Small Scale Farming - Anyone Into It? (2 Viewers)

[Joe Bryant]

In another thread, I asked this about small scale farming when our friend @Chaos34 mentioned he'd done this in the past.

It's something I'm interested in and I asked:

• Motivation for doing it?
• Economics of a small farm?
• What types of food are most. needed? Most profitable? Relatively easiest?
• What you would do differently if you were to do it again?
• Things to NOT do

@Chaos34 kindly replied:

In the 00s prior to selling I posted about my greenhouses quite a bit. It's a humble brag and back then I was accused of bs-ing, but I sort of kind of was one of the first to make aeroponics affordable for commercial applications. Nasa tech was deemed far too expensive, but I experimented with workarounds that surprisingly worked. Think epdm lined raceways like those used in fish farming but with aeroponic misting manifolds running through them.

• Motivation for doing it?

Lifelong dream. Rooted a Wandering Jew the first day of kindergarten and was hooked. College gf was a botany major and we made big plans. I had to do it without her 10 years later. My mom often said I don't play well with others. I play well with plants. I'm a personality that needed to be self-employed. Bosses are dumb.

• Economics of a small farm?

Obviously variable to the nth degree. Overall nothing spectacular and potentially horrible, but rewarding if you love it. I do love it, but another motivation was tax breaks investing in something I loved. I was making good money in the mortgage business. Buying in SoCal in 92 and selling in 06 is where I made my hay. RE equity. I'm the smallest of sample sizes and every piece of potentially productive land needs research. A big plus for you and Longtime is having both land and other income.

• What types of food are most. needed? Most profitable? Relatively easiest?

Greens are easy, always in demand, and fast growing. Microgreens were the ticket a decade ago, but big ag seems to have killed a cool little niche. I'm experimenting with indoor crocus sativus. No that isn't weed. It's where we get saffron - the most profitable crop. Speaking of weed, easy and profitable.

• What you would do differently if you were to do it again?

I bought 20 acres with a humble 2 bedroom home and 5 acres put to avocados. I planted another 11 acres to avos and built my dream greenhouses. Those young avos were expensive and slow to produce. There's 50 things I could have done that were smarter. I should have put in 11 acres of greenhouses and beat the crowd to microgreens. Maybe went with prickly pear or dragonfruit (drought tolerance in socal). I should have inoculated the first five acres of avos with high value mushroom spores (intercropping is smart)... and on and on.

• Things to NOT do

Start big. Overestimate your ag zone's climate. Underestimate pest loads, labor and equipment.

He also added:

I have a little quirk here. I've never started a thread. I like saying that. Sorry for continuing the hijack. It's been almost 20 years since I got out, and while I keep up with fancy new tech for indoor growing, I feel way out of the loop for commercial ideas. Things have changed a lot and AI is coming for this industry too.

I asked if he'd be ok with me copying his reply over to a new thread and he said this:

Sure, but just as I avoid RE questions here, I usually avoid this topic too. Won't even open the gardening thread. If I remember correctly, there's another grower or two here. I'm actively restraining myself from doing the tl/dr thing here, and I struggle with short replies too.

 

[Joe Bryant]

Thanks a ton @Chaos34. I didn't know you had this experience.

I see stalls at Farmers Markets and they always seem busy. They are able to charge significantly more for local produce than I see at even the more expensive places like Whole Foods.

And I know a ton would depend on what grows well in one's area.

I also look at things like selling eggs. Those seem super popular but I know there's a different element with animals.

It's all really interesting to me.

 

[Peggy]

6 acres. Not nearly that much planted though.
Tractor, barn, shop, and soil so rich things grow like they're on steroids.
I have more corn than I know what to do with right now. Giving bags away to neighbors, anyone and everyone.
Thought about the farmers market, maybe when we get caught up with all the other projects on the farm.
Currently canning beans and everything tomatoes - salsa, pizza sauce, spaghetti sauce, chopped tomatoes. Freezing bags of peppers. Roots in the root cellar.

 

[Peggy]

• Motivation for doing it?

