Why Small Farms Fail
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- Опубліковано 8 кві 2023
- Why do so many small farms fail and go out of business?
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You forgot the biggest and most important reason you succeed in your small farm.
Having a spouse with the same Passion
Your so right . I’ve been raising cattle beef cattle (feeders) for 42 years . I’m 72 years old an biggest thing I learnt was my input cost ! Buying good used equipment you can control what you buy what you pay . I love what I do which is a big asset too me . Raising 20 head of cattle every year which again at 72 years old I’m thankful I can still do it . I borrowed very little money when I started an was fortunate too borrow equipment from farmers in return of helping them out . But that was back in 1980. There’s very if no farms very close now days too barter with others . Watching input is a hug part with a little luck an hard work yes you can make a Buck . Get rich lol . Good message here Pete you got wisdom I’d like too know you personally . From Mac A Do Farms in Broome county
You nailed it, Pete. As a small farm in north central Maine, we struggle big time with burnout and lack of capital to expand. We have to work in carpentry all winter, just to fund the start of farm season in spring. We have no savings, no retirement plan.. we're basically going to have to just farm until we die. Hoping our UA-cam channel takes off someday, but not putting all our eggs in this crazy basket! BUT, we're so proud to be doing our small part to decentralize the food supply, at least in our community.. I think the future will be propped up by small community farms, and we feel blessed to be a part of that.. Thanks for bringing awareness to the struggle, it's VERY real. Support your local farmers, folks!! 💚
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Just came across your comment. You guys are doing something similar to what we are working towards right now. We are still in the phase of learning skills and gardening / raising chickens on our .8 acre. I subscribed to your channel to help you guys out. There isn't many of us, we need to help each other out when we can!
@@tylerk9455 thanks so much Ty 🙏. Keep fighting the good fight. It's worth every last bit of turmoil!
Subscribed to your channel !
@@maheshwaranparamasivan5177 Aw, thanks so much!
Gave up animal farming after only 8 years. Mostly because I could never leave, can't find people who are willing to take on the chores even for a short time especially after they have done it once or twice before. Changed from animal based to Tree Based. Started with Christmas Trees and moved up to the Wholesale fruit and shade trees. Got my freedom back and made way more money than I would have. About 1/4 of the work and time investment which then freed up time to invest in other ventures !
Not much money to be had in animals anymore, my father has taken to raising hey in the past few decades, the farm might actually turn profitable if he stopped raising cows. 😅
We cut our expenses, paid off most everything, changed our lifestyle, and now we homestead , learning the craft for a few years. My husband still works but we look forward to growth!
This is awesome.
I grew up on a dairy and hog farm in Wisconsin. My dad milked cows day and night for 358 days a year. He took off one week a year to vacation and get off of the farm. I am sure that he had burnout but there was no other choice but to slog through the seasons and continue on. He was a tough man for sure and my mom was right there by his side working just as hard. It's a tough life for sure.
There was a time in history when hunting and foraging consumed all your day with so little time for knowledge and science advancement, but farmers changed all that.
I totally get what you are saying. I did go to college but for studies that was incorporated back into the farm. I don't know what will happen when I get to my parents' age. I just pray I'm in just as good of shape that they are in.
Unfortunately, most people's "business plan" for making a million dollars, is starting with 2 million dollars...and before you know it, they are "successful" and have a million dollars...left...maybe. Keep up the good work, I always enjoy your thoughtfulness.
I grew up in the suburbs and fell in love with farming when I moved to upstate NY. I have spent the last 10 years building a small farm of my own. Your right on with high capital requirements. I am lucky in the fact that I have a good outside job. When I first started, I pictured the whole family out working together and at first it did work like that. I have five children, all love animals but I am lucky if I have one kid helping now. It's taken me years to accumulate the equipment and land I need and chase my dreams, we now keep about thirty sheep and have been working into a small hay operation to feed our own animals and sell some. I have never had a more frustrating but satisfying job in my life or one that requires so much from its owners. There have been days I literally have a meltdown in the field over broken equipment or an error I made that was preventable, however I wouldn't choose any other way to spend my days. I'm lucky that in the past five years a neighbor that was a dairy farmer his whole life has taken me under his wing and been helpful and understanding that I am still learning, he's been able to teach me not only on the farm but with life lessons I will carry forever.
