Get a start farming

[boxchevyman]

Hey all, I have been reading a few old posts about how to get a start in farming. I’m still a bit confused. And I would like to ask some advice from some guys that have farmed for a while. Let me give you some background info, I live in rural area in east Missouri, I grew up on a kind of hobby farm. I’m married with a decent job and am almost done with college. With that in mind could any of you guys give me advice on how to get a start in farming?

My farther-in-law has let me experiment on an acre of land, I plan on putting in sweet corn and seeing if I can grow it successfully. Also I’m looking into buying an 8n ford at reasonable price, would it be possible to use this tractor for farming a small to medium amount of acreage (10-50). I’m not looking to make farming a full time job, but more of an enjoyable part time job that will pay some cash.

If any of you guys could point me in the right direction or maybe mention a book you all found helpful or who to talk to, I would appreciate it very much.

Thanks

James

 

[ihman73]

Depending on what you want to spend and your space and implement requirements you can do better than an 8n for the money. The 8n is a fine light tractor but is a poor replacement for something with a better power/weight ratio and larger tires. (560 farmall, d-17 AC, etc.) As far as the sweet corn goes there is a lot of hand work and you need to have something to spray for earworms with. Do your homework and you will do fine.

 

[sammydwm]

I would never buy any N Ford to do anything other than rake hay, and even then I would put it far down the list of choices.
There are other far more capable tractors around.
Unless you discover a niche market and take advantage of that you will probably end up with a hobby farm no matter what. And a hobby usually costs you money.
Find something that you can grow whether its vegetable or animal that can actually make you money. Grass fed beef, organic produce, free range eggs....elitist food is where the money is for small producers check into that....

 

[Brendon-KS]

I would imagine that the biggest challenge to successful small-scale farming is finding a market for what you produce. Growing an acre of sweet corn is easy. Marketing and selling the resulting 10,000+ ears will be the challenge. This is especially true with crops that must be harvested and sold during a very narrow window of peak ripeness, sweet corn being one of them. Make sure you fully research your intended market and retail opportunities before jumping in.

 

[rrlund]

First off,don't listen to anybody who tells you that you need anything more than an 8N. YES,you can farm with it,many an old codger did for many years,quite successfully.
This whole thing of being over equiped is a pet pieve of mine anyway.
I was just reading in Massey Ferguson Farm Life magazine the other day,about 4 young couples just getting started. The one couple had 90 acres,both worked in town and lamented that there was a day when a couple would have raised a family on that land. Then I read what they had for equipment. 2 Massey Ferguson tractors,a 471 and a 271,2 BIG Allis Chalmers tractors,a 100 horse 7000 and a 145 horse 7045,then there was a Hesston/Massey Ferguson round baler and a New Idea baler. Well guess what folks,the couple back in the day who would have made a living on that land would have done it with a team of mules,or a Ferguson 30 if they were successful at it,or an Allis Chalmers B.
You have no idea how happy you're making me by being realistic and knowing that you don't need to farm like a retired doctor to get started.
As far as learing how to do it,the best lessons you'll ever get will be from the school of hard knocks. Remember the things that don't work and move on. I've got great hopes for you as long as you're realistic and keep your head. Do what works for you and don't worry about what the neighbors think. Many a neighbor poked fun at me over the years,but I'm the only one left in the neighborhood.

 

[kyhayman]

Each of us has our own bias as to equipment and tractors. First of all, take a sheet of paper and write down what you hope to accomplish. The first thing you list will tell a lot. For some people its make money, others its have fun, for some its use my 8n, etc. It doesnt really matter what it is, but your goals in order will tell you what you need to do. If your main goal is producing something at a profit then you need to include a realistic marketing plan. Retail sales at a farmers market is great but you have to have someone to sit there and do the selling. If thats something you like great, if not, then thats probably not a venue you need to pursue.

If growing sweet corn and other vegetables for profit is your main goal then thats where you need to focus. If running a 8n is your main goal then thats your focus. For an acre, or even a few acres of vegetable crops I'd a lot rather hire my plowing and tillage done and spend my money where it will make the most impact. A good 8 hp tiller with a gear drive transmission, a pair of good 12v 15 gallon sprayers and a good backpack sprayer, a small 4wd diesel tractor would be handy, etc. Wagon to haul stuff on, etc.

