Small acreage profitability?

Here at home I have about 3-4 acres of grass/alfalfa mix and about 1 acre of grass. Seems kinda silly to keep spending time and money to mow it.

I have a '41 9N, a JD single bottom steel wheel hand trip plow, a 3 pt. bush hog and a sickle bar mower. I have a pole barn but no power or water to it. It's located adjacent to the 1 acre-ish of grass; wouldn't take much to make a barn/pasture setup out of that area.

Aside from doing hay as a kid, I have no great knowledge of crops or animals. I certainly don't mind learning though. If I had limitless cash flow, I'd buy the local truck stop that's for sale, buy the local butcher shop that closed up, buy land & equipment, raise everything I'd need to supply the truck stop. I'm no genius but seems to me like controlling your inputs and increasing your outputs should contribute to economic stability and (hopefully) growth.

But I digress, got a little excited there, now back to my original question: Do I plow it up and plant something else? Turn a couple animals out on it? Invest in a rake and baler and harvest what's already growing? Anyone else have some ideas? Last year I found an article about a farmer out in ME or PA that was growing catnip? I'm in south central MI though; I don't know of a demand for catnip around here.

I appreciate the time you spend to share your knowledge and contribute your ideas.

Thank you,

Anthony

Look up Joel Salatin. He's one of the major voices for small farms. He's got several books, the best for someone like yourself would probly be "You Can Farm". Lots of good information for someone in your exact position.

Ben

Hay is some work and takes some timing (you cut & bale it when it is ready, not whenever you get around to it....) but seems to be the crop you have, with a building to store it in and sell when prices are higher in winter. Might be a nice deal for you. Not get rich and retire, but you understand that. Can start baling what you have, switch out to alfalfa or some mix of better hay as you go....

Corn or soybeans or wheat needs a lot more machinery and drying and storage for such a small acreage, and despite the crazy prices of the past 2 years is a commodity business where volume is needed to pay.

Specialty crops like catnip or such have their own challenges, you need to research if you are willing to do the extra work most of those need; but can pay off very very well for you. If it were easy everyone would be growing these, so you need to dedicate yourself to a lot of work or risk to make these difficult, small-market crops grow. But the payoff is big if you are willing to do so, your best shot by far of making real money on small acres!

Livestock - I'm not excited about 5 acres worth of livestock. Be a hobby, get yourself a beef in the freezer, but takes 2 years before you see any return on a lot of work, need attention every day you get tied down.... Great if you want lifestock, but not a big money maker for the 365 day investment.

Horse boarding can pay well if you want critters, but the people you deal with will be a lot more trouble than the critters themselves, you'd need people skills at least as good as Dave2, and deal with the liability and such.

--->Paul

If there's a demand for fresh veggies & fruit in your area You could plant a truck garden. Have sweet corn, plant strawberries, here in MD they have patches of strawberries and you pick your own and they charge by the pound. The patch where we pick has Chandler strawberries. You would need to find what varieties are grown in MI. One of my former co-worker's does this and he has a machine for making raised beds and laying down plastic in one operation. They have very few weeds and don't cultivate. Hal

Truck crops. The Amish around me make far, far more off strawberries and vegetables than off milk, meat or hay. An acre or more of strawberries might well bring you $4-5K a year done right, or so it appears if what they tell me is true. Asparagus, broccoli, sweet corn, peas, those are staples that add to the income. Soft fruit like raspberries, gooseberries, blackberries, currants, elderberries, etc would be real money makers. The problem with all of these is labor. It's all labor intensive, but you get a great return. Another option is to include a greenhouse and sell bedding plants and seedlings.

The options for a guy with a little land are there. "Smallholders" the Brits call them, a good term IMO. Hay isn't going to make you any money considering the costs involved.

We are one of the smaller operations around here that will bale 3-4 acres on share crop hay. There is a market for that hay. I believe you can make more on hay than corn most years.

Define "profitable". Do you mean just more money coming in than going out, or do you mean something that you can call "making a living"?

You might find a niche market crop that'll turn a reasonable profit on that small of an acreage, but for the most part, farming in this day and age favors economy of scale larger operations, even with niche market specialties. Big guys can make pennies per acre and farm 1000's of acres and still make a living. In order to make a decent profit, you need to make 1000's of dollars per acre. Get in line...There's a bunch of people who want that, and the pickin's are slim.

Personally, If I was in your position, I'd lease garden spots and let someone else do the hard work for little return. A friend does just that with a 10 acre tract he owns. He lays off the plots, leases them for various prices determined by size, keeps the place clean and mowed, and has a positive cash flow with little chance of loss. He even sells garden tools and rents out his tiller. A local plant/seed vendor sets up on his property in the spring (paying a slight charge) His biggest expense is liability insurance.

Livestock of some kind, maybe sheep or goats if there is a local ethnic market or sale barn and if the dogs and coyotes are not too bad in your area, a few stocker calves might work better. Two reasons, equpment and inputs, very little for a few calves or lambs, surprising amount for even a small crop operation, if you harvest hay or plant and harvest a crop you are selling your lands fertility in every bale or bushel, that fertility has to be replaced, commercial fertilizer is expensive, for obvious reasons, less of your fertility leaves the farm when you are grazing and feeding livestock. My Dad used to say that you may love doing something but if it is real work and you don't make any money at it you won't love it for long.