Hey there fellow Sheppard 👋
Also run a side farm whit about 30 sheep. Its a weird calling but the smell of baby lambs and the sound of content munching sheep is something that life would be less whitout...
Your old tractors are key too. people spend too much buying shiny new equipment to set up which puts them at a disadvantage before they start
We started off small. We plan to keep it small. We started off growing for ourselves. I had 2 greenhouses to start. I took advice from my twin and her husband, advice from older relatives who have been doing it all their lives. You do have to consider how much raising various animals are going to cost. Shelter. Your monthly bills. Your earnings. I bought 4 hens with portable housings, then I bought 4 more. It worked fine, then various older farmers bought me hens, even food to feed them. He really wanted to help. Last year we. Bought pigs, a few cows, we not trying to rush it. 4 heifers, 2 bulls. We will see how that goes. But we have ducks, a few goats, a lot fruit trees. We are growing a lot of vegetables for our own use. We clear more land each year. Selling a lot of trees help pay the land taxes. We attend auctions, buy farm equipment, ECT. Plus we go to meetings,meet other farmers who are selling, and producing less. Cutting back.some are getting older want sell off equipment. That's good. Even when you have children, there's no guarantee they want to do what you do. We are still learning, unlike my twin,her husband we don't call our selves a big farm, just a tiny one where we grow and produce mainly for ourselves. Because things are so tricky now. I think keeping it small is best, don't overthink it, it's best to under estimate than over estimate. We own the land. Our house is paid for. Yes it's hard work, but if you were born into it, you pretty much know what you are getting into. I have a lot raised garden beds. I use them a lot myself, used the old hay to protect my raised beds. We watch others like you, talk to uncles,. grand parents who have been farming and gardening all of their lives. So we have been keeping it small for about 5 years and that's ok. We can eat the animals, and the other things we grow. We not looking to get rich, but we also want to be able to manage what we have, not go into debt. We do appreciate your channel Pete.👍👌. I've learned a lot by watching others, listening, not criticizing others if they do it differently. team work, I help my husband. He gets up before 5. I have to multitask. This is the life we chose. No need to complain.😅 God Bless you and Hillary and your family
Love, respect and positivity always. Happy Easter. Vee, Andrew and Family.✌️🕯️✨💕🙂👋👣
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A lot of words but no clear message here…
The message was. Start off. Small don't take on more than you can handle. Was that too hard for you to understand.?. Ignorant is bliss. Knowledge is powerful. There's always a smart ass in the bunch. Those my words not my wife's.🙄. Andrew.✌️🖖🙏👏
@@veedejames721 what’s being smartass? It’s a lot of words that could probably be compressed down.. is that too hard to understand?
My Dad had a small country store , he sold drinks groceries on a small scale, he made cold hot sandwiches. He failed after 5 yrs, when I got older I asked him what happened with the store? He simply told me people will drive 15 miles to town to save 50cents on a loaf of bread.....
Probably , people buy bunch of other stuff each saving 25 to 50 cents. People don't just buy a loaf of bread driving 15 miles. They buy stuff for the entire week and save the money that would have been your dad's profit ( and funds for your education ) .
My parents also had a country grocery store when I was growing up. My dad sold to people on credit & gave them good deals on food especially because he knew they needed to feed their families, then when food stamps came out, they passed by our store driving 25 miles to town to spend them, but came back to our store to get the things you couldn’t buy with food stamps on credit. They just couldn’t understand why he closed the store.
Right, spend $20 on guess to save $20. Just buy local and support your community.
This is why I like dogs better. They're loyal.
Walmarts sells everything cheaper and they started the mom and pop store decline!
I think you tube is one of the best things that has happened in the last 10 years. Who would have thought that you could have revenue coming in to help your business run just from filming your everyday life and putting it out there for people to watch. Lots of negatives to the Internet but this is truly one of the positives. Thanks for the video. All the best 🇬🇧.
I'm a broad acre farmer in Australia that used to farm the way you do , and unless there is outside income from another source, then it won't work.
It is just a place to put a house on , and live a bit cheaper.
Even now with 20,000 acres (inherited) , we still live off the capital gain (roughly 10% land value increase) per year.
The bank will allow a 40% - 50% draw down from the capital gain, allowing the farmer to keep going until a good crop comes in.
Sometimes that may be once in 10 years.
We grow wheat ,barley and canola , and can cost up to 2 million to plant.
Best of luck with your operation.
