How should I go about a career change to FARMING??

This is it in a nutshell.
Go outside and away from the black box in the house and take a long look around.You have neither the time required or maybe the $$ backing to just jump into how did you put it "Farming".Farmers walking away everyday and you wish to begin just stick it out with what you are doing to little to late.

You are way too late...

What if you just want to be a farmhand?

Now that's an idea right there but the pay sucks for a lugger job working dirt.

Make a commitment.

Then be ready to work your damn ass off.

Ready books about agriculture and agronomy.
You might want to look into hemp cheap and healthy produce….. But….
You might want to do farming outside Canada, Europe and US
Have you heard about Agenda 21?
Good luck

Buy arid land.
Build wind-mills
Hook up to grid
Name company anything with 'green' in it

N.B. Only works while Govermnet subsidies apply, which may not be for much longer, reality then sets in that there is no business plan for such things.

First of you need to learn to play the fiddle and sing this John Denver song:



Good luck!

I wish you luck.
Can tell you a few stories.
1. girlfriend married a farmer, he was a REAL farmer inherited farm from parents, land, barn, animals and old house.
She wanted a husband, didn't care much about the farm, it was his living. She was raised in the small town, but never had to work harder then as a secretary in a doctors office air conditioned, spent money like yesterday, and loved her traveling and vacations.

Well did she get a big wakeup call.
Not only did the money the farmer made go right back into the farm, feed, animals, machine payments.
There was dang little left for food and clothes. She has a young girl who was used to getting what she wanted, and that became a big hassle cause the little girl no longer got ANYTHING but necessities. My girlfriend learned to cook, but hated gardening, hated the smell, and the house was literally falling down around her, and her husband was always out in the fields, taking care of the animals, fixing machines, plowing, harvesting, dealing with other farmers etc etc etc

the marriage lasted about 12 years maybe less. She started taking vacations (she drove a schoolbus for spending money), with just herself and the daughter, the husband couldn't leave his farm, animals etc etc etc.
It just all went to hell after that.

She divorced, got a small house on a lake next to her parents and finished raising her daughter without her farmer. The farmer is still in his farm, in a broken down country house, no air conditioning and 30 year old appliances.

He will be in an early grave. He doesn't go to the dentist or doctor, (no insurance), so its just a matter of time.

If I was you, I would rethink my farm idea.

Maybe homestead, get off the grid would be a better approach.
Find some land that you can build a house and some outbuildings, get a rotatiller and some used farm equipment and start small.
Get some goats, chickens, build a few chicken coups, get a few hogs if you want, rabbits etc.
Learn this stuff for a few years. Learn your community. Garden enough to join a farmers market and work the weekends selling your produce.
This allows you and your wife to still have part time jobs to pay the bills, but learn about raising crops, etc

While your learning you get to know your neighbors, the laws about buying and selling seed and crops, you can plant fruit trees, berry bushes, you both can learn to can and dehyrate foods for future use, get into your local library and get books.
Learn all kinds of stuff, how to prune trees, rotate crops, start looking for sales in the state, auctions to find used equipment. Then after a few years of doing ALL THAT.
Reasess your plan to go into farming....

Don't jump in and buy someone's farm up for sale......

also study the flood planes and waterfall charts......

and I'm not a farmer,

just a gardener.

Good luck buddy... I grew up in nebraska and farming isn't as easy as it looks.. I could do it again if I needed to but I have to admit, I'm going to laugh my butt off if shit does ever hit the fan and people think they are going to grow everything they need right out of the gate.. There are more pit falls then you can shake a stick at..

Then on top of that, let's say you do get a full crop of a few things.. Have you given any thought to long term storage ? Do you know how to "can" food ? It goes on and on and on..

Yep, like I said if things fall apart it's going to be one heck of a show.. Growing up learning to hunt, fish, and farm was the greatest.. I myself work in an office and can't wait to pack up and just go back to the easy life..

Farming is not something you can take up as a "career". That would imply making money from it. That's impossible as the big boys have it locked up and will not let you in.

You can farm for subsistence, though, and feed yourself and your family. Basically, corn is easy to grow if you have hot summers and a plentiful source of water. It's a versatile crop, freezes nicely. Makes a lot of things. Same thing for beans and squash. These should be your staples. Along with CHICKENS. Chickens will give you eggs and meat, and are pretty easy to keep fed. Free rangers will find their own food which you can supplement with veggie scraps from your table or some of that corn you're growing.

Potatoes are hard to grow anywhere, forget that.

Tomatoes need a lot of sun and a lot of water, and not that useful for subsistence, but tomato sauce freezes well and will taste good on a cold winter night.

Greens like lettuce and peas do better in cooler places, northern california, new england. But hard to subsist on. I would not try subsistence in climates like that.

Wheat, forget it. Plan to buy flour. Same with sugar.

Your biggest nightmares will be:

* water (gotta have plenty either from rain or well or river)

* PREDATORS. Predators include things that come and eat your chickens, dogs, coyotes, foxes, eagles, hawks. Also things that come and eat your veggies: deer, gophers, rabbits, insects, fungus.

* Turning the soil. Plowing with a horse or cow is a forgotten art. Doing it by hand shovel/pitchfork is backbreaking. You can rent a rototiller but that's pretty hard work too.

Farming is constant struggle. But if you're committed and enjoy getting dirty and sweaty, and doing backbreaking labor sunup til sundown, then ... go for it!

