If you’re starting a small farm or market garden of any scale you are going to need plenty of compost. The only thing better than good compost is “Free Compost”.

Especially when starting a farm that is going to be producing vegetables or salad greens. Then having the best soil possible is a must. I would always advise that you start your composting as soon as possible.

Getting your farm or market garden layout and setup will take time. Especially if you are going to be clearing land or erecting a few buildings. 

If you start your composting first and foremost. It will be ready when you need it. Composting takes months to break down the material matter to that black gold you will be using for your soil. It makes sense to start this process first.

Composting is not rocket science there are a few rules to follow when making your own that’s all. If you follow these rules you will have plenty of black gold to use on your land.

Remember this post is to show you that composting on a large scale for free is easy. It is not for your small amount of household compost but the process is still the same.

I will also not be going into the science behind composting. We will leave that to the academics if you want to get into the science behind the whole process. Then there is an excellent link below where you can download a “PDF”

What You Want Is Free Materials For Your Compost Piles And Lots Of It..?

We will also talk about how to make it. Meaning the processes used to get your composting materials to turn to compost black gold.

Manure Based Composting

Manure-based composting is what we like to use for our small farm. There are plenty of farms where we are based. So there is plenty of animal manure around. These farms are more than willing to give you this manure. I’m sure you can find a couple of local farms to you.

They even delivered it to us in 20 Ton loads which is great. All the materials we use for our composting is free and delivered to us free.

The animal manure we use is Horse and Cow. This is the most plentiful. But you can use other animal manures a little list below.

• Horse
• Cow
• Sheep
• Chicken
• Rabbit
• Pig

Now I don’t want to get into what all these different manures have in the way of how many nutrients each will give you. Except chicken is really high in Nitrogen so be careful with that one unless your soil is in need of lots of nitrogen.

We use Horse and Cow Manure which we think are the best overall animal manures to use. Also because we have easy access to it for free. I’m sure you will find local horse owners and cow farmers local to you?

Building Several Piles Of Compost

If you’re composting on a large scale you will want to build several piles. This makes it easier to turn by hand. If you do not have a machine of sorts to turn it with. Also, you will have different aged piles over time. 

Now you can also start to use different materials in different quantities and see which works best. You will soon learn which is best for your area and land.

Then test which compost is working best for you and your soil. You will soon find which of your compost piles is growing the best crops. Also, you will find which is the best compost for different crops. 

This may all sound a little to much work. But I can assure you it’s not especially when you see the fruits of your labor.

Where To Find Your Composting Materials Free

When we first started to build our composting piles. We introduced ourselves to local Cow Farmers and Horse Livery Stabling Businesses. They were more than happy to give us free manure and they even delivered it. We are talking 20-ton tractor loads of manure at once.

Yes, we were local, less than a mile or so. If you are further away you may want to give them a little delivery money.? 

This will keep them happy and it will pay for their fuel costs to deliver. Farmers are more than happy to help out other farmers. They like to have friends just like any other person.

I then found local Landscaping Businesses and contacted them through Facebook or a quick email. Asking if they want to tip their grass cuttings and leaves etc for free. I would even take soil from them and mix it in the compost pile.

You can also ask local Tree Surgeons for Wood Chippings who will gladly tip them for free. Raw wood chippings will rob your soil of nitrogen if added fresh to your soil. 

But if you compost them they will break down. They may take longer to break down but they soak up all the other nutrients in your pile. Wood chippings also give plenty of aeration as they are large and let the air through the pile of compost. This is needed for the whole process to work fast and efficiently. 

Then you also have all your household leftover green waste to add to your compost piles. This may not be much but it all helps to make good compost.

Also, ask your neighbours for their waste grass clippings and green waste. All of these materials, when added, will make your composting piles nutrient-rich. This will all help to get you composting on a large scale. 

Brown and Green Materials

When building your composting piles, you will want to mix your animal manure “which is classed as green” with the right amount of browns “which is wood chippings” etc.

Browns You Can Use To Compost:

• Leaves
• Straw
• Paper & Cardboard
• Sawdust
• Wood Ash
• Wood Chippings & Bark,
• Tea Bags
• Hay

Greens You Can Use To Compost:

• Grass Clippings
• Coffee Grounds and Tea bags
• Vegetable and Fruit Scraps
• Trimmings Perennials and Annual Plant Cuttings
• Annual Weeds that haven’t Set Seed
• Eggshells
• Animal Manures (Cow, Horse, Sheep, Chicken, Rabbit)
• Do Not Use Dog Or cat Droppings

Mixing Your Compost Piles Ratios

Composting includes finding a good mix of “browns” and “greens.” 