I have a UA-cam channel as well, under the Sivid Productions name.
Excellent advice, not only for farms, but for any business. It takes a lot of sacrifice.
Well said. Raising kids is also lot of effort, that very few can estimate appropriately
14:55 As Pete wraps up this appreciated video, a pig poops in the background to the right - adding to the story that one has to put up with a lot of poop when running a small farm!
This is one of the things I love about your channel Mr. Pete. You show people the good and the bad in small farming. When a sow lays on some of her piglets, you show it. When a cow dies, you show it. When a tractor or other piece of equipment breaks down you show it. There are small farming or homesteading channels out there today that make good money selling a fairytale to those wanting to get in to farming. They present a Norman Rockwell picture where all livestock grows and thrives and all crops are a bumper crop. They also talk about how much money they made farming without taking into account what it cost them to farm. I used to be a small tobacco farmer. I can tell you about good crops I made. I can also tell you about wet years when the tobacco drowned, losing a barn of tobacco to a barn fire, droughts, the rising costs of labor and the scarcity of local labor ect. I once sold a barn of tobacco for 1200.00 and when I got home, I had 900.00 worth of propane bills in the mailbox. I love small farming but you have to go into it in a realistic way. I hope you and your family have a happy Easter!
Yes to all your points. I have a 56 acre farm that we’ve been building up for the last 5 years. Working outside the farm to make money for capital investments makes it incredibly difficult to get anything done on the farm agriculturally. But with perseverance and hard work we’re beginning to see the fruits of our labors.
I can’t get enough of this channel with all the great info on all aspects of the farm life!! Keep it up pete👍🏼
Have you ever worked on a farm or are you an avid farmer?
My wife and I just had a conversation about this over dinner tonight. We just shipped our first beef cattle to the butcher today for direct to consumer sales. She would like to scale up and get started with chickens, but we settled on waiting a year or so. Get our feet under us with one endeavor before adding another
We here in the Fl "panhandle" have an analog to your farmer's story: When asked why he didn't play the Lottery, the ol' farmer sed: "Well, it wouldn't do ME any good (to win the lottery) cuz' I'd just farm 'till it was gone, anyhow...." BTW Pete....don't "let up" on the "Dad Jokes" (I'm a father...)
We have 5 acres and everything you said is on target. We have 3 children that did 4-H and FFA. It's a good lesson to learn were the food comes from and the hard work it takes. It's disappointing that our society sees only the pretty package in the supermarket.
well, our society will get some reality check at some point
Pete I always look forward to the accurate information you give out. My experience from a City Boy that moved to the country was that I always liked the outdoors and the farm part I was intruduced to it by my Father In Law. It was always very enjoyable from the beginning because I didn't have to depend on it for any income, so it was just actually a hobby. The part I enjoyed the most was of course was seeing the newborn calves born each season. The bad part for me was when I lost my Father In Law and he was the brains of the operation and did the majority of the work. Slowly after the burnout began and I eventually sold my few Cows. I still enjoy living out and may in the future get more Cows, but I don't miss the hard work especially in the winter. I have always said, Farmers are some on the smartest and hardest people in the world, MUCH RESPECT IS DUE.
Health, luck and strong will. Very hard to keep a small farm going with out another income coming in. My hats off to you Pete. 45 acres is very small to generate income and big enough to work your self to exhaustion.
You said it. 👍
So true! Only a real farmer knows that !
Absolutely true. The farm was called by our family name for 2 decades after Dad passed, and Mom sold out.
Small towns are a click.
I wasn't related to anyone other than siblings, but we were surrounded by people who were related to each other.
Dad held on to the 1950s into the 70s.
Neighbors worked together, and showed up unasked when there were problems.
Enough said. Thank you Pete.
My husband and I moved back after college started our own cattle herd 4 years ago - up to 65 now. We grew up where we live now and we are still outsiders! lol Or it definitely feels that way. We do rotational grazing, work fulltime "city" jobs, and I run a lot of the business side of the cattle (as a female). People are ALWAYS nice but it feels like we are the odd ducks on the block somedays because we don't fit the norm for this area. Thank you, Pete. I always enjoy your channel.
2 years ago I moved my family to a small town of 1200 in the midst of farming country. It certainly is it's own dynamic which I don't think some people are ready for.
