Peaceful Valley Farm
La Selva Beach, CA
Female, 47
I've been a full-time farmer for a couple of years now. Our farm is rather small and very diverse. We raise rare and endangered breeds of turkeys and chickens. We also have alpacas, sheep, goats, geese, and recently harvested a 500-lb pig that we raised from a piglet! We grow organically, using heirloom seed stock. I'm able to provide meat and most of the vegetables for our family of 5. In the Spring and Summer, we sell chicks and eggs and have educational farm camps for kids.
Yes, most farms have irrigation, but that water has to come from somewhere, right? Water costs money. If a farm is lucky enough to have a well (like us) it's much less expensive, the water is, basically, free, but you still have to pay the electric bill to pump the water, maintenance, repairs, etc... The more money we have to put out (or borrow), the more we have to charge for our animals/produce. Because consumers, and the middlemen, are only willing to pay so much, this can mean a serious loss in income. A lot of animal farmers rely on growing their own feed/pasture to keep costs down. When they can't afford the water, and it isn't falling from the sky, they're forced to buy feed, which has an inflated price because the feed growers are having to pay for the water, so raise their prices. It's a vicious cycle. This article, written by a farmer, is really interesting...http://www.cnn.com/2012/07/23/opinion/chinn-drought/index.html
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We weren't able to take a vacation for the first 2 years. Then we found a great, experienced farmer, at the time without a farm,, who knew exactly how to keep things running. We were able to go away for a full week! Now we've trained our neighbor, and get weekends away whenever we like! We don't have any outside help, besides this.
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Our camps are for kids ages 2-7, so the questions run the gamut! The ones I hear most often (and their answers) are 1) What are the animals names? A) because most of them aren't pets, they don't have names. With about 40 chickens at any given time, it would be impossible. The large livestock have names. 2) Why don't you have cows or horses? A) We don't have the proper fencing (or use) for a cow and horses don't serve a purpose for us. 3) Where do you sleep? (usually asked after taking the tour of all the animal pens) A) In the house (which they usually haven't even noticed until then)
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How funny that you ask! We've been having rain for almost a week and the smell is SO bad, I was wondering the same thing! It's much easier to control in dry weather. We do lots of raking and adding wood chips to keep everything decomposing. With the rain and poor drainage, I think all we can do is put down hay and wait for things to dry out.
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Social media and the internet have been a big benefit to small farms. We're able to have websites, blogs and Facebook pages (I have all 3 and invite everyone to follow along) that tell people about us, our work, what we have available, etc. It's a great way to communicate, become known, and increase sales. I'm always surprised when a feed store or farm doesn't have an active website or FB page, but there are still some folks who aren't into computers or haven't realized the benefit of doing this!
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I got started by researching and reading books written by people who had done this. "The Accidental Farmers", "Farm City" and "Animal, Vegetable, Miracle" are all about folks who had no experience and what happened when they got started. There's also a program called WWOOF that can match you up with a farm/farmer where you'll live and get hands on experience for a period of time. Also, lots of small farms welcome interns or volunteers. The only time I have found a need for help, is when I have Farm Camps, then I hire someone with preschool experience. But, yes, there are definitely opportunities to get dirty and learn the ropes.
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We have yet to call the vet for animal illness or injury. There is one, nearby, who is well known and been around for ages. We took our goat kids to him for dis-budding (removing their horns, which I would never do again). There are large animal vets and your dog/cat variety. Usually, they will specialize in certain animals-horses, ruminants, birds or domestics-so we chose one who specializes in farm animals. But, our friend who works with domestics has also trained with alpacas, so they have a general knowledge of all animals.
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