Hobby Farmers

3020G · Dec 31, 2018

How many of us on here are “hobby farmers”? I always wanted to be a “farmer” but after having a family and realizing it’s awfully hard to start farming from nothing I narrowed my dreams to something more realistic. Plus I find that the things you enjoy the most are not as fun if that’s what you do all the time. If you are a hobby farmer how much do you have? Do you want to get bigger? And what do you farm with? Also any pictures are an added bonus!

2019 will be my first year to plant my own crop. I have about 20 acres unless I pickup more. My end goal is to end up somewhere between 100 and 150 acres. But sometimes I think something more like 80 would be alright too. Currently I borrow my grandpa’s 4020 and 4230 JD until I can afford my own tractors but I do have a 6 row 30” John Deere 694AN Planter and a John Deere 4400 has combine that’s mine. Hoping to purchase an Oliver 1800C,1750, or 1850.

Hope to hear from others!

Charlie M · Dec 31, 2018

Been doing it since the mid 80's.Was up to 30 acres with most of it rented from the neighbor. We did about 2000 bales of hay each which paid the costs, a few acres of corn to feed my animals and lots of 40's
and 50's machinery which included my H, M, 300U and later tractors like an F14 and an A became part of the operation. Harvested ear corn and shelled it when needed. Raised a few pigs and cows for meat, some
chickens, goats and turkeys. It was something my 2 sons helped with until they moved out to their own lives. I always said I would have the most modern farm in the country if were the 1950's. I'm now down to
about 7 acres and doing it mostly alone now. I used to get lectures all the time from my neighbors about farming and not being any money in such a small operation. The whole thing was about using the old
machinery, doing it with my sons and having fun. Never once had to worry about what corn was bringing or if I got rained out or if I could make the next bank payment. Maybe best of all it created an
environment to raise a family in that shows up every day with our sons now, both in their 30's. I will continue doing something until the day comes where I can't get on a tractor any more. As of right now
there would have to be 10 tractors I couldn't get on before calling it quits.

David G · Dec 31, 2018

Probably anything less than 1000 acres anymore.

PaGlenn · Dec 31, 2018

Did it ten years for wifes Alpacas on 33acres. Bailed hay for the animals.Im away from it now.

ghostdncr · Dec 31, 2018

I'm only about 85 miles east of you in Brooks, Ky and I would definitely qualify as a hobbyist. I was reading somewhere just the other day about a struggling "family farm" and their ongoing resistance against selling out to the corporate concerns. They only had [b:940350a7a4]27,000 acres[/b:940350a7a4] to work with. I'm not sure the county I live in covers 27,000 acres! :lol:

coshoo · Dec 31, 2018

Been dealing with SWMBO's horses for 45 years, but had cattle for about 10 years in the '70's and '80's. Owned 125 acres, leased more for hay. Got up to about 30 head, putting up hay after work and on weekends, finally decided (like the tomcat making love to the skunk) that I'd enjoyed about as much of that as I could stand, so sold the cattle and quit in 1984. Haven't owned a "cow-critter" since, and can't say that I miss them.

jon f mn · Dec 31, 2018

Just bought my dream farm, 58 acres, 50
tillable. Will want to get a few more I
think, and some live stock.

Some of my stuff.

Traditional Farmer · Dec 31, 2018

Define a hobby farm.

showcrop · Dec 31, 2018

Yes, I am a hobby farmer. I started around 1985 making hay for my daughter's sheep on neighbor's ground. It grew pretty quickly and before I knew it I had an out-of-control hobby, I was covering 95 acres with help from the wife and two kids. Around 1995 I cut back to 45 acres and did it by myself until around 2008, then I got tired of hay running my life and I cut back to fifteen acres which is where I still am.

3020G · Dec 31, 2018

Depending on where that farm is I may have seen it advertised. My FIL is from southern Mille Lacs County and is a retired dairyman. (Only has about 50 acres left of the farm) and we shopped around alittle up there.

Either way looks awesome I love those old dairy barns!

Dave H (MI) · Dec 31, 2018

What's a hobby farm? I was thinking of opening a hobby restaurant. Or maybe a
hobby used car lot. Makes about as much sense. The term makes no sense to me.
When I started out cutting 10 acres of hay 20 years ago it was small but it was
profitable and it was sure no hobby. Scale does not define an activity. If
anything does then profit motive probably comes closest. You can grow 1 acre of
vegetables and sell them at the flea market or 2000 acres of grain and haul it to
the elevator. Both are farming...hard work, risk, time intensive. A hobby is
stamp collecting.