Having had a big dairy farm for 38 years and now an angus cow/calf farm, I found out a no fail method to make money in both cases… DONT SPEND ANY! All your points are valid. Farming is for the strong hearted. It has changed a lot since 1979. I can’t say we have ever made good money. The big dairy required accountants, feed managers, monthly veterinarian and emergency veterinarians, attorneys … the list is long! Never a day off in all those years. We raised 11 children. How did we do it? Gosh, I don’t know.. How we do this? Still don’t know. We are in our 60’s, take one day at a time and trust in a power greater than ourselves. Great presentation
Great video! If I may, I'll mention that scaling up slowly is so important. There are so many beginning farmers that look at where others are and can't wait to get there. So, they exhaust themselves financially, physically, and even mentally trying to get to this idealized place where they think success resides. Slow and steady is generally best. Thanks Pete, and Happy Easter!
Great point!
Yep, be the tortoise, not the hare. Because every time I read the book, the tortoise wins in the end.
That's right, building and developing a family farm is not easy for those who like haste.
This is how I have grown my business. Low and slow. I have not financed any equipment. I could have gone out and financed 50k worth of equipment and it would have made my job a whooooole lot easier. But I wouldn't have made it this far because I would not have been able to pay the loan back. Now in my 4th year things are starting to roll downhill a little easier and I can see growth happening a little quicker.
This is a very important point, in the age of entertainment is our reality, anything about starting a business is not entertaining
I have always heard that marketing is the number one thing that people have to do on a small farm and that most farmers are not good at it.
I agree. Intentional marketing is a mystery to lots of folks.
As I Grampa used to say, takes more than just flour to make biscuits!
Thank you so much for mentioning small restaurants Pete. My wife and I bought a bar with a bad reputation 4 years ago. We rely on our food,,some local, some not. We work 12 hours on a short day, 15 on a long day. We have a very loyal food following and a 5 star rating in the middle of nowhere in a town of 328 souls. Our customer base continues to grow, I keep the menu lively, and new folks come in every day. Thank you Sir.
I am so glad you decided to start a UA-cam channel. I appreciate the way you share the things you do, also your interactions with your family and your animals. 👍🙂
Watching Pete complete the farm work always excites my brother and I. The way he shares is also amazing.
I am an instructor with a farm training program in Texas, and we primarily work with people running a small farm or plan to start one. The business plan plan is generally is the area most people seem to have troubles with. There's no business plan, no timelines, no marketing plan, no financial plan. They come in with those altruistic reasons (I was no different) and burn out quickly as the hemorrhage money and time with no viable plan in place to generate adequate revenue. Likewise, most people just getting started want to bite off way more than they can chew and grow & raise everything, resulting in getting spread too thin, too fast, and never getting good at any one enterprise area.
We work with people through a series of weekly farm planning projects - done in the context of a business plan and they force the students to consider and plan for a wide array of variables. The idea is to have a good plan to guide them through farm start-up and/or expansion of their existing farm/homesteading operation.
We enjoyed your small farm chat, (which, by definition, was a bit depressing) but we have a suggestion for a future: post- use the same checklist on the positive side - the reasons why small farms succeed - with details please. For example, you mentioned needing capital: What for? I can guess, (seed, animal food, maintenance on farm equipment,) but I know there is much more I'm not thinking about. Providing details helps to visualize, not only for potential small farmers, but for the rest of us, so we understand your costs and the cost of your food at market. Related is a question about personal expenses, like health insurance? Are there small farmer policies available or do you carry it through your first vocation? You have amazing skills that will bring you a retiree income. This should be part of your advice to young people who have trouble seeing what it will be like when muscles are tired 20 years from now. And last, marketing: Are there ways to market your products more than you are currently doing, especially considering the competition you say you face in your farm community?
Pete you are wise, eloquent and so generous. Please please continue.
Thank you Pete for the video, everything you said was so true. All I would say to anyone starting and reading this comment is don’t be afraid to fail because fear will find every reason to steer you away from trying
Excellent advice. I've been small farming for about 30 years now and have seen many of the things you mentioned. One thing I've noticed as another reason for failure is lack of skills. You can't afford to hire everything out. Buildings and equipment need maintenance and repair, as do the animals. I've kept the size at what I can do without hired help. I do most of my own repairs on everything. As you said, it's a lot of work, but rewarding work. Thanks for shedding light on a part of farming that get short shrift.
