Types of Farms You Hadn't Thought of

hey nerds farmer Jesse here so there are ways to get into agriculture that do not necessarily look like this there are farms and yards farms and closets and buildings things that aren't really Farms per se but that help assist Farms like my own and so in this video I wanted to broaden the scope a little bit on what a small farm or micro Farm could be and I'll also touch on a topic that I frankly do not think gets enough attention or for that matter appreciation as an idea part-time farming so let's do it first thing the difference between farming and say homesteading or whatever is that one of them is a business and as such needs to be treated like a business to survive but I've kind of already done that video in this one we're just going to do the fun part and talk about what those AG or Farm businesses are but I wanted to start there on that business point because if you do like one of these ideas and think it could work for you in your Conta you're going to have to go through the whole business starting process market research business plan Etc no way around it believe me I've tried you will genuinely hardly find a more reluctant entrepreneur than myself but if you plan to spend money on things that you want to sell you have to get serious about it otherwise your farm or Farm adjacent business just won't last all right so let's start with some of the peripheral agricultural businesses that could help Farms like my own because I'm selfish but I'm also honest first we need more good conscientious composters so much so that we built a whole podcast with Jane mner around this exact idea the idea here is that we need folks not only making good compost but who are also willing to care about the stream of materials that they are processing to keep out potential contaminants like persistent herbicides or Plastics Etc then they can turn that into varying products from mulching compost to really high quality nutritional composts and potting mixes and if you're interested or well confused maybe I do discuss the four types of compost in the living soil handbook which when you get it from no till g.com helps support these videos just saying in unrelenting amount of good organic materials get thrown into landfills and with more people processing that material less of it will get wasted because the only food that is ever truly wasted is that which does not get turned into more food but of course composting can take up a lot of land so maybe scaling it composting on a small scale could mean something like starting a worm farm instead which can be done in enclosed areas or outdoors in drier warmer regions the castings can be sold uh the worms can be sold or both I'll make sure to add a few links in the show notes if you want to follow up on one idea or another uh black soldierly larvae is also in the mix Andor other insects for chicken feed or lizard feed I recently learned of a farm that just raises tobacco worms to feed invertebrates amphibians and reptiles and that sort of thing and makes really good money doing it and it just kind of blew my mind I mean I I I try not to raise tobacco worms on my farm honestly but as they say there are riches in the niches I personally always wanted to run a snail farm for ES cargo but fearing I would be my only customer I did back off of that idea that said if you love the idea of livestock and don't have the space for cattle or sheep or goats or whatever just go with smaller livestock right the one challenge with growing bugs and insects is that the conditions have to be pretty spot-on especially if you take them indoors that's humidity temperature light all that has to be dialed in but for a certain brain and a certain budget that might be fun and in some cases jobs like these might be great for those who struggle with Mobility like I probably will in the future at some point in my life right before I start my snail Farm something else that can be done indoors or in very shady areas is mushroom farming for years we grew shiitake and oysters on logs out in a largely Cedar Forest uh where not much else would grow um you can also grow them indoors in bags things like shitake logs can be a casual addition to your business or just a business on their own in the right market like with any biological product as soon as you take those indoors though you have to do all the things that nature does for you outside providing humidity and temperature control Etc Outdoors a lot of that stuff is out of your control so in terms of a business you have to find the balance that meets your needs or maybe you just fits your climate for instance I would love to grow fruit here in Kentucky Zone 6B but we just get too much rain and humidity for the majority of fruits or we get too cold for things like peaches or Citrus to do well enough to do it on a production scale while I'm on this topic though we should shout out a recent episode of the no till Market Garden podcast with host Mimi Castile and guest Tim Philips of Charlie Herring wines where they discuss the value of small Vineyards of really like micro Vineyards so in if wine making or cider making is your thing maybe you don't need as much space as you think go give that episode a listen it's wonderful okay back to the mushrooms for a second there can be many products sold through mushroom farming from the fruit itself obviously but also the logs or blocks uh mushroom products like dried mushrooms or maybe medicinal tinctures with species like Rishi mushrooms all of that could be done in a very small area moreover as a bonus the waste of mushroom production can be turned into a nice mulch or compost if done right in the woods there are also options like Woodland flowers or Woodland medicinals like jining or black kohos uh that can be produced pigs other livestock are a fan of the woods as well though it's nice for them to have more of a savannah area where they can munch on grasses and Forbes and also the nuts from trees and that sort of thing and I don't really plan to discuss Livestock in this video because the amount of land most livestock require but I bring up Woodland livestock because for many of us Woods may be all we have access to financially there is just not much available in the way of a reasonably priced aable land or pasture uh at this moment and probably in any moment in the future but the woods can be rich with opportunity if managed well from livestock to plants to mushrooms to nuts and maple or other tree saps and shout out to these guys for sending me this maple syrup the other day that's really amazing I know personally Le very much so in the summer I would much rather work in the woods I should also add here if there are things I miss or ideas that you have that could be done on a small scale put those ideas in the comment section for others because the one thing about farms and agriculture is that the possibilities are pretty much overwhelming what you can do with a piece of land is almost infinite but like I talk about in this recent video your context should determine at least some of what you do in the spirit of overwhelming possibility though let's throw a few more ideas into the mix of how you could be involved in agriculture well what about veggie farming that seems like an obvious one well indeed it can be done on a very small scale backyards and urban Farms with the