This is Part Five of a series called: How to Start a Farm: 6 Things All Would-Be Farmers Should Know Before Getting Knee Deep in Sheep (or any other farm venture). See Part Four here.
There are people who lead and people who follow. Someone famous said that, I’m sure. I don’t know who it was, but I do know that they were right. 
Each roll is appropriate to certain situations. Leaders initiate action and make changes. Good leaders make positive changes and improve something about the world around them. But they don’t do it alone. In fact, leaders couldn’t change much without followers.
Followers are perfect for getting jobs done and for keeping things going long after the initial action to get them started. I’m sure we all can figure out which one of these characteristics we embody more, leader or follower.
(Even among these laying hens there are the leaders who jump out every time I open the door initiating the search for the greener grass outside their ‘condo’.)
How does this apply to starting a farm? Well, the clue is in the word ’starting’. Like I said above, it’s the leaders that initiate action. And you’re trying to initiate some serious action in the shape of changes to every area of your life if you’re trying to start a farm.
I’m sure this applies with all start up small businesses. If you can’t summon and inflate the leadership qualities that you have, you’re going to struggle during the start-up phase of your farm.
Why? Because initiating action requires certain leadership characteristics such as:
- Finding being in charge exhilarating, not stressful
- Being driven and having the desire to create
Being in Charge: Exhilarating or Exhausting?
There are those who feel on top of the world when they’re the ones who get to call the shots, motivate the team and carry the lions share of the responsibility. These people feel more alive when they’re coordinating a project or focusing on a goal.
This is not something that I have that much experience with. While I don’t mind being in charge and do find it mildly exhilarating, I also find it mildly stressful. Call me a fence sitter when it comes to being the boss.
There are those, however, who cringe at the thought of having to make decisions and be responsible for the outcome of a project. These people will have a hard time starting a farm. Starting a farm is a project and you, along with any partners you have, are completely responsible for making it run. There are opportunities to be farm employees, but there is no space for someone starting a small farm to have an employee mentality. Someone has got to be in charge.
Being Creatively Driven
I spent a few years working on setting up a Teen Room in our public library while I worked there. Everything about the creation of this new space, the fine tuning of the guidelines for it’s use, the rearranging of attitudes around the need for it was exciting to me.
I was inspired and driven to make the new Teen Room a success. And it was. The only problem was, when the room was established and things were running on autopilot, I started to get board. The challenge to create was gone. The creation phase was over and someone more suited to maintenance needed to step in.
Granted, there are projects that inspire me enough to keep me interested even in the maintenance phase but this wasn’t one of them.
Farming needs to be one of these dual inspiration projects if you’re going to make it successful. You need to be the leader in order to get the ball rolling and, even while you’re doing that, you need to be of a follower or maintenance mindset.
Both at once, you ask? Yes. Farming has to be done every day. You need to maintain your animals even while you’re driving the marketing aspect of the business from your office.
A couple of quality follower or maintenance characteristics that will help in your farm business are:
- Enjoying routines
- Thriving on seeing physical results of your labour
Routines-R-Us
This one is mandatory: In order to not go crazy farming, you need to be able to stomach the same routine seven days a week for months at a time. I’m not meaning that you’ll do the exact same things from sun up until sundown. But you will have certain tasks – chores – that remain pretty much unchanged everyday for a whole season sometimes. And they might take you a few hours a day.
If you’re interested in a dairy farm, you’re looking at many hours a day, no changes but the normal farming surprises that come with animals and weather, 365 days a year.
If you don’t have a routine bone in your body, you don’t have a farming bone in your body.
A Result You Can See
For me, this is what makes chores do-able repeatedly. While I don’t do our daily chores these days, I have been an everyday chore-er in the past and know that this is what makes it rewarding for me. Standing back and seeing the turkey curtains on the barn all cleaned out, looking back at the row of cows that are milked and seeing that it is longer than the row yet to be milked.
Daily chores are much easier and more rewarding if you can take joy in the small details and if you feel accomplished when you see the results of your labour.
These are only a couple examples of how the leader and follower in us all need to be tapped into when starting – and running – a farm. Now I’m turning the challenge over to you:
Post a comment below with your thoughts on what characteristics you have that will help you towards your farming goal. And, by all means, share your thoughts on the things you have to work on.
Maybe we can help each other get a balance that will start a farm!
This series of articles has truley put my mind’s desires and my daliy duties in perspective. I am the chore person and I do the daily upkeep of the livestock. We are working toward sustainability as well. Both myself and my husband work off the farm and then come home from our day job and work the farm. Both of us are in education and thus we have periods of time when we school is out and find that farming is such a stress releif. We raise 17 acres of sweet corn, 50 plus acres of hay, sheep, pigs and cattle. It is a challenge but we manage to do it. This is the first year that the sheep have paid for themselves. By this I mean, we sold enough lamb to buy the grain needed for the winter months, we lamb in January and Feburary and they require grain at that time. The cattle are pretty much sustainable as they are grass feed and require little grain through the winter and only to those who are going to calf in January. As far as the sweet corn business, we have been sustainable there since year three, now in year six. We have paid for the equipment, and the seed and fertilizer every year and have made a profit. We have started a new adventure in dairy goats to see if we have a market for milk, cheese and butter. I am the animal lover and my husband the plant lover. We oth lead and we both follow. Our 14 year old is a huge help and loves the fact she gets to drive all the time on the farm and her friends don’t. She is commited to the sheep and is up at 6 before school helping with morning chores. You sure don’t find many like her these day. I will continue to read and check back often to see your progress.