Check out Practical farmers.org it has very good "farminairs" webinar achive to help get our younger generation started in farming. maybe you will find something that would work for you? growing is the easy part, selling and turning a profit takes some work.
good luck

Like others have said a few calves or sheep will keep the land mowed for you. Either buy young stock every spring and sell them with their weight gain in the fall or winter them and buy all your hay and feed. It is not economical to have machinery around to hay a few acres. You can justify it by calling it a hobby, but if you want to make money the rust, rot, and depreciation that comes with iron and rubber must go!

I'm not sure where you live but produce can be profitable on a few acres but it is very labor intensive. My family has grown strawberries, staked tomatoes, etc.
If you are along a busy road the odds of making money are a lot better by cutting out the middle man.
This is hard work and you will get tired of it.

what about growing ginsing?

Try several "theoretical budgets" where you estimate the entry costs, operating expenses and possible income. That may point you in a direction that you can live with.

Growing calves, sheep or goats will require an expenditure for fence and water before you acquire the first animal.

Finding someone that will "share crop" hay will be your lowest start-up cost, but will require some work on your part to handle the hay. Might be a way to study what final operation you want to venture into. Will hay require an application of fertilizer on your land?

Start-up costs for equipment can be expensive even if you can buy used equipment cheap and repair it yourself.

Many things to consider, but putting numbers into a plan might show you the way.

I know of a couple people that custom raise stuff for local restaurants. The do make a decent profit but you need to be a farmer and a salesman. Goats, as mentioned before are a niche item but can make you some money. A friend does grass fed beef. Buys lots of hay and I don't like the meat but man do.

Neighbor raises 6 cows, just a hoppy. Instead of allowing his cows to graise, he hired someone to bale about 5 acres. He said when it was all said and done, it cost him more per bale than if he had went out and bought hay.

Doing... trying to do that now, no big deal here, like Jersey 'the garden state'- most of Mass was/still is mainly small, mainly veg farms, truck farm is the handle from the 20's up I guess.
But, like you, supplying... not all year, just in season a family takeaway. But it really can't be 100%.... we need pigs with a 20 foot ribcage and chickens with 35 wings and 50 legs.. now- just telling your miserable customers 'if you don't believe it is fresh and local grown, go down the road and look at the place it comes from!' Word spreads from there.
As others have mentioned, labor is the whole thing in a nutshell. You can't ride tractors, pull weeds, pick what's ripe, and cook and run the cash register all at once. And in the middle of winter when money's tight and paychecks go into heat... you are luck to need a cash register to tend to.
A truck stop, you couldn't grow or home butcher enough meat to supply it, but like I say, to show people 'some of the ingredients' is in house, is good enough press to attract by word of mouth.
French fries? @#$% !!! I - no one- can grow a potato cheaper than you can buy a 50 lb bag.
Greens, spinach, onion/scallions, lettuce, romaine etc, epecially tomatoes and peppers, yeah, with enough time in the sun baked field, you can honestly say 'grown fresh especially for this place'- and save a buck... well... pennies... if you know a breed of non radioactive pig with 200 ribs per carcass, please let me know....

A man can work about an acre by himself (no animal or mechanical power) But i suppose if you had several crops to spread your work out you might be able to do the 4 acres. A round point shovel will work ground. A scythe will cut hay, a sickle will cut grain and a flail will thresh it. Corn can be picked by hand. Call me an idiot but it WOULD work.

mabe a large garden sell it at farmers market takes work just an idea

You could raise a lot of Alpacas or Paco-Vicuna on that much pasture. You should check into them.

If it were me I would grow Sweet corn, tomatoes, green beans, basic road side vegetable stand items. And.....You can eat it also. You arent going to make much money off of 4 acres.

With only 5 acres your losses will be self-limiting.

Forget livestock on 5 acres. In this area 5 acres will support ONE horse or two calves. Top quality horse hay in square bales will create a little income. In a good climate with fertile soil hay should make 100 bales an acre.

Five acres of truck farm is a LOT of work. Google Henry's Farm for some one who is trying sustainable farming on 10 acres in IL. He and his family work long hard hours and truck produce to the Chicage area to sell,

Pick your own strawberries, blue berries, or blackberries might work. Neighbor with strawberries it think ing of quitting because of lack of customers, after a few years of having a petty good market. There's no free ride in any of it.

KEH

personaly, i would suggest a couple of calves. NOT for sale,but to put in your own freezer. heres the thing,in an auction a calf will bring you roughly $1.40 a pound. in your freezer its worth up to $9.00 a pound just like you pay at the grocery store. small farms ARE profitable "IF" they feed you first,then use the excess that you cant use for profit or cash items.ANYTHING you raise should be what you and your family eat,anything else you raise will simply cost you because your taking what other folks want trading it for cash and spending that for what you use.simply put, use YOUR effort, to feed YOUR family first and ANYTHING your raise is a direct profit to YOU! no need to hold calves over the winter,so you dont need hay. just make sure you take them to the butcher in time for your grass is in good enough shape to make the winter.a few cross fences will allow you to keep calves longer and growing in the shorter time while maximizing your grass.water is easily hauled and a plastic stock tank is cheap. as isay my opinion,traditional small farms have made it here simply because we used the farm to feed ourselves first.

MeAnthony,
My neighbor with 6 cows likes to put out a garden too. He has to put an electric fence around his garden, 4 rows of electric fence. The coon and critters will eat his sweet corn before it's ready. Rabbits like to eat the greens. Forgot about the deer. So if you are thinking of gardening in the country, plant a lot to feed all the critters.
George