How to Start an Organic Farm Like Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms

too many people want want to make too big an incremental step they want to go from zero want to go from zero to 100 in you know in 10 feet and you can't go from zero to 100 in 10 feet and so incremental is a is a big deal and I've watched I mean the young people who have come here for our apprenticeship program and things I've watched numerous of them you know kind of in a three-step process and so what might those steps look like so the first step would be [Music] juel Sal how salatin pardon me how are you I'm doing great Andy and uh it's great great to be with you well thank you so much for coming on let's start from the top here as I mentioned off camera you were quite the inspiration to me and my family uh over a decade ago just getting on the health food and eating well part of our lives and I just wanted tell me about your story and what exactly you do at Poly face Farms yeah so we're a uh our family came here when I was four years old in 1961 uh so if you're quick with math you know that uh I'm right at 67 and um and we we came here Dad was an accountant mom was a school teacher and um Dad saw very early on we always said dad was organic before Rachel Carson wrote Silent Spring and um his his dad my paternal grandfather was a charger subscriber to rodale's organic gardening and farming magazine back in what 1945 something like that so Dad grew up in that non-chemical composting you know uh kind of arrangement and he saw early on the just had a desire for you know self-reliance self-sufficiency uh um um what in Independence from you know from the chemical cartels and the and the system and so we came to this uh gullied worn out um rock pile in about 1961 and um and he of course he was an accountant he worked out mom was a school teacher and the two off- farm jobs you know eventually paid with mortgage took about 10 11 years to pay for it and during that time we were basically glorified homesteaders was not a business uh we we we grew our own food we had our firewood um in 1967 I was 10 and I got my first chickens and I di my toe in this Farm thing and just and just loved it I mean I I just loved it not only not only as a as a almost a spiritual thing but as a business that that you know hey man I I was selling eggs I had customers I you know um I was I was the man you know you I we got to call Joel We need some eggs you know as a kid as a kid for you know to have to have people who whatever uh you know patronize you and say hey you know we depend on you for breakfast um man that's a that's a powerful thing for a you know for a youngster and so uh so I had these chickens and I really you know got the farm bug there were three of us kids and I was the only one that really took an interest uh you know serious interest in the farm and um and uh so we we so so dad was was extremely creative um you know I'm at that stage in my life I mean he passed away 30 uh 1988 you know it's been um more than 30 years 35 years and and um I realize the older I get the smarter he was and sometimes it takes a little while to realize that but he he totally got the non-chemical um started moving cows around he was a very much an inventor uh invented some portable electric fence at that time so we could move the cows around uh we we started composting we um we direct marketed we did he did a portable infrastructure developed a portable shade mobile for cows uh portable chicken shelters for chickens uh and and we just and we just headed down this this pathway so uh make kind a long story short so in so I came back to the farm fulltime September 24 1982 I had worked two and a half years out for as a investigative reporter for a local newspaper after college and um and and was trying to how do I get you know the farm was a great place to live great food great life but it wasn't it wasn't a business you know how do we make a living here and um so Teresa and I when we got the attic of the old farmhouse here lived up in the attic we called it our Penthouse it's all how you look at it and U we drove a $50 car we lived on $300 a month if we didn't grow it we didn't eat it we didn't have a TV we still don't have a TV uh we we um you know we never went out to eat we never went on vacation we just we just you know put ourselves to this and within a couple of years we had saved up enough um Andy I think it's important for everybody to understand we saved up enough by living so cheaply we were able to save up enough in two years that we could live here for one year without an income wow that was our Nest Egg so I handed in my two-e notice stepped out of that office we came back home everybody thought it was the stupidest thing in the world all my friends all of our acquaintances what you know you're giving up a paycheck you know BL blah blah and uh but but my thing was by that time uh I I realized that I was very employable you know I I I I was not afraid to wash dishes in the back of a restaurant I didn't you know and I realized that if the farm didn't work out I could find work anywhere because everybody's looking for somebody Dependable loyal uh who who who who uh can think and doesn't whine and complain that sort of thing yeah I tell it to my kids all the time just have those qualities to show up and be to a good attitude yeah that's right that's right the the the bar the bar of dependability loyalty and and and you know giving 110% uh is so low that you can get work anywhere so anyway came back to the farm I fully expected that we wouldn't