What Kind of Farm Do I Want?

People often ask me what kind of farm I want.  When I query what they mean by that, the answers usually underscore a common theme of how people of today think of farms in the US.  The usual replies indicate some form of specialized production.  The answers to my queries are exemplified by these answers.  "I mean, do you want an apple orchard, or a dairy farm?"  Or something like this, "Since you have chickens, I thought you might want a chicken farm."  Or lastly, "My grandfather had a vegetable farm that he ran in the summer, so I was wondering if you wanted to do something similar."  The answer to the question of what kind of farm I want is much more complicated than a type of specialized production.  But we can start with that angle.

The type of farm I want would be categorized as a "mixed farm."  A mixed farm has a variety of agricultural production efforts.  A mixed farm typically grows a variety of crops and animals.  Most farms of 100 years ago were mixed farms.  Each of the production enterprises usually supported in some fashion one or more other enterprises on the farm.  For example, corn might be raised to feed the hogs and to sell on the market.  The hogs in turn would clean up the fallen apples in the orchards and consume the left over whey or buttermilk from on farm dairy processing.  The chickens would lay eggs, provide meat, keep the insects at bay, and act as a second line of defense against small rodent infestations.  The orchard would provide nuts and fruit for the farm as well as shade for the sheep in the summer, and access to insects for the chickens, turkeys, and hogs.  The vegetable garden provided food for the farm family and bartering goods for neighbors or other local farm families that raised other foods not raised on a specific farm.  The woodlot provided firewood, fence posts, lumber for building, acorns for hogs, and a cool restful place to get away from everything for awhile.  These are just a few examples of the interactions on a mixed farm.

Aside from the general production focus of the farm, there are many other aspects that are worthy of discussion.  There is the question of purpose.  There is the question of size.  There is a question of production philosophy.  Of course there are other aspects of some importance, but I will limit this post to these remaining three items.

I imagine several purposes to my farm.  In no particular order these are the primary purposes that come to mind.  I've always wanted to raise food for may family.  My reasons for wanting to raise my family's food has evolved over time, among which are self-sufficiency, nutrition, variety, and economics.  As I age, I also want a purpose to have to get out of bed everyday and stay active.  I'd like my farm to provide me with an opportunity or requirement to do a good 20 hours a week of physical and mental activity.  One aspect of the farm that I believe I want is to provide some level of income in retirement.  Even though I have worked hard and have been fortunate to have good employment in my career, the prospects of living on my retirement savings and Social Security seems troublesome to me, particularly given the tenuous state of the Social Security system.  I feel a need to be able to provide an ongoing modest income stream, which I believe I can do with proper focus on my farm.

When I consider the size of the farm I would like, I think in scenarios.  I have scenarios that range from three to 60 acres, but I usually focus on three scenarios.  The first is a small version of about three acres, plus or minus.  On these three acres, I could raise most food for my family and have some very limited ability to produce an outside, supplemental income.  The next scenario is usually imagined as a 10-15 acre scenario.  This provides everything that the three acre scenario, plus the ability to raise larger livestock, such as cattle, and also provide a greater opportunity for supplemental retirement income.  The last scenario I usually imagine as a 30-40 acre farm.  This provides all the options of the smaller scenarios, plus much greater ability to raise more large stock and provide the level of supplemental retirement income that I believe would be more optimal.  The final selection of size will depend on what is available and on other circumstances at the time of selection.

In terms of production philosophy, my ideal harks back to what I imagined as a child of the 70's during the OPEC oil embargo.  As an early teen, I asked myself, "How could we grow all the food we needed and provide everything else we needed without any inputs from outside the property?"  The question is largely a theoretical question, but its direction is still important to me as the backbone of my farming philosophy.  I hate to use the cliche word, sustainability, but I will, primarily because I thought of it as an early teen before it became defined and redefined by elitists and oligarchs to fit their needs and the ideas they were peddling at the moment.  I want a farm that can provide excellent food for my family, in an ongoing repeatable manner, requiring as little off farm inputs as possible to do so.  In my mind, that is the definition of the sustainable farm I seek.

In a nutshell, what I have imagined as my ideal scenario is that I would like to have a mixed farm where I can raise food for my family, earn a supplemental retirement income, that is 30-40 acres in size and can be run in a sustainable manner using well-defined, stacked production enterprises and appropriate technology and techniques.  How is that for a run on sentence?  I reserve the right to change my mind, whenever I want.