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You could let people board their horses there. Unless the whole area is rural and there is no need for that service. But people I know in the cities and suburbs, pay to board their horses and it's around $300-$600/mo.
You could let people board their horses there. Unless the whole area is rural and there is no need for that service. But people I know in the cities and suburbs, pay to board their horses and it's around $300-$600/mo.
Five acres is not enough for more than one horse. Worm infestation becomes a problem.
Is there money in pumpkins???? Am I missing something???
Yeah, believe it or not. Medium sized jack o' lanterns in this area $4-$8. Bigger ones proportionately higher. Let them ripen in the field, cut the vines, bring a few in for display and prissy people, let the rest wander the field to find the one they want. Some places here sell them by the pound but that gets the Weights and Measures folks involved.
You could get involved in Specialty Crop Research and take the government grant money being offered. Pretty much they will give you up to ten million dollars which you need to match, they get the stats from you and you sell whatever and keep the profits.
If you're interested in all the work ... physical labor and infrastructure, as well as the capital investment in small scale agriculture, and you have the water to support the business ....
I'd call upon your county extension office for ideas about what garden crops ... herbs, tomatoes, onions, squash, corn, etc. will grow in your local soil and climate area, preferably organically or naturally.
Hand in hand with this would be to check out your local Farmer's Markets for what products are selling there. If there's not much competition for locally grown natural product, then you may have a niche with some potentially good profits and a very quick return on investment. 8 acres would give you a lot of places to build some high tunnel greenhouses and a lot of production capacity ... far more than you could possibly do by yourself, if you wanted to scale up to that level. You could be getting a fair return on your investment this year if you got started soon.
All of the other crops ... fruit trees, decorative trees, berry patches ... will take some number of years of diligent work before you'll see your first crop, and it won't be a large one for a long time.
And forget the "specialty crop research" program ... that's targeted to serious folks in agriculture, not someone who is playing around with a few hobby acres and no real serious experience in horticulture ... besides which, the 2009 grant application deadline (for "matching" funds) was March 2, 2009; absent a carefully crafted grant application with true scientific qualified staffing and a real intent to pursue research, there's not a chance in he!! you'll get any grant money awarded.
I'd caution you that ... if you're not serious about wanting to put in the investment or time to grow crops (farming is NOT CHEAP!) and to market/sell them, then don't bother getting into this at all. Please also note that a productive tree orchard is not a passive investment ... it's very time and labor consumptive to maximize the potential for the later fruit production, and getting quality fruit to the marketplace means a lot of work to deal with insect pests, birds, and other destructive forces that can play havoc with your production and ROI.
Last edited by sunsprit; 03-05-2009 at 02:12 PM..
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