Green materials are rich in nitrogen or protein. These are also the items that tend to heat a compost pile up. They help the microorganisms grow and multiply quickly.

The Browns are carbohydrate-rich materials. The job of your browns is as food sources for all the soil-dwelling organisms. These work with the microbes and break down the contents of the pile. Browns help to bulk out your compost. They also help with allowing air to filter through the pile like the larger wood chippings.

Now when mixing your piles look at what the animals were bedded on. Was it Straw, Sawdust or Woods shavings.? As you can see in the lists above this can make a difference.

We like to use around 3 parts brown to 1 part green. You can experiment with this ratio it does not have to be this amount. Try and experiment with your compost piles to find what works best for you. 

Making the perfect compost that will satisfy every single person would be impossible. The best you can hope for is to make the best compost for you with the materials you have. If you don’t have any materials you will have to purchase it in. 

The whole point I am trying to make is that you do not have to. You can find plenty of materials to compost locally to you. That is unless you live on a baron rock.

Composting No It Alls

Some people will tell you one thing and others will tell you another. The thing that matters most is what works for you and what you are happy with. 

You will always get one person who thinks they know everything around composting. Maybe they do know a little more than others. But their word is not gospel. Your land may be different from theirs and may need different compost. 

I haven’t spent my life making compost and I don’t want to. But I have read plenty of books from different sources and watched lots of videos on the subject. They are all different views in their own way but the principles are still the same. 

My main reason for writing this post. Is to show you how to get your materials for composting on a large scale for free. 

If you don’t find the right mix ratio first time then tweak it a little until you do.

Heating Up Your Composting Piles

It is really important to get your pile of materials up to the right temperature. If you do not get the temperature up high enough it will not break down the materials and may start to smell.

This is where you would tweak your pile and maybe add some more green into the pile. Or maybe a little water.?

Purchase yourself a couple of Temperature Gauges these can be a couple of feet in length. It all depends on how big your piles are. I tend to have piles of compost around 6ft to 10ft in height by around 10ft to 15ft in diameter.

You want to get somewhere close to the center of the pile to get the right temperature readings.

Once you have the temperature high enough the materials that you have used will start to break down. This is not a hard thing to do and you will soon get the hang of it. Trust me I did not know a thing about composting and it took all of a couple of weeks to get up to speed.

You want a temperature reading of over 120f. I usually aim for around 150f. The hotter the faster it will break down the materials. The faster your compost will be ready to use.

This is really important and must be kept an eye on. So purchase thermometer

Heating the compost also kills off any weeds that may be in there. It will also kill off weed seeds that may have come from animal manure etc.

Turning Your Compost Piles 

This is also a very important step is to turn your composting piles regularly. If they are large piles as mine are then I do it every couple of weeks and you can see how hot it is in there. It is really hot to give you an idea of how hot it is. Think of a bath that is not boiling but not warm somewhere in between.

Turning your pile helps to aerate the compost adding air into the piles. Now if you’re building large piles like I am in the images seen in this post. It would be hard to turn by hand.

You could build lots of smaller piles and turn those by hand. But what I tend to do is hire a digger. I wait till I have a couple of jobs I want to do around the farm and then hire one for £50 per day. I then turn the pile and do the other jobs I want to do. 

You will save more than the cost of the digger hire in time alone. While also getting other jobs done around your small farm. You can also sell some of your finished compost to cover the cost of the digger hire.

You may have a small tractor with a bucket on the front. If you do, this will do fine for turning your compost. But even if you have to hire a digger you will more than cover the cost in the amount of compost you have

Now once you have the temperature and the turning down to what you are happy with. 

The Compost Changing Colour

You will see the compost piles turn from a lighter multi-colored material to a darker one colour material over time. 

This is when you know the process is working. Remember to remove your temperature gauges when turning or you may lose them or worse still break them.

The time it takes to fully compost will depend on how you have been successful keeping the heat up. Also turning and keeping the compost moist.

