Grassfed Life

Darby and I talk about the ins and outs of his bulk purchase program, and Darby fields questions from a prospective buyer. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Lou Roman talks about his experience being diagnosed with cancer and starting a farm after he found out. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Today I talk to first year farmer Charles Mayfield of Mayfield Pastures about how he's managing to balance life and business and a full time job with the part time job - farming. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Today Darby Simpson and I will take a deeper look at poultry feed, current prices, current customer perceptions, and how that might change what Darby is doing on his farm. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Darby and I talk about the trade-offs between what you want and what reality dictates. We go over ways to balance between your ideology, dream, and vision of a farm and what you can actually do. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Five farmers talk about their experiences raising pastured poultry on small acreage. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

When it comes to buying a farm, how do you select the right one? Specifically the right one for you? Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Don't have much land, not a problem, a lot is still possible. Recently Darby and I have gone through exactly what's possible on small land with pastured poultry and with pigs. Each of these episodes showed that individually each enterprise could generate some significant cash flow on just one acre, and stacking the enterprises turns up the returns even more. What if you had more than an acre? Or what if pigs or poultry weren't your thing? What's possible with cattle? In this episode Darby and I will examine what the numbers of a small scale cattle enterprise look like. We'll look at a few different scenarios ranging from 2.5 to 10 acres. On that amount of land the returns are significant, and once infrastructure is in place, the workload isn't. Today it's all about micro beef. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Running a profitable pig enterprise on just 1 acre, is it possible, and if so, what is possible? What's that operation going to look like, what are the trade-offs and the costs, and how much could you make? It's an operation which could bring some nice cash flow into a homestead or diversify a farms revenue streams, and the time inputs and profits will surprise you. Because a lot is possible on just one acre. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Let's assume you have a fallow field or a meadow. How do you convert that to pasture? That's what this episode is all about. Assume that the fictional field is in the Midwest, it's 20 acres, and mostly herbaceous species. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Today I am talking to a grazer, John Phelan, who's been farming for over 40 years and lived on his farm for the better part of 60 years. During that time period politics changed, farming methods changed, the land changed and evolved with the methods, a family was raised, and disaster has struck. Over the last 40 years John's seen it all including watching his land burn to the ground. It's been a long road, but one that's been worth it. It's a look back at a life of grazing with John Phelan. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Running a profitable pastured poultry enterprise on just 1 acre, is it possible, and if so, what is possible? What's that operation going to look like, what are the trade-offs and the costs? It's an operation which could bring some nice cash flow into a homestead or diversify a farms revenue streams, and the time inputs and profits will surprise you. Because a lot is possible on just one acre. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

One advantage of farming in a place where there's winter is winter. For many farmers winter means forced downtime, or at least, yeah it's cold and I'm tired. Given that many farmers take the winter off. Depending on your farm maybe that's totally off or maybe, that's just off with a dramatically reduced workload. It's downtime you can use for a variety of purposes... to rest, to relax, to get ahead on other projects, to do repairs or build out infrastructure, to take a trip, or to work.... for someone else. What, go to work for someone else off farm during your downtime? Yep. It is something which can give some optionality to your life and farm. You are trading some downtime for dollars; dollars which you can use to expand the farm, buy more animals, install more fence, go on a vacation or simply build up the savings account. All reasons why Darby spent his winter months commuting M-F to an office to do engineering work. In this episode, you'll hear why, and why it might actually be a good option for you and your farm. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

If you're raising cattle then you're likely holding them over at least one winter. For most of the country winter means no grass, so you're either stock piling forage over the summer or your feeding hay. Given these two choices, the choice for most people is feeding hay. Given that, where will your hay come from? Is it hay you are growing and producing on the farm, or are you buying it and bringing it on property? Depending on where you live, how much land you have access to, what equipment you own, and what type of friends you might have in the community - it depends. For Darby, he had the land and a friend with the equipment, so he decided to make his own hay on farm. It's a move which took some acreage out of row crops and put it into perennial pasture, something which the NRCS helped Darby to pay for. In this episode we'll get into how much the conversion costs, what the return has been like so far, and why and how did he did it. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

What if you didn't have to wake up early every Saturday and load up and lug down to the farmers market. What if instead you could sleep in, at least till 5 versus 3. What would that be like? And what would sales, specifically your market streams have to look like to make that happen? You would have to be delivering your product off the farm to the customers or you could have the product deliver itself by having the customer come to you. That's how farmer Michael Kovach of Walnut Hill Farm sells 95% of his product. He does in a 20ft by 10ft shed, ie the on farm store. It's a model that's worked really well for him despite his location, which isn't exactly close to a major city at an hour away. Despite the distance customer come out once a week, usually to buy him out of his stock. How's does it all work? Stay tuned to find out in this episode of Grass Fed Life with Micahel Kovach of Walnut Hill Farm. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

In this episode Darby talks about several new market streams he is adding to his farm business on top of the several market streams he already has. He isn't adding these market streams because he wants to, he's adding them because he has to. He is seeing his existing market streams start to top out, so if he wants to grow the farm he has to start selling his product to more customers versus selling more products to his existing customers. You'll learn about why he is doing this, and how he is approaching each of these market streams. This episode will help show that you probably shouldn't expect to find one market stream and just ride it. Instead it's likely going to take a variety of market streams to make you farm business work. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

