This is just supply and demand. I own a 12 acre farm and mostly grow seedling potatoes for resale to smaller farmers and the increase I've seen in the past year has been insane. Three years ago I sold $375k worth of seedling potatoes and that was pretty much what I did every year going back about 10 years. Two years ago I sold $425k and decided I needed to raise prices a bit so I could expand and grow more. In 2021 I planted double what I usually did and raised prices a bit and ended the year selling just shy of $1m worth of seedlings.
My daughters do a lot of the non-tractor work, it's their day job to do the marketing, shipping, and sales and stuff. They both went to college and got PhDs in literature and media or something and couldn't find jobs, so I put them to work here. I do most of the planting and actual logistics of keeping the plants alive.
I also have a 10 acre plot across the street where I grow organic certified watermelons on half the plot and the other plot is a soil/compost lot where I make organic compost for local gardeners which pays really really well. My 5-acre plot of compost makes almost as much money as my potato seedlings.
In town I recently bought the independent coffee shop when it was about to close down. I revamped how it runs and it makes decent money now. It's mostly a place for kids to hang out since all the other places in town closed down.
In my backyard I have a 1500 sq ft garden where I grow the food that my family eats most of the year, we do a lot of canning and preserves. We also have 25 chickens and a few turkeys for meat and eggs and this year I'm raising two hogs because I wanted to learn how to slaughter a pig myself. If that goes well I may get a cow next season. My neighbor says it's a slippery slope when you get into livestock - I think he's just saying that because he wants me to buy his 30 acre lot where he has sheep.
You sir are #winning. I hope to have a fraction of that going for me within the next 5 years. I dont know how they slaughter pigs in the states but where im from we carry them on our backs down the mountain. Then we cut their jugular and collect the blood draining for blood sausage. Next comes scalding hot water to shave the hair off them. After gutting they roast the whole hog on a spit for a few hrs. Pretty gruesome and probably totally not how you are planning to do things but thats the only way Ive known.
I have been talking to my wife more about it... how are you watering all this land area? I need to find a piece of property but thats my biggest challenge
This is just supply and demand. I own a 12 acre farm and mostly grow seedling potatoes for resale to smaller farmers and the increase I've seen in the past year has been insane. Three years ago I sold $375k worth of seedling potatoes and that was pretty much what I did every year going back about 10 years. Two years ago I sold $425k and decided I needed to raise prices a bit so I could expand and grow more. In 2021 I planted double what I usually did and raised prices a bit and ended the year selling just shy of $1m worth of seedlings.
Nice
This is goals...you run it all by yourself with one tractor or what? I need to get up to speed on what youre doing.
My daughters do a lot of the non-tractor work, it's their day job to do the marketing, shipping, and sales and stuff. They both went to college and got PhDs in literature and media or something and couldn't find jobs, so I put them to work here. I do most of the planting and actual logistics of keeping the plants alive.
I also have a 10 acre plot across the street where I grow organic certified watermelons on half the plot and the other plot is a soil/compost lot where I make organic compost for local gardeners which pays really really well. My 5-acre plot of compost makes almost as much money as my potato seedlings.
In town I recently bought the independent coffee shop when it was about to close down. I revamped how it runs and it makes decent money now. It's mostly a place for kids to hang out since all the other places in town closed down.
In my backyard I have a 1500 sq ft garden where I grow the food that my family eats most of the year, we do a lot of canning and preserves. We also have 25 chickens and a few turkeys for meat and eggs and this year I'm raising two hogs because I wanted to learn how to slaughter a pig myself. If that goes well I may get a cow next season. My neighbor says it's a slippery slope when you get into livestock - I think he's just saying that because he wants me to buy his 30 acre lot where he has sheep.
You sir are #winning. I hope to have a fraction of that going for me within the next 5 years. I dont know how they slaughter pigs in the states but where im from we carry them on our backs down the mountain. Then we cut their jugular and collect the blood draining for blood sausage. Next comes scalding hot water to shave the hair off them. After gutting they roast the whole hog on a spit for a few hrs. Pretty gruesome and probably totally not how you are planning to do things but thats the only way Ive known.
I have been talking to my wife more about it... how are you watering all this land area? I need to find a piece of property but thats my biggest challenge
I have wells everywhere and two natural springs.