Once you have your compost piles at stable temperatures of around 120f to 150f. Then you want to decompose for another 6 months or so. But the longer it is left the better it will become. 

You still have to keep turning the pile after they reach the temperature. Then they will heat up again and again after each turn until the process is finished.

I have horse manure which was mixed with straw as bedding and it is around 2 years old and is perfect rich soil full of nutrients. There is no smell and it is full of worms. You would not believe the amount that is in one spade of this manure.

Remember to Keep Your Compost Piles Damp

It’s important to keep your composting piles damp all the time. If they dry out the process of breaking down will stop and the same will happen if you add to much water. If you add to much water then the compost will not heat up enough for the process to work.

Choosing The Right Spot For Your Composting Pile

You do not want to have your compost pile anywhere near an open water source. Keep your compost piles away from open streams and brooks. It will contaminate the water if you have it to close.

Your compost piles will leach fluids that will harm water sources and that is not good. It’s not good for the environment and it’s going to get you into trouble if you are ever found out. It is not also good for your personal ethics and is wrong.

We use an old yard that was once sold plant and it has a lot of hard standing. this way we can be sure that there is nothing leaching from the compost pile into any water source.

So pick out a corner of your land that is unused for anything. Use that area especially for your composting piles. Over time you will acquire so much that as I mentioned above you may be able to sell a little. Keen gardeners and small market gardens are always looking for decent compost.

Potting Compost

If you are wanting some posting compost this is not the best to use as it is. It will still have lots of larger pieces of woodchippings. But if you have a riddle and you riddle it to remove the larger pieces of woodchips it would be great to use as potting compost.

Adding Worms To Your Compost Piles

If you are composting on a field or soft ground you will probably see that the worms will find their own way into the pile of compost. But as we are composting on a large hardstanding we like to add some worms.

Now we do not purchase these worms. We make several large raised beds around 4.8m by 1m in one of our fields. Then fill it full of horse and cow manure and before you know it they are full of worms. 

After that take a few shovel fulls and put them into polystyrene boxes that we get free from the local pet store. I think they get fish delivered in them. These make excellent worm cultures. They keep the worms warm and we just feed them more manure. They breed like crazy and this gives us enough worms to throw on the compost piles.

Remember to do this when the pile is almost finished breaking down. Do not through the worms in when the compost is still really hot. Waite till the composting process is nearly finished and the piles are cooling down.

Once the worms have done their job. The compost will be so soft and rich in nutrients that you will barely recognize what you started out with. 

Also, take some of the worms out and start more worm cultures. This is the best way to keep your worm cultures going year after year.

You can also start to collect the worms juices. I will show you how you can do this in another post. It is pretty simple you just place your worm cultures over a simple wooden trough and line it with plastic. Place holes in the bottom of your worm cultures and the liquid will start to flow

This is what gardeners and farmers call ‘liquid gold’, it is a magical elixir that provides billions of good microbes such as fungi, and helpful, nitrogen-fixing bacteria for your plants and veggies.

Testing Your Compost Piles

Now you could just go down the route of testing your compost straight by introducing it straight into the ground. We do this on a small scale of course but we still test it. We also have soil testing kits and we use this too.

Going down the route of using a soil testing kit. You should have one to test the soil you will plant in on your land. You never know your soil could turn out to be really rich in nutrients (very unlikely) or it could turn out to be very poor. 

This is what you will find in most soil unless it has been fertilised in the past somehow. These testing kits will tell you how good your soil is or how bad it is. 

These are also good to test how good your compost is and when you put the two tests together. You will then know exactly how much compost to add to your soil. Giving you the perfect soil to work with and there is no guessing involved.

That’s It Your Compost Is Ready To Use

That is all there is to it once your compost piles have broken down all the materials. You will know that this has all happened when it starts to cool down and looks more like soil. If you can find your materials to compost on a large scale for free then you are halfway there.

If you want to go further into composting you can download a PDF HERE on The Art And Science Of Composting. It is a pretty good read on the actual science side of composting.

All you need after that is a little time and a little of nature itself to do its work. After that, you will have as much compost as you could ever use totally free.

If you are interested in getting other free things why not check out my post on getting free or cheap building materials. Here How To Find Cheap Building Materials. You will find I get more things free than I do cheap.?

The post Composting On A Large Scale appeared first on The Small Farmer Life.