make it I I I thought we would probably not that I'd have to go back out off farm for a while but as it turned out that little that little $10,000 naseg because we were leaving living so cheaply it just stretched and stretched into two years and then into three and uh we we we started direct marketing we started the chickens uh I sold firewood I you know I um I helped the guy build fence for a little bit of cash I helped the guy plant some trees for a little bit of cash you know so we were we we were just what could we plug you know what could we plug the holes in and by the end of the third year by the end of the third year we were able to side and say you know we're going to make it we're going to make it it took us three years but by the third year we had a little customer base uh things were moving along and um and today today uh we have 20 about 22 of us earn a living from the farm uh we have about 10,000 customers we ship Nationwide we uh we have a thousand head of cattle we do I don't know what 800 Hogs a year uh 20 24,000 chicken uh we do I don't know 100 120,000 dozen eggs uh we have lamb we have turkeys um rabbits and we have a sawmill so we sell lumber as well and and continue selling firewood as long some um and and it's a you know it's a it's a real going concern I mean it's a it's a real deal sure so yeah you've touched on so many different things um but I'd like to start with let's say um somebody that's a smaller scale if you would so for example I live in Atlanta Georgia we have a garden every year we during the summer times we we don't buy vegetables because we grow all of our own but I live in Suburbia how does somebody this is really not for myself but I just have I have so many people inquiring it's a thing now Urban farming yeah how do you start and where would where would you start if you would um just even yeah where would you starting off that yeah well the so it's it's a proverbial you know what can you what can you do now with what you have and um so many times people I run into this all the time where people feel like they can't start because they don't have enough and we live in a we live in a time of where um we uh we we cultivate in our culture we cultivate not enough we go to bed we say I didn't get enough done we get up in the morning we said I didn't get enough sleep we say we don't you know we live in this not enough so the the the key here is what can I do where I am with what I've got and it can be as simple as um as a qut jar of mung bean sprouts on the window sill you know those are highly nutritious and and uh that can be done anywhere uh it can be as simple as a little um you know a little 12in X 12in vermac composting kit under your kitchen sink to get earthworm castings to at least you know uh feed your potted plants um you know there are all sorts of neat uh Contraptions today like these uh these hanging PVC pipes with with little pockets in them and you pack compost in there you hang it on your hang it on your front porch you know and you can have fresh herbs growing in these in these little um these little pockets uh pots you know pot Gardens uh well pot you know that's little bit of play on words there pot Gardens uh but but you know um you you you can have these uh pots you can have honey bees you can have a bee a beehive on your roof of your house um in in my book polyface Micro I talk about how to have chickens and rabbits in a Manhattan apartment um you know you using using deep bedding it doesn't take any more foot print than a than a lazy boy recliner and you can have three chickens and you can feed them all your kitchen scraps they'll get eggs for you and um and what you do is you you make you make a top and you make a bottom and the bottom is full of carbon that the chickens can stir basically make uh make compost and that eliminates odor eliminates smell and U and the chickens then are happy and it's no more doesn't take a bigger footprint than a lazy boy recliner so there are there are a tremendous number of things in fact on on my blog uh back I don't know about a month and a half ago I had a a Blog reader from Austria who does CAD design and he used uh some Ai and CAD design to actually create a mockup of what a an apartment three chicken uh you know thing could look like you know glass like a like a terrarium and uh very very clever uh so you know there are there are all sorts of things you can do in the city um to to start down this what I call a a disentanglement path a disentangle that's what I'm hearing Andy Andy people come up to me and they say they say you know how do I disentangle I just I don't want to be entangled to the system anymore how do I disentangle and and that's what we're talking about it really is and also to give you some personal I guess anecdotal uh you could just say just experience my wife and I are one of the happiest times and even my kids the happiest times we have are together and then being outside and then just this fulfillment of growing our own stuff we know where it's come for and we put in the labor and the time it and we know it's just good food it's good organic food so again just personal anecdotal experience and yeah it's just a joy let's talk about if you don't mind uh um scaling this because I have some friends that are scaling this or trying to scale it and I know you do a lot of consultative work uh first of all what are you seeing if you would with uh people that want out of the discont disentanglement and then they're going outside the city into a rural more rural area doesn't have to be