Our main farm enterprise is our CSA market garden; each season we sign up a number of families within about 15 miles (25 km) of the our farm, and deliver fresh organic veggies to them each week. Our delivery season runs about 20 weeks, from early June to mid-October, depending on weather.
Over the years, we have also tried a number of other things, to increase farm income. Some of these worked out and some didn’t. A few are presented here as examples for other small growers looking for additional income.
We tried breeding and raising meat rabbits for a couple years. While the ‘breeding’ part was fairly successful, we found them difficult to raise organically, at least in cages as we were using. We lost a lot of feed due to ’scratching’ by the bunnies, and had a high death rate if we didn’t dose their water with an antibiotic.
Other problems arose when we tried to sell them; there was really only one main buyer in the area, an abattoir that bought bunnies from most of the small local growers. He basically set the price, and you could take it or leave it. We weren’t making money on what he was paying, so we got out of that business, with a couple lessons learned. We also should have researched our methods better, i.e. find someone already doing what we wanted to do, then copy them.
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We raised weaner pigs for a couple years. We bought weaners from a local farmer in the spring, and raised them on pasture through the summer, then sold them directly to our CSA customers in the fall. This worked well, because it was seasonal and we didn’t have to keep breeding stock over the winter. The pork was basically pre-sold; we just told our CSA customers when we signed them up that we would also have pork, so we had orders in hand even before we bought the weaners.
We tried breeding and raising hogs ourselves, with less success. We never got litter sizes up to the point of profitability, and despite much research and investigation we were never able to solve that problem. So we still buy and raise weaners, but we got out of the breeding game.
We kept a few ewes and a ram for a number of years. We did sell quite a few lambs to our existing customers, but this was never a big money maker. You basically need twins from each ewe to make money. And the extra time required for care – things like hoof trimming and shearing – made us decide to get out of that business too. If I was going to do it again I think I would look for a ‘hair’ sheep type that doesn’t need shearing e.g. a Katahdin.
Meat chickens were a success, once we learned how to care for them properly. The key to profit with meat birds is to keep the losses down; you need to get at least 95% of the birds to market. Organic, pasture-raised chicken is very popular with customers, because it actually tastes like chicken. It’s noticeably different from the ’store-bought’ kind. All sold before they are grown to our CSA customers.
We keep a small flock of egg-laying hens, mostly just for us because the eggs are wonderful. We do sell some, but just about enough to pay for our own eggs. There is a young couple with a farm near me that is doing quite well with free-range, organic eggs. They sell all they can produce at a premium price. This is the main enterprise on their place.
We used to raise a couple Jersey steers every year, one for us and one to sell. This worked pretty good in terms of profit; there was a local dairy farmer that basically gave us the bull calves for free, because they weren’t worth much to him. We would get the calves in the spring, keep them through one winter, then ‘beef’ them in the following fall. The cuts were smaller than on a beef animal, but the meat was delicious. We gave this one up when our herd of Lac la Croix ponies and flock of sheep got bigger; we were running out of pasture and something had to go.
We had dairy goats for a few years, and even though we never tried to sell the products, they were a great success. Getting into this business on a comercial scale was beyond our means. We did get just about all our dairy – milk, cheese, yogurt – from the ‘girls’, for literally a few handfuls of grain daily. I figure each goat paid her way many times over just in dairy products, as well as producing (usually) 2 kids a year. We stopped keeping goats when the garden got bigger and busier; it was a trade-off of time spent to manage the goats vs. the garden (I still miss the cold goat’s milk and amazing fresh cheeses, though.)
To sum all this up in ‘lessons learned’ about complementary farm businesses for the small grower:
1: Avoid ‘middlemen’ whenever possible; sell to your end customer and set your own price
2: Think twice before getting in to breeding stock. It’s much easier to raise just their offspring seasonally. In any event I would suggest starting out by learning how to raise the chicks, weaners, calves etc first, before investing in breeding stock.
3: Keep a good handle on your costs and your profits from each enterprise, not excluding your own time to manage it. You might as well do ‘nuthin for nuthin’ as ’somethin for nuthin’. Small operators have to focus on the best payback their time and attention.
About the Author
Scott Kelland is a former management consultant specializing in Planning and Performance Management, and is the owner of award-winning New Terra Farm near Merrickville, Ontario. Scott is the author of ‘Bootstrap Market Gardening, How to Start-up, Market and Manage a Successful Small Farm Business’. Christmas special, just for the readers of Growing Edge: save 25% on ‘Bootstrap Market Gardening’ until December 26. Go to this link; click on ‘add to cart’ and be sure to enter the code ‘Xmas25′ in the discount code box.
Hydroponics Dictionary
