Late onset agriculture

[amassi]

Anyone ever quit the 9-5 workforce and start or return to some sort of ranching or farming?

I’m approaching 40 and realized that Im only happy when working/laboring with my hands tending to and building things but never happy “at work” would it be insane to consider a change to some sort of land based economy.
Let’s say any income would not be important so long as operating expenses were covered.

Anyone done it?


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[Ucsdryder]

Want to come mow my lawn and pull weeds? I’ll make sure you’re revenue neutral and you can use your hands!!! Sounds like a win win!

 

[jmez]

Starting from scratch, you won't cover operating expenses.

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[FairWeatherFisher]

I personally wouldn’t try it, I didnt grow up on a farm.

I’ve heard of plenty of people trying it. Success stories, I don’t hear very often. Theres a lot you’d need to know that if you didn’t grow up doing might be hard/expensive to learn.

If you’re actually serious about it, you might want to consider looking for work/volunteering as a farm or ranch hand for a few seasons to get a feel for what it involves as well as gaining some knowledge and skills. The one person I’ve heard of successfully making this transition (tech to sheep farming) that’s what they did for about 10 years before starting their own farm.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

You will lose money, potentially lots of money, in the first 2-3 years or more. The potential for profitability and payback on your investment depends on what you plan to farm/ranch.

 

[MattB]

Probably insane. Farming/ranching seems easy but there is a lot more to it than meets the eye. Having to buy or lease land is a major expense, hard to get started unless you have a good bit of capital and it is easy to lose that based on a lack of experience/rookie mistakes.

 

[amassi]

Thinking bougie niche items to sell to hippies/townies
- flowers and honey
- restorative ranched non gmo beef
-chickens
- eggs
- maybe a small pumpkin patch to sell holiday magic
- apple orchard where people will pay to come pick my fruit
- hops for local breweries

^some of this is in jest but these are all profitable ventures within 25 miles of me

I get enough passive income from other investments and my wife’s income to not need to work but I can’t not work. My wife thinks I should be a fishing guide but I’m not a great conversationalist and there’s too many fishing guides around here anyway.

I really just want to move to some property and find a way to offset some of those costs. Having some food security would be an added bonus


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[SloppyJ]

Growing up in the South, that's what my Dad's side did. They farmed. That's slowly been phasing out my whole life. There's not enough money it in anymore for the average joe to make a living doing that. I moved up to a different corner of the state and people ranch up here and have cows. Most of these people take a beating every year and are lucky to break even. Most do it as a side hustle because they grew up doing it or to help retain or secure land. The cost of land is raising the barrier of entry and putting it out of grasp for normal people. A lot of the farms left here are just leased for hay and 90% are generational.

My ultimate goal is to get 40ac or so just for my own use where I could have an acre garden for my family, have a couple cows to eat on, and just be outside of the city.

 

[Iafarmer]

If you’re single you need to pick a wife out of the book…….plat book! You know earn it the old fashion way inherit it.

 

[CorbLand]

Unless you already own the land, I would find something that doesnt require the upfront cost.

If your not worried about making money at it, go work for someone doing it and dont take the risk yourself.

 

[amassi]

Unless you already own the land, I would find something that doesnt require the upfront cost.

If your not worried about making money at it, go work for someone doing it and dont take the risk yourself.

We will be buying land regardless
I’m trying to profit off of that investment


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[SWOHTR]

I'm in a similar dilemma as you. Any way you could start out gardening as a soft intro? Sell things on the side/at local farmers markets?

Also what is "Restorative ranched non GMO"....????

 

[Quicksilver]

Start with an item on your list or two. If it becomes successful take on another one. Once it gets to the point where you think you can dive in then do it! Not farming, but I have a buddy who ended up doing exactly that. Turned a small side business slowly into his main business and now works for himself.

Worst case a couple of the things you listed may just be a nice side gig to earn extra income.

 

[CorbLand]

We will be buying land regardless
I’m trying to profit off of that investment


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Unless I am missing something, in order to profit off of something, you cant just cover operating costs.

If it pencils out, then do it but make sure you arent buying a job unless it is what you really want. Start small and build from there.

 

[mxgsfmdpx]

How much land? Bare land or already established homestead? Infrastructure already in place for livestock? (we called it deadstock when ranching lol).

 

[amassi]

I'm in a similar dilemma as you. Any way you could start out gardening as a soft intro? Sell things on the side/at local farmers markets?

Also what is "Restorative ranched non GMO"....????

Absolutely- added bonus I have some experience there . My first jobs were all orchard and farmers market based.

I already misspoke- it’s regenerative farming, not restorative.


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[CorbLand]

If it pencils out for you, I am jealous in some ways. I think now is a great time to try something like this though. Make sure that you use social media as a tool with doing it. People want things like this and you have to get your name out there.

 

[amassi]

How much land? Bare land or already established homestead? Infrastructure already in place for livestock? (we called it deadstock when ranching lol).

TBD but already established
The size is all over as small as 120 and as large as 600
The 600 acre place is the least developed
Many of them are turn key operations because the owners aged out and their families don’t exist or don’t ranch.
We had ignored many of these listings initially but now I’m looking at them again.
I priced out one and the equipment alone is a sizable asset if I wanted to sell it off.


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[wind gypsy]

Thinking bougie niche items to sell to hippies/townies
- flowers and honey
- restorative ranched non gmo beef
-chickens
- eggs
- maybe a small pumpkin patch to sell holiday magic
- apple orchard where people will pay to come pick my fruit
- hops for local breweries

^some of this is in jest but these are all profitable ventures within 25 miles of me

I get enough passive income from other investments and my wife’s income to not need to work but I can’t not work. My wife thinks I should be a fishing guide but I’m not a great conversationalist and there’s too many fishing guides around here anyway.

I really just want to move to some property and find a way to offset some of those costs. Having some food security would be an added bonus

I've seen lots of boutique organic produce farm stuff that sells their product in non-traditional markets at low scale on the youtubes when researching gardening or soil health stuff for my own projects. Seems to be an ever increasing demand for this type of direct sale stuff but I'd have not a clue on what all goes into making the #'s work. Agree that it sounds awesome in theory!

 

[amassi]

If it pencils out for you, I am jealous in some ways. I think now is a great time to try something like this though. Make sure that you use social media as a tool with doing it.

Agreed- huge weakness for me (social media) but I have a 16 y/o daughter that is a social media savant and would be excited to partake


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