Im sure you've already heard this, but you are really good at this! I never realized how hard it is to "talk" on video for UA-cam until I tried it myself. My husband and I laughed at the result, and could NOT upload that. I went back to uploading video of our small farm with music in the background and words on the video. I wish I had your talent! Im going to watch every single one of your videos.
Hey pete Hope you are well Happy Easter to you and your family and everyone in the chat🐰❤️Lots off Love from Dublin Ireland🇮🇪❤️
The more powerful the catalyst, the more likely change will be adopted.
My catalyst was pretty brutal by most standards. Long commutes, bad bosses, traffic, long hours, on-call , late nights and early mornings. The insignificant feeling of being a small cog in a big machine.
When I have extremely frustrating and bad days on the farm? I pause and reminisce the suffering that I felt before the farm.
Agree, been through all the above in multiple jobs/industries and concluded living your own life on your own terms actually interacting with the world directly is infinitely preferable even if poor. Got one life afterall.
I've got a small farm in Germany. Started it back in 2015 with an pension for horses. Back than we only have 14 horses, now we got around 30. It's an solid, monthly income. With that as a foundation we were able to grow with babysteps. Now we work on 80 acres making our own hay, got machines, a small herd of Dexter Cattle, some sheep. Its not an easy way to be your own boss and its a hard way of life, for sure. But i love it. The biggest problems coming from the goverment, a big load of taxes, rules, laws.
Thank you Pete. After reading "The Richest Man in Babylon" over 45 years ago. I held on to the concept of 10% for your take-home pay for your retirement savings/investments. Always pay yourself first. 20 % of your take-home pay for saving for things you need to buy. Repairs, cars, appliances, DEBT, etc. Then, 70% of your take-home pay for living expenses. Works for me.
"How many missed paychecks are you away from being homeless? "" is a big driver in my life.
Thank you for all you do Pete and Hilary Larson! You have the very best channel. Welcome any time.
Cheers, Chuck in Jensen Beach Florida.
pete, when i was ten i worked on a small ranch near victorville CA. I got paid 50 centsl per day on weekends when in school and then weekly during the summer. The rancher gave us eggs, veggies from his garden and milk from his cows to take home. It was an alfalfa farm of 900 acres. I changed irrigation lines by hand several times a day, learned to drive a tractor a pickup and a windrower and baler, i stuck my foot with a hay fork once and learned a lot of other things....one of the best jobs I ever had. And I will never forget the Hartmans' and their sons who worked so hard.
Really appreciate you. A setup for success. I am into homesteading and maybe someday going into a small farm…we only have 4 acres so it probably won’t turn into a larger enterprise🤙
Hey Pete, I attended a state training on developing nutrient management plans at Cornell this past week, and one of the lead presenters mentioned a group of folks on youtube popularizing making small-scale farming with animals on pasture work. You weren't mentioned by name, but I'm sure he was thinking of you. I mostly work with CAFO farms but believe you are doing an immense good by doing what you do. Keep it up!
The start small with low overhead is the hardest thing to convince newbies with enthusiasm and passion for diving right in. One of my neighbors sums it up best when he says the sign of new farm failure is their shiny new tractors parked in the rain because there isn’t a tractor shed. Wrong priorities all around.
Business Plans are critical!!! It’s a rough tough but very rewarding lifestyle that not much else can compare. Thank you for sharing your experiences and expertise! 🇺🇸🦅🇺🇸
Hey Pete!
Happy Easter brother. Love from Germany🤝 You’re an inspiration on growing and sustaining yourself in the World. Our Food Market is getting more and more saturated with 💉s in our meats and it’s time to raise our own.. Thank you for your guidance!
Pete, I trust You and Hillary have a very Happy Easter. I enjoyed the video today, as I myself have seen way to many small farms here in Southern Ohio go away. I remember as a kid going to the local feed mill which was almost a full farm store. The same feed mill today, is nothing like it once was. Things are palletized for large farm purchases. Gone are the Saturday morning meetings where the World's problems were solved by old farmers.
Thank you. I am 24 and along with my wife, I am becoming a farmer. I work as a teacher, and every second we have free is spent working with our animals in order to grow into what we can dream. Hopefully my Channel will grow into a small but steady flow of income to continue building this dream, because right now it is difficult. God bless!
The small farm we own in new york state is a part of my income but the farm and its zoning has allowed me to run my other businesses out of the farm .I run several small businesses from/on the farm that add up to an income .What you stated about small farms also plays into any business.What we are facing with our businesses is the massive inflation ,it is making things difficult.And i do not see things getting better any time soon.
