Ekarius / Wyatt The Essential Guide to Hobby Farming

A How-To Manual for Crops, Livestock, and Your Business
2. Auflage 2015
ISBN: 978-1-62008-183-9
Verlag: CompanionHouse Books
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Adobe DRM (»Systemvoraussetzungen)

E-Book, Englisch, 304 Seiten

Six containers of heirloom tomatoes, miniature squashes, and herbs on your back patio or six acres of beets, cabbages, and strawberries? Five chickens and a honey bee hive or a small farm with three dozen sheep and a couple of quarter horses? Regardless of the size of your 'field of dreams,' Essential Guide to Hobby Farming is your best first step to making that hobby-farm aspiration a pleasurable and profitable reality. A hobby farmer for the past thirty years, Carol Ekarius shares the joys, challenges, and rewards of living the rural life. Hobby farming is as much a state of mind as it is an address in the country, and this instructive, beautifully photographed manual addresses every topic beginning hobby farmers need to know, from purchasing the right land and equipment to choosing and maintaining crops and livestock to marketing and selling your hobby farm's yield. TOPICS DISCUSSED INSIDE: -Assessing finances and resources-land, water, tools of the trade (trucks, tractors, various implements) -Choosing the best crops for your land, climate, hardiness, and profitability -Selecting and caring for the livestock-chickens, goats, cows, sheep, etc.-that best fits your hobby farm -Protecting crops and livestock against predators, pests, and disease -Business and marketing options for selling your 'local food' directly to restaurants and farmers' markets and through CSA programs -Preserving the harvest, through canning, drying, and freezing, plus over two dozen original recipes for your homegrown produce NEW FOR THE SECOND EDITION: Expanded section on chickens, including urban and suburban accommodations; honey bee keeping; adding a barn or annex building to the farm; trends in planting, including miniature vegetables, heirloom varieties, and 'hot' new vegetables and hybrids; adding flower beds to the property; getting involved with a CSA

Carol Ekarius is the co-author of The Fleece & Fiber Sourcebook, The Field Guide to Fleece, and Storey's Guide to Raising Sheep, and she is the author of several books, including Small-Scale Livestock Farming, Storey's Illustrated Guide to Poultry Breeds, and Storey's Illustrated Breed Guide to Sheep, Goats, Cattle, and Pigs. She lives in the mountains of Colorado, where her four-legged and winged family keeps her busy.

Autoren/Hrsg.

Ekarius, Carol

Wyatt, Leslie J

Leseproben

1

Back to the Farm

When the United States formed “a more perfect Union, [to] establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity,”* more than 90 percent of our population were farmers. They were the people who produced their own food and fiber, bartered for food, or bought food directly from someone else who produced it. Today, such a small percentage of our population is considered farmers that this group is truly a minority in our country.

At about the time Thomas Jefferson was penning the words of our Constitution, he wrote the following to President George Washington: “Agriculture . . . is our wisest pursuit, because it will in the end contribute most to real wealth, good morals, and happiness.” Furthermore, “The moderate and sure income of husbandry begets permanent improvement, quiet life, and orderly conduct, both public and private.”

Jefferson’s agrarian ideal was not new; it was a viewpoint passed down by the earliest philosophers. As our population has increased and urban centers have grown apace over the past half-century or so, we’ve seen the agrarian ideal give way to an economic and social paradigm shift, resulting in fewer yet bigger supplying our food and fiber. Corporately controlled operations have steadily displaced midsized independent family farms, and those ex-farmers often end up moving to cities, seeking other means of livelihood. Iowa—the epitome of a farm state in many people’s minds—provides a good example: It went through a landmark change some time in the late 1950s, with more residents living in cities than on farms and in rural communities.

The USDA defines the different types of farms based on their annual income.

As remaining farmers grow their operations to try to stay in business, agriculturally induced environmental problems have increased. Runoff from agricultural production has contributed to polluted lakes and streams and is at least partially implicated in the ongoing issue of , the lowering of oxygen levels in estuaries, waterways, and coastal waters such as the so-called dead zone found in the Gulf of Mexico.

, smaller farming operations that are defined by the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) as farms with less than $250,000 per year in gross farm income, have tried to remain in the commodities game but are not finding it easy. Statistics from the US Census Bureau show that the farmers in this earning range produce an average net income that hovers not much higher than 10 percent of their gross sales. It doesn’t take a wizard with a calculator to figure out that, at this rate, a quarter-million dollars yields less than an optimal living wage. As a result, an overwhelming percentage of small farms depend on nonfarm income, including off-farm jobs, government subsidies, payments from programs such as the Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) and Grassland Reserve Program (GRP), and whatever other means of additional income they are able to obtain to keep their farms operational.

