So Ya Wanna Start A Farm

In this episode, I talk about how we got started farming.  How we grew from just a few acres to an 800+ acre commercial forage farm.  I talk about how it's not magic, you can do it too.

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Episode Transcript

Jon (00:00):
Welcome to the Si Farmer Podcast. Podcast where we talk
farm business, marketingequipment, agronomy, finance.
If it impacts how we farm,we'll probably talk about it
here on this podcast. And todayis no different, you know, in
the past , um, by the way,welcome to season three. The,
in the past two seasons, I'vereally focused heavily on the
marketing. How do you market afarm? And I've really focused

(00:22):
on farms that are not commoditycrops. So if you're farming
corn or soy, the marketing thatI've talked isn't bad for you.
It's just probably nothing thatyou're gonna use to grow your
business because you have aguaranteed market. Now that
market's gonna fluctuate, andthere's a whole side of
marketing that goes into greenmarketing that I don't touch on

(00:44):
too much, but I've reallyfocused on those people growing
a crop that is not a commoditycrop, whether it's, you know,
we're a forage farm. Uh , Iknow people that raise honey,
that raise , uh, direct tomarket cattle. So , uh, raising
cattle and selling into thecommunity, hogs , uh, chickens,
eggs. And if that's what you'redoing, you have to market a

(01:07):
product. There's no commoditymarket that tells you what the
price of your product is. Youdetermine the price of your
product based on yourproduction, based on the
quality of the product, basedon the, the demand for the
product, et cetera. So, youknow, with that, I sort of have
focused on how do we marketfarms and products like that in

(01:27):
this season. I wanna talk moreabout the how do we start
farms. I know a lot of peopleare in the, that I talked to
are trying to grow a farm.
They're just starting out andthey're, they're homesteading
or they're, you know, they'vegot 10 or 15 acres or five
acres and they're trying toraise a few pigs and a few
cows, and they really like thatside of it and want to turn it
into a, a side business or evenpossibly a main business. Well,

(01:52):
we have grown, this is ourthird full year as commercial
forage farm, and we have grown,we've doubled our production
almost every year. First yearwe did it, we did, oh , just
shy of a half a million poundsof forage. And in year two, I

(02:13):
think we did just shy justover, actually just over a
million pounds. And this pastyear we did just over 2 million
pounds of forge. And that'scalculating out tons and bales
and all that. But that'sroughly, you know, roughly how
we , we got there and we'vegrown this farm like anybody
else can. I did not come from alot of money. My parents

(02:35):
weren't rich, they werehardworking people, both owned
small businesses. Um , youknow, I didn't have millions of
dollars in the bank to buyequipment and start out with
zero debt, bought it a littlebit at a time. Uh, I assume
some debt. The , you know, sowe have good banks that work
with us . We have smart peoplethat I can ask questions of.

(02:59):
And I've made good connectionswith landowners. I've become,
and I try to be a very goodtenant, which being a good
tenant gets me more landowners.
I also, you know, we pay goodmoney per acre, and that's hard
to do in the, the big scheme ofit. So with that, you know, I
kind of tell it's a quicklittle deal. One of my dearest

(03:22):
friends passed away a couple ofweeks ago, man , it was tough.
He and I were really, reallyclose and, but I was at the
funeral and a lot of farmersthat we know were there. And
guy who is a pretty big farmer,I mean, he's not huge, but he
is big, he's five, 6,000 acres.
He came up to me and we werejust shooting the bull a little

(03:43):
bit catching up, hadn't seeneach other in a while. And he
asked me, how did you getstarted in this? And that's
what really kind of, kind ofkicked me in the, it kicked me
in the head a little bit andsaid, you know what ? How did I
just sort of have rolled withthe punches for the past few
years and just tried to makegood decisions with a, with

(04:04):
with a view of looking forward,trying to grow, trying to
become more efficient. Becausein , in our farm, if we can't
be efficient, we can't grow.
It's too expensive. So, youknow, we , we got to looking at
it and saying, you know, howdid I start? And I, I mean,
the, the answer is, you know,it's not an exceptionally

(04:25):
exciting story. Kind of a slowmethodic story. You know,
again, I didn't have millionsdollars, didn't have rich
parents, didn't own, don't owna , you know, don't own enough
land to make it profitable offthe bat. So we had to go about
it a different way. And we did.
And so far we've done prettywell with it. So let's get into

(04:45):
this podcast. Welcome to the SiFarmer podcast. I'm a first
generation farmer trying togrow a small farm into a
successful business. And thispodcast, we talk about the
things that impact farms. Wetalk about marketing, business,
technology, equipment. If itimpacts how we farm, we'll
probably talk about it here.
Let's get into the show.
Today's podcast is sponsored byLittle Tractor and Equipment
Company. Now, I've worked withthese guys for years. These are