Now that you have purchased or rented some land. You are going to want to decide what you are going to produce. This is hard if you don’t already have a plan in place for your small farming activities.

Having a plan is going to be essential for you. A plan will help you produce the right products for your farm. You need to start with local research. What do people want? Will people purchase and what people are willing to pay?

Choose The Right Produce For Your Customers.

Marketing your product is going to be a big factor in this decision. The reason I’m saying this is if you are trying to sell to locals, your product may be different. Than if selling to high-end restaurants and budding chefs. Now it will also be totally different if you are growing just for you and your family.

Different people have different tastes, this goes for different cultures and so on. A high-end restaurant, for instance, may be looking for something different and willing to pay a premium price to get it.

Local people might be accustomed to eating staples like carrots, cabbage, and potatoes. If you are going to be growing the latter three types of crops. Then it’s going to be hard to make as much profit.

Educate your local area and customers about different produce, and trendy produce and provide recipes. These are all things you can do to help sell new types of products only you grow.

This not only helps you choose the best crops to grow and animals to raise but also makes you the only local supplier. If you educate your customer base on the benefits of certain products, they are more likely to purchase from you and at a premium.

Be bold, be different and offer something that is fashionable and free from pesticides, antibiotics, steroids and so on. In the age of GMO foods and god know’s what goes into meat production. All this meat is being sold at your local supermarkets to you and your family.

More people than ever are becoming aware of where their food is coming from and what goes into it. This has had a dramatic effect on what they are willing to pay for foods grown and raised the right way.

The way animals are treated, are a big factor in today’s world. This is why people are willing to pay those premiums. Why should animals not have a good life while they are alive? It is not hard to provide this, you get paid 4 – 5 times the supermarket prices if you do the right thing.

Educate Customers

If you are selling to locals and even further afield educate them. Tell them what actually happens at these large meat processing factories. Show them even by recommending what documentaries to watch.

They will be shocked at what eating healthy can actually accomplish. They will also be shocked at what they see in some of these documentaries.

Below are a few documentaries to watch. These documentaries would never be allowed to be shown on Tv. Just for the simple fact, people would not want to eat from supermarkets. Not to mention the Tv corporations are in bed with mass food production corporations.

How can you educate and recommend these documentaries? Simply build a basic Facebook page for your recipes and share news stories of how animals are treated at big farms. It is not hard to find these stories with a quick search of the web and hit the share button.

Show your own way of farming and how your animals are reared through videos and images. You can show images of your excellent growing vegetables and greens. Place links to documentaries on the Facebook page.

You should still have a website after a year or so, but a Facebook page will do to start.

Excellent Documentaries On Food We Eat

I will guarantee if you haven’t watched these documentaries already. Then they will change the way you and your customers look at food forever…!

• Food Inc
• What The Health
• Vegucated
• Cowspiracy
• Food Chains
• In Organic We Trust
• There are many more documentaries that are excellent to educate yourself on. They give you the best view of how the food on our plates is grown and raised.

How To Choose?

If you are just growing for yourself or your family. You can choose many crops to grow and animals to raise. The opposite is true if you are wanting a profit from your land. Remember your land is small, this is a big decision to make.

Your decision will depend on the research you have done local and the way you intend to market your goods. Lots of farms and smallholdings start growing lots and lots of vegetables, too many. Only to find that they make most of their sales from 10 – 15 crops.

Depending on where you are in the world, it will depend on which type of crops you will grow. All this will be decided by local markets and what they need or are open to purchasing. You can also look at other ways to sell your products other than local, some are listed below.

You can check out the YouTube channel for Curtis Stone who runs the Urban Farmer channel. He farms on a small scale but on a very high rotation basis. Also, he is a published writer explaining all about how he is profitable farming in urban settings.

Yes, he farms in people’s home gardens and has been through all the ups and downs small farmers make. Now he is very well known in the small farm community in the US and also the UK.

Ways To Market Your Produce

Farmer’s Markets are becoming ever more popular and they are an excellent way to get to know new customers. You can share your details with them and they may become long-term customers. It can also put a face on the people who they are purchasing from.

You can also ask around Friends, Family, Locals, and Call High-End Restaurants. Start Your Facebook Page. Smaller Restaurants and Local Deli Shops. Grocers will try different crops and would love Free-Ranging Poultry or True Free-Range Eggs.