Agripreneurs

Some small farmers run their operations as successful commercial enterprises, not by competing with the big farms but by taking advantage of direct marketing, organic production, and other strategies to be self-supporting on a small acreage. Many do quite well, generating net incomes as high as 50 percent of their gross. These “agripreneurs” (agricultural entrepreneurs) build successful businesses on farms and ranches ranging from postage-stamp size to hundreds of acres. They’re serious about making a profit, taking the initiative to learn about alternative production methods and making sure they are growing things they will be able sell, a requisite for making a profit. As experts will tell you, knowing your market is essential before putting anything on or in the ground!

For example, Melvin and Carol Moon, conventional berry growers in the Puyallup Valley in Washington, were selling to wholesalers, but they realized that they were going to need to do something different to survive. Thus, they launched Puyallup Valley Jam Factory, using their own berries to make jams. Their product took off, and they not only have customers lined up, waiting for their homegrown goodness-in-a-jar, they also ship worldwide.

Some farmers concentrate on a specific niche, such as growing organic produce, to earn a profit.

Another success story is that of a professional couple, Stephen and Susan Robins, who retired to San Juan Island, north of Seattle. As Susan says, “We had twenty-five acres on the island that we loved, and we had to think of something to do with it. We wanted to preserve it for open space, so our first concept was that we would start an organic farm where we would have a crop that didn’t use water, didn’t use fertilizer, and where we could make added-value products on a year-round basis so we could spread the enterprise over the entire year instead of being seasonal.”

Their vision to protect a quiet valley from residential development and share that space with other islanders and visitors while making it productive and self-sustaining has developed into an organically grown lavender farm that includes an on-site distillery for essential oils, provides jobs for local residents, and produces handcrafted lavender products. Their products include lavender sugar, pepper, and vinegar; lavender soaps, shampoos, and body lotions; and lavender lip balm and massage oil.

Together with their crew, the Robinses grow and harvest the lavender, all by hand. Next, they distill the oil and create the products. Finally, they market the products at an on-farm store, at their local farmers’ market, and through their website, www.pelindabalavender.com. Although they work with a few retailers who sell their products, Susan says, “We have discovered that our products sell best when they’re in a closed environment—that is, a dedicated store—rather than sold among a lot of machine-made products. Our products are handcrafted and they are beautiful, but they get lost among the other ones that are slick.” The direct marketing also enables them to capture a bigger portion of the consumer’s dollar.

A Lifestyle Choice

Not everyone in the small-farm realm is ready for or interested in the kind of business that the Moons and the Robinses have developed. For example, Ken and Jill Giese raise a large garden on sixteen acres in New York, mainly to feed their family of six. They also raise turkeys and chickens, which they market directly or in cooperation with other small poultry producers. They didn’t have much capital to get started, so while they were growing their business to a sustaining size, Ken worked part time on dairy farms and for construction companies in the area. The Gieses do much of their work with a draft horse, but when they need to use a tractor, they barter work for equipment use with some of the farmers Ken works for occasionally.

Judy and Sam Cavagnetto are also lifestyle farmers. Sam’s job as a full-time over-the-road trucker for a large moving-van line allowed the couple to live anywhere they chose. They chose thirty-five acres in the mountains of Colorado. Judy and Sam wanted a great place with a small-town atmosphere in which to raise their kids. They keep horses, and the kids raise animals for 4-H.

Gustavo and Michelle Huerta also chose the country for its lifestyle. They were raised in Miami, but violence became too much a part of life there, so they decided to relocate to Tennessee. Here, Gustavo, a medical doctor, could establish his surgical practice, and the family could operate a small farm. With 200 acres, they raise a garden and horses, cattle, goats, and chickens.

Although these lifestyle farms don’t have to make money for their owners, they pay with quality-of-life values that cannot be purchased. John Ikerd, Professor Emeritus of agricultural economics at the University of Missouri and a strong supporter of sustainable agriculture says, “What would you have to earn to buy the quality of life that a farm offers, from scenic areas and recreational opportunities to personal safety and a school for your children where the teachers know them and care about them? What is it worth if you are really living a life that has meaning in terms of a place to live? What would it cost for the view, the private schools, the clubs? In real economic terms, these are costs that shouldn’t be marginalized.”

For both the Cavagnetto and the Huerta families, it is lifestyle value that they seek. They believe that their children have experiences on the farms that they wouldn’t get in the city or the suburbs. Indeed, making money is only one reason to farm, and, for many of these owners, not always the most important goal. Reflecting this evolution of focus, average farm size has dropped, reflecting an increase in small-farm operations in the 10- to 179-acre size range. Whether these farms have been in the family for a century or more or have been acquired by newcomers to rural life, small-farm owners demonstrate a variety of approaches to maintaining a diverse and vibrant agricultural community while protecting rural values, responding to consumer wants, and ensuring a healthy environment for generations to come. People are connecting with...