(05:06):
great guys and they really careabout the small farmer carry a
lot of lines of products,tractors and lawnmowers and all
kinds of stuff. But one of thethings they carry that's really
unique is they carry usedcoyote tractor parts. So if you
run an older coyote and arelooking for an engine or a
transmission for , uh, an LB1914 or something like that,
check these guys out. Go tolittle tractor.com and click on

(05:28):
the used parts tab. Like I wassaying, you know, how did we
get into this? And I startedout, like a lot of guys had a
few acres, had a cow. Ibutchered that cow. We ate
steak, we liked it. I liked thework. I like the physical side
of that work. I'm not amulti-generational farmer. Um ,

(05:53):
my parents didn't farm. My dadwas a , a , a metallurgist and
a Chemical engineer. And mymother was a music teacher.
They both owned smallbusinesses at , at different
points. My mother taught musiclessons and my dad , um, and in
his later years owned a , ownedan insurance agency in a small
town out on the East coast. Mygrandparents were farmers, but

(06:16):
they weren't big farmers. Theywere, you know, to call 'em
farmers. Was they, they, theygrew food to eat. You know, the
depression era. Their, theirfarm consisted of what they
needed to eat for the year.
They were , they wanted, ifthey wanted ham, they, they had
to raise pigs. They wantedbeef, they had to raise cattle.
Um, they didn't sell cattleinto, I mean, I'm sure they

(06:38):
sold a cow or two here andthere when they did, but most
of their farming wassubsistence. So I didn't come
in it . I'm not amulti-generational farmer, so
I'm starting this from scratch.
Um, but started it knowing thatI love the work. I like the
hard work of it. And so thequestion that I was talking

(07:01):
about earlier was , how did Iget started? Well, we had a few
cows and I had grown a herdfrom one cow. And over several
years grew from one cow to twoto 10, to 30 to 50 to almost 70
head. And I started, I wasbuying hay for most of that.
And I started the, the, youknow, I started growing my own

(07:24):
hay, started bailing my ownhay. Any, any place that let me
bale , I'd bale it. 'causeevery bale I bailed made it a
little cheaper for me to farm.
Now, being in this for a while, I can tell you it was
probably more expensive to bailmy own hay than it was to buy
hay. I could have bought haycheaper than I could bail it.

(07:45):
And you know, guys will say,well, if you've got a cheap
tractor and you buy an old 8 53baler , um, you can bail it
cheap and you can, but when youfactor in the cost of equipment
and the cost of depreciationand all of that, it is almost
always in , in some large scaleoperations. This probably does
not, does not qualify, but it'salmost always cheaper. Buy your

(08:08):
hay, take the ground thatyou're bailing in hay, put more
stock on it. Buy hay. And I'm aforage farmer, so I want you to
buy hay. We also have abusiness where we're, we're
starting to sell , um, somepackages to help people improve
the quality of their pasture.
So we're getting into theagronomy side of it and helping
people grow, grow better,lusher, thicker pastures.

(08:31):
Because better pastures meansmore carrying capacity, which
means you can have more care ,more caring . Pest means more
stock, which means you can makemore money. So, you know, we,
it was, it would've probablybeen cheaper for me to have
bought hay all those years, butI liked the process. So I did
it. It was something I enjoyedout there. The tractor mowing,

(08:53):
raking bailing hay. We had theopportunity to pick up, I think
it was an 80 acre block, an 88,I think it was an 80 and bale
hay on it. Couldn't run stockon it. It wasn't fenced, but it
wasn't great . It wasn't rowcrop ground, but we could pick
it up and bale and outta that80, there was probably, I don't
know , uh, it was probably 65,70 acres of available ground.

(09:18):
And so we did it. And then Ihad a surplus of hay. I had
more hay than I needed to feedfor my stock. So what do you ,
did ? You sell it. And I reallylike, now there are some hay
customers that are challenging.
If you sell hay, if you sellanything, there are challenging
customers. But I like people,especially, I'm not a big fan

(09:44):
of big groups of people. I, Iget, I get a little nervous,
but I love one-on-one, talkingto people, getting to know
people, trying to figure outhow can I help them? And, you
know, how can they help me andhow can I help them? How do we
build a relationship? So I , Ilike that part of it. So, you
know, we started by, we startedselling hay , and I just kind

(10:04):
of put the word out, Hey, I'vegot some extra bales here. I've
got, you know, four or 500bales stacked up here if
anybody wants some. And we soldit. So didn't have a bale left
at the end of the year otherthan what I needed for my
stock. And I always tried tohave a surplus so that I
didn't, I never wanted to bescrambling for hay at the end
of the season. And right nowwe're getting, our business is

