Farming, Dream Life? You Decide.

Is farming the dream life? You'll have to decide for yourself.

I'd love to be optimistic, toting all the benefits and romance of how great farm life is- sunshine and roses type of thing, focused on all the positives of being natural, sustainable, eco friendly and eating the best food. Even a good full day of hard work is often very rewarding, but there's always the bottom line to confront. You know, the bitter reality of finances and what it will really cost you in income, lifestyle and relationships.

This blog is not to discourage anyone from their passions of trying to make a small farm profitable, especially if you're doing it consciously to honour the land, reverse climate change or to be more self sufficient, but there's a grim truth to how extremely difficult it can be. Hobby farming requires time and investment, and as with all businesses it is a gamble. If you have a passion for living off the land, despite the workload and monetary risk, it might be worth it because you're committed to your vision. But you can’t escape mathematics forever.

The crusher is trading time for money. That is, after the initial investment in farm set up: land investment, barn set up, equipment acquisition and repair, purchasing animals, fences, gates and specialized equipment and feed for their keep and care. Once those things are established and operational (but you're never done improving), evaluate the amount of time you have in a day for getting everything done compared to what you would make at a 'real' job.

In our case, my husband is the brawn of the operation, and I'm always trying to pencil out how to turn a profit in sales. My first, and consistent stumbling block with farming is that your time is always traded for the hope of gain. Or should I say, no gain. If you only account for the minimal involvement as being a few hours a day: an hour of feeding in the morning and an hour of chores in the evening, (with nothing else thrown in for time expense such as mechanics, building, or crops)…even at minimum wage, I believe it’s $15 hour right now in Canada, so 15 times 365 days a year, you quickly discover it translates to a minimum wage of around $10,000 year for your efforts. Or poverty, for one person who shows up faithfully to work everyday.

Actually, if you could count on that minimum wage income, (regardless of the other incidentals of time that you spend in the barn or on the land), if a minimum wage was guaranteed, what a relief that would be. In fact, I would wonder who else would pick up a hay fork and get farming? Procuring a paycheck close to the real hours of fulfilling the responsibilities of being a dedicated farmer, that $10,000 would go far to enduring the sacrifices of farm life.

The harsh truth is the best benefits of farming these days is your health, the health of the land, the righteousness of working with the land and animals in a humane and moral way. Because you're always susceptible to market prices, disease, quotas, fuel costs, weather etc., (you can keep naming setbacks), and you are never guaranteed a minimum wage. I'm sure if you pitched this farm business plan to the Dragon's Den they would, and should say, "I'm out".

These are the trip wires you can expect from small scale farming. An impossible amount of work for next to no pay. The theme of this blog continues to emphasize that you're always trading time for dollars. In the end, those dollars are very small. It might be ludicrous to speculate because the physical tasks involved in homesteading are many and perpetual, but if I was to make a wild guess, I would say between $2 and $3 an hour as pay for farm labour. 

My advice to anyone, keep your operation small and scaled proportionately to your household. Plant just enough for you and your family and animals, or else the strain from start up and maintenance can overcome your budget and relationships. Give everyone duties, and don't expect to go on lots of day tripping adventures. Completely forget about saving for a rainy day, unless you can work outside the home for full time income that isn't needed to funnel back into the farm operation.

In a partnership, you both have to be sold out on the idea of just how much: how much commitment, how much money to spend, and how much time and effort to focus. And get used to the no's. There's a lot of them: ‘Let's go out with friends this weekend.' No, sorry we can't. 'Let's go on a vacation.' Ooh, that will be tricky. 'Can we put a deck on the house?’ Now I'm laughing, how and when?

Believe me, two ambitious hardworking people are finding it difficult to make ends meet. At the end of a full day of working out, you need to tackle chores and find that you still have farming expenses to pay. It's almost a complete all or nothing proposition. It's mentally and physically tiring, and very difficult to become involved in the community or after hours organizations.

I don't know if these are words of wisdom or just reflections of my personal experience. You can pray and think about what level of hobby farming you want to get involved in. Surely everyone can have a garden and maybe get an animal or two to dip your toe in to test farming before becoming extremely committed. Heck, you may end up deciding it's just better to get out to a local farmer's market and reap the benefits from those crazy diehard farmers.

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