completely out of the out of the city if you would but just more ruler area they're buying up land right what's there what are you seeing like what is their motivation for that and what are they uh trying to accomplish are they just trying to get more land or are they trying to make something sustainable and what are the challenges that they're facing as well yeah so um so my latest book uh the title is Homestead tsunami uh good for Country Critters and kids and it's basically the why of of this you just described it this what I call a homestead tsunami uh there there is a deep intu I think understanding in the heart of people that if the wheels fall off I don't want to be in a city I I want to I want to be you know where I can whatever shoot a deer uh drink out of a spring uh build a tee you know I mean you can get as as as as whatever as as uh survivalist as you want to get but but the point is it's if you're going to if you're going to survive in a crisis situation it's generally uh instinctually uh simpler um in in a rural setting than in an urban setting now now you obviously have a you have a yard you've got a you know you've got a a house situation so you know in that situation for example if you invested in a in a sistern for example a sister to catch rainwater so that you had a a couple thousand gallons of portable water uh off your roof well then if the if the uh if the city water shuts down you've still got water uh you know you could have a salarium on the side of your house and um and and that salarium would grow vegetables in the in the wintertime and give you passive heat um so those are things in an urban setting you can do to kind of take the edge off of this um off of the fragility or the the Su the risk the risk of you know think that I think that things happen because because fraternities have a certain mindset and and they they head down a path maybe not intentionally but uh you know there there are outcomes of uh of what of of what of how you think and so a nation a culture for example like ours that now looks to the federal government to solve everything and wants an agency for everything that we do and more Market intervention and all this um is going to create a you know a fragile a fragile system of economy of and and a dependency culture yeah got it the new 401K is living approximate to people who know how to grow things fix things and build things right that that's that's the new 401k and so what's driving this this movement to the countryside I think is um is a general understanding or or or um whatever a a a lack of trust in these you know built environments and um and and people are looking more for uh you know for something that gets them a little a a little bit of removal from dependency on on the grid on the you know on somebody else's Water Systems you know on all these things what we found my wife and I I guess our thought process is let's say we had I don't know a thousand acres out in the country somewhere and the motivation is not so much uh survival for a crisis Or sorvival List even though that very well could be it that's part of it but that's not the primary motivation the primary motivation is just like it's equ quality of life if you would so let's say assume that nothing happens that we just things are muddling around and go on their way well we still have a great life right and then and then but let's say something does we're fully sustainable so either way we win right yeah yeah that that that's exactly right and um and in in this book Homestead tsunami I I describe the why uh and you know we're having a a I don't want to go down too far a rabbit hole here but Andy we're having we're having a um an adolescent crisis in this country from fentel to teen suicide to uh I mean you talk to any school counselor today our our young PE with with Tik Tock and everything else and again I don't want to get too far a field here but but let me tell you how does a young person I'm just going to touch one one point here how does a young person develop self-esteem self-worth you know affirmation as a as a person how we do that is to be successful to at accomplishing meaningful tasks to successfully accomplish meaningful tasks all each one of those four words is important successful accomplishing meaningful tasks yeah so so what what's happened Andy in our culture is that we have we have um um reduced the ability of our our our pre you know our 10 11 12 13 14 year olds to actually successfully complete meaningful tasks they they're just on screen time they're on video games um and so one of the things that that this this um viseral participation in in uh you know in in growing and building and fixing things is you can sit back and say Hey you know I grew that tomato um I canned that applesauce I I cut up that chicken or or or you know I and and those those very you know uh visceral functional Elements of Life um create selfworth they create self- worth and and I think that that this whole uh kind of migration or or or interest in in rural life is not just yeah I want to grow my own Tomatoes but but but there there's there's this whole umbrella of of societal and cultural uh um you know elements uh wrapped up in it and uh that's part of what's what's driving this as well you again some very well said some anecdotal experience again is I'm originally from Alaska and I have five kids and two I have two boys and we took a a guys trip a father and son trip back up to Alaska this was last August and that was during chabou hunting season and uh I knew some people up there and some