(10:25):
getting call after call aftercall of people needing hay
'cause they didn't, didn't planwell enough. And they're,
they're caught in a bind. Andwe were sold out of all of our
hay. We were sold out by the1st of December. So, you know,
we're sort of in that, tryingto help people, trying to find
other hay producers that mighthave some surplus left that

(10:47):
they're willing to sell. So wetry to connect people up. Some
people would say that's a badbusiness decision and I would
disagree with them . I'm hereto help. But anyway, so when we
got to that, that next piece ofground really liked the hay
production side of the businessas much as I liked the
livestock. So I sort of slowedthe livestock down. Cattle

(11:08):
market was kind of depressedback then. So I kind of slowed
the market, slowed the, the,the, the livestock down and
went more into the hay side ofit. Um, but when I got asked
the question of how did you getstarted, it didn't just dawn on
me say, Hey, I'm gonna start ahay farm. I'm gonna start a
forage farm. Well, it just sortof grew as I made decisions

(11:32):
based on a couple of things onwhat I wanted to do. Because
it's hard to be, it's hard tobe passionate about something
that you don't want to do. Ifall you want to do is make
money and that's all you careabout is making the money,
farming is probably not gonnabe the business you choose. Can
you make a ton of money at it?

(11:52):
Here you're , there are guyswho make really, really good
livings farming, but they'repassionate that you'll find on
almost all cases they'repassionate about. They love to
farm. When they sit down atdinner, that's what they talk
about. When they go out, whenthey go out with their friends,
they're talking about farming.
That's, I mean, it's just thekind of person you have to be

(12:14):
to be successful at that. Andyou have to be patient. You
have to absorb huge amounts ofcapital. Like , you know, you
have to spend tons of capitalto get into it because tractors
are expensive. Bailers areexpensive. You have to be
willing to do that , to get, toget to where you can actually

(12:36):
make money at it. And that'sone of the challenges in
getting farm started and becomebeing a new farmer, is it's so
capital intensive. When youstart, you know, second
generation farmers, people whoare starting out in their dad's
farm to their grandpa's farmed, you know, they're , I won't
say it's easy 'cause I don'twanna diminish the hard work
that these guys put in. I knowseveral multi-generational
farmers that are these kids andthese men that are, are my age

(13:00):
and they're hard workers. Theyare not afraid of hard work.
And I don't want to diminishwhat they do. But when you
start from scratch, there arechallenges that we as first
generation farmers have thatthey don't have , uh, access to
an old piece of equipment thatjust makes a job easier. And

(13:20):
grandpa had it sitting aroundfor 30 years. You , you go out
and you , you use it . I mean,it's, it's those type of things
that make jobs easier. And it'sthe little tools, the, the
advice, the council that firstgeneration farmers, we struggle
with. We struggle with havingthe council , the, the people
that we can lean on to askquestions. I mean, how do we

(13:42):
get started? Well, we makemistakes, big mistakes. I made
a huge mistake cost hens ofthousands of dollars. And that
was, I, I made a mistake ofplanting when I shouldn't have.
Now I was able to save thecrop, barely. And it's become,
it , it , it , it has done wellin, in the, the subsequent

(14:04):
years. But the first year itwas 200 plus dollars an acre to
plan it and saw zero income, infact, only saw expenses on
those acres. I mean, there waszero revenue from it. So, I
mean, you, I put this hugeamount of money down and saw

(14:24):
zero return. And not only zeroreturn. I had to spend money on
it. And it was a huge loss. ButI learned I won't make that
mistake again. And you have to,but being able to, you know,
not only financially butemotionally accept those hits
is a big part of how you getstarted. You have to be willing

(14:47):
to take the gut punch. Yougotta be willing to stand up
there and take the hit. And wasit a financial hit? Yeah, a big
one. But it was as much anemotional hit when you make
those mistakes. And if you'restarting farming, you will make
those mistakes. If you're justgetting started and you're a
first generation farmer, heck ,if you're , I talked to a row

(15:09):
crop farmer the other day madea huge mistake. He planted a
non roundup ready corn and thensprayed it with Roundup. And
this was on like a hundredacres. Killed it all. I mean,
it was a bad, bad dealfinancially, but also
emotionally, it's a tough thingto think that you made that
mistake and it's all on you. Sowhen we, you know, when we get

(15:33):
started in farming, we have tobe willing to absorb these
hits. And not all , they'renot, you know, new farmer. Yes,
it's financially tough,financially, very, very
difficult. I know a another guywho's just getting started like
me a a little older, like, Imean, he is younger than me,
but he's, you know, he is upthere in age. He's already had