Torwood · Dec 31, 2018

I have hobby farmed with my best friend for the last 12 years. We started with 4 acres and two tractors, borrowing equipment when we needed it. We have run about 60 acres the last 3 years. Corn, soybeans, oats and hay. We have a full line of machinery now and that includes a 4400 JD combine, discbine, a bunch of tractors and everything else you can imagine. Now we are paying all of our good neighbors back by borrowing to them or helping them plant or harvest. We both work full time jobs and then side jobs as well. His two daughters are grown up, and my two boys are 7 and 5, so we are at different points in our lives. So this year we are cutting back a little. He is helping his dad more and more every year with his farm, and my family is getting busier and busier every year. Plus the distance between our two farthest fields is almost 13 miles. My side job is driving nice shiny green tractors for a couple of bigger dairy farms whenever they need me. I can get always get my fix there. All of our equipment is paid for by our hobby and we owe nothing on it. Like I tell all my friends and family, this is just like when I was a kid pushing my tractors across the carpet, now the sounds are just more realistic.

blue_tractor_man · Dec 31, 2018

I have 150 acres, about 50 in hardwoods, 10
acres of hay ground my neighbor cuts, with
the rest in native plants for deer, turkey,
and bee forage, and 30 bee hives. I own a
small companyband work in town. I can tell
you that being a beekeeper takes a lot of
time and attention. I guess the fact that
I haveva regular job makes me a hobby
farmer. Some might differ.

Traditional Farmer · Jan 1, 2019

I agree but I think many farmers think a 'hobby farmer' is one with less livestock,land etc than they have and anyone with more is a BTO (LOL)

SVcummins · Jan 1, 2019

A bto is anyone who has a newer and or bigger tractor than you and or farms more land than you

paul · Jan 1, 2019

I?m probably small enough to just be a hobby farm.

Heard at a seminar if you are farming only 1200 acres you better have a real job besides these days. Can?t argue with that, tho I?m a lot smaller and don?t have a real
job.

Neighbor buys some grain and bedding from me, he raises a few heritage hogs on 5 acres. He always jokes about him farming. I say you do, you are raising food, you
are a farmer just as much as me.

Paul

Northvale PA · Jan 1, 2019

I like this reply. I am not fond of the notion of a hobby farm. It implies dabbling and pure expense, no profit or profit management. I have been baling and selling hay to horse folks for 30 years. Only 25 acres. But the work needs to happen like clockwork and the machinery needs to run perfectly. Over the years I have become a decent mechanic, and have a trustworthy line of equipment and buildings. It opened up a much bigger world Plus responsibilities to our kids. Which was really the main motivation all along.

K Effective · Jan 1, 2019

I like to refer to mine as fetish farming- it's more expensive and painful than a hobby.

I own 50 acres and farm about 25 more from neighbors, ten acres of Welch's concord grapes, about 22 acres of open ground for corn or beans and the rest is hay and pasture for 16-24 heifers I feed out and sell as freezer beef. I work with my neighbors who part-time farm about 450 acres, they have the sprayer and combine, I bale the hay and straw.

To get my fix, I help out my buddy, who is farming about 2000 acres of corn, beans and specialty vegetables (melons, pumpkins, seed corn, etc).

That and a full-time job with a really goofy schedule. All my kids are in college, so free help is mostly a memory. In 2017 I handled every single bale of about 2300 small squares- put them on the wagon, unloaded them onto the elevator, stacked them in the barn. Yes, I'm stubborn, and probably stupid. But I love it.

Traditional Farmer · Jan 1, 2019

Pretty much a derogatory term people that only farm for a living use that are jealous of others that farm and also have multiple sources of income and more money.I guess every occupation
I have ever had was a hobby since I've always done multiple things and had multiple enterprises at the same time to make a living.

Keith Molden · Jan 1, 2019

I believe the term Hobby is intended to be doing something for the pleasure and satisfaction of doing it, or at least that's my idea of any hobby. I put up hay and sell it along with feeding it to our 2 hay burners. I only own 2 acres and the only thing I raise on it is a raised bed garden, the rest is several fields that belong to other folks that I keep limed and fertilized. I make a little money doing it but not enough to pay me for doing it. I do it because I enjoy it so I guess that makes me a Hobby farmer. I also have somewhere around 10 or 11 tractors at any given time and enjoy the working on them and working them so that is also a Hobby. I have no idea, and will never have since I'm 71, what the enjoyment is to be several hundred thousand in debt to the bank and paying several people who work for you, but if that is what you enjoy, then you my friend are also a Hobby farmer. I've never believed that farming was something one has to do, it's something someone enjoys doing. Just my thoughts. Keith

3020G · Jan 1, 2019

(quoted from post at 07:05:22 01/01/19) Pretty much a derogatory term people that only farm for a living use that are jealous of others that farm and also have multiple sources of income and more money.I guess every occupation
I have ever had was a hobby since I've always done multiple things and had multiple enterprises at the same time to make a living.