addition of things like micro greens those operations can be quite profitable I mean growing veggies is kind of what this channel does so I don't probably need to elaborate too much more on that but I just wanted to note that because small farms like mine are also an option even if you only have an acre or half acre or a quarter acre and even an eighth of an acre you could do a lot of food on a small amount of space flower farming too that's a great option on a very small scale and I'll link some folks like Jenny love of V noal flowers and bare Mountain Farm to follow for guidance on that in the show notes I love them another somewhat related idea is that more and better organic nurseries could be helpful both for plant starts and for things like native plants and fruit trees and that sort of stuff for like H droves now those require uh some extensive knowhow and some well-designed infrastructure and definitely a love of spreadsheets but if you can zero in on a few high demand crops and do them really well there's a market for it I think of slow or difficult crops like grafted Tomatoes if you have a lot of small growers in the area and you get good at producing Niche starts like those there might be a really good market for you another way to involve yourself is to make the most out of the sheer amount of waste that occurs uh at farmers markets and small farms here in Kentucky we have a nonprofit gleaning group that comes by at the end of the market and on Sundays and takes that excess produce that might otherwise go into waste and turns it into other products when I go to the West Coast and see the amount of fruit on trees and people's yards I think a whole business could be built around and certainly they exist but a whole business could be built built around managing those trees and selling or Distributing that fruit now any of those things I mentioned could be made profitable on the right scale and with the right startup capital and proper Investments business plan and so on I know it's the boring stuff but it's like it's like trying to have a body without like a heart and brain and all the things that has a terrible analogy I'm keeping it however and here's where I get into perhaps the more controversial part of this video not all farms and maybe very few Farms need to be a family's sole income in fact I would argue that most Farms can or possibly should just be parttime gigs anyway hear me out according to the USDA 96% of farms have off farm income which is a little misleading because 29% of that is things like quote interest dividends private pensions Social Security payments uh veterans benefits and payments from other public programs so not just outside jobs exactly but outside income but still means the other 71% of off farm income is made up largely of off- farm jobs and there seems to be an inherent assumption in this that these Farms aren't making enough to survive which may be true and certainly is true for some but it also may be true that these farmers are just smart and know that dealing with the elements dealing with nature and her unpredictability is an inherently risky bet and so having some amount of Diversified income is a great idea it's easy to jump to the conclusion that these Farmers don't know what they're doing which is I think is rooted in this idea that farmers are not educated folks but the reality may be that they are doing the absolute most logical thing that most other people do in the world they're just playing it safe they have a side hustle they have another thing that they enjoy doing or are good at and want to and can do it professionally I have lived in rural communities for the majority of my 3011 years and the farm owners I know are generally pretty Savvy business people by and large they think thoughtfully about their businesses and their livelihoods as I think anyone who is hoping to get into this farming thing should this is not an easy business actually no scratch that this is a ludicrous thing to rely on for your living to put all of your eggs in a proverbial basket that could flood or dry up or both within a month of each other a basket that could blow away burn up or just die for no obvious reason to quote my buddy Josh satin there ain't no harm in part-time farming especially when you are just starting out there is no reason to sell everything quit your job and move to the country to start a farm most Farmers don't even do that that isn't to discourage anyone from starting a fully financially stable Farm business not at all it is entirely possible rather if I have a goal it's to encourage people to see that it doesn't have to be the only thing you do you don't have to go all in at first in some situations a small part-time Farm might be better anyway it's physically challenging of a job and can be emotionally and financially expensive to start there may not be enough of a market yet to sustain your products yet being the operative Bo you may have to work on that work on building it there are ways to do this to farm and have jobs in farming and create farming and help other Farmers that Mak Sense on a small scale you can always scale it up or find Partners to reduce your personal risk or add different Enterprises it doesn't have to be part-time or stay part-time but I just want you to know it also doesn't have to be full-time definitely not right away the only thing I will add and I want to do so emphatically is that if you do start a small part-time Farm business like those I mentioned or like my vegetable business or whatever please just don't undercut those who are heavily reliant on the food they produce for an income one that's just not cool and two that won't help you or help them or help the customer in the end as it will adjust their expectations to something that's unreasonable or unsustainable for a business otherwise I do want to encourage anyone and everyone who has willingly watched this far to get their hands into agriculture in one way or another a small farm business a garden a flock of laying hens a pile of shitake logs o there is a sentence that could have gone sideways pretty fast whatever interests you and makes sense should be on the table I will leave it at that please feel free to put your ideas in the comments section if you appreciate that I take the time to make these videos sometimes literally tripling the amount of time it takes me to do a certain task like plant spinach just so that I can film it and sometimes refilm it or film it from different angles consider supporting our work by picking up a copy of the living soil handbook from nos.com or a hat or other merch or become a patreon member at patreon.com till Growers or just hit that super thanks button that works too there are also uh some on Farm no till field days coming up here at Ru draft Farmstead if you want to check those out links for all that in the show notes otherwise thanks for watching we'll see you later [Applause] bye all the things I Used to Know away they had to go

Channel: No-Till Growers

Views: 139,046

Keywords: growing plants, regenerative, organic, no till, no dig, small garden, gardening, market gardening, farming, crops, row crop, plant diseases, raised bed, containers, potatoes, papas, raising bugs, snails, small scale, small farm, start a farm, mushrooms

Id: 4UMda8nB_dQ

Length: 13min 40sec (820 seconds)

Published: Sun Apr 07 2024