i want to figure out how to make money from the land

[bj taylor]

I haven't worked outside the home since my son died ten years ago. after a decade of grief, I'm crawling out from under, but those years of grief have taken a big toll on my health & endurance. our income is very finite & not expected to bloom anytime soon. we do, however, have land. I'm tired of being broke & want to figure out how to make this land work for me & bring in some income. I can't seem to get a handle on cost of feed, cost of fencing, cost of buying a breeding pair (of anything) & how much to charge. I can't figure out how much to charge for eggs, chickens, goats, pigs, cattle - the whole thing is a cloud of mystery for me. I don't want to labor & spend a bunch of money on feed & get little to no return. the one resource I seem to have is land (& much of it is not properly fenced). predators are a concern. coyotes press hard here. their food supply is short & they scavenge hard.
anyone know of books to read, or a direction to look to begin to make the land work for me instead of me work for it?

 

[baymule]

I love to read the Acres magazine, I usually buy it at Tractor Supply. They have several good magazines that deal with small landowners like Hobby Farm or several others. Also a good place to buy books on sheep, goats and cows.

Out of all the animals you listed, which is your favorite? How much land do you have? Is water easily accessible? Do you have good grass? What is in demand in your area? Are you close to a large town where people are willing to pay a premium for farm raised fresh produce and meat?

Are there hunting clubs that would buy quail or other game birds? Is there a "back to the land" movement in your area whereby you could provide chicks, gardening plants, goats, etc.? Can you crochet or do other hand items? Texas has a cottage baking law that makes it legal to sell home baked foods. How are you at baking breads, pies or cakes?

 

[thistlebloom]

I don't have any useful advice for you BJ, I just want to say I'm glad you spend time with us here.

 

[897tgigvib]

I'm real sorry to hear you lost a son
BJ.

I would say, let yourself be in a thinking about what to use your land for stage, and yes, find some good books.

I'd seen some in seed catalogs such as Baker Creek and Bountiful Gardens. In fact, Bountiful Gardens seems to have a great selection of books, also of their own publications.

The reading, the thinking, and then initial generalized preparations, clearing things out, assesments of pros and cons, what you can do, maybe what others in your area have done.

 

[canesisters]

BJ

I'm so glad to hear that you are feeling ready to turn this corner.
I'm also looking for ways to make my land 'earn it's keep'. Since I have yet to do any better than make enough for eggs to pay for about half of the feed, I don't know if any of this will be helpful, but here goes.
Start small and find things that you enjoy. Even if goat meat brings a premium in your area, if you can't stand the little buggers it's not worth the effort to raise them. If keeping chickens makes you happy, it might be worth it to you to simply not have to buy eggs for your own use.
If there is a lot of land and fencing is a problem, maybe you could look into leasing it out for growing hay, or some other crop. The income from that might be enough to boost you into being able to go in other directions later.
How popular are yard/craft sales in your area? How about things like Avon, PartyLite, 31 bags, etc? Not a 'land use' thing but still a possibility for extra income.

 

[journey11]

I'm sorry for your loss, BJ. I can't imagine what you've been through.

I would say to look first at what you have a passion for, because you're more likely to succeed if it's with something you love. Secondly, look for a market niche that it will fill (whether locally or online.) How much risk you are able to take financially will narrow it down a lot too. Are you looking for just a little income on the side or to make a business of it?

Something I've thought of doing for a little extra money here is growing seasonal flowers to supply the local florists.

Another thought would be leasing the land to another farmer (let them do all the work ), perhaps for cutting hay or running cattle, something like that. For animals, you would have to fence, for hay you wouldn't!

ETA: Cane, our brains are going in the same direction this morning, lol.

 

[lesa]

So sorry to hear about your loss... There are all kinds of things you can do to make money with land and farming. All of the above advice is excellent. I think the most important thing to remember is to keep your expectations reasonable. Small scale farming usually doesn't lead to riches. But, you could surely find yourself more self-sufficient. Do you have a library near you? There are tons of great books you could read to get some ideas. When I think about my "someday farm" I imagine no one thing is going to make me money- I imagine doing all kinds of things, depending on the season to make a little money. Maybe a corn maze and pumpkins for fall, raising pigs, gardening, etc. Do you have a cooperative extension nearby? Ours is conducting a seminar on small scale farming. Good luck to you!

 

[Nyboy]

I am so sorry about your son. What about plant sales? A friend was having a yard sale, she dug up some seedling in her yard from a red maple and sold them all. Hosta,bleeding heart,daylilies all divide and transplant well. You can have your own sale at homeor go to a flea market.

 

[Nyboy]

This spring a friend and I met a guy selling rooted fig cuttings from craigs list. He was the nicest man, showed us his garden. We left with 2 trees each at $10 a tree.

 

[Ridgerunner]

That’s hard BJ. Our kids are supposed to bury us, we’re not supposed to bury them. When my sister died, the preacher at her church wanted to perform the service. He had just lost his son. That was a powerful service and he was a comfort to Mom because he really knew how she felt.

I’ll put a bit of a twist on this just to help you think of possibly another direction. I don’t know what your commitment or personality is like. When our minister retired, he moved back home to New Mexico and bought 100 acres of scrubland for horses, which are his passion. His thought was to grow lavender as a crop so he could take advantage of tax laws as a “farm”. After doing some research, the way you make money with lavender is you make soaps, perfumes, and such products with it and sell them from a shop on your farm. Also have a tourand let them see how you grow and process lavender. You don’t make money from lavender or the products. You make money on the concessions, selling food and drinks to the tourists. He never did grow lavender. That wasn’t his passion, horses are.

I don’t know what to tell you. Whatever it is, you need to enjoy it enough so you can keep it up. Maybe chat with VFEM or Nachoqtpie who is working with VFEM. She’s got a cottage empire teaching classes and selling all kinds of homemade stuff. You might try picking her brain for ideas.