This is the kind of video I appreciate most on this channel. Thank you.
Learned one important thing on my newer farm. I have grass. Only raise animals that live on grass. Cows, sheep, rabbits can all survive on grass alone. Very few out of pocket expenses after infrastructure is in place.
Happy Easter 🐣 Pete and Hillary.
Happy Easter to you Hilary and Pete and to your little Easter Bunny’s we enjoy your channel very much the way you socialize with those bacon and egg makers yah little Billy getting big he’s gonna be a good bacon maker can’t for get those beller cows if you will there not shy when they want that hay bomb but favorite part you got it those old red power they call farmalls McCormick international s one my favorite why get others when you can farm it all with a farmall any way happy Easter
Thanks Pete, it's a topic that needs to be brought up often, keeps reminding people to not lose sight as to why they do small farming
Great video and great advice. I have a lot smaller place than you ( 20 acres ). My children are grown & my wife left also. I am 74, and very much enjoy watching & listening to you.
Very good video Pete on a very important topic. I think you also missed one important point which is that most young people starting a farm are in the same phase of their life as starting a small family. Raising kids, learning to run a business farming and keeping a healthy relationship with your spouse is almost an impossible endeavor if not approached with open eyes and an open heart. AND the energy left over after a long day of hard labour serving your business is not always enough to cater to that. The longing to belong to something larger than yourself and connect to nature drives us into this, but a strained family situation where one parent is taking the whole load of raising kids while the other is trying to run a farm business is sure to kick us out of it just as quickly. This is especially true for those first generation farmers who have decided to relocate in order to find their dream and often leave their own family and supportive network behind. So yeah, money is surely a big factor but I think on a more personal level when a farm starts eating away at family relationships might be the final straw. Great video again Pete. Thanks for being the face and voice of many of us small farmers out there trying to put this great puzzle together. ❤️
Awesome video Pete!!! I think my in laws are one of the farms you were talking about in your video from the ithaca market! But the awesome thing is that as they retire we are taking over which I think is going to be a big movement in the future young people like my wife and I coming back to there roots and bringing a new way of farming mixed with the experience of the old way which we think is a great recipe for success!!
I love that! Good luck!
Good luck to your endeavor.
Good morning. 🙏☝️👍 He is risen! Amen😊
A sense of reality farming. Ageing is always an issue: Farmer, tractor's.farming equipment, the barns, roofs, water supply, storage and the farm animals.
This rings very true to my experience with a market garden. One of the reasons I was initially drawn to this channel was the small farm/farmer’s market business experience and advice. It has been very inspiring watching you steer (no pun intended) your farm based on solid business practices and the changing economy.
Pete
Your advice and suggestions are always welcome. GB
The model that you represent is difficult to emulate. A high percentage of small businesses fail in the first five years. As you point out, reality and expectations are not always aligned. Not only must there be a willingness to work hard but, as you point out, there must be a business plan and knowledge of how you will generate cash. A couple of generations ago the dumb son went into farming, the other children were off to college or at least the city. That certainly isn’t true anymore. Think of all the skills that Pete has. Not many can replicate those skills.
Could not agree more. Great thoughts. 👍
Are you all listening to Pete’s wonderful advice?
I agree you gotta have a structure and cash flow for any type of business and the hard work you gotta invest into in the beginning.
It wasn't the dumb one that got the farm but rather the oldest surviving son. All the other children knew they would have to make their own way in life. This system is part of the reason why the Catholic Church use to get plenty of recruits for convents and monasteries, they were parachute jobs for those who could not find employment elsewhere. am certain some people joined the church as their first choice, I am also just as certain Church recruitment went down after world war II when mechanization resulted in fewer farm children being born.
@@tsiefhtes while I can’t argue that what you are saying isn’t applicable, or even historical, my world was Protestant and actually vocally anti-Catholic. And yes by the 1960’s the son who had limited options got the farm.
I'm 17 and my life goal is to own a small farm this video was very helpful and I learned a lot from watching this
Very helpful only problem I would be 50 years to late I can still fantasize through your valiant efforts. Can’t wait till the next video and the new up and coming expansion.
I'm looking forward to seeing your new pig breeding project getting going Pete. I've been watching your channel, when you were doing your haying video, your dad got on that old tractor and away he went. you are so luck to have him yet. keep the videos coming.
