Learning Curves - Part 1
July 12th, 2007 by Jim VIn the last few weeks, a friend has decided that he would like to buy a farm and he has found a 220 acre farm in our area that is for sale. Rather than place his retirement money into the stock market, where the money can evaporate in a moment or be used for immoral purposes, he has decided to invest in a farm. He has a vision for passing the farm onto his children and for developing family businesses. He has 4 teenage boys and the second oldest son has expressed interest in farming. This second oldest boy has no experience working on a farm. This friend has no farming background, other than a few summers helping on a relative’s farm when he was young. He is good at thinking “outside the box†and does not want to farm in the big ag, conventional manner. Instead he wants to market directly to consumers and has talked about farming organically. We have talked about the learning curve that he and his boys will need to go through. He currently works in the computer field and is trying to buy the farm with as little debt as possible so that he doesn’t need income from the farm to pay a mortgage. It has been very interesting watching him work through all the issues that need to be addressed. He has talked about gathering a number of advisors to help him get the farm enterprises started and has already brought a number of people out to the farm to assess its condition. I spent an evening walking the farm, trying to provide him information on the how the land could be utilized. Most of the land is rolling hills that are primarily suited to pasture, but some of the land is tillable. Because of the rolling nature of the land none of the big ag crop farmers in our area seem interested in it. I talked with my son, Nathan, to get an idea of the return he could expect from various farm enterprises. Nathan gave me the return on investment (ROI) numbers for a number of farm enterprises and I passed these numbers on to my friend. This friend has also had someone look at the timber on the property and he had another man assess the condition of the house – which needs a LOT of work. So far I have been impressed with my friend’s willingness to seek input from other people and with his willingness to admit that he has much to learn. He and his boys have started doing some reading and this will help them prepare for this whole adventure. This farm was previously owned buy an animal loving, single woman. She had rabbits, goats, and horses, crammed into the every available building. She even had rabbits in the basement of the house. The pastures were overgrazed by horses, resulting in huge patches of weeds and thistles. The out buildings and house were not maintained. This will be quite an adventure for this family and a huge amount of work, but I think they will be successful.
Jim V
July 13th, 2007 at 5:46 am
I am so impressed with how your friend is willing to bring in different opinions and ask questions. We all know if he marched right in and dropped a big check just after “hello” he’d be doomed. He’s off to the right start. What does his wife think?
July 13th, 2007 at 9:03 am
Jim, I’d be interested in those ROI numbers you mentioned. Is that something you can share on this blog?
Thanks for all of the insights and encouragements you’ve been sharing. I too would like to take the plunge and go from computers to farming. Is there something about computer programming that makes people want to farm?
Matt
July 13th, 2007 at 9:16 am
Brian H,
His wife grew up on a farm and does not want to do farm work anymore. She grew up on a conventional big ag farm, so I suspect that her view may be clouded by this experience. She is also experiencing some life threatening health problems. Both she and her husband enjoy renovating old houses, so my guess is that she is up for this part of the adventure.
Matt G,
My off-farm job is in computers as well. Farm work is therapy compared to work on computers. Computer work involves too much sitting and too much work with the mind. The ROI numbers are actually from Polyface. These numbers are as follows:
ROI on beef cows - around 12%
ROI on meat chickens (broilers) - 30-35%
ROI on pigs - 28%
Polyface farm nets $50,000 on 30 acres, raising 15,000 broilers. The chickens are a lot of work - I have helped with chicken chores. My son said that they had figured out that someone should be able to net $20,000 per year milking 10 cows and selling the milk directly to consumers at $6 per gallon.
Jim V
July 13th, 2007 at 9:42 am
Thanks Jim! Is there any ROI info on eggs, as opposed to broilers?
July 13th, 2007 at 1:33 pm
Matt G,
I will work on getting ROI numbers for laying hens/eggs. I’ll need to try to talk with my son.
Jim V
July 13th, 2007 at 2:31 pm
Thanks a lot, Jim! No rush.
July 15th, 2007 at 9:04 am
The Aspiring Agrarian is also a computer guy (programming & misc. database admin). Most of the folks at church are also agrarian minded, and understand what is going on with me. But other than a handful, most people at work and other places do (or would, if they knew) consider me a nutcase.
It sounds like your friend is getting firsthand help from those who know farming. If he wants any thoughts from someone who went cold-turkey from big city life (Denver) to farming (rural Missouri) in one fell swoop, he might email my friend at the Bechard Farm who made that journey just over 7 years ago. He and his wife had 3 teenaged sons, plus 2 younger sons and 2 daughters at that point. Their home needed “a lot of work” also.
JFC
July 15th, 2007 at 10:25 pm
I am also a computer programmer, and I completely agree that working the land is therapy — of all kinds. Normally I sit here all day at the computer biting my fingers in between keystrokes, but when I’m outside feeding the animals or tending the garden my nerves disappear and I sometimes even find myself praying, which is near impossible while concentrating on a computer problem.
July 16th, 2007 at 5:47 am
“His wife grew up on a farm and does not want to do farm work anymore. She grew up on a conventional big ag farm, so I suspect that her view may be clouded by this experience.”–
Well Jim, my wife grew up on a small 35 cow 1/4 section dairy farm and won’t do farm work anymore either. She still has nightmares of tractor driving and bales tipping. I can’t even get her to drive a tractor anymore. When we pick up hay, the trailer has to be hooked up to the pickup truck or she won’t drive it around the field. I think it might be a mean brother thing rather than a big ag thing (at least here).
Now, she does have one of the prettiest gardens you ever saw and freezes and cans off it all summer. Come December, tasting those beans makes up for her lack of help.
We’ve got an old farmhouse too we’ve been working on over the last three years. Finally got the rough plumbing and wiring finished. Time consuming, but glad we did it. When we were tearing out the old stuff we came across a number of “electrical tape” junction boxes that hooked the 1970’s wire to the 1940’s wire. I don’t think thats in code anymore…..
Take care,
Brad
July 17th, 2007 at 9:08 am
Matt G,
My son thinks that the ROI on laying hens/eggs is about 18%.
JFC,
I will definitely pass on the information about your friend. People probably think I am a nutcase as well. I have people at church ask me why I go to all the work that I do. I tend to respond that it is a training ground for my kids. They seem to understand this reponse more than anything.
J Henry,
I can relate to the nerves thing. I am sure my one leg is bouncing most of the day while I am working on computers.
Brad,
I figure that our wives should be primarily taking care of the home, rather than out doing the heavy farm work. I wonder if sometimes we don’t expect things of them that they were not designed for.
My house was built in the 60’s and I find strange things - like leaks in pipes being taken care of with electrical tape and an old sock. I imagine an older house can have lots of interesting quirks.
Jim V
July 20th, 2007 at 10:10 pm
I just dropped in to say “HI”!
Lori
July 22nd, 2007 at 12:29 pm
Lori,
Thank for dropping by. Things have been busy around here, so I have not checked the blog for a couple of days. I had hoped to do another post in the last couple of days, but was never able to find time.
Jim V
July 24th, 2007 at 9:20 am
Lots and lots of computer guys here. It’s good to know I’m not alone.
Thanks, Jim, for the ROI information. Every little bit helps.
Matt
August 30th, 2007 at 1:29 pm
I just stumbled onto this website and I really love your writing! I’m going to read the other posts. I’m an avid food lover, not a farmer but I really appreciate you sharing all of this information.