Farming

[TBItoy]

I figure there are plenty of people that farm on here.

Anyone started "from scratch" to build a farm?

I grew up on the farm, and dad has beef cattle over in Benton county (200 miles from me).

I'm starting to look toward the long term and have put some real consideration into cattle farming myself. Rather than build a house on my 10 acres, which at max I could expand to 35 if I could get the neighbors to sell (doubtful), I'd look to buy a decent size chunk of land and build our permanent home + small cattle operation.


I figure if I start now, I'll have a much better chance of enjoying the fruits of my labor.

 

[blacksheep10]

Price of land is the limiting factor, but pasture rents cheap here. Cattle just took a HUGE dive. Beef is easier to get into than row crop. You don't need a Planter, sprayer or combine. You can have 10 and get along just fine with very little more than a trailer and some imagination. That said I never want cattle. I like row crop. I literally don't visit the field in the winter. You have to visit your livestock near daily. I grew up on a dairy farm. That's probably the other reason I don't want to have cattle.

 

[Throttleout]

Not sure on your area or state but in ky you can get grants for fence and barn. There is stipulations up to 5k each you have to store hay in the barn a few other things the require but cant remember.

 

[5BrothersFabrication]

Grew up on a sweet potato farm, grew other stuff too. That was some back-breaking shite, cattle seems like a good idea in comparison.

 

[Hillbilly]

Cattle are cheaper at the moment like BlackSheep said, but some have been feeding hay to them since October. 2nd cutting was awful this year after no rain for months. Lots of new buyers at the sale barns hoping to snag cattle while their cheap, only to get home with them and find out what hay prices have done in the last few months.

 

[stepup]

I have yet to meet a farmer this day in age that started from scratch. All of them I know got it left to them by there family or had the land given to them. If they did start from scratch they were rich before they started. There are a few chicken farmers who started from scratch. I would say thay less than 50% make it with out the take back man showing up. Now doing it for enjoyment is a different story. I leased some land for about 5 years and had 25 head of cattle. I really did it for the enjoyment of it. If you figure the tax write offs I made money. If it had to stand on its own I broke even.

 

[Jcampbell54]

I grew up on a farm myself. Even went to college for it. I've looked in tons of different directions on how to make a living farming starting from scratch. There are a few grants and stuff out there. But the price of land and good equipment I could never overcome.


Sent from the mans IPhone.

 

[TBItoy]

Part of it has to do with justifying buying a piece of land. right now my wife and I make less than $100k/yr so I can't just drop $200-300k on property that won't generate any income.

 

[pholmann]

Grew up on a sweet potato farm, grew other stuff too. That was some back-breaking shite, cattle seems like a good idea in comparison.

Sweet potatoes don't get out in the middle of the night or while your at work and cause you to have to fix fence at the best moments possible. :****:

 

[ridered3]

Not sure on your area or state but in ky you can get grants for fence and barn. There is stipulations up to 5k each you have to store hay in the barn a few other things the require but cant remember.

Just for info sake, in Tennessee the Department of Agriculture has a program called the Tennessee Agriculutre Enhancement Program (TAEP): https://www.tn.gov/agriculture/topic/ag-farms-enhancement

They offer Cost Share Grants in everything from Genetics, to Equipment, to Hay Barns etc. really awesome program overall and the farmers seem to really like the assistance. However most of their Cost Share Grants are limited to established farmers.

Nick, if you wanted to talk with that Program about some cattle farmers in the Plateau area or any other types of farming, let me know and I'll pass along contact info.

 

[jeeptj99]

If you can cattle prices are down because of the drought this year. If you can find a way to feed them you can get in on them cheap right now. We looked at bringing more in but right now we are going through a round bake every 2-3 days.

 

[money_pit_yj]

The only way to make a small fortune farming is to start with a large one. Most folks I know that have smaller herds don't do it for the money. They do it for the love of farming. You won't get rich and may not even make enough to break even if you are starting from scratch. You could always rent it or cost share with an experienced farmer. Or find a niche market (sheep, meat goats, emus, alpacas :indianajonesTAEP is a good program. I will get you some information for "start ups". A lot of what you would qualify for is automatic waterers and other small stuff but it is good cost share stuff.