family up there and we took my boys and then I we went Caribou hiding and we got a caribou it was the best experience on every single level from just the adventure of it from uh just being together of it from the hardship of it and then actually killing her own meat in my freezer stocked with it and then we processed it all together so it was just exactly what you said it was just going back getting simpler but just being together and then having responsibility of just taking care and feeding ourselves that's really it was just was awesome so yeah absolutely you know uh responsibility and and I would just say a decision decision making maybe we could call it discernment is a muscle it's a muscle like any of our physical muscle and and when we have when we um are with our children or give our children uh opportunities to exercise their discernment you know is the chicken waterer clean or not uh is the nest box clean or not uh you know um um do we do I do I water the tomato do I water the Tomato today or not or does it need mulch or you know I mean those kinds of visceral decisions exercise our our discernment and um and it and and it's on a completely different level than um than whether or not uh you should push this button on Candy Crush right it's it's a totally different deal and and U and and CH children children understand that they they realize when they're actually being needed and needful and providing value value to the family and value in their own lives and and they yearn for that um in spite of all the whining and all the you know no no they they actually want you know the the most foundational whatever need of a human is to feel needed yeah know that that's why old people who have pets live longer than people who don't have pets I got I gotta get up to feed the you know right we all we all uh need to feel needed but you know the video game doesn't actually need you I mean it can sit there and it it it doesn't have any need so there there's something about participating in life in things that can respond even a tomato plant can I'm stuck on tomato I love tomatoes but um you know a tomato plant can respond it responds to us uh the chicken responds to us the U and so and so to to be with something that responds that's that's um that that has that has choice to to say I will you know I I will affirm you um that's a you know that's a profound that's a profound thing yeah no absolutely yeah absolutely so let's talk about the business side again things let's talk about let's talk first about the wealthy and I know you have some wealthy clients I'm just asking like okay so I have a million dollars or $10 million or whatever that number is and then we'll talk about the person that doesn't have as many options but let's talk about the wealthy $10 million and what do I do go buy a thousand acres somewhere out in the middle and you know put a farmhouse on it that's the business template if you went to the business plan yeah yeah well Pro probably the most common thing that I see uh because I do do a fair amount of Consulting and um and I have in the last couple of years been uh contacted by I think now five uh five billionaires not millionaires billionaires who have yeah who have asked um I think the wheels are going to fall off can you help me you know get a safe place and and so I've started calling these they don't call it that but I call these agrarian bunkers you know that that what they want is an agrarian bunker okay that's what they are right yeah that's what they are and um and and uh once in a while one of them will do okay but most of the time they they don't appreciate uh the um you know the level of whatever understanding experience practical working out uh of getting this getting this to go and they're used to just throwing money at things and making it happen and so you know so I end up going and and they've they've they've already spent uh who knows how much money on fences and the fences are all in the wrong place for example uh and and so um so for for the wealthy um I will tell you this that we have helped about five of these folks um find land near us that we manage for them so they have a bugout place they don't live on it they still they're still doing their thing but they know that if if the wheels fall off and they can get there we'll you know they can join our community and and Meanwhile we're managing their land and and upgrading it and getting fences in and water lines and you know and developing it developing it as as a as a as a resil Farm um production unit and that's a you know that that's that's a big deal so um that's a great idea because so so if you can so if you're if you're a a wealthy person and you can hook up and you can hook up with someone and just you know look if you're wealthy you're probably used to delegating all right right and enjoy delegating enjoy you know and and uh yeah the biggest those of us who do some of this you know we Talk Amongst ourselves and our biggest frustration is going to a wealthy person and they they won't listen somehow they think that their whatever mental accuity to have achieved what they've achieved financially is going to translate immediately into which tree to cut uh where to build a road where to put on a fence uh where to put the Corral and the fact is they end up you know wasting a tremendous amount of money in the wrong places and then they get frustrated frustrated because I thought this thing was going to you know generate some income well it's it's not all that easy and uh and so if you can if you can hook up with