Evan - I know you've gone over your goals for 2023. I'd love to see you review your 5 year plan and tell us what's changed, if you're ahead/behind schedule, etc. Peace
A wise man said, "If you fail to plan then you plan to fail". You and Rebekka are both intelligent and industrious and I have little doubt your plans will be successful.
Absolutely fantastic! This is how a small farm starts, grows, and does not fail. Only thing I have to add be flexible, you might need to move around goals if opportunities arise. My largest money saving part of my start up is old tractors. I buy them cheap needing repairs, I put the effort into fixing them over time instead of all at once. The nice thing is they were not designed to wear out. They were designed to be rebuilt and repaired over and over again. I've got $5,000 into a tractor that does everything I need except loader work. To buy the same tractor size, horse power, and ability wise new would be $40,000+. I see this as I saved $35,000 on starting my farm.
57 now. Had our farm for 27 years. Much of your progression is what I have just been through. I like the idea of white building for hay storage. we don't let our round bales get wet ever. goes from the ground and transported 2 at a time by tractor to our barn, stacked 3 high, or for fields further away, we load 10 onto a hay wagon(75hp tractor) and transport to the barn and unload. If we store on a concrete or dirt floor shed, we have to use pallets as the concrete and ground both will draw moisture and the bottom of the bales can spoil.
Evan, you have a great plan in place for the next five years and you have come a long way from when you and Rebecca started. If you keep on the pace you have been going, you will make your dream come true and I admire both of you for having full time jobs and making the farm a success. Both of you have worked hard to make this happen and you deserve the best, Good luck.
One thing I did when I had my company. I got a credit card that was used only for business purchases. It was paid off monthly so there was no debt. Everything was bought with that card and there were always reciepts.
I have the same plans but are about 4 years ahead. I’ve been selling all my hay and haven’t gotten any cattle; mostly due to my job. Now, it looks like my job is ending, I’m 52 and ready to stop working a regular job anyways. I would very much enjoy working at farming and raising about 15 head of cattle. I was raised farming and want to get back to it!!!
Hi You're are doing pretty good from what I can see. I was surprised you are 44! It is an age where things can start to wear out knees etc and you can get injured easily doing ordinary things. You will need to take care of your health from now on in. Life is hard with injuries, I know that myself. Good luck.
I find you to be a wise young man you will do well ! As you have said with your 5 year plan . Do these thing while your young because it just gets harder after 50 . Best wishes and GOD bless
Set up an expenses email account for the business and as you buy/sell things take a picture of the receipt to email to that account so you always have a copy of it. Pay for a receipt book with the business letterhead on it for when you sell things so you both have the paper trail and make it harder for someone to fake something.
@@southwestwifarm3516 The problem with using an app for it is unless it is a huge name one ($$$) they can vanish overnight taking all the stored data with them when they shut down like a number of failed businesses have done in the past. Setting up a gmail account for the business or even building an email server and buying a website mean you have a lot more control over what you have archived.
I grew up on a farm and my dad always mention "the darn BANK" and I knew from a very young age to stay clean of Debt and you will be fine. I am planning on retirement when I wake up dead one morning. A farmers job is never done, NEVER!. Good luck!
