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Starting Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 4/11/2009 10:14:39 AM
Posts: 2,
Visits: 4
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| My husband and I both work fulltime....the work all day with not much to show for it kind of life. We dream of running a small farm that can support us enough for me to quit my job. I'm opening a little antique shop on my farm and hope to expand to sell items yeilded from the farm. We currently have a few goats. We have butchered and also sold kids. My husband raises a large garden. We hope to try our hand at starting an apiary and raising chickens, and growing a few fruit trees. My frustration is that everything is so expensive that it would cut into our monthly budget just to add fencing, purchase supplies and livestock. I know eventually our farming would pay off, but how do we get started on a very low budget? We don't want to give up this dream.
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New Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 8/2/2010 6:22:03 PM
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| What part of the country do you live in? There is a website that has tons of different kinds of things for sell on it. craigslist.com. It has lots of people using it in some areas of the country, and some areas have not caught on to it yet. Would bed a good place to look for fencing, fence post. Animals
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Starting Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 4/11/2009 10:14:39 AM
Posts: 2,
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| We live in northern West Virginia. I even looked on websites that have orphaned farm animals for adoption, but they have strict quidelines about having them spayed/neutered, etc. It just seems like it will take us forever if we only take a little out of every pay to get started. We're in our 40's and hope to still be young enough to enjoy it all!
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Senior Member
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Last Login: Yesterday @ 7:21:05 AM
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| Most of us do have to start small. When my hubby and I started out, it was on a rented farm. We had about 5 acres with the house, barn, and a chicken coop that we could use, plus a garden. The barn had a fenced-in pasture and we had to spend $200 to buy two steer calves. We bought the heavy breed brown egg layer assortment from a hatchery to get started with chickens and put up a chicken wire fence that attached to the chicken coop to protect the chicks when they were still quite small. We also had to provide food for these animals. Hay for the calves as well as grain. Start small - chickens are a good way to start out with livestock and I find that I'm usually low on eggs, as fresh eggs are a good seller. If you are in a good location, you can set up an honor-system type roadside stand to sell extra veggies from your husband's garden. With that stand, put out flyers to describe other produce you have available (the goat meat, eggs, certain veggies/fruits that are too delicate to be out on the stand all day) or things that are short season, such as strawberries or raspberries. You can say that you will have canning quantities of tomatoes available, for instance, but that the customers have to pre-order them, then they have to pick them up on the weekend, for example. Don't expect to make a lot of money right off the bat, and don't go whole-hog on anything until you know you have a market. Yes, I have a high demand for my eggs, but vastly increasing the size of my flock would be a mistake, as it would require more space, more feed, and more work. It takes time to figure out the balance that works for you. You may have to set aside a bit of money each month to gradually work up to what you are planning to do. If you need to put up fencing, decide first what kind of animals you are going to put behind the fence. Then, buy a roll of fencing one month, a few fence posts the next. Buy the support timbers for your lean-to (if that is the shelter you need for your animals), then the next month buy the metal sheeting to cover it. Farming of any sort is definitely a delayed-gratification situation!
Karen http://www.facebook.com/MrsKsCreations
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Starting Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 11/6/2009 12:58:49 PM
Posts: 39,
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| Sorry for such a late reply. I have been thinking about this type of question for a long time since most things I am doing are in the "planning" phase. Heck, quite a few won't ever get out of it. So I will list a few things here that may help (may not), but take most with a grain of salt because I haven't tried most. If it is the cost of animals that are prohibitive then: Barter. You have said that you have butchered and sold some in the past. I am sure that you could find a local owner who may be willing to part with this many of this animal for a kid or such. You may be able to do this through your local Co-op or 4H or something similar. (like next door neighbors) Chickens are on the cheaper side of things as initial purchases go. You may lose a few but even if you mess up terribly the investment on the animals was minimal. -- Also, you can create a small chicken coup/tractor for cheap and IF you can use stuff from a local dump (depends on your area) you can do it for next to nothing. If you are worried about feed costs to animal ratio then: Pigs eat alot but aren't too bad because they are decently low initial cost and the upside to them is they eat a wide variety of items. Which can help on food bills especially if you have a large vegetable garden (as you said). I'm not sure if it is a good idea (might want to ask someone to confirm) but tons of extra's can be given to them. (Also, if you have extra dairy I believe it is safe to give to them as well) Your two biggest hurdles are going to be Fencing and Tools. Chickens require much less in the Fencing category (Make a Tractor or two) but with any other animal your going to need some. Each animal requires different things in fencing and I am sure there are posts that cover just that so I won't any further. Tools. Can't live without them. They can be really costly. Again, there are some great posts on here specifically about them. Just a general note that has helped me for everything: I have a local Habitat Re-store which you may have. They are a nonprofit (I think) that people donate extra building supplies to (and other things) and they sell things for a fraction of the general cost. They are AMAZING for cheap building materials. I hope any of this helps and I am sorry I cannot provide more info.
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Starting Member
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Last Login: 3/31/2011 7:46:53 AM
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| We too are starting out very small. 17ac we inherited from my husbands family. The putter fences are good, but everything else is going to have to be taken down and redone. We are a one income family, both going to college, and have 4 young children. We cut our monthly budget by 50, which goes straight into the Farm fund, and we make no plans for our tax return but it also goes straight into it. Luckily for us, we don't live there currently and wont be for another 3 and half years. In that time we plan on redoing the torn up house that is there, putting up cross fences, replacing the entrance gate, and building a round pen. Its a slow every month process and sacrifice, but its coming along. Due to this we live pay check to pay check, but we feel its worth it. We never intended our children to grow up in the city both of us coming from little farming communities. We have worked out some things with the neighboring people there. Such as the woman across the way that raises goats has a wonderful round pen from the previous owners, she is letting us buy it from her for 100. A friend of ours has a horse rescue, but is going under is giving us 2 of her best breeders. Currently we just pay feed for them and donate wormer (my mom is a vet).
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Starting Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 4/12/2011 12:40:53 PM
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| My family also started small. The first year we had about 25 layers and a half acre garden. I purchased the lumber for my coop at a local sawmill, thats a whole lot cheaper then a lumber yard. They also will cut posts or lumber to any size you need which helped with the true sized lumber that used to be in houses. By trade I am a carpenter who works two jobs, one of which is maintainance so I am also a licensed electrician and plumber amoungsest other trades. I have been trading my labor and skills to aquire livestock and equipment that I was in need of. This also works for getting my garden broke every year now and my fields bush hogged. It has saved me the expense of purchasing a tractor and implements. Another thing is to put up signs at co-op or farm stores that you will clean up properties and out buildings. I got alot of feeders, waterers, and fencing material this way. Not to mention the antique tool collection I have received. I guess my point is that labor is worth alot more to someone then money is and bartering is a great way to enlarge your farm.
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Junior Member
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Last Login: Yesterday @ 2:58:02 PM
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We started small as well, and we bought the place long before we could actually move there. We did a ton of planning and were able to start things moving before we actually could live there. This included creating a huge compost pile from the clean up and planting fruit trees and blueberries. We also started working on our gardening skills with container gardens while living in the city. We were surprised just how many tomatoes, peppers, etc. could be grown in a very small space; plus it gave us some practical experience.
We lived in our 32' RV for over a year so we could save up enough to move. Our sacrifice is finally starting to pay off!
M. and D.
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