What if you want to raise pastured poultry, but you don't have any grass? You have pasture, but it's not green, or the pasture is just an area outside. In many cases if it was cattle, you are feeding hay. But what do you do for poultry, because poultry don't eat hay. You use fodder. Or at least, that's one option. An option that my guest today, Tim Bork of the Brush Arbor Farmstead is a big fan of. Tim lives in Northern California and there are times of year when the grass instead green and parts of his property that are too shady to grow grass, so he grows his own, every 6 days, in the form of fodder. It's a feed supply that makes sense in Tim's context - it's green when pasture grass isn't, it's portable, nutrient dense, and it's cheaper than feed. In this episode Tim's going to talk about the numbers of fodder, call them fodder economics - what are the cost, what are the yields, and how much time is involved. He will also talk about why fodder. But before we get there we'll start with how Tim got started in farming and some of the challenges that he faced early on, especially around developing a customer base and accurately trying to predict and produce enough for that customer base. There was a lot of trial and error that went into it, and led him to develop a farmshare sales model, which is just as unique as his fodder system. His sales model's interesting, and his struggles are very real, and likely very common to many people listening to this show. Despite those struggles, the farming journey continues, and here's what it looks like today. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

About a year ago we published an episode titled - When Farming Sucks. In that intro to that episode I said... Farming 200 years ago and 2000 years ago was hard, just like it is today. Sure technology and innovation has made parts of the job easier, but at the core farmers today still worry about the same things farmers did 2000 years ago. Some things, and days are just going to suck. There's no way to avoid it. There's going to be hard times. Often we don't think about those hard times that might lay ahead when we decided to start down a certain path. Instead we just focus on what we want to focus on, and usually that's the pretty vision of the future... Something Darby cautioned against: If you have this idealistic utopian view of what farming is going to be in your head, reality is going to set in, and it's not going to live up to what you paint it to be in your head, and then you have a lot further to fall. It's been a year since Darby put out that warning, and a year later, the ever present suck factor of farming is still very real. Once again, if you romanticized farming before, well this episode is going to take that romantic vision and drag it through the mud a bit. While the farming lifestyle can be great, and while there are many more good days than bad days, the bad days, can be really bad. Today, we'll take a look at some of those bad days happening on the farm right now. The goal isn't to discourage you from wanting to do any of this. It is just to make sure that you think about what you are getting into, and show that while there are stormy days (literally), there's light after the storm. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Last week Darby and I talked about fencing basics, think - How should you think about fencing in your context? Given that, depending on you and your situation, the best option might be to use portable electric fencing. If that's the case, then this episode is for you because today it's all about portable electric fence. Stephanie Sexton, Product Manager at Premier 1 Supplies, joins me to talk about the ins and outs of electric fence for three specific farming scenarios - poultry, pigs, and market gardening. Stephanie has had years of experience working with product and helping farmers just like you select the right fence for their situation. Over that time, she's seen it all and her knowledge of the product is amazing. In this episode she talks about things like: How to select the right fence? Should you go with a temporary or semi-permanent setup? How to choose the correct energizer? How do you deal with vegetation and very dry or very wet condition? If you have questions about electro-net, then this is the episode for you. As we get into this episode you will realize there's a lot of details and specifics in this episode. Given that, don't worry about taking notes, because you can download a summary of the whole conversation in the show notes for Episode 58. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

During the workshops and via email, we've gotten a lot of questions on one subject which we have never really covered before, until today, fencing. If you have listened to the last 5 episodes on sheep, you will know that there are a lot of different opinions on fencing and a lot of different approaches to using those fencing systems. Today we will take a look at fencing from a 10,000 foot view discussing how to approach establishing permanent fence if you are a new farmer and/or are putting fence onto new land. What type of fence should you go with, and why? Should you install it yourself, or pay someone to do it. When you are starting out are a lot of scenarios which could play out when it comes to fence, and like most things on the farm it comes down to… What's your context? Where do you want to go with your farm? How much money and time do you have to spend? Once you know those then the specifics fall into place. Today's episode will be a high level look at permanent fencing. Next week we'll have someone from Premier One on to talk specifically about the ins and outs of portable electronic fencing. Then, down the line we'll follow up on this subject with a more specific look at the hardware, materials, and specs that go into producing Darby's preferred type of fence - hi-tensile. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Today's episode is the second pre-mortem of Darby evaluation the economics and mechanics of really taking on a grass fed lamb enterprise. We'll call this episode the informed pre-mortem coming after the mini-series with three other grazers raising lamb. A lot has changed in this last month. Like you Darby's learned a lot, or at least enough to ask the right questions now. In this episode, Darby will share his current and update thoughts and concerns on raising lamb looking at current worries, things he was glad he heard now, and questions that he still needs answered. He'll also look ahead to 2018 and talk about if lamb is a fit on his farm next year or not, and why. Today it's a more informed look at starting a new enterprise… Why I would or would not raise grassfed lamb - The Upside, The Downside, and the Risks - The Economics and Mechanics of Raising Grass Fed Lamb - Part 2. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Today, let's start by going back go back in time to Eastern Europe in the 1980's. To a country that no longer exists. It was a country where the economy was centrally planned One where the prices of basic goods and services were set by central government planners The German Democratic Republic, better known to us in the west as East Germany. It was there at that time during that Cold War, when a young man fulfilled a boyhood fascination and became professional government registered shepherd. It was job that would put that young man in charge of 1000 plus sheep at a time, having to move them from field to field; a task that may sound simple, but one that's enormously complex. That's how my guest today, shepherd Ulf Kintzel got his start in shepherding. In this episode, Ulf is going to share his 30 years of experience with sheep. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