My Dad did exactly what you're describing. He worked for a major tech company that later became a major computer company, and he retired in his early 50s after being there 35 years. He and my mother bought 5 acres in the early 70s that they built a house on, then upgraded to 80 acres in 1978, and that was the farm I grew up on. His first tractor was a little Ford 8n/9n, then a John Deere poppin johnny, and by the time I was driving anything in the early 80s (blocks on the pedals! :) he had 40 series JD 70 hp tractors with and without cabs. Holstein dairy replacement raising, then Black Angus, square baling led to round bales only, twine led to wrap, one high school kid (me) turned into 2 hired hands after I left home for college, 1 farm turned into 3 each about 12-15 miles apart plus rented hay fields all totals around 300 acres (and gives a higher chance of catching rain somewhere over just one spot). I just happened to move my main business in fab work for the marine industry back to Texas after 25 years in Washington State right before the Covid Panic started (fortuitous?...) in part because I could tell Dad was getting overwhelmed, and Washington was getting more revolutionary than I like to see outside of a third world country, and being self employed my work is flexible. Here are some failures that hit the operation here that I'll share with you to keep in mind. Drought. Dad had been 'retired' and farming fulltime about ten years when the 2011 drought hit Texas. He wiped out his cash reserves to avoid losing every animal he had, mainly to feed them hay from other sources, plus water. Don't think it can't happen to you. Get involved with local schools and FFA, so you can rotate high school or college kids as knowledgeable help. Dad used green card Mexicans who were good guys and worked hard, but limited in skills and learning ability. The local rednecks after that were not worth squat for many reasons. IE: develop a system locally for a labor pool. ..You can't rent too much good hay producing land. Dad was gunshy after 2011 and passed up an extra 100 acres for $2000 a year, which is peanuts. ..Make sure you have a good shop space to work on equipment. An uninsulated barn without a concrete floor or pad somewhere in it and no heat or cooling options will literally make repairs take ten times longer and be dangerous to boot. ...now the good things'- I don't know what you cut with, but Rousch double 9 sickle mowers are the Ferraris of coastal hay cutting, for efficiency, low maintenance, low expense, and support. If something like that would work for your area, consider it. Grease em every 4 hours of run time, you'll thank me later. Keep spare bars on hand, build up your own, and check the gearbox fluid regularly. ...standardize your tractors and equipment as much as possible, even your trucks if possible. However, a $5000 2 ton truck that is 25 years old will haul 20k lbs of hay just as well as a $50,000 Cummins. :) ...older equipment you can work on yourself is better than newer stuff you can't. One of the 40 series John Deere tractors broke a bell housing a few years back, used and new was big money. I cast a new one for him off the broken one as a pattern and machined it out (just to see if I could!) and once he painted it after I shipped it down, it looked original on the tractor. Rounded corrals are easier on cattle, leading a herd is easier than riling them up yelling at them, movable shelters and windbreaks are priceless, freezeless faucets and bury line a foot deeper than you think it needs, and put in ground valves everywhere so you can diagnose leaks. Good luck! Remember.. It isn't the destination, it's the trip that's worth it.
Keep up on all the hard work you two do and it will work out. Life always changes, so adjust your plans as you need to. What you want now may not be what you will want next year. Always love watching your show.
Wow. Honestly, as I've been following your channel, I truly thought you were just rounding 30 years old. When you said several episodes back that you don't do Christmas the same since the kids are grown, it kinda threw me! You two do look young and I thought you were all just starting out, and I'm thinking you started out young with the kids, too! I'll just say I'm in my late 40's and my oldest is nearing 23. I was 26 when we had the first one. I guess your kids didn't cause you too much grief since you look young. 😁
Gosh, I remember the first video's I watched. All you had was a coop and some chicken's. It jas been fun watching you build your property and channel! I'm in it for the long run 🤣
The roof is by far the most important part of any farm building. Make sure you get a good one on that bank barn and check the sills all the way around as they are the first places to rot.
@@cathiwim awww thanks 😊 guys. Hopefully my knowledge of healthcare will help. Strange times...I told the realtor I wanted rural land and she looked at me like I was crazy...I can't wait.
I’ll be right here. 5, 10, 15 years. I frikin love what you’re doing. And actually kind of jealous. I wish I could do the same thing. You have shit figured out. Your farm is going to be absolutely beautiful. I’ll patiently wait for the journey. Quite awesome.
Making a good business plan is also the most important part here in south-west Germany. Lots of farmers here with plenty of land and knowledge how to grow etc.. But they lack the business part. Since the 1980s, universities support the farmers here, in return the students can work there as part of their study. Since then, most of the farmers live just like you plan to live. Debt free, living from what they have, the land.
Great plan and impressive how much you've already accomplished without going into debt and busting your butt. Keep chipping away at it, you'll be amazed when you look back in 5 years.
Sounds like a great plan to me. I'm 59 and was planning on a early retirement too. Went to work in the gas and oil industry at 19 years old and thank God my health is still pretty good. My plans have changed, so now I'm hoping to retire at 63 wiith 44 years in the same business I think that will be a great time to hang it up. Wish you all the best.