There is a big difference in what supermarkets say is free-range and truly free-range eggs.

You would be shocked at what they call free range and how they over charge for it.

I will do a longer post on the best ways to market and how to contact consumers and businesses.

Most of all, the crops you want to be producing, need to be fast-growing. High yielding in monetary terms and in demand. If not you can try to ask customers what they want and then make the demand.

Most of all make sure you build yourself a website. If you want your farm to succeed, you need to be able to show and tell people about your farm. You can read how to start a Small Farm Website. Here

Be Known For Being The Best Source Of Fresh Produce

People will always pay a premium for fresh hand-picked organic produce. Some produce is hard to get from local stores and supermarkets because the shelf life is short. Speciality vegetables and greens, also Oyster Mushrooms, Shiitake, and other gourmet mushrooms are great crops.

Salad Greens are excellent fast-growing crops and Micro Greens all of these crops are easy to grow. Speciality garlic, fresh herbs and more. The point is yes you can grow seasonal crops, but do not grow too many. You might get stuck with large amounts you cannot sell.

Being known for producing high-quality hard-to-find produce that is in fashion can give you the edge. You can change as and when new things come into vogue, you could not do this on a large farm. This way if you are selling to restaurants and consumers who love to cook, they will come to you.

I am certain that you will fail if you try to grow to many types of vegetables. If not fail you will waist a lot of time and money.

It’s just to hard to grow to many different vegtables and greens.

You can only learn so much about certain crops, at any given time. If you are asked by plenty of customers for one particular crop. Then for sure grow it, but do your math first. If the math is not right and you cannot profit don’t grow it.

Put A Small Patch Aside For The Family Plot

You can put a small patch aside for your family staple crops like potatoes, cabbage, carrots, turnips, etc. But you don’t need to grow these in large amounts.

If you try to grow everyday vegetables for sale, you will need to grow to much and it will never be profitable on a small scale. You will also be needing expensive equipment to harvest lots of one crop like potatoes. If you have a small farm then this is also impossible. Then you can also not compete with the super cheap supermarkets.

Seasonal Salad Greens & Vegetables

We all know that plants grow at different times of the year and your crops will change with the seasons. This is where all your research will come in handy as the crops you choose. If you haven’t done any, you need to get on it right now.

There is so much information on the web and in books. That you will always find the answers you need and the lessons to learn online. You always go to supermarkets and see expensive organic vegetables. This is why you want yours to be organic also.

You will be surprised at the number of local people who will pay higher prices. They also feel better helping local community growers of organic salad greens and vegetables. Especially well-treated animals, let’s say it makes them sleep better at night.

When growing crops of any kind for sale all year round. A good nine months of the year is more like what you will get here in Uk. You are going to want to make sure that you are planting for rotation. Also having polytunnels and if possible heating available for the cooler months.

Rotation Is Key To Success

Rotation means that your harvest does not come in all at once. Make sure you think about this when deciding which greens you are going to be producing. When you will be planting and when you will be harvesting.

One of the people who I have learned a lot from before I even started to think about what to grow. He is a small farmer from the US his name is Curtis Stone.

He is very knowledgeable about this subject and there is a link to his YouTube channel below.

If you end up with only one large harvest and cannot sell them all, then you are stuffed. Also with no more greens and vegetables coming on, ready-to-go is a big problem.

If you don’t have younger plants ready to go outdoors, into the planting beds. Customers will be in for a long wait for the next crop to come in. They will probably go elsewhere if possible and it doesn’t show your professionalism.

You don’t need really big Polly Tunnels. You can find 6 meters by 3 meters for £150 – £170 off eBay. This size tunnel will do just fine for your start-up farm.

If you always have young plants ready to go. These should be at different stages in their life span like Lettuce Planted Every 2 Weeks. Then you will never run out and not be left with large amounts of waste. If you are left with some greens. Then give them to customers who are not expecting them, this could turn into an order in the future.

This will also keep customers happy and they will pass the word on. Helping you gain more customers from their friends and family etc. It also saves your greens from the compost heap.

Which Animals If Any

If you are going to raise animals. Then there is no point in choosing Cows or Sheep if your farm is small.

I choose small poultry Quails, Chickens, Ducks & Turkeys. Now I do not have hundreds of Chickens that I sell for meat. I mostly sell their fertilized eggs and full-grown POL ” Point Of Lay” Chickens. These go-to people want to have their own fresh eggs at home.