a with somebody who has a track record um you're you're in good shape and like I say we we we now we now manage I think five five places of people who live in the city they have independent wealth but but they now have this this bugout place and um and it's a it's a it's a it's really a one it's a very synergistic thing because we can then expand and uh and and and grow more and scale as a as a farm um we we take care of their taxes and fences and you know uh that sort of thing and and and we can and they can kind of learn you know uh from us we can take them along and they don't have to be dumping a bunch of money in the wrong place I mean we just had one we uh we shephered a pond project they wanted to build a pond well so we we arranged for the excavator we went over and we set it up and all this and and um uh you know we've built whatever 20 ponds over time and we're really good at at sighting and deciding how big where it should be that sort of thing P if you're not familiar with that you know you're going to you're going to pour you know $20,000 in a pond and it's going to be in the wrong place you're not going to have a you're not going to have a clue you know how to do it and so um so we we can leverage we can leverage you know their investment they can leverage our experience and it's a very symbiotic thing um yeah R running running out as a as a as a farm novice with a pile of money in your pocket is one of the quickest ways to make a lot of bad decisions and lose a lot of money quickly yeah I think that is the template knowing a lot of very wealthy people it they're very good at making money in what they've done if you would and and they're very good at hiring managers to make decisions for them and then they enjoy as they should they enjoy whatever they've invested in so yeah I think that is a great template now let's talk about somebody uh that doesn't have a whole lot of options maybe they're they could either be single or let's talk about that somebody that's single or let's say they have a young family or even like a doesn't even have to be a young family but they they don't have the options but they want to do something or they think they want to do something like this what would you recommend to them yeah so there's a lot of there's a lot of different things I'm a big believer in the in the proximity principle the proximity principle is whatever you want to do get as close as you can to what you really want to if you can't do what you really want to do get as close as you can to it and what you really want to do will eventually come your way too many people want want to make too big an incremental step they want to go from zero want to go from zero to 100 in you know in 10 feet and you can't go from zero to 100 in 10 feet and so incremental is a is a big deal and I've watched I mean the young people who have come here for our apprenticeship program and things I've watched numerous of them you know kind of in a three-step process and so what might those steps look like so the first step would be to move to move near where you want to be uh and that could be determined by politics uh uh weather uh landscape uh memory you know our family went through here and I've just I just love that part of the country you know whatever it is okay but but but get uh get to where you want to be and and and rent you know you don't have to buy anything rent and time be your friend don't be in a hurry the the worst the worst uh financial decisions we make are when we are when we're in hurry up mode we don't buy the right car we don't buy the right house we don't buy the right piece of land when you're in panic when you're in panic mode oh oh I've gotta I've got to buy this right now you're not g to buy the right goodness the right pants or the right shirt you know when you're in a when you're in a panic mode rent for a while get get familiar with the community and then and then um you know if if if something comes up you you you can buy it uh otherwise sometimes you can you you can collaborate with somebody for examp that's one of the reasons I love pastured poultry numerous people have started with pastured poultry on an existing farm and they don't spend a penny you know in other words they go to a beef cattle farm or or an orchard or something hey I'll run chickens on here and grow more grass for you and you don't have to pay me a dime for it because the grass will grow better behind the chickens and and so they actually start a farm business um on on land that they don't pay any rent for and don't have to own so um so the the the portable infrastructure uh is a big deal uh you could you know somebody's got an edge wood lot you can start running some pigs in there with electric fencing and and so there are a lot of options um and and in my book I've written a bunch of books and and I I'm big on um on not buying initially but just starting uh you know find a friend find a collaborator it might be somebody at church it might be somebody at the ruran club or you know a philanthropic organization or whatever circulate circulate within the community and find those opportunities there are the average American Farmer is 60 years old they are desperate they are desperate for a pair of hands um friend one he doesn't have to be organic it doesn't matter he still would love a pair of hands to help hold a board if he's nailing the other end just go and you know shut down your Netflix and shut down your Caribbean cruise and go and go uh um you know enjoy starting a friendship with with a farm and you would be