 

[TBItoy]

Just for info sake, in Tennessee the Department of Agriculture has a program called the Tennessee Agriculutre Enhancement Program (TAEP): https://www.tn.gov/agriculture/topic/ag-farms-enhancement

They offer Cost Share Grants in everything from Genetics, to Equipment, to Hay Barns etc. really awesome program overall and the farmers seem to really like the assistance. However most of their Cost Share Grants are limited to established farmers.

Nick, if you wanted to talk with that Program about some cattle farmers in the Plateau area or any other types of farming, let me know and I'll pass along contact info.

Thanks, I know a couple people around Cookeville I can talk to also. My current knowledge/experience of cattle is from dad, but the market is kinda different in west TN than the plateau. Dad is really more so a hay farmer now, has built up to nice new equipment and has enough land secured to really make a ton of hay, plus 2 huge hay barns. Dad has experience with the TAEP program also.

I really wouldn't be "starting from scratch" if I pull the trigger on beef cattle. I'd just be building a farm up assuming that I didn't buy a farm.

I really enjoy the discussion of others experiences in subjects I'm interested in.

I've been researching FSA loans and such too.

 

[smurfy90]

Nick. Just do like I did and go balls deep in a 1.3 million dollar loan and build some chicken houses. Ha. About 2 hours a day most days unless you have a mechanical failure. And have the rest of the day to work in the shop. And starting from scratch.. it all had to start somewhere.

 

[halcat]

Like they say nick, the only way to make a small fortune in farming is to start with a large fortune. I ran 80 momma cows for years but was building houses and could afford them and could also take off for doctoring and hay cutting when needed. I would sell about 30 to 40 k in calves a year, depending on prices, which gave me cash but did NOT cover expenses. I did own my 125 acre farm and I took such good care of my place that everybody around gave me hay ground for free just o keep there place up. When the housing market went down I sold cattle for income and quit building but stayed with pipeline work and now can't take off when needed. I'm fine without cattle anyway. They can be quite tine consuming. My .02.

 

[jp fan]

My wifes family has a small farm with cattle that I help with, there is 43 big 3 years or older cows here right now and it's a 500 lbs round bale and right at 4 bags of grain for them every night. We just sold 18 Sunday and the prices were way down but we knew that before hand, looking at selling more this week or next. They use the strip mine land for pasture here and grow corn and hay with this amount of cattle they have to buy hay and corn to keep them feed in the winter, this year will be worse because we have been feeding for months now and will till the end of march. There is a lot of headaches to this lifestyle and money up front to get the equiment that is needed to do the basic things plant,spray,pick corn all the hay work and even down to a farm tuck to depend on everyday, one of our biggest headaches lol hard to keep a feed truck going all winter. Good luck if you get into it

 

[paradisepwoffrd]

Re:

One of the local farmers here started with cattle. Now the cattle stay in 1-2 pastures and he does hay on the rest. Does large square bails on a flatbed and ships then out west. Says he makes way more money doing that, then beef cattle.

 

[wgamble]

I have started this very thing in late October only I went with goats. I have 50 acres of grown up pasture and some oaks. Without planting, I can run 50 nannies and it should average around 10k a year in kid crop sales. You get 3 sets of kids every 2 years and there are a ton of people who like to eat goat meat. The other great thing is I just run a hot wire fence and let them weed eat everything. I run a Great Pyrenese and 2 donkeys with them for security against predators and let them do their thing. Hands off as much as possible, I don't want them turning into feed bucket pets.

 

[grcthird]

My grandfather raised beefmasters on about 50 acres for probably 35 years. He mainly did it for the love of farming, he may have made some money here or there but didn't make a killing at it. The dang fence posts I have set in rock, and I mean rock, hard ground probably took years off my life. Stuff was always tore up, tractor, truck, trailer, fences, you name it, it was always something. I would think raising something that nobody local raises would bring in a little more money, farm up the street from my shop has texas longhorns something you don't see in Alabama too much, heck maybe even raising buffalo would bring in some good money. I always wanted to take their farm and high fence it for some exotic game. I miss their farm and the good times we had on it so maybe it would be a good family thing to do.

 

[crawler 129]

Unless your operation is big and family owned it is hard . I raise out Holstein steer groups currently have 75 head to sell in the spring . Last year they were bringing 2.60 lb . I sold a group last week and they were 88 cents at 500 lbs . I enjoy it but I have a good full job that pays the real bills . On my wife's parents farm they feed 35 rolls of hay per week in the winter . They must be doing good .lol