You can get £15 for Hybrid chickens and a lot more for purebred chickens. You can buy Hybrid hens for around £4.50 and sell at £12.50 -£15 soon as you get them home and put them on your selling sites. This is how I make feed money for my hens for the whole year and add extra for my own pocket.

I get around £35 – £50 for my pure-breed hens. Now I have 15 different types of pure breeds but will be adding to them this year to have around 20 different breeds.

I am hoping to become the biggest supplier of pure-breed chickens in the UK and will be launching my shop online in 2020. Here you will be able to purchase Fertile eggs, Day Old Chicks & Point Of Lay Hens. The shop will also sell all the equipment needed and advice for all customers who what to keep just a few hens to hundreds of hens.

Check out how I raise my hens in chicken tractors and pasture and raise them on fresh grass every day. Check this post out here “How I Raise My Chickens”.

Watch this YouTube video and check out the numbers HERE…!

It just goes to show people will pay for animals that they know for a certain have been raised the right way. Also how raising just a few smaller animals can pay off big time.

You can do the same with the Ducks & Turkeys it’s a great way to make an income from your small farm. Start selling some truly free-range eggs that are not fertile like I do.

I know mine are not fertile because they have no cockerel with the hens. These eggs go to my local customers. Local free-range eggs make a good income and people love the different sizes and colours. I also get £5 per dozen, which is good for truly free-range.

You need to tell your customers if there is a cockerel with the hens. Some will be bothered, and some won’t but you still need to tell them.

Quails And Their Eggs

These are excellent small birds to rear for meat and for their stunning eggs. They are easy to raise, very hardy little birds and are becoming more popular in the Uk. The eggs from these birds are perfect for salads etc and they lay as many eggs as chickens. Not to mention they are a little healthier than a chicken egg.

I also sell the Quails for their meat, which is a healthy meat to eat. The UK has become more aware of this, over the past several years and is an excellent replacement for beef. They are becoming really popular, especially around Christmas time.

They eat very little and mature very fast in just 8 weeks. Making them excellent poultry or should I say small game birds to rear on small farms.

You need to raise Quails on pasture in metal frames that have soft netting around them. If you don’t they will just fly away, this will also give you better birds than caged reared.

The pens are 4 x 4 meters and 6 feet high which is a big pen for such small birds. They are high because they are flighty birds and jump high if scared. This is why soft netting is needed, so they do not hurt themselves. You can have pens that are moved to fresh pasture every day.

This way they are living healthy lives, finding new bugs and fresh tips of the grass daily. I also place logs, the foliage so they can hide under them, they are shy birds. I place low nest boxes all of which are fixed to the back of the pen. The pen all moves together and it is easier to collect eggs without going into pens.

This is the best way to raise quails for their meat and you will get the best prices also. They will live as they do in the wild eating bugs and grass and restaurants love these small birds.

I will show you my pens in another post on how to raise quails the humane way.

Large Animals

This is my opinion, large animals on small farms are a waste of time, space and energy. Cows are one of the biggest problems when it comes to greenhouse gases.

They are not profitable for small farms, neither are sheep. The cost of vets and land needed to graze them is just too much. Costs totally out way the profit you make. This is one of the worst ways to make your small farm profitable, needing large parcels of land to graze large animals is not cost-effective.

This is why, for the most part, they are raised on beef farms that you will never see. They do not want to show you the conditions they live in, it’s disgusting. They are cramped together like sardines and nothing like you see in the commercials. Grass-fed cattle are very rare for the very reason I have just mentioned they need lots of land to graze.

You may want to keep two small Boar Goats for milking. Maybe making cheese to sell will also help clear brushy and weedy areas. But if they get out and at your green beds they will also make a nice meal of them. So be careful where you keep her or you will be wiped out of those salad beds pretty fast.

Other Ways On How To Make Your Small Farm Profitable

There are many other ways to make your small farm pay and bring in steady income streams. But first of all, you need to get started, showing that you can run your farm. Make sure you are doing it the right way for you and make sure you can at least break even.

This will take time like any other business. But this is a good choice of living. Also, being a business with a healthy life choice for you and your family.

Children love to muck in and help out and it keeps them away from iPads and keeps them fit and healthy. Also, teaching them where their food is coming from is not a bad thing. Most children think eggs come from shops.

