TBF 077 :: Beginning a Farm - Choosing Enterprises, Farming in the News, and a Hard Lesson

**As I transition to www.TheBeginningFarmer.com I am quickly realizing I'm not as web savvy as I had hoped! In the meantime I will be posting here as well for those of you subscribed through RSS ... and hopefully will have that fixed soon.**

If you are going to be a farmer you have to do some sort of farming! It doesn't matter if it is livestock, vegetables, grains, tree crops, fruits, or whatever else you can think of you still need to be doing something other than living on a place in the country. If you are a fresh beginning farmer like I was just under six years ago the question then becomes, "What sort of farming am I going to do?". This will probably be something that you think about throughout all of your farming research, learning, and even your land search. But, I believe (if your like me) that you may not settle on what works for you until you actually get your "hands dirty" on the farm. Of course there are many things to think about when you are choosing your farm ventures, but on this episode I wanted to talk about five that were particularly important to me.

1. Land :: What can the farming land you have access to support?
2. Money :: Some ventures take much more capital than others, so which ones will fit into your budget the best?
3. Market :: Knowing what is being done in your area and what isn't will be very important to you as you build your farm.
4. Niches :: What can you do to create a specific niche in your area that sets you apart from other farms that may be your "competition"?
5. Passions :: Are you not a big meat eater? Then raising hogs might not be the thing for you! What are you passionate about and what do you love learning and talking about because that will be important when it comes to telling your farm story!

Here are some links related to the New York Times Opinion piece by Bren Smith titled, "Don't Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Farmers" ...

• Growing Farms Podcast Episode 54 - John shares some of his thoughts on the article.
• Permaculture Voices Podcast Episode 65 - Diego shares his thoughts on the article and why he believes the solutions are going about it in the wrong way.
• Let Your Children Grow Up to Be Farmers - A response article from Jenna Woginrich.
• Letters to the Editor regarding the original article - The best response is from Joel Salatin, and it is the first one you'll see.

What advice would you give the beginning farmer looking to find the ventures that fit them and their farms? What do you think about the New York Times opinion piece? I'd love to hear your thoughts in the comments below!

As always, I want to thank you so much for listening and supporting the show with your encouragement and reviews on iTunes! I am continually working to produce a better show, and I'm thankful for all of the listeners sticking with me as I learn.

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Feel free to shoot me an e-mail! As always you can follow along with "The Beginning Farmer" and Crooked Gap Farm by checking out these links ...

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