Stages of Learning in Farming - Laying the Foundation

In my experience, every new farmer goes through stages of learning in building their farming knowledge and expertise. Lisa and I completed Land Stewardship Project's Farm Beginnings class in 2001. We learned much in this class which was organized to help beginning farmers get started. Even with this advantage, we had a significant learning curve to make the transition from growing on a small scale (literally gardening in our back yard) to taking the first steps into the commercial market place on a scale that is 10 or even 100 times the size of our starting operation.

I am going to organize these stages according to our recent experience. The farm calendar typically operates on a seasonal basis and whether you are growing vegetables like we are, or growing row crops and small grains, or livestock, the stages are similar. I have provided links to other articles on our website VegetableFreak.com  for more in-depth information on certain topics

The Year of Contentment

One of keys to the financial success of every family is contentment, which is one of the most powerful financial principles in our lives.

I Timothy 6:6-8 says, "Now godliness with contentment is great gain..."

Let's start off the New Year by considering five principles of contentment...

Pickup Trucks and Business Success

I have come to believe that success and failure in farming may be tied to the pickup truck the farmer drives.

You mean if you choose Ford over Chevy you may fail? No I'm thinking more about buying an expensive truck versus a good used truck no matter what the brand. Especially in the early years of building your farming business.

Not saying I'm perfect, but here is what we have done over 35 years of farming. I offer this for your consideration.

The Measurement Stick

Remember when you were little and mom or dad had you stand by the door to the closet in your bedroom and measured your height. This became a measure of progress for your growth. Your siblings were likely recorded in the same spot.

This may have been the first time you encountered the measuring stick, but it certainly wasn't the last.

Here are some other examples...

My Blue Ferrari

I had a friend who recently bought a brand new cherry red Corvette. It is a beafutiful machine and he was giving rides yesterday. Talk about new car smell.

I hated getting into a competition on vehicles but I could have told him about my cobalt blue Ferrari.

The Rear View Mirror

We spend about 99% of our automotive driving time looking out the windshield and 1% of our time looking in the rear view mirror. The rear view mirror is important but relatively unappreciated.

But what happens when you want to back-up...

Watershed Moments - A Farmers Best Friend

If diamonds are "a girls best friend" according to the DeBeers marketing campaign, and a dog is man's best friend according to legend, then a pickup is the farmers best friend. I bought my first pickup when I was 17 it was a 1973 model, which was the year before