(15:53):
a career and he's starting inthe row crop side of it . And
he's struggling financiallystruggling , um, acquiring
land, struggling, acquiring,you know, it's a struggle. And,
and we talk about it 'causeit's difficult. He didn't come
from a multi-generational farmfamily, he's just starting. But

(16:13):
this whole idea of, you know,you hear so much negative about
getting into farming. There arethe positives too. And I love
the , I mean the life man ,there's not much better than
being out. I mean , I have a ,we have a swather, we have a
John Deere. Uh , it's a W2 35swather. There is probably no

(16:36):
more enjoyable day other thanmaybe a day with my family, but
there's probably no moreenjoyable day than sitting in
that swather coming over apretty green hay field where
there's nothing around you thatyou can see except, except
alfalfa or grass or whatever itis. You're mowing you . It just
me and my dog, man, what abeautiful day. I love it. And

(17:00):
the lifestyle is amazing. Butyou have to be strong in this.
I i I go through this story andtell these things because we
need more farmers in thiscountry. We need more. And it's
getting harder and harder to bea small farmer. Corporations,
corporate farms, and even the,the large family farms are

(17:26):
corporations, and they make ithard on small farmers because
of they make huge blocks ofland deals. They're able to buy
land at a, at, at huge pricesthat there's no way that you
can afford a piece of land.
That the land cannot generateenough revenue from farming to
be able to afford the land. Andcorporations come in in and buy

(17:49):
it. Um , the wealthier buyingthis land as investment
property and then, you know,turning around and either doing
nothing with it or leasing itto farmers. So, you know, in
some ways that's anopportunity, but it makes it
hard for a young farmer to getstarted. And my purpose here in
this whole, in telling thesestories is follow your dreams.

(18:11):
If you wanna farm, you can doit. You can get into it and you
can start farming. But bewilling to take the hits, be
willing to take, you know, thegut punch of, man, you made a
mistake and you lost a hundredacres, a hundred acres of crop,
you planted it and nothing cameup. You , you, you know, you

(18:32):
got a piece of equipment thatbreaks, you gotta figure it
out. It's tough. And it is, youknow, it can be an emotional
rollercoaster. We were justreading an article the other
day, I'm sort of passionateabout , um, I've had some
family members that had somemental health issues and never
got help. And so I read anarticle in , um, oh , I believe

(18:52):
it was Ag Agricultural Drive.
It was a , it was a reprint ofsomething, but it was , um,
talking about mental health andfarmers. And I did a whole
podcast on the suicide rateamong farmers. And I think
that, you know, there are some,some challenges and when these
emotional hits keep happening,because it's not only your
livelihood, something you'repassionate about, and when both

(19:15):
of those things fail, itemotionally is brutal. And we,
we are seeing high, highsuicide rates in the farming
community and a difficulty ingetting people help. Uh, you
know, I , my purpose here, andI , I've kind of rambled just a
little bit, but it's, it ,it's, I wanna be encouraging

(19:36):
and say you can farm. But Ialso wanna put that little,
that little touch of reality inthere that be willing to take
the body blows because they'llhappen. And when they do, be
willing to ask for help. Bewilling to put the time and the
effort and the work into fixingit. You know, you can do this.

(20:01):
That it is possible in today'sworld to start farming and be
successful at it. Now again,you're not gonna be rich. If
you wanna be rich. You're a loteasier, a lot more secure ways
to do it than farming. But ifyou're like me and this is the
life you like, the people youlike, the the the things you
like to do, man, it's great. So, uh, you know, just kind of

(20:26):
wrap , I , I get close towrapping up here. I just wanna
mention that, you know, we're,we're gonna try to have some
interviews this year. We'regonna try to bring on a
veterinarian and talk aboutsome livestock issues and , um,
you know, how we treat ourlivestock. And, and the, you
know, me, I'm a forage farmer,so I'm always passionate. I I'm
trying to grow a great forge.
But I also love to talk toveterinarians about,

Speaker 4 (20:46):
About, you know, what's a great forge? What can
we do better in the forageindustry to make it more
palatable to the animals? We'regonna bring some manufacturers,
some equipment, people on.
We're gonna, you know, we'regonna talk about a lot of fun
stuff in the , this comingseason. And I apologize, I
dropped off sort of the end oflast season. We got into
production and it's hard to, Istart about four o'clock in the

(21:07):
morning. It , it was hard to dothe podcast and keep up the
farming side of it. And thefarming side won what I like to
do. So anyway, follow us hereon this podcast and we'll catch
you back. We're gonna try toput one out a week and we will
catch you later. Have a greatone. Good luck and God bless.