how many acres do you farm and still work a full time job

[Brian806]

How many acres do you farm and still work a full-time job and what do you grow? Just curious! My idea is to try to grow a variety crops and round up enough acres to someday quit my job! My idea is I need to grow enough different crops that will make a profit of course to keep my equipment moving as much I can! Tractor sithing around isn't making any money! Do you think I'm thinking in the right direction or am I dreaming?

 

[rrlund]

I think if you want to make a living off a limited number of acres,you're gonna have to get in to some livestock enterprise. You can make a living from fewer acres if you put everything you grow through livestock.

 

[vscummins]

Have to have a full time job to afford to pay to play in the dirt .don't have enough acres to get a government payout

 

[Nick m]

We do about 70 acres now and my wife and I both work full time. 40 acres is hay, the rest we rotate corn, soys and wheat. Did real good for a few years, just like everyone else. Every dime we made, we put right back into it. Have been at it for 8 years now. Have a decent older line of equipment. Don't have any grain harvest equipment or a sprayer. Still hire our corn planting and rent a no till drill. Unless a guy has a bunch of paid for land or some really cheap rent, I wouldn't count on quitting your job. I treat it as a hobby that pays for itself and it feeds my tractor addiction.

 

[Brian806]

Well someday I would like to have a beef herd but the way things are it would take a chunk of change to go into the beef bussiness right now!

 

[Dave H (MI)]

I don't know how to say this without it sounding bad. Not meaning to offend anyone. But asking how many acres you farm is like asking how much money you have in the bank. I just won't answer that question. Some people refuse to be put off and will keep pushing. If "a lot" or "more than you think" doesn't work usually "that's private" does.

Doesn't make me popular though.

 

[newhollandnut]

We farm about 900 acres and have about 70 registered angus cows. Not very easy some times but luckily there are 3 of us in it together. Wife doesn't like it sometimes but she knew what she was getting into. Just save all my vacation for spring and fall so we can plant and shell. Got a little more than 100 acres of hay. Just try to cut on Thursday or Friday night and bale on Saturday or Sunday

 

[Richard L]

I think you only looked at half of the question. Also you kinda sound like me when the politicians call asking about any up coming election and how I am leaning. I politely tell them this is one reason I love this country, it is a SECRET BALLOT, and you can have a 50/50 chance of figuring out which way I voted after the election results are in.

 

[Dave H (MI)]

Yes, you're right. I only looked at half the question. Just don't know how to answer any of it without getting to what he really wants to know and that is about the acres. Just no way to answer a question like that without compromising my private business I guess.

 

[VADAVE]

The only way to know what you can handle AND work a full time job is start doing it and increase the acreage till you can't keep up.
I started with 20 increase to 30 then 50 and when I tried one crop on 50 it was just too much but remember that is MY experience. I live in Washington DC and commuted 120 miles when I started, I was renting ground and finally found a place I wanted to buy. I bought a 100 acre place with 40 acres of trees and have been able to keep up with row crops. Livestock is a different proposition--you have to be close and handle them every day! With row crops size of the equipment will also make a difference.
Think what you're doing.

 

[rrlund]

Why the secrecy Dave? Somebody in the basement of the Whitehouse reading this? LOL

 

[Spook]

(quoted from post at 15:23:14 04/26/15) Why the secrecy Dave? Somebody in the basement of the Whitehouse reading this? LOL

All joking aside, I know several guys who would be more likely to tell you how big their dxxx is, than tell you how many acres they farm. Same guys hate the online database on government payments !

 

[Tim(nj)]

It also depends on the land and location of it. For example 250 acres of land in eastern Colorado isn't going to produce the same as 250 acres of land in Lancaster, Pennsylvania.

 

[gtractorfan]

Lot of variables like what kind of equipment, what kind of crops? I helped a guy farm that worked full time in a factory. If you have friends you can lean on and dependable you can get a lot done nowadays. Hire someone to spray etc. I think 1000 acres is possible if you have seasonal help along with a helpful wife, the guy I helped was around 600, he used his vacation time when the farm needed him.

 

[Traditional Farmer]

You don't even have to be in the White House these days to know everyone's business,my wife worked for a collection agency she could find out just about any and every thing about a person.

 

[bison]

1800 acres and aprox 250 bison.
I have 300 days vacation a year.
If you want to start in livestock and keep your full time job.. bison is the way to go, they don't need your help, as long as they have feed water and minerals they are perfectly capable to look after themselves year round.

I have a neighbor i helped start in bison 4 years ago and the lazy bugger now spends the 6 months of winter in Arizona for the last 3 years.
The bison are on their own all winter long
It is IMO a little extreme but it seems to work for him.