surprised listen I and I have letters from 80-year-old Farmers saying can you find me I just got one last week can you find me a young person to inherit my farm too my kids don't want it they'll just sell it can you find me a young person to inherit my farm too uh um so there there are opportunities but but you but you have to be willing to cultivate to to serve you have to be willing to serve for a while to create emotional and and uh and friendship relational Equity um so that you can then maybe you you you'd be surprised what you know what might come your way yeah that's fascinating I mean I somebody wants to to give you a farm if you work at I mean that's a great deal um I can think of a better investment or a better deal right now to be candidate with you yeah um I listen recently this was fascinating to me uh one of the barriers if you would for organic or purchasing organic is the cost of Entry if you would um and I listened to you I don't remember where it was but it was on an interview you had where you are actually very competitive now with the big players and cost yes so that's part of the business aspect of this up here that shouldn't be a barrier of Entry if you want to farm it it certainly shouldn't be a barrier barrier entry if you want to to buy good food if you would talk a little bit about that how you're now again how organic is actually or is becoming very very reasonable in price and it's also very uh there's a lot of um there's good money you're you're a thriving Farm again competing yeah yeah so yeah so we yeah um I I don't I don't have anything to hide we you know we're we're Splat night 2023 was financially the best year we've ever had here uh in in half a century congratulations that's music to my ears yeah never had such a good year and uh and it's a Confluence of a lot of things and thank you for pursuing this point because so because most of my life I've been accused of being a a food elitist you know you got to be a you know a doctor an attorney in order to you know buy your food that sort of thing because the price has always been you know higher than it is in the grocery store because because we don't take government subsidies and all of our prices are figured in let me interrupt you very real quick so yes but what we found and I want to get to your point but what we found as a family we were paying more money but we weren't meaning per item for good food but we weren't spending as much because that was more filling and we weren't getting like the snacks the the chips and that sort of thing and then we were saving significantly a lot more on doctor bills just yeah well you're yeah you're you're you're already you're already out there um I mean the quickest the quickest way and easiest way to save money is to buy unprocessed get a whole chicken not a chicken breast uh get get a get a quarter of beef not you know a T-bone steak um all of these I mean our our for we have substantial substantial um you know price discounts for volume purchases because it it it's easier for everybody right and uh and so so yeah uh buy unprocessed and um and and especially if you can go straight straight to the farmer well what what we saw what happened uh during covid was that and then and then Ukraine the Ukraine thing that spiked fertilizer prices the combination that that was a double whammy uh the co thing which disrupted um our our supply chain and then and then Ukraine which disrupted the whole fertilizer other things what happened was prices spiked as you know they spiked or you couldn't even get stuff and and what we found was that our prices were low lower than Costco uh now they they they they've adjusted now they've that's no longer the case now but but they they never came down that much and the beauty was we didn't have to go up much because we didn't have a long supply chain we didn't have that problem we didn't have a warehouse where workers were getting sick and we didn't have uh and we don't we're not dependent on Vladimir Putin for our for our fertilizer you we don't buy any of it so all of those things that that were that were uh literally you know Black Swan events within the the greater system we were immune to and wow I mean I I um for us it was a really epiphany of of you know if if we can as a farm business if we can immunize ourselves you know against the the fragility of the system that's a really really big deal deal and so and so and so interestingly I'll just with this little uh tidbit U spring spring a year ago we finally figured out how to actually ship eggs I never thought I would ship what you ship eggs that's crazy you know but uh we had people asking for them and so okay we can ship egg so um so we started shipping eggs last spring and you know what we can ship eggs to New York Chicago and Los Angeles cheaper than they can buy them at Farmers Market metropolitan areas with their defund the police their homelesses their tax their tax situations their regulatory situations they are so uh uh anti-business in a lot of those areas that their cost of of doing business and hiring somebody I mean California just raised the the minimum minimum wage of a of fast food workers you know to 20 $20 an hour okay what that does is it makes all of us non- Californians very competitive we can now in other words if if a if a farmer Like Us in California wants to hire somebody to put away eggs they're gonna have to pay them 20 bucks an hour well we've got people here who think they've died and gone to heaven if they get 14 okay or 15 a and so uh because our cost of living is