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NW, Pennsylvania | Hey Cole,
I am kind of in the same boat. I am 25. Inherited the farm 4 years ago when crop prices were starting the crash and while I was in college at Penn State for chemistry. Back then I really didn't have a good idea what I was doing therefore our yields suffered and I fumbled around most of the time, but this year I finally got my **** together and started grew decent crops for my area. I also work an full-time outside job, but its 2 hours away in a different state (i.e. driving alot). Granted I only farm ~180 ac, it isn't easy to keep it together and play life at the same time. Pretty much what I have learned over the course of the last 4 years is that it nothing is done in a day. You will have to sit down and make reasonable goals for yourself that you want to complete each year, and come up with ways to complete those goals. This year my goal was to be able to get a good emergent crop. Next year I will work with nutrient management techniques to figure out what my plants crave and when. Try to be specific as possible when making these goals. Also, use what you have on the farm. I fortunately inherited a mass of use machinery that I could use to piece together that works, or create my own implement for a particular job. Do not go out to buy something when you have an older version in the weeds, but don't fix up something that will take more to fix it than buying a better version. I did that with our grain drill. I had a IH one that would take 3-5K and several hours of work to fix. I didn't think it would be worth it to fix it, so I just bought a JD 750. It worked beautifully this year, but it also cost 20K. Are you able to take on that kind of debt? Not everyone can. Since you have the trucking company you already diversified you operation. That is my next piece of advice. Diversify your operation, take outside work, do whatever it takes to make sure you can make your bill payments. Diversifying sometimes adds to your overhead costs, but it will also allow you to fallback on a different line of business, if needed. I do most of the grain farming, but my mom has an assortment of animals (e.g. goats, cows, chickens, pigs, turkeys) to limit costs and to eat up my mistakes. They are some of the most well feed animals around. My mom and I both work outside of the farm, so can makes the payments. | |
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How is a young farmer going to make it?