For me, when I was working full time and getting started farming I was way over tractored and over equiped. Thats ok, in my case I needed to be. Time was more limiting than money and I needed to get work done, fast, and not be turning wrenches on stuff. If your goal includes tinkering on old equipment then your needs are different than mine were.

 

[jackinok]

let me explain it the way i see it. First if you cant make money on one acre ,your wasting time on 10,000! The only difference is it would be much harder to make a LIVING on 1 acre,you simply (unless you grow a specialty crop for a local market of some type) wont make enough money to live on. Second dont let folks fool you. Something like 80% of the farmers in the US either directly work another job,or have a spouse employed off the farm. They live off that income for the most part. As for a 8n being able to do this,YES absolutly!! In fact its MUCH better suited for actual farming than it is as a mowing,grading,chore type tractor.(do a poll,youll find the biggest complaint folks have with them is because they are not suited to modern equipment as others) As a small FARMING tractor you could do far worse. Take for instance mowing with a rotary mower,they never were designed to do this,but heres another secret,NONE of the others were either! Ask over on the ac board how many folks have twisted the pto shaft or broken the pto gearbox on a w series tractor while brushhogging! Theres a big difference between a farming and a utility type of tractor.The trouble you will run into eventually with a 8n (or any other tractor that size bar none ) is TIME! A two bottom tractor is simply slow going REGARDLESS OF BRAND!!!Hook a two bottom plow on a 500 hp tractor and its STILL slow. This is what limits you if you work off the farm,simply do you have enough time after work,to farm 100 acres?. A two bottom plow will do just as good a job as a 10 bottom,it simply will be much slower so it takes more time and that holds true regardless of brand. Another problem you could face is simply the initial price,and upkeep of equipment. Take for instance our plow again,a two bottom has to travel twice as far AND it has to stay there twice as long to cover the same acerage as a 4 bottom. Thats simply several times the wear and upkeep. And this holds true of all equipment. While the parts costs remain the same per bottom, they must be replaced or rebuilt more often. Of course when you rebuild a four bottom plow it costs more but if you can do far more work between rebuilds its simply more effecient.Theres more to consider to a small farming operation than just the want to's.And theres more to succesful farming itself than simply preparing a seedbed and harvesting a crop.You simply have a hundred things to spend money on ,but only one product to make money on!heres the difference in small farms of today,and the ones in years past. When I grew up a farm was considered succesfull if it fed the family that lived on it year after year. It may not make ANY outside income at all! These days that would be considered an abject failure simply because we have to have so many outside things. Look at all the things that folks have these days that we considered luxuries. Bottom line is,a small farm can produce a living very easily. What has to be modified to fit the small farm is your way of living (and to most folks these days your standard of living) to fit it!

 

[Anonymous-0]

when you think about it, I wouldnt imagine you want that whole acre of sweetcorn ripening at the same time. So that being said I would think you could do (if you wanted to) planting, weed control, and harvest all by hand. I could see having a little plow for an 8n or a WD-45 and a little gang disc. Biggest thing to consider is how much time are you gonna be able to do this and is yout hobby to drive the tractor or grow the crop? I love working soil and growing crops, I would feel a need to do it no matter what equipment I had, I actually think I would be less inclined to farm if I had tractors on tracks and 60' implements. Look into how to market that sweetcorn, maybe go half corn and half tomatoes, maybe host an ear roast for nieghbors or something. Also you said your father in law was letting you experiment on an acre? Is he a farmer? if so, cant you work the ground with his equipment and get on to the makin money part. I feed all my livestock by hand and by doing that winter has almost become my favorite time of year. Nothing like walking into the barn and seeing steam rise off a steers back and watching hogs run laps in the pen next to them and then a chicken runs across your feet. There isnt a tractor in the world that beats the actual feel of real farming.

 

[Ron/PA]

(quoted from post at 08:47:59 12/27/11) First off,don't listen to anybody who tells you that you need anything more than an 8N. YES,you can farm with it,many an old codger did for many years,quite successfully.

