How to be a Farmer.

[Bro]

In today's fast paced, expensive world in which both parents must work outside the home fast food restaurants have become a way of life. Perhaps the solution is for more Muslims to become involved in the food industry instead of fancy careers in medicine, law or engineering. The Jews have done it, you can find Kosher food, Restaurants, and fast Kosher Delis in nearly every corner of the world, in spite of the Jews being one of the smallest ethnic groups. If the Jews can do it with only 14 million Jews world wide, we certainly can do much more with nearly 2 Billion of us.

You know, I've always wanted to be a farmer of some kind. My parents always had a passion for the outdoors, growing their own food and what not. I never thought about making it into a career or a way of life though until recently. I'm not sure what area would be an ideal location but, I've always had a thing for the west side (us) because the weather always looks nice. I wonder how easy or hard it would be to get into this sort of field. (sorry for being so off topic)

 

[Woodrow]

Re: Would you like some Mcdonalds ?

You know, I've always wanted to be a farmer of some kind. My parents always had a passion for the outdoors, growing their own food and what not. I never thought about making it into a career or a way of life though until recently. I'm not sure what area would be an ideal location but, I've always had a thing for the west side (us) because the weather always looks nice. I wonder how easy or hard it would be to get into this sort of field. (sorry for being so off topic)

There are several ways to break into farming,

Be born on a Farm

Major in Agriculture and livestock management in college and get a job as a range manager on a coporate farm

Buy a farm.

Most people attempt to buy a farm, which is the best but hardest way. Here in the USA to have a productive and cost effective farm it requires buying a very large expanse of land at least 20,000 acres and over a million dollars worth of equipment. Anything smaller would be simply a hobby farm and never produce much income to sustain itself. The people who choose to buy a farm need to understand that they will never make a living off of it, it is an investment to benefit future generations.

The first step is to decide what type of farm you want:

Live stock--Cattle, fowl, sheep, horses etc

Truck--Fruits, vegetables, grains

or a combination.

This will determine what you type of land you need and how much. Usually it comes out best for several families to make it a joint venture and have seperate houses for each family.

My concept of an Ideal farm and one of my dreams is to raise Bison (Tanaka, American Buffalo) I will base this thread upon that.

 

[Woodrow]

Now to think about what I would want as an ideal Bison farm (The same process will work for whatever a person chooses to raise). The first step is to think in terms of the minimum income I actually need to live on. To pay back the initial farm costs and have sufficient income to cover things like gasoline for trips to town. Vehicle maintenance horse care for horses needed to work the bison. I come up with a Minimum of $60,000 per year required. For the first 10 years. That will be essentially a break even point with no profit. At current prices I can realize $1,000 per bison slaughtered. So to get that I need to harvest 60 Bison per year. They are ready to slaughter at 3 years of age. If I intend to Breed the cows once every 3 years I would need a minimum of 180 cows to begin. to allow for calves lost to accident, predators and disease it is best to have double that or 360 cows. That would require about 10 bulls. Now looking that means at any time I would have up to 555 Bison from ages under 1 year to over 3 years(the parents) To farm 555 Bison it takes 3 acres per bison to feed them on natural forage or 1665 acres minimum for my small Bison farm. But Bison need space to roam and will walk 20-50 miles per day so give them roaming room my farm needs to be at least 6,000 acres.

Good, my first step is done I determined the size I need.

 

[GuestFellow]

I would be a terrible farmer, I don't hate animals but I wouldn't like to go anywhere near them...especially cows.

 

[S.Belle]

I grew up near a farm and some of their cows always ended up in our yard lol
i wouldnt mind having one bc i love growing plants and animals it just seems too expensive.... but inshallah when i become old i want to retire and live on a farm.

 

[Woodrow]

I would be a terrible farmer, I don't hate animals but I wouldn't like to go anywhere near them...especially cows.

I don't like cows either which is why I chose Tanaka. the tanaka(Bison) are native to this land and well adapted to the weather. they can also survive on the native grasses without needing food supplements as the cows do to live here. also they do not require any shelter for the harsh winters. In addition the meat is much tastier than beef, more tender and has less fat. they are very resistant to any of the native diseases that plague cows in this region. The draw back is they are not a domesticated animal and very difficult to slaughter in a halal manner. But for healthier meat they are worth the effort.

Now to go to step 2 estimating the initial set up cost.

Land cost-- Fortunatly large parcels of undeveloped acerage is affordable in this region. Looking for approx 6,000 acres I find this:

This is approx 5,000 acres, but could be made to work especially since it has 500 concrete storage buildings on it.

http://www.landandfarm.com/property/Fort_Igloo_Army_Base-296799/

in reality about 10 families pooling together could make that work. So with 10 families working together the cost would be about $200,000 per family. That isLess than the cost of most city house

Now to look at the cost of the Initial Bison cows (Females) Going price for breeding stock is:

$2000 per head for Breeding stock so that is a total of $750,000 for the start up herd. Or $ 75,000 per family if 10 families work together.

Add another $1,000,000 for things like fencing and temporary living qurters, work horses and etc and we have a sart up cost of about 4,000,000 or $400,000 per family if 10 families pool together.

Now reduce this by the available farm grants and incentives for raising Bison and the set up costs drops to about $100,000 per family, with a 30 year no interest agriculture loan this can work out to an initial outlay of $10,000 per family. A workable plan.