Ive asked this before, but thought i would send it back around for more ideas. Is there a way to farm (livestock or plants) about 20ac of pasture and make enough money to pay somebody to take care of it and still break even. Some ideas I've had are boutique farming sheep, or organic chickens. Maybe flowers? I just don't think I can grow enough veggies even as a CSA, but what do I know.

Cannabis

There is a reason farms are consolidating and getting bigger and bigger. About anything you want to do you are going to have to put a lot of time into.

i think he meant without getting free room and board from the state,or a boyfriend named bubba.

Don't know but maybe organic vegetables for
local restaurants.

What is a boutique sheep?

Post in the Garden forum if you want some discussion on it, but I can give you a short answer -- I've been involved with both cut flowers and vegetables, and your answer is NO.

My pager went off, what did I miss?

I have a small goat farm on about that amount of land. I have them for just to keep my land clean I started with about 6 goats now I have to sell some to keep the numbers down have about 20 something now . Goat pricing is pretty good now that south americans have invaded.

if you can't make it a profitable or break
even operation just plant the whole thing
in soybeans.

There's some of these LA boys pay big money for the right goat.

What I would do is build a modest sized cabin, maybe 1200 sf but really nice. Then I'd find the right person and offer them free rent (they pay utilities) and they do the farm maintenance. I know tons of people that do that here in northern Virginia and folks stand in line to get the place. The key is it has to be a nice place, not some run down old tenant house or travel trailer. The upside is you get the cabin when you have reached your goal and you get to write off the improvements.

A horse riding/boarding farm is a whole different can of worms, but it can be extremely profitable if you can find the right clientele; but you are going to have to stick some money into it first.

There's also a guy out near Moody that has a dog boarding place about that size where it has a boarding operation but also has small ponds and runs and such for the dogs to just run free (it's all fenced). Great place, but he breeds dogs and this probably just supplements his breeding operation.

There are tons of things you can do, but most have some liability and time commitments that you probably aren't willing to take right now.

If you can find a way to make a 20 acre farm pay for itself, pay an employee and do that without going in the hole, you'll be able to sell that idea for millions.

You can grow ALOT of veggies on 20ac, having the time to do it is another discussion..

Small fruits would be a better route, u-pick straw berries or blackberries, blueberries. It all depends on how much work you want to do.

You can make a living off that much land growing produce. I think trying to hire someone to do it would be the problem. You would need to be heavily involved. In the real world its almost imposible to find someone to do that kind of work without a lot of supervision.

Plant the whole thing in blueberries and you will be generating income in a few years and wont need anyone full time year around.

I don't want it to pay for itself. I just want it to make enough to pay for an employee. The land is paid for. It's just too much for me to take care of without just letting it grow over.

Your right coldtrail, it would be an operation you would have a direct hand in. Produce and small fruits require almost daily attention during the growing season.

you can just plant grass on it and give it a way to someone who is in the hay buisness. My father and uncle just let a friend come bale some of theres a couple times a year to keep from mowing it. If you hire someone you have to worry about them getting hurt, keep books ect.

There are certain kinds of grass that horse people prefer for their horses that can be grown, bailed and sold at a good price. The initial process of clearing and planting can be time consuming but once grown may not take allot of time. Furflyn may be able to shed some light on this.

Alfalfa?

I know a man that is planning on building a 10 acre blueberry farm, u-pick and commercial. He has read all the articles, etc, and can tell you exactly how many berries he will grow per year. I highly doubt it.

Highly doubt what?

Guy I know supplements his income on 40 acres very well with fruit tree's and berry's. He hire's well skilled workers to do all the picking and packaging for him.

This is the only way to go if you want to make money.

I have about a half an acre of blackberries and blueberries and other fruit right now. I haven't sold any yet as they are young. I'm clearing land as I go.

I am building a small green house so we can start to propagate our own and save on the cost. I hoping to get up to at least five acres. I let you know how it works out in five or so years.

Watermelons?

Ginseng goes for a pretty penny. I thought about growing some. It takes a couple years to get started, but you could make some good cash with a small farm.

CORN!!!!!!

seriously,
We used to breed cattle with high dollar bulls and sell the off spring in cullman. your herd would have to be small and well taken care of. also, you would have to partition your fields and learn how to rotate pastures. you can make some good play money but not enough to pay someone to do it.

You could however, learn to grow trophy deer and auction them off. some south alabama deer farms sell semen for 5k a pop. you can make a decent living off of that but I have no clue how much land those guys have or the amount of money they put in up front.

Pecan trees maybe?

I have a great uncle that has a pecan orchard(40 acres)and he had folks pick them on halves,he makes a good chunk of money every year and all he has to do is take care of the trees,the only downside is a storm can wreak havoc on a pecan tree so that income can be gone in the blink of an eye

Several of my Dad's folks were long time farmers in the Spring Valley and White Oak areas of Colbert Co. As one of my great uncles said "There's only one sure way to make a small fortune farming. Start with a large fortune."