I apologize if I struck a nerve with you or any one else. I’ve been around farming all my life, my grandpa farmed until 2004 when hogs got the bettter of him and he sold everything except his 3020. Which he still has. I’ve worked for Implement dealers and farmers as jobs. Now I spread commercial fertilizer. I made the comment to a farmer this fall I was going to get to “farm” this spring (2019) and I was told until I make a living at it it’s just a “hobby” or “hobby farm”. This is why I used the term, i was not trying to look or talk down on anyone else or be derogatory. I apologize.

ChasK · Jan 1, 2019

With having a full-time town job, this time of year I call it "light" farming. Ya know, yard light, headlight, flashlight!

I would consider a hobby farm as was mentioned before, as someone not concerned/ interested in profit/loss. Based on that, I consider myself a 'small scale' farmer. Ag income is only 30% of my town job, but I've been able to increase it every year for 6 years.

When I first got started, I was unable to crop all my own ground. I started by renting out 75% of it. As I gain knowledge and equipment, I will only be renting out 25% of it this year. Being able to farm all my own ground is the goal within the next 3 years.

Bret4207 · Jan 1, 2019

(quoted from post at 23:14:55 12/31/18) Define a hobby farm.

Around me anyone who isn't solely dependent on a farm income from dairy is referred to as a "hobby farmer". Of course the "real" farmers are dropping like flies now and the few mega farms are going to survive, so I don't know what the term will mean then. It's a derogatory term, as though having alternate sources of income is a sin of some kind. Seems smart to me to spread the risk, but what do I know? I'm just a "hobby" farmer!

Bob NY · Jan 1, 2019

I was a hobby farmer for a few years, then the kids grew up and moved on. My oldest daughter and her husband are hobby farmers now. They both have full time jobs along with 40 acres, goats and chickens. It is a great experience for the granddaughters who are 11 and 13.

JOCCO · Jan 1, 2019

Dave believe it or not there are these car lots and eateries that are someones hobby or side show. They never make any money. Most of time they don't last.

Determined · Jan 1, 2019

Dictionary definition of hobby;

: a pursuit outside one's regular occupation engaged in especially for relaxation

OregonAaron · Jan 1, 2019

We have 360 acres of high desert land, you need A LOT of land out here to make it at farming. That's why I have a full time job to make ends meet.

Billy NY · Jan 1, 2019

People get caught up in terminology, so "small scale farming" may be a better fit. I appreciate your post and the discussion because of an interest in this. Having 98 some odd acres that most has been idle a very long time, 60 that was tillable, the rest in woodland or what was pasture, one wood lot of 10 acres is mature. I have some good topsoil in an area some now consider marginal. Well, that marginal ground has been farmed for a very long time. We also have a substantial aquifer, a 20 acre pond. The land is connected with frontage on an extremely busy 2 lane state highway that is one of the few routes to the east. I own enough equipment at this time to get started, but also know the risks. I work a full time job about 7 miles away, one that pays well, but is becoming a real bucket of stress at times. I know better than to make a move unless it's on solid ground. I have the tax liability already, so I need to do something to balance that and or better. I have a section that is now zoned light commercial, so in essence, the canvas is there, just need to figure out what to paint on it.

ss55 · Jan 1, 2019

Maybe "part-time farmer" would be a better description?

ptfarmer · Jan 1, 2019

(quoted from post at 10:02:17 01/01/19) Maybe "part-time farmer" would be a better description?

That is what my user name here stands for!

Keith Molden · Jan 1, 2019

I believe the term Hobby is intended to be doing something for the pleasure and satisfaction of doing it, or at least that's my idea of any hobby. I put up hay and sell it along with feeding it to our 2 hay burners. I only own 2 acres and the only thing I raise on it is a raised bed garden, the rest is several fields that belong to other folks that I keep limed and fertilized. I make a little money doing it but not enough to pay me for doing it. I do it because I enjoy it so I guess that makes me a Hobby farmer. I also have somewhere around 10 or 11 tractors at any given time and enjoy the working on them and working them so that is also a Hobby. I have no idea, and will never have since I'm 71, what the enjoyment is to be several hundred thousand in debt to the bank and paying several people who work for you, but if that is what you enjoy, then you my friend are also a Hobby farmer. I've never believed that farming was something one has to do, it's something someone enjoys doing. Just my thoughts. Keith

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