 

[rrlund]

We used to just have party line phones and women going to the beauty parlor. News seemed to spread pretty quick. Whether it was right or not,now that's another question. lol

 

[CenTex Farmall]

Half the equation is marketing. If you sell food to consumers vs. commodities to ADM.

Imagine a full five acre garden and a nearby farmers market to move the stuff. That would be a full time job in itself (half the year anyway)

 

[NEKS]

I never heard of a suitcase farmer till I went to work out of high school. They were guys that had a farm and planted it all to wheat. Take vacation time and work ground and planted it in the fall, then take another vacation and harvest it in the summer. I always run cattle on 300 acres and put up my own hay. Unfertilized you could put a cow and calf on 5 acres. Fertilized you could put a pair on 3 acres. Until it forget to rain some years.

 

[Royse]

"Why the secrecy Dave? Somebody in the basement of the Whitehouse reading this? LOL"

I wondered that too. I don't farm, so I don't understand the secrecy.
I have an acquaintance who "farms" for "patients".
He doesn't have many acres, but he seems to get by Ok.
He keeps it pretty secret too. LOL

 

[David G]

It depends on the crop, hay takes a lot more time away from work.

 

[IaGary]

Back in 84 I started a full time job along with raising 800 hd of hogs per year farrow to finish. Dad and I had 80 cows on shares that I baled all the hay for and fed the calves everyday. Dad went south for the winter. The hogs went bye bye in 1997.

Between dad and I we had 500 acres of row crop as well. Dad did some planting and ran the combine some. I did the rest. Dad also had an electrical business on the side. I did take most of May and October off for farming. No pay during time off or paid vacations from the job. Some weeks I would only got 35 hours in at the job but most were 40 hour weeks. In 2000 dad died and I rented his farm from mom. I had enough that I could farm full time then. I went back to go help at the weld shop winter and summer to help out the old boss back in 2007. I also have more acres now than in 2000.

Cows left in 2011 when I got more acres and wanted to travel some. I had no permanent pasture and all pasture was rotated with corn and beans and is now continuous corn and beans.

The farm would carry itself in the 80's but there was nothing left to put food on the table for my wife and 4 kids.

Good thing I was young then cause I sure could not do it now.

 

[BigMarv1085]

In 1982 -1984 I farmed 2000 acres of rented land, had a stieger cougar and a allis 210, had a neighbor custom combine and sold to a neighboring hog farm.I had one field down by the river that I never saw in the daylight.
My mom and dad helped by moving the seed truck and tractors from field to field, would never even attempt it again though

 

[rrlund]

LOL Got a bunch of those around here too. They seem to have a whole bunch more walking around money that I have,just from the crop they grow under the lights in the basement.

 

[Wyokid]

Farmed 960 acres when working full time at the local VA hospital. Lots of long nights and long weekends. the farming was my "mental health" time, no phones, no stupid questions, just me and the border collie in the cab and the stereo cranked up rockin out. Retired 4 years ago from the hospital so just farmin now, same acreage but would do more if some came up. Did this for 13 years, now 69 yo.

 

[Dave H (MI)]

I'm not even sure why I chimed in on it to be honest. I just don't discuss personal business on the internet or anywhere else. I've been in business for 26 years and you just don't chat around the details of how you make your living. Too many people want to take it away from you. Ya know there are a reason they have those old sayings like "loose lips sink ships"! LOL

 

[LAA]

Cattle, plus sheep or goats if you have good fences and can control dogs and other predators, grow your own feed and forage, heavy on the forage. Many people will say it costs too much to get in the cattle business, that may be true if you want to start off as a purebred breeder but starting and expanding a commercial herd is doable in any market by simply following the way it was done for the first couple hundred years of the cattle business in the USA. A good purebred bull of the breed of your choice carrying the EPD's you want in your herd will turn out heifer calves replacements that are approximately 75% better than their dams in the first cross. You can do this with any group of cull and mixed up cows. Buy the cheapest, poorest cows at the sale barn, longhorns, cracker cows, milked out jersey and holsteins, broke mouth and no mouth cows if heavy bred, it does not matter as long as they are basically healthy enough to worm and get back in condition. As long as you have plenty of grass, cheap silage and or hay you can get the cattle back in condition, get a calf or two out of them and because they gain weight and condition you will most of the time sell them after one or two calves for more than you paid for them. In my experience Charolais bulls clean up a calf crop better than any other breed, they take the spots off of cracker, longhorn and holstein crosses and the ear and leather off of Brahma crosses. Having some longhorn and or cracker blood in momma cows makes them tougher, more feed efficient, less susceptible to parasites and more aggressive towards dogs and coyotes.