Are you getting ready to embark on life as a farmer? Like any new business venture, farming requires careful planning. Farming is a rewarding career, but it’s also hard work. Farming is vital for society and a financially stable career choice. Here’s a guide to help you get started.

Visualize Your Future Farm

Farming is not just raising cows and chickens in the countryside. That’s certainly one type of farm, and it may be the right one for you. If you’re not sure, consider the different possibilities. You can farm in an urban, suburban, or rural area. You can farm on less than one acre or on more than one hundred acres. You have so many options.

Also, what type of farming do you want to do? Do you want to raise goats, grow a vineyard, keep bees for their honey, or stick with a basic vegetable farm? Would you rather focus on growing a fruit orchard? You can even have an energy farm to sell sustainable energy for a greener climate.

Decide On Your Product

In order to know, think about the space you have available, the chores you’ll have to do each day, and how you intend to make money. What will you sell? Gallons of milk, eggs, yogurt, goat milk face products, olives, oranges, chocolate, flowers, ice cream, cannabis, jars of honey, or crisp Fall apples? Of course, another option is to run a petting zoo.

Once you have your vision, be sure you know what laws you must abide by. This means you’ll need to check with the city government for any restrictions you will be expected to follow. If you’re an urban farmer, can you have a chicken? How do keep livestock contained? What are sanitation requirements? The list goes on. Make sure you’re prepared.

Finances

Farming finance includes the money you have to spend to own a farm and the money you make as a farmer.

Once you know your location and type of farm that’s when you can begin to calculate expenses. Building costs are a big part of starting a farm, but if you have your vision laid out, you know what you’ll need and, therefore, which contractors to call. Starting up will cost anywhere from $10,000 to over one million.

Then there is the business side of things. How many people do you hire and how do you best market your products? You’ll need employees to help with day-to-day chores and marketing your business.

Choose Livestock Carefully

If you intend to raise animals, study up on livestock. What animal(s) will you have? Keep in mind that farm animals are prey animals and like to be in groups. You need to figure out how to keep them safe.

Determine the best livestock confinements to keep them contained. How do you protect and take care of them? Do you know the sanitation requirements for milking livestock? Another critical question is how much poop are you going to be scooping up?

Make sure you fully understand the needs of livestock before you begin farming.