O.K. Pete...."Expectations..." Well, you can EXPECT to "bust yer hiney" in this gig. An' if you ain't prepared to do THAT, fergit it.''' Always enjoy your sage impressions. Best to you an' your'n!
Exactly what my worry is. We are in year 3 and growing customer base but jumping from chickens to pigs is a big jump and expense.
I hope you are wrong about small farmers and their growth and success. I think that you, Pete, are what I will call a Renaissance Farmer. You had experience on your family farm in your younger years and then went to school and had a successful career in architecture. That provided you with a level of comfort and resources to be able to acquire and transform your family farm into what it is today. I hope there are others like you out there. I wish I were one as being a farmer was my dream as a young boy. There is something about being outdoors, working with your hands, in the dirt and taking care of animals that is very attractive to me. Your drone shots of your farm property show so much about who you and Hillary are as farmers. You care about the land, your barns, your tractors, equipment, etc.. So many struggling farms are often mistaken for junk yards because they have lost something along the way. Thanks for being a farmer, Pete. And thanks for sharing.
I won the lottery!
Just gonna keep farming until it runs out 👍
There are people who love farming and aren't scared of the work, but who simply are not good with people. To be a successful small farmer you have to be a somewhat tolerable salesman since you are marketing directly to the public. For an introvert who loves the isolation of working alone on the farm, going to a farmers market and dealing directly with customers all day is like going to the dentist for a root canal.
I have a small farm that is eating all my money. My wife and I planted 5000 olive trees. It takes around 5 year for these to start bearing substantial amounts of fruits. Lucky we have a business generating enough profit to run the farm.
Common sense video, as always. Finances aside, every farmer I know is “rich” and is doing amazing things. I agree with everything you said and have lived on both sides of farming, just like you and cannot wait to get back to it again as my full time (retirement) job.
Pete your a gem. You are clean and crisp. You understand that farming is a love. You might be down one day and up the next. I absolutely love your thing for International Harvester. I too love that. I Think they built the most innovative tractors and implements through their entire history. I love your channel. Keep going my man!
Good Morning Pete, Aging is a big issue with me. I know you’ve considered this when building out the new pig area. Those shovels of manure seem to get heavier as I age.
Appreciate all you show on here even though I'll never have a farm or homestead. I support local farmers here as much as I can knowing how difficult a life it must be at times watching your channel and a few others on here. I'm sure other subscribers feel the same way and hope they too support local small farmers near them. Produce and meat purchased through them is unlike anything you buy in a commercial grocery store...and that's good. Happy Easter to you and your family Pete. Bless you and your family.
Great video Pete! Thanks for taking the time to make it. I’ve sure been enjoying your channel over the last few years.
Happy Easter, Pete. As a young person getting started, Thank you for the wisdom
Having a small farm is certainly challenging. We hung in there for 10 years, but we are now in the process of getting out of it and planning to move across the country. For us, the main issues are the main issues that most encounter in life: not enough time, and not enough money. I took over the family farm with plenty of savings for my age, and in ten years we spent all of our savings and found ourselves living paycheck to paycheck. We work full time so the farm work had to be done on nights and weekends. I realized over the years that the way other farms around us make money is through economies of scale. They would have the same hay equipment as us, but they would do 10-20 times the acreage that we would cover, and they would also run 10-20 times the number of cattle that we ran. But they were full time farmers, and we weren't, and we had all that we could handle, and it simply wasn't enough to pay the bills. The late nights became harder, and my performance at my day job deteriorated because I was always tired. The worst feeling was working so hard, and not even being able to treat ourselves to a vacation, because we had no extra money. The farm consumed everything. And then there was all of the death. We had one year where we lost multiple animals. It was psychologically very challenging. Once we decided it was time to have children, we also decided it was time to give up the farm, and I think we held on to it for almost too long. We were both burned out from it, and to me, the best feeling was selling off the equipment and finally making money off of it. The only way I ever made money off the farm was by liquidating the assets. I'm obviously still jaded from the experience, and I do love farming, but it also almost became our demise. I do like to think that maybe we will return to it some day, but the fact that we will now be able to take up hobbies and take a vacation is absolutely exhilarating. It's just sad because I'm sure we're not the only ones that have been here...
Great video, Pete. I felt like I was right there having this conversation with you on the woodpile. The knowledge you put out there will proudly outlive you.