Just who are you calling an old codger? Then again who you calling successful? LOL

Is the N the best choice? Of course not. Will it do what you want to do? It most certainly will. We farmed for years with N's and up until a couple years ago I still worked a 30 acre remote piece with an N. If you're going to keep your farm in the 10 acre range, it'll be a fine tractor even if it's not the best choice. The up side is that it's a low cost fairly dependable machine that's cheap to maintain and there is still a good supply of parts available. It's also easy to maintain so you won't need to be a master mechanic to keep it running. Now having said that, it's still not the best possible machine, but if I could have only one tractor with your acreage, I'd keep one of our N's.

As for the sweetcorn, an acre is a lot of ears, and waiting 'til the corn's in tassel is no time to start building a market. I moved a lot of corn for years in some very outside the box markets. An agreement with a camp ground for you to make a drive through on weekends can move lots of corn. Retirement or elderly housing will prove to be a very constant market if you're willing to park there for an hour or two and even better if you'll sell in smaller quantities.

If you're serious about trying this, don't just dive in until you know there's going to be water in the pool. Plan a market or storage strategy before you sink the first seed in the ground. Nothing's more sickening that getting that first crop to the point of harvest then having to let it rot, or mow it down because there's nowhere to go with it.

Good luck, and don't forget that your father in law is going to be watching how you put this opportunity to use. In the event you're thinking that this acre means little or nothing to him, consider the fact that this year saw $7.00 corn and a good acre can yield >200 bpa. It's a fair chunk of change he's offering to forego.

 

[gbs]

equip wise the way it was done around here not to many years ago when a small farmer could make a decent living, a super a ,100, 130,140 were the best all round tractors you could buy ,with the exception of using a disc or mold board behind them although they would work ok if used with common sense, these were high clearance one row tractors used mostly for row preparation,planting,fertilizer application,cultivation etc. being offset and having a variable range on the independent front and rear hyd. controls made it the best one tractor available at the time in this area, coarse it's not steep hilly country around here,most owned another small tractor to do the disking and plowing ,these were also used for other purposes only draw back cultivating one row at a time was ground clearance,for an acre as bad as i hate to say it a good cub would do fine,daddy in law use to brag on the cubs and flat head fords a lot i finally told the only reason they were so good was because they stood between a man and a mule he just laughed.

 

[jackinok]

many good suggestions here, but i will add a couple of success stories of VERY small farmers for you,that may give you some ideas.First theres a old gentleman here who grows sweet corn,even though this is really not considered corn country.He every year plants 5 or so acres of corn.He simply puts a sign out along one of the two major hyways leading into the south side of the city (so it gets a lot of traffic.) that says sweet corn for sale. He generally sells it by the bushel,fresh picked from the feild and he sells it generaly $1 above market price.He plants it a week or two apart so it doesnt mature all in one day.And all he does is have a notebook hanging on his mailbox so folks can leave their name,number, and how many bushels they want.When its ready he picks a few rows,calls the folks who signed up and they come get it.If they dont show up he simply calls the next ones on the list.He has done it for years ,always has good corn,thats fresh and its his primary income. last time i talked to him he said he always sold out.And of course he makes more money than simply taking it to market somewhere.His market is simply that you cant get field fresh corn here without growing it yourself.Another is a colored lady,who started literaly with nothing.She had lost her home,had four kids,and a mother that she was supporting,and that they had moved in with when her father died.The only thing she had was five acres that her father had bought over the years.When he died she went out back and dug a garden in by hand and planted among other things,okra.Not a big garden but enough to help feed her family.The first year she planted more okra than she could eat so she sold the excess,to a local resturant.The next year she planted the whole garden in okra and sold it all. Today she has a small tractor,farms the whole five acres and sells nothing but okra to nearly all the resturants. She averages picking 500 lbs a day,and says she could sell more.She has put 3 of her four kids through college,ones a doctor,and the last is starting,all on five acres of ground.The kids all show up before school or work to help her pick by hand whats ready that day,and she delivers it.
both of these are sort of a niche market type of affair but they have been succesful for a number of years.one thing you may try,is simply letting your uncle sell your crop with his.if he raises corn he already has a market somewhere.

