Easing Into Farming

My interest in farming goes back to my childhood, one of those prodigious moments I can still remember, telling my parents I wanted to be a rice farmer when I grew up.  By the time I got to high school, my opinion had changed about farming, since it was obviously hard work and little compensation, and I wanted to follow in my dad’s footsteps and be an engineer.  A few years after college, as a software engineer, I bought my first house and had to replace the water heater, which introduced me to tankless water heaters, and that mind opening experience brought me full circle to discovering sustainable agriculture.  Our family still in the process of transitioning to sustainable, ecological farming, and I wanted to share some of our thought processes and plans. 

I’ve been reading Acres, USA for 3 years now, and have attended two of the conferences.  I’ve read several books, and have been inspired by farmers like Joel Salatin of Polyface Farms, and Stacey Roussel of All We Need Farms.  But we’re taking it slow.  With my background in computers, two failed startup companies, and my introspective nature, I’ve noticed that I need hands on experience and apprenticeship before I plunge in on a new venture.  So, we are transitioning slowly, focusing on homesteading first, and learning one new skill each year, then we plan to develop markets for farm products.  Another part of the slowness is our sustainable approach: we want to buy animals for the farm once and breed them for a flock/herd/colony that sustains itself rather than continuing to buy new baby animals each year.  Building up the size of the flock/herd/colony takes time, but in the end is more profitable and better for food security and health.

Here is a high-level timeline of the progress and plans we’ve made:

2006, the year of the garden

·         Garden: 16 square foot garden in the backyard

2007, the year of the land

·         Garden: started preparing 200 sq ft beds for next year with horse manure, started compost pile

·         House: found a 4 acre property that was fairly well hidden from the road, and bought it with plans of building.

2008, the year of the house design

·         Garden: raised 200 square feet, added cow manure, bought precision seeder

·         House: started designing a timber-framed straw-bale home with a radiant slab

2009, the year of the foundation

·         Garden: 3900 square feet raised beds with horse manure and cow manure, built seed starting shelf, bought seed starting heat pads

·         House: finished the house design, poured the foundation walls

2010, the year of the frame cutting

·         Garden: 3900 square feet again

·         House: poured the radiant slab, went to Maine for a week to learn timber framing from Steve Chappell, purchased timbers, and started cutting the joints

2011, the year of the frame raising

·         Garden: reduced to 1300 square feet.  Built soil fertility on remaining 2600 square feet (brought in several pickup loads of free horse manure), built larger compost bins

·         House: finished cutting joints for the timber frame, raised the frame and put the first layer of roof on

·         Rabbits: bought 20 used rabbit cages

2012, the year of the rabbit

·         Garden: expand garden to 2600 square feet, compost rabbit manure

·         House: finish roof, raise straw bale walls, install windows and exterior doors

·         Rabbits: buy 1 rabbit buck and 2 does (NZ Whites or Giant Chinchillas), hoping to raise 6 litters total for 36-48 fryers for ourselves.  Experiment with pastured rabbits and caged/pelleted rabbits.

·         Chickens: build/buy equipment for sustainable pastured poultry (tractors, greenhouse with worm bins, brooders, processing equipment, maggot production, BSF production) next year

2013, the year of the broiler chicken

·         Garden: continue at 3900 square feet, compost rabbit manure

·         House: finish interior of house: interior walls and doors, plumbing, electrical, cabinets, appliances, and move in!

·         Rabbits: expand to 10 does + 1 buck, producing 180-240 fryers, establish market, establish LLC

·         Chickens: start a sustainable Black Australorp flock, producing eggs for consumption, chicks for broilers, and chicks to grow and succeed the flock – goal of having 2 roosters and 30 laying hens by the end of the year

2014, the year of the egg chicken

·         Garden: continue with 3900 square feet

·         House: build garage, finish bedrooms upstairs

·         Rabbits: expand to 20 does + 2 bucks, producing 360-480 fryers

·         Chickens: goal to produce 10 dozen eggs/week, and breed in the spring for 120-240 chicks => keep 30 hens and 2 roosters to further the flock, the rest are broilers

·         Cows:  build/purchase equipment for building a sustainable Jersey herd, with mobile dairy equipment that meets inspection standards

2015, the year of the cow

·         Garden: continue with 3900 square feet

·        Rabbits: expand to 40 does + 4 bucks, producing 720-960 fryers

·         Chickens: produce 20 dozen eggs/week, and breed in the spring for 240-480 chicks => keep 60 hens and 4 roosters to further the flock, the rest are broilers

·         Cows:  buy 8 heifers and 1 bull, breed 4 of the heifers, all raised on pasture

2016, the year of the beef and dairy cow

·        Garden:continue with 3900 square feet

·        Rabbits:expand to 40 does + 4 bucks, producing 720-960 fryers

·        Chickens:produce 20 dozen eggs/week, and breed in the spring for 240-480 chicks => keep 60 hens and 4 roosters to further the flock, the rest are broilers

·        Cows:  breed remaining 4 heifers, finish 4 beeves on grass, produce 12 gallons/day, split between raw milk for consumption, yogurt, cheese, sour cream, butter