Other farm opportunities

[grefer]

I had an interesting conversation with a fellow last night who grows alfalfa for seed and raises bees for that purpose as well as selling bees to other seed producers in Canada and the US. It was a very interesting conversation learning of his experiences. He told me he is grossing 400k on 600 acres of farm land. Freewheat this may be for you. Anyone else have non traditional farming businesses who can open our eyes to opportunity?

[AllisWD45]

Did 15 years in that business from 79 to 94. Excellent business Most seed was contracted, sold bees to brokers. Kind of a roller coaster ride with the ups and downs in price and production but that was the business. Had around 500 acres in production. Got out when prices were good and before the big change from loose boards to blocks and to plastic shelters and related stripping equipment.
Excellent business to get into. Still on my bucket list to have 60 acres as a hobby. Definately look for someone to custom strip the blocks.

[freewheat]

There are so many ways to make a living on a farm that most are blind to. Others are not cut out for year round work, or just do not like cattle. I think the time is ripe fro this kind of thing.

Yes I have looked at the bee business, but on the honey side. Sask grows the highest yields of honey on the planet. It takes almost no space, and once you have the equipment, it is only your labor, and a bit of input costs.

I am looking at a lot of things. Hogs, hens, ducks, geese, turkeys, swine, on the animal side.

People will pay twice the going commodity price for "farm raised" meat.

I think a herd of 30 sows, would produce a lot of dollars in pork, when folks pay 4 bucks a lb for "pasture raised, free range" pork.

We do sheep, and the return is very good. It is just we need more fences and more sheep. Canada is short sheep. We import half of our lamb. I would rather grow something we import, rather than commodities that everyone competes in export markets for.

I don't know where it will take us, but we don't owe a penny on our animals or the supplies we need to run that business. Grain farming does not even compare in that department.

Yes, there are other ways to farm, and NOW is the time to be getting into it.

[farmaholic]

Freewheat, been there done that with a partial E-I-E-I-O Old McDonald Farm when I was younger and at this stage of my life don't want to go back. Thats for young highly energetic people. I don't want to butcher poultry, hogs or cattle anymore (except one beef for ourselves) or collect eggs, blah blah blah. For the amount of land here and the number of people here my plate is full. But there are opportunities if your not as lazy as I am ;-)

[freewheat]

Bah, its not lazy to not want to care for critters! Some enjoy it. I find it REALLY the****utic and very interesting compared to grain farming.

I will always grow grain, I love it. But in my area, with no chance in heck to grow acres much more, because of so many young guys, I need to work to find my niche.

Some dealt a strong hand do not have to fret about this and can just grow grain and do well. Some of us who were dealt a hand of jokers in life, have to find a way to make a living, or at least supplement their livelihood.

Me, I thrive on researching stuff like this. I have been to the markets in Vancouver enough to see how off track farms often are.

Speaking of butchering, we did our chickens the other day. My 10 year old son was helping clean them, and enjoyed it immensely! My heart welled with pride at knowing he at least knows. He may carry on this knowledge. It is such a dying art...

[burnt]

I believe that opportunities are limited only by imagination, ambition and need.

The older I get, the less I have of the first two and the last matters less.

Freewheat, your words reminded me of a piece that I wrote for a farm paper a few years ago -

"Heritage Foods"

"I recently read a captivating piece by Rosie Dimanno in the Toronto Star in which she recounted her family’s food traditions. In an age where most nourishment comes in foil wraps and plastic packs, the story of her parents’ labor of love in feeding their family is truly legendary. And one to which I can fully relate!

It brought back childhood memories of fall butchering on the farm where I was born – Dave Oesch, the neighborhood butcher, would come on a preset date and the hogs would squeal their last protest before succumbing to the “bonk” and being turned into cured hams and sides of bacon hanging from hooks in the smokehouse, or stuffed into sausages for canning or freezing. And although Dad considered it a near-delicacy, I never could develop a taste for headcheese . . .

The sausage-making detail was perhaps the most interesting as the process took place on the kitchen table – the grinder was clamped to the table and those slender, pink strands of ground pork squeezed through the screen were simply fascinating to a small child! Then, the sausage stuffer was clamped to the table top and Dave would form the ground meat into large balls which he would slam down into the cylinder so hard that occasionally a bit of fat would shoot back up and stick to the ceiling above the table. Mom was not as impressed as I was! “Can’t have any air pockets in it!” Dave would quip.

Now, some 50 years later, although all our grown-up children are fully intimate with the rigors of being raised on the farm, I still call them home for the annual chicken butchering in the late summer. Because I want them to never forget that food comes at a cost – there is literally blood and sweat involved in keeping our bodies fed.

One of my greatest, recent joys is seeing our new daughter-in-law fuss over her garden and stand at the kitchen counter, elbow to elbow with my wife, avidly chopping her fresh garden produce and preserving it for winter. She is quickly learning how to feed herself and her family.

This is a reality that has been lost on several generations whose closest connection to food production is driving past a corn field on their commute to the cottage. “Get off the road with your slow machinery, farmer”.

It concerns me deeply that in the present season, we have a whole crop of consumers who mistakenly believe that the value of food is simply a number on the price sticker. No understanding of the true cost at all – the risk in planting tomatoes for that sauce, the sore back from weeding those garden plants, the weight of the worry brought on by drought or the threat of an early frost, the ache of finding a momma cow mooing over her stillborn calf – these real costs never enter the minds of consumers as the food we grow crosses their palates.

Then I read Rosie’s story and became blissfully aware that there is at least one “city person” out there that remembers the true “cost” of food . . . maybe that is why a tear slid down my cheek, evoked by the resurrection of memories of my own, and the knowledge that a few others still know why we should be thankful in this season."

[pourfarmer]

great post Burnt!

[parsley]

Hemp Oil Canada in Ste. Agathe, Manitoba is planning to double or triple their capacity. Sales have grown by 221% over the past five years.
Grown in Canada:
2009 14,000 acres
2012 55,000 acres.

Stats from article in 'food in canada'

[sumdumguy]

Great story Burnt. Every chance I get, I tell my grandchildren about stuffing the chicken's neck between 2 nails on the chopping block, missing twice with the axe, then the deadly blow, that sent it flailing around. I never was part of real " butchering" of large animals, wasn't into that part. Wish we had videos today of our life on the farm growing up. Such a cool childhood, at a North of Canora "mixed" or "mixed up" farm.

[hobbyfrmr]

Hemp Oil Canada is a good solid company. If anyone plans to grow hemp, they are worth a phone call.