You can sell yellow snow to an Eskimo if you market it correctly 😁👌
Enjoyed watching the camera shy squirrel at around 3:30
Hey Pete, your wisdom is showing. Thanks
One day Pete you should come to the UK, most farms are tiny compared to the US, i think you’d be very interested to see what it’s like, you’d love it
I read once that Joel Salatin said or quoted someone that "The farm can give you a living or it can pay the mortgage, but it can't do both" ..... I'm thinking the key to success in farming , if you want to call it that, is inheriting Dad's or Granddad's land, all though if you inherit it, the government wants to take half of your ancestor's possessions for taxes ,the U.S. seems to be the only country in the world that does that......if you have a mortgage on the land, you're going to have to have an outside job.....I think that's why a lot of them fail.
Pete hope you show thr expansion of the barn.
Thank you Pete, for your wise words and opinions.
May I wish you and your family the happiest Easter.
Great advice Pete as always!!! Hope you and the family have a wonderful Easter!!! 🐰🥚🐇🐣
Great video Pete. Farming is not for everybody, livestock farming is totally different than grain farming or crop (vegetables) just as beef is from dairy each is unique as a child.
Here goes the highest compliment I've ever given ANY UA-cam video EVER! Here it goes. I watch my least favorite videos that you make(I still love them) during the commercials of The Masters!! There's absolutely NO WAY I'd ever watch ANYTHING during The Masters! I'm not a small farmer and never will be, but I deeply enjoy watching your videos.
Because we can't sell our produce without huge amounts of un-necessary and expensive government oversight. In my state I can't even legally sell eggs without 3 or 4 different licenses, and they have to be washed and graded and continuously refrigerated. It is next to impossible to sell any sort of processed meat.
Pete that was great advice. I have a degree in business management and while a freshman at university I dreamed of a small farm but after graduating with a BSBM/PM I had to realize exactly everything you just discussed. I have had other businesses through the years but reaching retirement I still dream of a small farm. It is really sad that capitalism has destroyed the core of this country to the point that you must be owned by someone else in order to survive. I admire your success and diligence I see every week on this channel and must commend you for not falling victim to the system. Thanks for sharing!!!!
We are in the beginning of year two, it's hard. Capital, we thought we had enough but we don't. We are limping along but we still moving forward. We just had 17 piglets born so there is hope. We sell at a market every Saturday, no one else sells berkshire pork or pork at all really. It's a good place to start and we have loyal customers already. Thank you as always for your wisdom, I love your channel.
Happy Easter my vicarious friend. And though we've never met, your heart is shared by many. That says what this day is about.👨🌾👩🌾🚸⛪
Pete, you need to go talk to Cornell or Ithaca and teach a small business economics course, and I really mean that. No one is teaching economics at your scale any more, yet small local driven business is exactly what we need in this day and age. And you get it. My opinion...
Hi Pete! I'm a 28 yo aspiring farmer from Belgium, who just switched to working part time. In this way I can create more time to plan appropriately, experiment and observe what works before going full-in on farming.
My wife and I want to create a farm-to-plate business (events/catering). It's a great way to generate extra profit from our actual farm products. BUT this makes the numbers game more complicated and requires more planning and consideration of regulations.
Our ideas are often met with scepticism concerning the profitibality of a farming enterprise. Authentic info and advice from channels such as yours give me a more nuanced view on how to tackle these issues. Thank you for all the great content you send into the world!
Thanks for taking the time to post this Pete.
My little egg and goat dairy farm is just starting out as a hobby farm and it’s solely funded by retirement funds. I was thinking of turning this hobby farm into an LLC and really run it like a business.
Do most of your sales come from selling at the local farmers market?
Hi Ray, yes, all of our sales are at the farmers market. Best of luck.
My husband and I made an LLC for our hobby farm just to protect our income for tax purposes. Laws in your state may vary, but for us it made financial sense.
Thanks Pete for sharing this vital information about how the farm world really is. We also glamorize a lot of things but it’s a lot of hard work and I can see it in the things that you do. Thank you for allowing us to experience the death and the birth of the animals. We appreciate you and your wife.
Happy Easter Pete to you and your family! Keep the great videos coming! Have a good day!😘
Your discussions are rarely without merit! This one is poignant especially for those of us who are at the forefront of this days topic. Thank you from this California family rancher.