so much lower our taxes are so much lower our our regulatory climate is so much lower and so it's just an amazing inversion of of these um uh these small government uh you know um laidback kind of old-fashioned areas are able to sell into these Metropolitan um expens expensive areas and actually compete at Price just because this price of security and labor and everything else is so much higher in those areas it's regulation and one last question so a friend of mine texted me just right before I got on he wanted me to ask you a question um what is so he has I'm assuming he has a few hundred acres if not more out in Ro Georgia and what's the what's the network what's the gross he can make per acre having a small independent farm and my guess is his acreage is it's less than 200 so yeah what what what's the number dollar per acre if you would okay re let me let me just give you let me just give you our um you know what we do yeah so we we run 600 600 broilers per acre and uh they're 20 bucks a piece so that's $122,000 uh uh for an acre and then you've got the the cows the cattle which are going to be about 800 per acre then you've got turkies uh that are going to be about 10,000 per acre and then you've got the Millennium feathernet eggs uh that are going to be about um 8 8,000 per acre so if you add that up um what you've got is 008 22 you've got 30 you got 30,000 $30,000 per acre now that's gross that's gross okay but if you figure a 30% 30% Enterprise margin that still gives you up there around $9,000 uh per acre to go to your overheads you know your property taxes and insurance and and pay for your your pickup truck and things like that um so so that's where you get this permaculture stacking where you get this this um it's not just raising you know apples in an apple orchard or cattle or whatever it it it's actually you're stacking these Enterprises on there and then and then you're direct marketing them so then you're getting retail dollar not wholesale which is only 9% of the retail dollar you're getting the whole thing and you start wearing those the hats of the middlemen you know the distributor the processor the marketer and and that you know all every farmer sits on the stand leans on the corner of his pickup truck and whs to his neighbor oh there ain't no money because the middleman takes it all right and and so uh for me if the middleman is where the money is then I want to be one you know sign me up yeah sign me up to be the middleman and so so that's so that's exactly what we do and um and so yeah it's um it's it's a pretty exciting time sounds awesome well Joel I think this is Camp I think this is a great place to wrap up I I could we could talk for hours and hours I I find it fascinating I'm actively involved at a consumer level as well as doing it ourself in her backyard if you would could you please if give your contact info in three ways number one for the consumer out there that wants to buy your eggs or your chicken number two if it's somebody that's looking for an apprenticeship um where they can reach out to you and number third is that wealthy individual that hey I want to slap a land and a bugout farm if you would but I don't want to management and have you management how would they go about doing that sure sure so for the so uh they're all roughly the same we have one one big comprehensive web it polyface farms.com and and it has different obviously different tabs for all these things uh polyface farms.com yeah you can buy our beef chicken uh turkey uh uh pork whatever eggs um uh and we we welcome you to do that and and I'll tell you Andy nothing makes us happier than getting a note from somebody hey I've been buying from you for a year I finally found my local supplier or found my little two-acre Homestead spot and I won't be buying as much but I'm so thankful that you got me started we are glad to be a pump primer for people who don't know where to turn and are looking for someplace to start uh glad to do that so uh so polyface farms.com apprenticeship same thing apprenticeship we take queries from August 1 to August 10 and uh again we open up a special little uh email spot on polyface farms.com uh for the apprenticeship the the the person who's bought a place and wants us to come and take a look at it um same thing uh polyface farms and Wendy my personal assistant picks up all those uh all those emails and she fires the ones that I need to me and the ones that Daniel needs to him and the ones that are about money to Teresa who handles the accounting and and so she disseminates those throughout so the the the comprehensive website is uh polyface Farms p o l y f a c the farm of many faces and uh I'm just one of the faces there's a lot of faces uh polyface farm and we will absolutely be uh be glad to serve anyone that contacts Us Joel thank you so much and uh you primed the pump for me about 20 well 15 years ago and U we are my family and I are very very grateful to you so thank you thank you Andy it's been a delight to be with you absolutely

Channel: Natural Resource Stocks

Views: 3,839

Keywords: joel salatin, joel salatin interviews, joel salatin interview, joel salatin polyface farms, polyface farms, polyface farms interview, organic farming, buidling an organic farm, build an organic farm like joel salatin, organic farming interview, how to build an organic farm, living on an organic farm, organic farming in rural country, farming, how to farm, how to build a farm, farming as a business

Id: yrR_A13q0Yg

Length: 46min 54sec (2814 seconds)

Published: Wed Feb 14 2024