Re: Help..New to Farming

Posted by Jerry/MT on November 30, 2007 at 12:59:47 from (206.183.116.129):

In Reply to: Help..New to Farming posted by Dennis A. Starliper on November 30, 2007 at 06:52:38:

In my opinion, you need to sit down and draft a plan of what YOU want to do with the ground you are going to use. What would make you happy in retirement and allow you to be a good steward of the land? I raised cattle on small acreages for 21 years before my wife and I bought a small piece of wore out, irrigated land in Western Montana and developed it in to a small beef ranch. My wife always dreamed of having a big garden and canning the fruits of her labor. By the grace of God and a lot of sweat, we are doing that now. We feel we are the luckiest people on the face of the earth to be living our dream.
You could lease the 18 acre pasture out for grazing, you could buy some calves and run them on pasture to utilize the grass, or buy some long yearlings, grass fatten them and markewt them yourself as grass fed beef and sell the meat. You could raise rare breeds of farm livestock that commercial agriculture has pushed to the brink of extinction and thus help preservee that gene pool. It"ll take some investment in the livestock and corrals and can generate some income without a big investment in machinery and equipment. A small tractor to drag the pastures in the spring would be about it and you can probably hire that out cheaper than investing in the equipment and maintaining it.

It seems to me that having a pasture and then just mowing it is a waste of time and fossil fuel when that grass can be converted in to marketable protein by cattle, sheep, or goats.

As an Extension Livestock Advisor I was asked this question many times by people who bought some ground without any idea of what they were going to do with it. Nobody can answer this question but you and to answer it intelligently, you need to do some work. Do some research. The County Cooperative Extension people can be an excellent resource for information to help you in this regard.When you decide what YOU would like to do with the ground, then come back an ask for more specific advise.

Jerry/MT
ex-Extension Livestock Advisor Volunteer
Washington State University Cooperative Extension

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