10 Rules for Starting a Successful Farm Business

Whether they’re just getting started or have been hobby farming for years, more and more people are interested in turning their passion for farming into a full-time career. If you’re one of those people, I encourage you to follow your dream, just as I did in 2006. Before you dive in, let me offer some advice for starting a profitable farm business, based on my personal experience operating a sustainable livestock farm.

1. Treat Your Farm Like a Business

Many people ease into farming. They start modestly — a chicken or two here, a raised bed or two there. Before long, they’re producing more food than they can consume, so they decide to sell it, first to neighbors and later at a local market. A few years go by, and they expand their flock. Their days are busy pulling chicken tractors, cleaning eggs, seeding, planting, and harvesting crops. They rush to a Saturday market to sell what they can, they bring home what they can’t, and they repeat the cycle over and over. And they learn a hard truth: If you build it, they won’t come — not unless you draw them in.

I know