Well you better have lots of $$$$$$$$$$$$$$ and a good job to buy some land, house and barn.

why not?! pleeease elaborate.
Goats are pretty good for the soil... pigs are better.

Learning farming is easy. You find a farmer that is hiring laborers with no experience. You work hard all day long every day for a few years learning everything you can while you are there. The farmer, once he trusts you will be more than happy to give you more and more responsibility. If you prove to him that you can be trusted, you can learn the whole farm in a few years. There is no school for that kind of education. There are a lot of ag schools, if you want to learn about the book keeping and basics of farming, but to really learn how to grow things, you have to do it. I have family in Nebraska that would be glad to have a hard working helper on the farm. They go through a lot of help that does not want to work hard. They usually start you out scooping ditches. The whole family has spent many hours scooping ditches. I'm sure most farms everywhere are the same. A lot of farmers are looking for someone to take over the operation. Most family farmers are well over 50 years old. A lot, like my in-laws, are well over 70. Many will work up a good deal to keep it a family run operation. Very few will sell to the big corporate farms. Work hard and play your cards right, and you could be family farmer.

I consider myself a successful farmer even though I am not a wealthy man. I can't tell you what you should do or what type of farming you should get into, but I can offer a few bits of advise.

Farming is easier than a lot of people on this thread would have you believe. It is a total life commitment, not a job title or a career change. If you do it well you will earn less than most people, but you will eat better than anyone you presently know. You will rarely have extra disposable income, but you will often find that you can trade or barter with other people for things you need. You will slowly cease to be a consumer and start to be a producer. You will find yourself far more in tune with the things in life that are real, like weather, seasons and the passing of time, but you will also learn to let go of things that have little true value in life like pop culture, current fashions and political theater. The friends you make will be far more genuine and decent because they will appreciate you for your efforts, your humanity, your husbandry and stewardship rather than your car, your clothes or your house.

If you have children you will give them the gift of a genuine life, of self reliance and independence and good health and memorable experiences rather than consign them to staring holes in a video screen or a cellphone keyboard in virtual isolation. They will learn how to do things that are useful and worthwhile like caring for living things, preparing their own food and fixing things that are broken rather than mastering the inutile skills of texting and body piercing.

If you are married to someone who shares your vision you will have a deep and meaningful life together based on the kind of things that matter deeply instead of shallow interests that wane like the moon. Your efforts will be force multipliers in a world where reality isn't virtual, but lived hour by hour, day to day, year in and year out.

You will be in better physical shape than your peers, you will think clearly, sleep deeper and without the need of pharmaceuticals, feel alive and involved and learn that no matter what you do in this life that it isn't all about you.

Farming is life.

Everything else is just living.

Good luck with whatever you may do and God bless you.

Have you ever been on a farm? Very little of what you said is true. The hard work part is absolutely true. Wheat and sugar beets are the money crops, along with corn, on most farms. Corn is required if you are going to raise cattle, which you just about have to if you want to make the real money. A successful farmer can make real money, in the years when the weather doesn't wipe them out. Most family farmers I know drive new trucks and have a Cadillac in the garage for special occasions. Not to mention the half million dollar tractors in the barn. Of course if you start out with a mortgage, you don't get the good stuff right away. You start small and buy your way up in the good years.

ummm.. buy a farm?

you should talk to organic chain store, you can work as a supplier

Yes,go buy a farm close to a prison and make a deal with the prison,you can ask them for skilled farmerprisoners for your farm to grow your crops and maintain your farm.

Investigate the past success of the farms you find that you are interested in. Consult whatever public records are available to you (government subsidy or back taxes owed information, etc.) that will help you determine if the farm is being put up for sale because it has been an unprofitable venture for several years.

Investigate the flood plane in the local area. Many farms are placed in low lying areas to take advantage of rainfall runoff. However, it would be best if none or only some of your fields are "bottom fields". These tend to have very loam type fertile soil, but they are also at or near the same elevation as whatever rivers or lakes are in the area.

Buy a farm that has a decent track record and is presently a working farm. It should have crops growing in the field.

If possible, get the seller to agree to sell you the farm before harvest, but stay with you or have someone he recommends who can stay with you and guide you through the first harvest.

This way you will benefit from the profit of harvesting of that crop without having made much of an investment in sowing it and you will also have been shown exactly how to harvest the crop.

Purchase the equipment that is currently being used to work the farm, lock stock, and barrel. This way you are sure you have what you need to sow, cultivate, and harvest the kind of crops that are grown on that particular farm.

Plan to sow the same crops that are harvested this year for next year so you know that the crop type sown is correct for the kind of soil (pH, nutrients) and environmental conditions (moisture amount, temperatures, etc.) that are true for that particular farm.

Consider offering a family that is used to sharecropping a place to stay on your farm in exchange for that family helping to prepare the fields, sow the crops, cultivate, and harvest the crops. The cash wages paid in this arrangement can be small at first with the understanding they will increase after the first shared harvest so that you are not made cash poor from the arrangement.

Between the advice given by the previous owner (or someone he recommended) and the sharecroping family (or hired help from the area who does not live on your farm) you should be able to gain enough knowledge to be able to successfully run your farm.

You must remember that if you raise animals on your farm (chickens, cows, pigs, etc.), even if it is only to benefit you and your family and perhaps a few others, raising animals is a full time committment. It gets you up early in the morning and working often until sundown. Thus, it is important that you plan things correctly so you have others who help you work your farm.

Good luck with your farm.

...Donot give up your day job. Under the circumstances the best you can hope for is Hobby Farmer . . . enjoy . . .