Keeping busy in retirement, not for profit. And farm means more to me than just growing things. Beautiful country where things are cheap and people are friendly. Enough land to do whatever I want with. Swimming in the pool, sitting by the fire pit and watching fireflies. Building things. Wood working shop.

• Economics of a small farm?

Tractor is the biggest expense after the land. Fair amount of gas each week. Seed is dirt cheap and rain water is free.

• What types of food are most. needed? Most profitable? Relatively easiest?

Everything grows easy where I'm at. Corn is super easy, plant and pick, and has huge output. More than I bargained for.
Tomatoes are too fragile to multi-handle if you were going to sell, imo. We'd sell the salsa instead if we ever decided to.
Roots would be easy, but unlike corn you dig up and at least brush clean. We'll just plant enough to last us all year long.
You could do early crops like lettuce and kayle then switch to a second crop.
Peppers, cucumbers.
Honestly just let the prairie grass grow and harvest hay is the easiest if you invest in the equipment. Not sure how profitable it is.

• What you would do differently if you were to do it again?

Ask me again in a couple years.

• Things to NOT do

Start small and don't bite off more than you can chew.

 

[tommyGunZ]

Whoever figures out how to mass grow tomatoes like they used to grow them down in the southeast will make billions. My grandma grew them in small batches and they were soft and full of flavor. Mass produced tomatoes today are .

 

[QUEZILLA]

I recently prompted AI on ag/ small scale farming ideas for a small plat in my area, that could benefit in the future from a humanoid robot like Optimus. It gave a pretty cool response, precion farming, weeding, watering, can feed & clean livestock areas. I have no interest in farming now, but if I can get an Optimus for 30k that can do all the work, then it could be a possibility in 10yrs

 

[Joe Bryant]

Whoever figures out how to mass grow tomatoes like they used to grow them down in the southeast will make billions. My grandma grew them in small batches and they were soft and full of flavor. Mass produced tomatoes today are .

Agreed on the mass produced tomatoes today. It seems that it's just tough to scale the really great ones. Especially for more than a couple of months when they naturally are at the peak.

 

[Ron Swanson]

I've had a lot of fun with my mangos and Avocados but don't really have room for any more. I've toyed with the idea of buying a few acres nearby and planting it for retirement income but I haven't found property in the right microclimate at a price that makes sense and I fear by the time I get the trees big enough to really produce I'll be too old to maintain it.

 

[The Longtime Lurker]

My grandparents always had a pretty big garden and i hated it. Tons of work i was always recruited for when I'd rather be playing baseball with my buddies. Fast forward 40 years and I started my first real garden this year and am loving it. I've done a few tomato and pepper plants in the backyard, but this is my first attempt at a real garden.

I have 250 acres of mostly timber, but 60 acres of that are currently being worked and leased to a local farmer that plants a rotation of corn and cover crops. There's another 30 acres that i currently have as food plots for deer hunting i plant myself. To maintain everything i have a 45 horsepower tractor and all the implements to go with it. A small farm has been on my radar for a very long time, but getting started was always the hangup as where to start seems overwhelming.

This property, the fact that I've already got close to 90 acres tilled, and most of the big equipment needed has me set up pretty well to make this a reality if i really want to do it. I also have over 60 apple trees and a very large raspberry patch I've been expanding (bear proofing has been a challenge). Last year i also started making small batches of maple syrup and have more trees than i can count so i see an opportunity there aswell. There's so many possibilities that I'm kind of suffering from paralysis by analysis. The farmer I'm currently leasing to is getting old and planning on hanging it up in the next year or two, so that will open those acres to whatever I'd like.

 

[The Longtime Lurker]

I recently prompted AI on ag/ small scale farming ideas for a small plat in my area, that could benefit in the future from a humanoid robot like Optimus. It gave a pretty cool response, precion farming, weeding, watering, can feed & clean livestock areas. I have no interest in farming now, but if I can get an Optimus for 30k that can do all the work, then it could be a possibility in 10yrs

This is the kind of thing i need to look into also. If something like this is available and economical for a small scale farm it would sure make the workload seem a lot less daunting. I've seen there's a few different automated farm tools, how realistic that is i have no idea though.