KrisB
Ten Pointer
Hey, everybody,
I'm back East visiting family for Thanksgiving (NC, MD, and FL), then I go back to the dairy goat farm I'm interning on in WA on Dec. 11th. I've been really enjoying my time out there and it's affirmed that I definitely want to farm to make a living, or at least part of a living. I've been getting experience with dairy goats, pasture-raised meat chickens, packing eggs, and selling raw goats' milk, goats' milk soap, eggs, and chicken meat at farmers' markets in Seattle (the farm is about an hour away from the city). Also earning a little money part-time doing a newspaper delivery route. I will probably be doing the farm interning there until sometime in the spring. Might leave earlier to go intern on some other farms to get some experience with other kinds of farming and skills (sheep, vegetable/produce, learn some carpentry skills, etc.). Also looking around at jobs to apply to so I can save up more money for my own farm.
Anyway, I'm hoping that after the internship(s), I can somehow get going with my own farm. People have said that it's very hard to get started farming nowadays, but one of the farmers at the farmers' market was very encouraging when I talked to him about it and he said "don't take 'no' for an answer; if it's what you really want, make it happen." Since land is so expensive in many areas, I've seen a couple alternative options to buying land: Being matched as a new farmer with an older farmer looking to retire from farming, but who wants to transfer his/her farm to someone who will continue farming the land. In many cases, it seems like farmers' kids don't want to farm, so passing the farm on to a non-relative is a growing trend. I know you can also lease land to farm and one farmer/sheep-shearer I talked to recently at a fiber festival in Oregon said he literally knocks on people's doors and asks if he can run sheep on their land. Some will let him do it for free and others' will ask for something in return (free eggs, chicken meat, something like that).
Anyway, I've seen people on here give good advice about buying a home or land, so I wanted to ask y'all: Does anyone have any advice they'd give to a new person who wants to start a farm? How would you get started? How would you find land or a farm? How would you fund getting or renting a farm? Any other advice?
I'm back East visiting family for Thanksgiving (NC, MD, and FL), then I go back to the dairy goat farm I'm interning on in WA on Dec. 11th. I've been really enjoying my time out there and it's affirmed that I definitely want to farm to make a living, or at least part of a living. I've been getting experience with dairy goats, pasture-raised meat chickens, packing eggs, and selling raw goats' milk, goats' milk soap, eggs, and chicken meat at farmers' markets in Seattle (the farm is about an hour away from the city). Also earning a little money part-time doing a newspaper delivery route. I will probably be doing the farm interning there until sometime in the spring. Might leave earlier to go intern on some other farms to get some experience with other kinds of farming and skills (sheep, vegetable/produce, learn some carpentry skills, etc.). Also looking around at jobs to apply to so I can save up more money for my own farm.
Anyway, I'm hoping that after the internship(s), I can somehow get going with my own farm. People have said that it's very hard to get started farming nowadays, but one of the farmers at the farmers' market was very encouraging when I talked to him about it and he said "don't take 'no' for an answer; if it's what you really want, make it happen." Since land is so expensive in many areas, I've seen a couple alternative options to buying land: Being matched as a new farmer with an older farmer looking to retire from farming, but who wants to transfer his/her farm to someone who will continue farming the land. In many cases, it seems like farmers' kids don't want to farm, so passing the farm on to a non-relative is a growing trend. I know you can also lease land to farm and one farmer/sheep-shearer I talked to recently at a fiber festival in Oregon said he literally knocks on people's doors and asks if he can run sheep on their land. Some will let him do it for free and others' will ask for something in return (free eggs, chicken meat, something like that).
Anyway, I've seen people on here give good advice about buying a home or land, so I wanted to ask y'all: Does anyone have any advice they'd give to a new person who wants to start a farm? How would you get started? How would you find land or a farm? How would you fund getting or renting a farm? Any other advice?
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