GMT

In my opinion, the biggest thing for a city person wanting to transition to living in the country is income. And money to get set up. About 4 yrs ago I moved from the city to a more rural area. Built a small house and barn and brought my horses "home." But to keep my job, I then had to commute much longer. I ended up going down from 5 days/week to 4 days to help reduce the driving.

Then I married and moved to a larger farm, and now my job has a home-worker program and we get DSL here, so it works great for me!

You have to be able to work, so check the job market also where you look at buying a place. Many rural areas don't have many jobs, and what jobs there are are not high-paying, and may not have much for benefits.

Everything ends up costing more than you budget for when you build or buy a home. Save as much as you can now. Try doing what you plan to do on your homestead on a smaller scale. Like gardening.

If you are working with horses, someone will know someone who has cattle. Make friends and visit farms and learn.

RE: New-ish to farm life questions.

galaxieguy — Sat, 15 Mar 2008 09:35:46 GMT

New to this. Been looking at buying a hobby farm in the next couple years.
Any advice for a city person. My friends call me a red-neck. I have worked on a horse farm for a month. Fell in love with the animals. My hobbys right are working on cars. My pickup truck is 25 years. So far looking at eastern Ontario. Somebody said to me you have to get early in the morning. I get up at 5:30 already.

RE: New-ish to farm life questions.

Sue Weaver — Sat, 08 Mar 2008 10:40:14 GMT

I feel the only downside to extra acreage is maintaining more fencing but otherwise, you can't go wrong with additional land. Land is always a great investment and once you start hobby farming, little doubt you'll find plenty of uses for it.

RE: New-ish to farm life questions.

Mare Owner — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 22:38:41 GMT

More is better!!! Haha! :)

Land is a great investment, provided it isn't swamp. :) You may find more things you want to do once you are living there, and with more land you will have the space. We have a lot of pasture here and even rent a summer pasture down the road for our cattle. I'd like more land. For pasture and also crops, raising more of our own oats/straw, corn, and hay.

If your wife likes a neat yard, that is fine, you can do that even with more land. You just have to decide where the boundaries are between what gets mowed every week, and what the sheep will graze. Nice neat fences near the house can also make things look more neat and tidy.

Take a drive in the country together and see which farmsteads look good, what's too "messy" and what's okay. Some places around here have a nice yard and then a privacy type fence where you know must be junk cars and such! But it is neat in the front and behind the fence the hubby gets to make whatever he wants with his "toys" and both are happy.

RE: New-ish to farm life questions.

tomboy — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 14:27:44 GMT

My husband and I wanted a farm for years. We finally got a chance and bought 63 acres about 2 years ago. We had to clear some of it for pasture and future building sites. We built a full size barn by our selves and I must admit it was more work than either of us thought it would be. However, most of the additional work was due to us adding an apartment on to the barn so it was like building a house and a barn, running all the utility lines, etc. To make a long story short: We finally sold our first home and moved here full time several months back. We are leaving building a new home to professional builders. We could not be more thrilled. Having this farm is like being a artist with a blank canvas. I'm not sorry we purchased this many acres - we both wish we had 163. I have plans for a second pasture, a possible pond, a hay meadow, maybe a small orchard, expanding our family garden, the wish list keeps getting bigger. Our horses love the room, to roam as do our dogs. My husband wants to start a breeding kennel and set up a training center for german shepards.

New-ish to farm life questions.

archangel — Mon, 11 Feb 2008 00:18:05 GMT

My wife and I are looking to purchase a new home (new to us) with some land.

There quite a few well within our price range with at least 15 acres or more, and one with 65 acres!

I spent a short summer on a farm and had family that I visited every summer that had ducks, chickens and what not.

For a long while (decades) have been wanting to have some property with a small amount of livestock.

I want chickens, a few Soay sheep, a couple Goats.
Just a small hobby farm.

Just so you know, I have experience home construction handyman (plumbing, electrical, carpentry, concrete, roofing) welder and mechanic, and have built and repaired fencing, out buildings and built from scratch a real custom chicken coop for one customer.

The issue we have is I want more acreage, she wants less.

She fears that every square foot needs to be maintained, like someone who has to mow the yard and trim the hedges.

I feel that other than the garden, the small grass yard around the house (that is if we even decide to have one) and any land we use for planed pasture (like alfalfa or some other feed grass), most of the land will be taken care by nature, with some excessive brush removal needed once a year.

Am I dreaming and is more acreage, even if it is unused, more work?

Is she paranoid, and can I tell her "more is better"?

Also.

Any opinion on acreage or anything else for us first timers?