 

[Anonymous-0]

I saved enough money to buy all my equipment with cash, old "junk" that gets the job done. The only reallly nice thing I bought was a professionally rebuilt 4 row narrow liguid fert. planter. My tractors were both under $5000, both diesels over 90 hp. I'm having it custom combined, I help haul though. I didn't want to bite off more than I could chew starting out, initially consider hiring your spraying also. Starting out KEEP IT SIMPLE! I arranged to rent 40 acres and from there it all fell together. I had to get a 25,000 operating line of credit, its expensive to grow corn. This has since opened up some more doors and I picked up some ground from a family friend that was interested in the fact that I had put myself into farming. I would recommend getting a 4020 sized tractor. They are big enough for corn/beans, but not too big for hay or utility use. You'll be able to find plenty of decent affordable 70's/80's era implements for that sized tractor as well. Also you could consider square baling, its a niche market and there is money in it. Once again keep it simple though.

 

[boxchevyman]

Hey all thanks for all of your great advice I will definitely take everything to heart and think about all of your suggestions. My father in law just owns 15 acres and most of that is wooded he doesn’t do anything with that one acre so I think he is happy just doing something with it. I’m not dead set on the 8n but it is cheap and I believe it will do what I want it too. My dad has a Farmall M that I sold him. I’m more of a Farmall guy but I think I would like the 8n albeit it’s a little smaller. My old man wants to keep that old M on his place so that’s the only reason I was getting a new tractor.

On a side note the guys that work off the farm and farm on their free time, do they make enough money to justify their time? For example if I farm 50 acres could I make 15 grand once a year and keep my day job? That’s what I would like to believe anyways.

Thanks to all!

James

 

[jackinok]

well lets put a pencil to it,say $7 corn at 150 bushels to the acre(to be a realistic crop)7x 150 on my calculator=$1050.00 an acre,probably have around $300 an acre into it and thats $750 an acre,so thats on 50 acres if they were all under cultivation thats a total of $37,500...deduct uncle sams third (that he will get somehow)and thats $25,000.A pretty good chunk of change for a part timer with land and time to spare,but way below poverty level for a full timer. And very basically thats the difference in making money on a farm,and making a living on a farm!!!its realitivly simple to make money ,its not so easy to make a living. So you simply make the farm supply what you need to live in goods,and use the leftovers to supply what you cant get from it.do without what you cant afford.

 

[dixon boy RL]

been that done that 2000acres at one time cattle hogs etc etc. let me tell you the grass is not always greener on the other side. pursue you dreams however thou,but like hayman said you hve to pursue what fit you. i would not start out on old ford n simply cause no live pto or hyds or 3pt on some. you have to have a market for what you produce no matter what. sweet corn is a very short term to get rid of and sell if you plant all at once,you know that right. organic crops seem to be a fad right now if you want that option. good luck what ever you try. It always looks easier on paper thou.

 

[johnald]

It is definately possible to make a living on a small acreage farm. The key is specialty crops of the highest quality and diversity. You would be suprised how much you can earn on one acre of diversified vegetables with hand tools, a walk behind tiller and something like a cub, a, 140. Go slow and do your homework. A lot depends on proximity of good markets, climate, soil type, etc. Eliot Colleman has some good books on small scale organic marktet farms. Also check out the rodale guide to vegetables. It's a little dated but the concepts are good. Like everyone else has said you need to be sure of what you expect your farming operation to be and produce. Good luck getting started.

 

[Dean Olson]

My Grandfather raised 10 kids on 80 acres 1st with horses and then an 8n Ford. My dad and uncles would run that tractor nonstop around the clock till the work was done. Dad still tells the story of the manifold running cherry red on a cold fall night.

I was raised on 5 acres of which 2 was garden that we canned/froze all we could and sold the rest. All with an 8N. Yes it will work fine.

I currently have about a 1/2 acre garden and use 2 Super C's with fast hitch and have collected most of the fast hitch implements. Also have a Farmall Super H, 350 and John Deere 50. I have had a 9N ford, 601 Ford, M Farmall. I much prefer the Farmalls to the Fords.

I'm one of the over equipped previously mentioned. This is a hobby for me that has been self sustaining if not profitable.