OFI 622: Answering Listener Questions About Their Future Farming Endeavors | Tuesday Edition

Tuesday Episode

Today I get to answer two listener questions.  Both of these folks are from California and either are getting ready to leave or have already gone.  They both are looking for answers about how to farm exclusively.  I’ll do my best with these questions, but of course there is no easy answer.  However, I see entrepreneurship as a vessel for both of them.  We will see if that appeals to them.

Don’t Share Your Vision:

One of the things that comes up today in answering our listeners questions is when family is negative about your dreams.  This is a very common thing when people are looking to make a change, and especially moving a couple of states away like my listener Brandon is talking about.

Most of the time your family is just worried about you, and they cannot see your vision.  You just need to understand that what sounds like negativity comes from a place of love and caring, and they are just worried about you.

If your family could see things just like you do, they would be fully supportive.  But for a myriad of reasons they don’t see your vision, and therefore they don’t believe that it could work.  If this happens to you, do your best to limit how much you tell your family.  Just don’t share the vision that they cannot see.

Do your best to make good, rationally based decisions before anything gets emotional.  Then when those emotions hit (and they will) you can remember that you did your research and made a good decision.  That will get you through those moments.

Using A Niche:

In both answers today we talked about finding a niche for at least a few of the things you will do on your small farm.  It is important to maximize revenue to be able to grow your farm and turn it into a full-time venture.  If that is your goal, you need to look at ways to make this happen.

Coming up with a niche does not have to be that hard.  It could be agritourism, grass fed beef or a pick your own fruit orchard.  It is just important to understand that once you develop this niche your next job is marketing.  What looks like full-time farming still involves a lot of marketing and running a business.  It is not all checking the livestock and driving tractor.

As you are building your business, you will be doing just that…building a business.  So be prepared to work hard on your farm and even harder in the office!