Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
find something for less than $100,000. Compared to a large-scale farming or ranching operation
that sells for millions of dollars, you can see how reasonable the prices are to start something like
this. For most families you can begin the first steps with what you currently have available to you.
Equipment is another huge cost factor. A garden up to a quarter acre in size can be easily managed
by hand without the need for motorized equipment. A larger garden size, or for those who aren't
as physically fit to turn a garden by hand, even a good-sized rototiller can be purchased for a few
hundred dollars.
A backyard farm has no need for tractors, mechanized irrigation systems, or other expensive farm
equipment. Even our outbuildings are modest—an open shed for the goats, a chicken house and
portable chicken yard for the chickens, and an 8×10 shed to store equipment is all we have on our
property for our backyard farm, and all of these my husband was able to build himself.
Over the Garden Fence
The cost of land is a lot less when there are improvements needed before you can get started. If you're
willing to trade time and effort to, for example, build fences or clear timber, you can often save on the
monetary cost of land.
Ease of Maintenance
One of the biggest benefits of having a backyard farm that is smaller in size is how easy it is to
maintain! I can turn the chickens out, feed the goats, and look through the garden for whatever is
ready to harvest that day in less than 30 minutes. Fencing in the garden was a two-day, part-time
job for one person. Even planting our seedlings, potato starts, and seeds can be done in a relatively
short amount of time. And weeding and harvesting chores are easily done by hand.
When we experienced the huge drought mentioned earlier, we were able to do some hands-on
things to prevent losing our crop that larger farms wouldn't be able to do. The small size allowed us
to do things to keep our garden productive.
When it's time to clean out the chicken house, it doesn't seem like a daunting task. It takes a few
minutes, fills a single wheelbarrow with muck that goes immediately to the compost bin, and as a
result I don't put it off or have to schedule a huge amount of time to devote to these tasks. Milking
our single goat takes 15 minutes in the morning—not hours and hours. The small scale of chores
on the backyard farm makes them easier to tackle.