After you have mastered planting and rotation methods, this will take a few years and not come overnight. Also, having learned how to rear animals, whichever you choose.

Then you could start classes showing other budding farmers how you do things. You can show different growing methods by charging a fee for a day’s course.

I use the no-dig method which is awesome. I will be showing this type of growing method in another post. There are plenty of people who want to use this method. These people are quite willing to pay and watch how it is done.

Other Skills To Make Profit

You might have other skills like joinery and you can make chicken coops and runs. Vegetable & Herbs Planters for backyard gardens and many, many more items. These are easy ways to utilise your skills to make your small farm profitable.

Farming is quite diverse, which can bring in extra income to your small farm. This is perfect for the winter months and makes farming work in the slower months. You might even find skills you never thought you had, I know I did.

You see lots of larger farmers going around cutting hedgerows and grass fields in summer. This is so they make extra income and so can you if you have the skills to use them. Do not just sit back and rely on what your farm is growing and raising, especially in the beginning.

If you have extra time after you have finished your daily routine. Then learn another skill that can put extra cash in your pocket. This will help your farm grow quicker and also your bank account. The more you learn about farming on a small scale. The more you will learn how to make your small farm profitable.

One last thing, if you have a full-time or part-time job, don’t quit it just yet. You can learn while you earn and then when you are ready, take the leap.

The post How To Make Your Small Farm Profitable? appeared first on The Small Farmer Life.

I am so glad you have found my blog and hope you are here because you are wanting to learn how to start your very own small farm.

You might also be wondering if farming on a small scale can be done while making a profit in the process? Maybe you are here to see what “The Small Farmer Life” is all about.

The main thing is, I’m glad to see you here. Little about me I’m 44 years old from the Uk and have always been interested in living a little of the good life, growing and raising animals for my own food.

How I Learned What I Needed To Know

I have been learning farming methods with smallholdings for a while now for around 3 years. These were not big farms they were around 15 acres or so. I learned a lot from these small farms and the main thing was, these farms made most of their profit from selling specialty products, not acres of potatoes and full-grown carrots. 

They made most of their profit from fast organic growing greens on rotation. Things like, salad greens, specialty mushrooms, and microgreens. Simple and easy to grow with fast-growing times and marketing to the right customers. I will tell you how they marketed their products in another post

They never made much profit from sheep or any other large animals, which to me are a waste of your time and money. These larger animals need lots of caring, large housing. You also needed lots of these larger animals to even break even, after vet bills, slaughter, etc. This did not make any sense to me, but they knew best?

The animals they made most profits from where poultry. Selling Rare Chicken Breeds and Organic Chicken Meat and Eggs, along with Turkeys and Quails. Also selling young birds they hatched, sold really well, to locals who wanted a few Chickens or Quails for fresh daily eggs, etc. You can sell fertile eggs to people who want to incubate them at a premium all over the country using the internet and sell your Organic Eggs local.

How Will Pygmy Farm Make Profit

After what I have seen and been learning, I am going to stick to poultry breeds for my animals and 10 to 15  Organic Seasonal Salad Greens, Tomatoes, Micro Greens and Gourmet Mushrooms and have a small area to one side for other vegetables that I will need for my family. 

Also because I’m a joiner by trade I will be building herb planters, chicken coops and many other wooden products branded under the “Pygmy Farm” name to sustain the farm.

I will also be still sticking to my daily business of property maintenance. My business gives me plenty of free time to work around the farm and also pays the bills, while the farm is getting up and running.

The Thing You Don’t Want To Do

This is a “Big Thing” if you have a job or business “Do Not Just Walk Away Into Farming”. Please stick to your job or business and learn as much about farming as possible before going fulltime.

You can start your farming part-time and grow as your knowledge grows. Will it be hard, of course, it will, nothing in life is easy and farming is a hard thing to do correctly and make a profit from. Not to mention there are some back-breaking jobs around the farm.

But these hard jobs are all good to keep you fit and along with your organic food. You will never have felt so good. This blog is all about getting you off to a good start

Pick What You Will Be Farming Wisely

This is why I’m sticking with easy to rear animals a few types of salad greens and vegetables. You cannot compete with large supermarkets on easy to get vegetables like potatoes, carrots, turnips, etc. But if you grow the more expensive greens and hard to get gourmet mushrooms etc you can.

