Funding our farm: loans, grants, and a gamble
By Caitlin Arnold, Furrow Horse Farm When Brandon and I decided to start Furrow Horse Farm last January, we knew we were about to spend a lot of money. We were moving onto leased land that had no infrastructure, and we needed to build hoop houses and put up a deer fence. Since we had […]
Our big goal: Giving back to veterans
By Hannah Becker, Willow Springs Farm It’s that time of year— a new year, new goals. For many entrepreneurs, the end of one year and the beginning of the next is a time to reflect and clarify goals. What have we accomplished? Where are we headed? What’s the best way to get there? A quick recap […]
Our farm is debt free … but that wasn't the plan
By Hannah Becker, Willow Springs Farm Like many startups, my farm’s business plan has been tweaked a time or two. Initially, I wanted to start a commercial cow-calf operation, but I was unable to secure the financing necessary to get it off the ground. So instead I decided to explore a grass-fed beef operation and […]
Capital: the high cost of getting started – BOOTSTRAP AT WILLOW SPRINGS FARM
By Hannah Becker, Willow Springs Farm A neighboring farmer likes to joke, “You know how you make a million dollars as a farmer? Start out with two million!” While my comedic neighbor’s joke isn’t accurate, farming does take a LOT of money just to get the ball rolling. Start-up costs for a small-scale agriculture […]
New capital for new farmers : BOOTSTRAP AT OLD HOMEPLACE FARM
By Maggie Bowling, Old Homeplace Farm The winter before we started the buying club, we counted twenty-two deer in my future vegetable field over the course of one night. I’m sure you can imagine what we chose as our very first farm investment. Will has an off-farm job as an elk biologist (yes, there are […]
BOOTSTRAP @ NIGHTFALL FARM – BUILDING A FARM FROM SCRATCH
By Nate Brownlee of Nightfall Farm The differences between working on an established farm and starting your own were evident this month. Rather than learning the ropes and falling into developed routines, we’re recreating some systems that have worked on other farms. We’re solving problems unique to our farm. We’re spending a lot of time […]
BOOTSTRAP @ LEMONADE SPRINGS FARM – MAKING DECISIONS ON EQUIPMENT
By Seth Douglas of Lemonade Springs Farm The question of equipment and capital, it seems to me, is really a question of what decisions you make about your daily work and your financial equilibrium and why you make them. Questions we ask regarding both tools used and money spent (both whose and how much) are those […]
BOOTSTRAP @ FORAGER FARM – ON EQUIPMENT AND CAPITAL:
By Hannah Sargeant of Forager Farm Unlike many other young farmers, we had access to land even before we made a concrete decision on whether to grow vegetables or not. We were fortunate enough to have family and friends willing to rent us a slice of land. Ultimately, we decided to rent land from some […]
Young Farmers Rock the Boat in the Senate
Yesterday was one of the most important moments in the 2012 Farm Bill process, the Senate Agriculture Committee vote. Thanks to so many of you who took action over the last week and our partner organizations that joined with us on Farm Bill priorities, the bill that passed out of the Senate committee included some […]