Great Small Farm Story (Machias, Washington: lease, buying, school)

[BrokenTap]

Originally Posted by dramamama6685

What I can't grow on my own, I would definitely relish the idea of purchasing it from a small farmer. I find that kind of quality unbeatable.

One of the best things about Maine is that almost all farms are indeed small family farms. As for the regulations, its tough to deal with sometimes, but the water and soil regulations are so numerous here that even the bigger family farms do the right thing. It's an expensive way to farm for sure...and that has its challenges...but the quality of Maine food is well known, and well documented.

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by BrokenTap

I'm not sure. I know a few years ago it was all the rage in other locations, Texas being one of them. Since the pyramid scheme collapsed, many have just released the birds into the wild and last year there was a hunting season for them as the birds have managed to increase uncontrolled.

When I'm not short on time I'll tell a story about emus. The people who have them don't sell them for meat. I'd settle for that. It probably all tastes like chicken anyway.

If you would like, I can take this to a more Maine Based discussion and talk about goats? The same thing happened though no hunting season thus far? All kidding aside,

That's sooo bad!

when the Somalians came to Maine a few years ago many thought the goat market would bloom and thus many, many people got into goats. It overwhelmed supply so much that the price of goat meat tanked and still has not recovered. That does not mean there are not productive goat farmers out there, but I know of several disappointed goat farmers who no longer have their goats.

I intended to raise meat goats when we bought this property. The numbers didn't work when I put together the business plan and that was the end of that. I did have dairy goats and sold some of them for meat but the goats were for our own use, not as a business.

Perhaps 40,000 dollar an acre micro farms in Maine are a reality, but there will be VERY few of them and I doubt its a level they can sustain for any length of time.

It's not perhaps - it is reality. The farm I'm visiting again tomorrow has been doing it for a very long time. It is sustainable. Just like any other business, farming or not, sustainability takes hard work and effort. It also takes knowledge. It's not all that difficult to learn how to do this. It does take time and effort. There's a lot to learn. Plasticulture has been around a long time but few have paid much attention until recently.

My advice is pretty simple: by all means try to get on the leading edge of direct marketing and niche markets, but as you create your farm plan, use the realistic projections and futures based on the typical wholesale commodity prices. If a small scale farmer can do that, then in the good, high yeilding, niche, direct marketing years, they can stuff some money away from when the market sags or obliterates. You can take that sage advice, replete with my examples of past experiences and situations, or you can expect unrealistic numbers that only one or two farms are getting, and basically bet your farm on inflated commodity prices based on an American palatete that is fickle and continuously changing. I have seen way too many farms in the 34 years I have been actively farming in Maine to do that though.

I think there's too much put into niche marketingunless a farmer is particularly interested in niches to begin with. It's great for people who want a lot of variety. If you enjoy changing your business focus it's a great thing. I've been fortunate to have a very patient husband who indulged me while I tried different things until I found what's right and what brings in a livable income. We were always in a position of not needing my income so I could experiment. While your experience is valuable, everyone else has valuable experience too. What you make work might not work for me. What I'm making work might not work for you. That doesn't mean only what works for either of us is right or profitable.

I'm sorry, I gotta stop typing here, I figure if I can make 40K per acre I got a lot of wood to start cutting so I can make 65 million dollars next year on this farm.

You aren't already? Oh right - big farm, wrong equipment, lack of understanding. See? We can both me smart asses.

[mollysmiles]

selling wood?? in this market?? good luck with that!

[Maine Writer]

Originally Posted by mollysmiles

selling wood?? in this market?? good luck with that!

lol True! (really...going back to work. We're seeding this morning.)

[anyagirl]

I am curious...what is a CSA? I am loving this thread, by the way!

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by BrokenTap

We hear this all the time, but I actually see it as being responsible and cautious. 15 years ago you had to hang your head in shame when you said (under your breath and barely audible) that you were a farmer. Now it has suddenly become a vogue occupation again and the industry is being given a plethora of farming fads. Perhaps some will pan out and some will not, but it is a very responsible farmer who is cautious before entering into something that takes a a fair amount of fiscal resources to get into and just cannot be abandoned at a moments notice.

If someone suggests a farming commodity that is easy to get into, takes up very little land, and is not overly expensive, and can be abandoned and another farming fad taken up....then its very easy to see that the niche market will be overrun in very short time as the competition will be fierce. That is not subdued thinking my friends, that is Maine farming. In my town, the average home here has 80 acres...the land base is here.

My family has actually changed commodities several times but the change came from markets that petered out. It began with Apples, grains, sheep, potatoes, chickens and dairy farming. Those were the main crops with lots of smaller markets thrown in, but this has evolved over a 250 years too so some commodities lasted a hundred years or more like sheep and potatoes.

What I am trying to convey here is not blasphemous negativity towards any market, but someone has to raise their hand too at some of these farming ideas and say "wait a minute, we tried this before, how do you intend to get around this, or that, or this issue." The best people to do that are the most experienced ones. I think I qualify for that. I have raised grains, and I have worked in small farms without equipment and I know the benefits and pitfalls of both. Just remember the following list was of commodities and markets that were touted up as being sure winners too. Now look at where these short-lived pyramid schemes stand...

Alpaca farming
Emu's
Ostrich Farming
Organic Dairy Farming
Hops and Barley

The interesting farming fad that we once tried...silk worm farming (yes for silk) back in 1800 here in Maine. According to my Grandfather's² diary, it was a farming scam that hit most of mid-coast Maine.

One fad that hit the West Coast was Eucalyptus farming.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by Maine Writer

Does anyone in Maine raise ostrich? I'd like to try the meat but have no idea where I'd find it.

I have seen them at the Hippy fair [Common Ground Fair].

Last winter I saw a loose ostrich walking around, looking for browse, alongside the freeway near Kelly Road in Orono.

He had gotten loose from somebody.

[Submariner]

Originally Posted by anyagirl

I am curious...what is a CSA? I am loving this thread, by the way!

Community Supported Ag.

A veggie farm: you give them $100 in the winter, and come summer you are listed in their book as having $150 of credit for purchasing their veggies. The credits disappear in the fall, so you need to use them all up during the summer.

The marketing idea is that you are investing in the farm, becoming a 'member' of the farm, so you are more closely connected to the farm. And you save money. They also push the idea that the farmers need the money to buy seed.

In reality the farmers save their seed from the previous year. It is a marketing strategy. It makes customers 'feel' closer to the source of their food.

[BrokenTap]

Originally Posted by mollysmiles

selling wood?? in this market?? good luck with that!

I hear you there. So many are complaining about their "property values" going down. The wood values have tumbled by 30-50 percent so it would downright scare them how much this farm has lost in value the last few months.

I'm still cutting wood though, but I'm decking mine for now and hoping the prices rises pretty soon. No guarantee concerning that and as summer comes along, I'll lose tonnage as the water in the trees evaporate. You can't win, but giving wood away is not something I relish either.

[BrokenTap]

Originally Posted by anyagirl

I am curious...what is a CSA? I am loving this thread, by the way!

In that case you need to check out all 21 pages of this thread still on-going over on the City Data Forum Living Green Sub-Forum. That's a good read too no matter what view you have regarding grass fed livestock.

We talked about everything...

Grass fed versus grain fed
Large versus small farming
Defining what a farm is
Farmer versus homesteader
Etc

//www.city-data.com/forum/green...out-grain.html