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SC Wisconsin | A little background, I'm 28 years old. Grew up on a farm we raised holstein steers and some hogs and cash cropped a few hundred acres. Not enough room for me there so I started on my own, I run 50 acres of of corn, 20-30 acres of hay, raise jersey and holsteins steers from bottles to fats. Have between 40-50 calves on milk, about 190 total on feed. My dream has always been to milk cows, but if that doesn't materialize in the next couple years I will end up throwing that dream away. I do own about 20 milk cows I raise all the young stock wether they are heifers or steers. The milk cows are kept at my uncle's dairy so I don't actually milk them myself as of now. I work 3rd shift as a mechanic at a factory with a 12 day on 2 day off schedule. My plan was always to milk and quit my factory job by the time I'm 30. The main thing keeping me from starting milking on my own (besides the terrible prices right now) is that I can't find a place to milk at yet. I do own 40 acres with a house that I have built a steer shed and grain bin at, but building a dairy from scratch isn't feasible no matter what the dairy economy looks like. I guess my question is what sort of sideline businesses others have that allow them to farm but still provides a decent source of income? I'm thinking if I cant find a place to start milking in the next couple years I will just add on to my steer numbers, thinking in the 300-400 range, and find some kind of side job to do to help pay the bills. I bought a new round baler this year, but the custom baling market is pretty well saturated in our area. Also thought a wrapper or silage bagging business would be a good idea. I am kind of hesitant to put all my eggs in one basket so to speak, so I think some kind of work outside of ag would be good. After all, if I'm having a hard time paying bills when the AG economy is in the dumps, so would my customers. Just looking.for ideas is all. Thanks.
Also to add, there are alot of businesses around that I could go work for and could get hired on the spot working part time as I know I have a good reputation for being honest and hard worker, but after 10 years I'm getting tired of punching the clock and being just a number. Just want to be by own boss someday is all. | |
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What sideline businesses or jobs do you have?