By: Amy on February 20, 2009
at 10:07 am
Amy,
Thanks so much for your comment. I can see that you really get it. Being in education definitely helps – that’s how my Dad managed to farm and work off – but you still need the drive and deep desire to work as hard as you do.
I look forward to hearing more of how things are going for you. And I think others who are looking to start farms could benefit from hearing it straight from as many sources as possible.
Cheers and happy farming,
Colleen
By: colleennyman on March 1, 2009
at 10:34 am
I really want to thank you guys for writing this series of blog articles. My husband is active duty military, but I have always wanted a farm. He’s about eight years away from retirement so we are starting our planning now for the farm we want to have – including investing whatever cash we can stash away (a scary thought these days).
I am definitely the creative leader / planner. I can put down on graph paper in ten seconds flat the facilities I want and how to market our business to the right groups, what kind of livestock we should look at and how best to use them.
My husband is a combination of employee and McGyver. He’d rather not have the responsibility for the big decisions of what type of barn to build and if it needs a central hallway, but once that decision is made he will, guaranteed, find the optimum way to do it at the most effective price. Or he’ll build it himself.
We are also looking at second careers in education while we establish our farm (once he’s retired, of course). I had no idea there were more like us!
By: Shana on March 30, 2009
at 7:54 pm
Shana,
Sounds like you guys have a good team going and are really preparing. Good for you. I love a beautiful horse barn. Hope you get to it soon!
I will continue writing here and there and hopefully will have some more good info for you.
Colleen
By: colleennyman on April 3, 2009
at 2:02 pm
Great reading! When the time comes I figure to have to do some apprenticeship work on a few farms in different places.
Thank you for taking the time to write the series.
I look forward to learning more.
Luner.
By: Luner on April 19, 2009
at 5:50 am
Well I came up with the beginnings of these plans when I was a little girl. I always wanted to live on a farm, I grew up, joined the Navy, met my husband and for the last 18 yrs I guess we’ve been living the easy life. (easy life, yeah right, we have NO THING) I say ENOUGH IS ENOUGH! We have been hard working, hard playing individuals and what do we have to show for it? Not a darn thing! So last fall I did some soul searching, and lots of praying. What could we possibly do with the rest of our lives that maybe, just maybe would lead us to where we wanted to end up? At 40 we’re too old to get new careers that would let us retire before, what, 80? So it’s imperative that we enjoy what we are doing. I want a place of our own where neighbors won’t bug us, because I can’t stand ignorant city neighbors. We want livestock. I beg for routine! I thought hobby farm, my husband wants bigger. He was practically raised on a farm, however it wasn’t his dad’s but his uncles. So old farm money is out. We are both juryriggers from old school, my son thinks I can fix anything with super glue! We both weld and my husband has magic hands when it comes to fixing things. I here the farmers wives say. Bob can fix anything
The dilema that lead me to your blog is ??Where to get the money we need to begin our life?? There are several nice farms in the area for sale, and I’m beginning our business plan. Through God’s help our goal is to have a handle on our life in 4 years. Hopefully by then the remanents from past mistakes will be buried enough to not matter to the bank. And I just dare somebody to tell me I won’t be able to do it! I’m tired of listening to people who think I’m a fool.
By: Jacke on July 12, 2009
at 5:59 pm
I’m 19 years-old, and I’ve lived in Wisconsin’s fourth largest city my entire life. Sure, we have farms around here, but I have only seen them driving down the high way or taking “the long route” home. I’ve always wanted to live on a farm. Maybe it’s the animals or just the idea of being surrounded by nature. Whatever it is I want to do it. I know that it takes a lot of money and a lot of time to be a farmer and a lot of dedication.
But I am determined to have a farm of my own some day.
By: Stephanie on July 20, 2009
at 11:11 am
I recently got off active duty military and I am now in the Reserves and work for the military as a civilian. I have never enjoyed working indoors, and I definitely prefer to see the “fruits of my labor”. I have worked a home garden before, 40′ by 20′. It was my first time really messing with it, but after tilling, planting, and harvesting everything by hand, I had an immense feeling of accomplishment. I’m no stranger to routine and would love to see my budding family, a 16 month old daughter and a baby boy on the way, learn to work with the land around them and co-exist with nature. I long for the hard work that would be required to start a farm and my wife is definitely an organizer and has experience in marketing and retail. I appreciate the posts, they have been very informative, and I was wondering if you could provide tips on the actual start up, ie. the first year.
By: David on July 22, 2009
at 1:06 pm
Wow…I’ve really gotten some great information from your blogs, as well as the follow up posts. I can really relate to Jacke’s post about finding the capital to start up. There’s no doubt in my mind that I would absolutely love the routine and have no problem with the work. I’ve always wanted to live a farm life since I was a little girl. But of course, you become a practical thinker as you grow up…school, college, job, etc. Then you spend your life working doing something that might be meaningful, but not your true passion…and not making the wisest decisions because you’re “living the good life”. So where’s the door to exit the rat race? How do you begin when you have no “old farm money”? Can you start small and save and grow? That’s what I don’t know. How do you literally start from scratch? We only have about 2.5 acres of land right now. I really want chickens and goats, and I’m going to grow a few things. Could I build from there? How much land do I really need for a small farm? I know that I’ll be working outside and coming home to tend whatever I have until I can find a way to make farming my “job”, but what steps do I need to take?
By: NC Farmgirl on October 4, 2009
at 9:29 am