If can market your products to the right people and businesses, then you can make higher profits for less work and also less investment in large machines. Keeping it simple using systems with lower overheads and time needed to harvest.

Don’t get me wrong it is not easy work, but you do not need to pay for £100,000 tractors and other big machinery to harvest. The types of produce I will be growing will be harvested by hand hence lesser overheads. This is one of the biggest killers of farms. If you need half a million for machinery before you even start then this is going to be hard and stress you out and you do not want this.

How Long Have I had Pygmy Farm?

I found my little piece of land 4 years ago and have been planning this farm for that long. Now I could have just jumped headfirst without knowing a thing about farming. 

This is not how I went about it at all, firstly I had a small business I just started, which is property maintenance and landscaping business. This has given me so much knowledge about how to build things. Given me the little money I needed to start my venture into farming. My business is still going strong.

I then made friends in the farming community around me with medium-sized smallholdings near to my farm. I offered them a helping hand in my spare time, which in turn they taught me a lot. I then read books and watched as many videos as possible in my spare time on what to grow. Also, the best growing methods to get the produce growing fast and organic. 

I will be growing my produce in organic no dig systems. I also learned that people will pay a premium for poultry that is reared in the right way. They always sell very quickly indeed. People are more aware of the methods of big farming and the cruelty that goes into producing food on a mass scale.

Image how you would feel crushed together next to thousands of others being pushed around. Being given injections and medications just to keep you alive. All of this goes onto the shelves of your local supermarket, how else can they sell chicken full-grown for so little?

I don’t want to see this on my farm

This is what happens in most big poultry farms and this is what you are eating and feeding you and your family. Well, that’s not how I want to live and want my farm animals to live either.

Also, the greens we eat are covered in pesticides and in the Uk, even treated human waste is used as fertilizer and I don’t like the sound of that.

Pygmy Farm A Local Farm

Yes, my farm is a small farm, this is the whole point, but it is going to be an ethical farm and that’s what farming should be about. Producing quality products and letting the animals graze free and be treated with the life they deserve, not packed together like sardines. It will also be able to be run by 1 or 2 people.

All the animals I raise have to be able to have access to the fresh air and the vegetables had to be organic. I want to show that you cannot only survive on a small farm but thrive on a small farm.

This is why I have only chosen to concentrate on quality poultry breeds and a few good quality crops that all bring in premium pricing. The poultry is all free-range except for the quails as they would fly away, but they are in high soft netted large pens moved daily to fresh pasture.

The breeding cocks will have access to large runs if they are free to roam they will fight and breed with the wrong birds. They will be given a good long life as these are going to be needed for years of breeding.

Specialty Vegetables To Sell For Maximum Profit

All the fresh vegetables and herbs are going to be organically grown and will be picked daily as and when they are needed. I am only going to grow seasonal vegetables on a rotation basis. I can grow a few out of season or start them early in the polytunnels and grow mushrooms in my sheds year-round.

I will also have a cool room for greens and vegetables that need to be picked. If they do not sell I will add them to customers’ orders who do not expect them. Maybe this will turn into a future order, while also being a nice surprise for my customers. This will help for word of mouth also getting more customers.

I will be posting regular articles to my blog on how I am getting on and video tutorials to my “YouTube Channel – The Small Farmer Life”.

These videos will include lots of things I have learned and also how to build things for your farm cheaply and easy. You are more than welcome to comment, to ask for help if you find yourself in a pickle and if I can help you I will be happy to.

Do You Want To Help? Want To Guest Post

If you have knowledge that can help me and others and would like to share that information. Then why not guest post on my blog and help others to live a good life, a life free from big farming and healthy life.

I have so much more to tell you, show you and hopefully teach you, if you are wanting to live this life. Then why not sign up for my newsletter. I will not spam you and if you don’t want to sign up that’s fine. Just bookmark this site and pop back now and then to see what is going on at Pygmy Farm.

You can follow me on this journey or as I like to say adventure. I will be showing the ups the downs and everything in-between. I can tell you there will be a lot more to learn, now I am going alone, but I have friends to guide me and give me the advice I need. Not to mention the internet is full of information for the budding smallholder.

Thanks For Reading..!

The post Welcome To Pygmy Farm appeared first on The Small Farmer Life.