Enjoyed watching this. Great business insight. My plan stretches out 7 yrs. I like to put my bigger infrastructure expenses (fencing and handling systems, etc) on a separate sheet that factors in that 7 years. I then divide those expenses by 7 and spread the load over 7 years. This helps me to not get discouraged by the fact that year one will be so bulky expense-wise for me. Keep up the great work. Excited to be watching someone else building a farm business too. Let’s see where it goes! 😄 -the Shepherdess
I am Polish, I have been living and working in England for 7 years. We live in a time of highly developed digitization and for me it is amazing that while drinking coffee in the morning I can watch a man across the ocean. When I was 6, my brother and I only had an old bicycle. There are also a lot of small farms in my country of origin, so watching you I understand your plans and problems. greetings
We set up our vineyard in a similar fashion. Our biggest mistake was letting our daughter get horses. The horses now take up all of the land and every bit of extra cash. It makes our daughter very happy, but is very bad for business. We plan to raise sheep and cattle some day and expand the vineyard, but to do that the horses need to go.
Looks like a good plan. I retired at the age of 54 (three years ago), bought a little land (5.5 acres), house and a tractor. Just remember, the body isn't as young as it was ten years ago. I hope you were able to take your losses off on your taxes? Best to you and your family. Cheers from Central Oregon
GREAT VIDEO setting out your achievements and your future 5 year goal in so much detail. Did I miss it ? as i did nor hear you mention the New Pole Barn/Workshop etc which in earlier video was happening this spring. Wishing you both success in you goals and dream.
I have faith that you can do it!! Looking forward to following you and Rebekah on your homestead/farming journey ❤️ As always, thanks for sharing. It's always a great morning when I get to watch one of your videos
Thanks for an opening that either encourages us that spring is near or makes us feel bad because it is cold and we have a lot of snow on the ground. It is not really cold.
admire your planning my friend and may God bless you on your endeavor ,,,,,did not see where the new building you were planning was included,,,,have I missed something????
Wow, fantastic! I love how simple yet well thought out your plan is. Can hardly wait to see it all come true. I watch your channel consistently. It's one of the best.
I enjoyed your post at several levels; first your own positive attitude, second your commitment to forward planning and strong convictions at the beginning, and your clear demonstration that farm reality is always different from original optimistic plans. I waited till retirement before building up farm assets and farming-that is an uphill battle. New farmers tend to overestimate the incomes and underestimate the costs-perhaps it is psychological.
I have been so enjoying your path to early retirement! You have clearly given it a lot of thought and we have been watching you work toward your goals. I wish you all the best in achieving your debt-free small farm! Debt free is the way to go!
You omitted your driveshed build. Really looking forward to following your build on that one. All in all great job on all of your record keeping, goals and projections. Still the best channel on RU-vid!
Awesome plans Even You and Rebekah work so hard and I know and seen what you have already achieved. Your both will do well forfilling your future goals.. God bless you both.
You have laid out a nice long term plan that shows a lot of thought. I didn’t hear you mention the new pole barn project. Is that still in the plans for this year? Lots of work in front of you but having a plan in place helps you set attainable goals. Looking forward to following along on the journey. Thanks for including us. God bless. Stay safe. Bruce from Mason Michigan
The great thing about farming is that almost everything you spend is deductible on your taxes. It's one of the best tax shelters there is if you don't mind the work.
Seen from Joel Salatin where he would contain his cows through the winter to collect up the manure mixed with the hay they didn't eat. Then in the spring spread it through the fields. Could help tremendously on producing your own compost. I believe he also worked the pigs through it also. Cows produce a lot of gold for soil amending. Great to see another's way of planning. Helps the community see how others are doing things, could be something the next may need to run their farm more efficiently.
Inspirational! I'm working towards the same goal as we transition from suburban life in MO to our new ranch in Ohio. You've given me some great thoughts about what I should be working on regarding the business plan. Thanks!
Sounds like a good plan well thought out. Good luck with it. Just from my experience with farming in our area, 40 acres is a very small farm with very small profits. At the end of your 5th calendar year, can you really sustain without a second job ? That's why small family farms are now in the 200 to 500 acre farms.
The shop you have up front and to turn it into a live sock barn. you will have to dig down until you get below all chemical spillage because of the huge problem!!. Also the drive way to the barn up front. You will alot of work and money!!!
I like your plans but I think about raising more hay find more room for the Hayfield that's my opinion in case you need it to keep beef critters over the winter
I think you raise a good point but is this not exactly why he has already mentioned altering a barn to house cattle over winter. They badly need the manure for growing hay and keeping stock out on pasture over winter can seriously damage that pasture for future production if only by poaching the grassland.
