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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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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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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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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Security / Bodyguard
Are you expected to take a bullet that's meant for someone you're guarding?
Las Vegas Cab Driver
Do people ever ask you to keep your meter off in exchange for a cheaper fare?
Firefighter
What's the worst you've been burned in a fire?
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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Don't get me wrong, I know lots of farmers who make their living on the farm. But I know even more who have at least one person working off the farm to make ends meet. It's not a get rich type of endeavor. That said, I think that people with a specialty do better than, say, someone growing your run of the mill tomatoes and carrots. Heirloom and organic vegetables are in demand. If a farmer can find a restaurant that wants to buy their specialty produce, that can be a money maker. Other profitable options are farm stays, hosting seasonal events or private events (weddings or parties) or, like we do, farm camps. It definitely takes some creativity to make money, in my experience.
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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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