For today's episode we are going over to the land of sheep, New Zealand to talk to small scale farmer and grazer Jodi Roebuck of Roebuck Farm. Jodi has a unique story... he started out as a vegetable gardener vegetarian and somewhere along the way he took notice of the regenerative effect grazing animals can have on the landscape. With that seed planted he took some knowledge from Joel Salatin and grazing cattle to start grazing a small flock of sheep on his home farm. Since then he's gone on to grow his flock to around 100 sheep which he now grazes on his home farm, and several leases in his area of Taranaki. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Today's episode is the first of three straight episodes focusing solely on raising lamb. For this episode we are going to go to rural Pennsylvania to talk to livestock farmer Kinley Coulter of Coulter Farms. Like many of you, Kinley didn't come from a farming background, and he started farming without any previous farming experience. He was working as an engineer in the 90s, then his wife had kids and they started a family. At that point they realized that they needed to change things in life, because their first priority was now raising kids. With that in mind they bought a farm in Pennsylvania, and Kinley started his farming journey. From the beginning the focus of their farm has been 100% grassfed and organic. They have raised lambs on pastured for over 10 years. It's a journey that started out really easy with some beginners luck, and then got really rough when reality caught up with them. Over the years they have a lost a lot of sheep along the way, but they have learned a lot, and now they aren't losing many sheep it all. For them grassfed lamb is an enterprise that works, and after hearing this one, you may decide that it could also work for you. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Raising grassfed lamb has been one of the most requested topics over the past 6 months. Given that, and given Darby's interest in taking on a potential grassfed lamb enterprise today's episode and the next few are dedicated to raising lamb on pasture. We'll start out this series with Darby going through what he currently knows about lamb, what his assumptions are, and what his concerns and worries are. He'll talk about why he's interested in adding lamb to his farm, and what goes into a decision like this - adding a new species that you aren't that familiar with to your farm. This is an enterprise that Darby is seriously looking to start on his farm, so this episode will be an inside look at what goes into a decision like this. I will then follow up this episode with several interviews with some current grassfed sheep and lamb grazers - ones that do this for a living, and have done this for a living for a long time. They'll fill in all the gaps and details that aren't in this episode. Then I will circle back with Darby and see if his thoughts have changed. If you're playing a long at home, you can do the same. You may be hearing lamb, and thinking lamb, I am not into raising lamb, this isn't relevant.. Hold up and give it a chance. Don't worry. These shows will still be valuable. Over the next few episodes you'll learn about evaluating a business idea, low stress animal handling, building soil, rotational grazing pastures, building and establishing pastures, and marketing products. All concepts talked about in the context of lamb, but universally applicable to most other grazing animals. Before we get into this one, take a sec to think about lamb in your context. Are you interested in raising them - why or why not? What factors would you consider when starting a new enterprise. Then see how those questions might get answered and how those assumptions might change as we go through this series. Keep in mind as we go through this episode today, this is Darby talking about what he knows now about lamb, knowing that it might be right and it might be wrong. Don't take anything in this episode as gospel when it comes to the mechanics of raising lamb. Today it is Darby evaluating what he knows, doesn't know, and what he doesn't know that he doesn't know. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

In this episode we touch on a variety of topics from have a homestead milking cow, to rotational grazing and establishing a pasture, to what to look for when purchasing land. Enjoy it - Beyond Homestead with farmers and authors of The Independent Farmstead Shawn and Beth Dougherty. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Today we will be looking at what's involved with on farm processing from what's a typical day like to what equipment is needed to what are some of the advantages of processing on farm. Overall, it's an in-depth look at on farm poultry processing from someone who does it, and does it really well. I think it's safe to say that by the end of this episode you will either be saying nope, not for me, or I really see the benefit in this, where can I learn more... and that's the goal. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Today we will take a look at part time farming, or farmsteading, looking at what's possible and how viable of an option it really is. It's a model that fits nicely in between homesteading and full time farming. It's a model that might be more financially approachable now, it's a model that might not require radical lifestyle change, and it's a model that might pay you something to produce your own food. And maybe best of all it's an option that gives you a lot of future options. Get exclusive content each week with the Grassfed Life Insider. Learn more at https://www.grassfedlife.co/insider Grassfed Life Courses: https://farm-business-essentials.teachable.com/courses

Today we'll be going to Zanesville, OH to talk to farmer Greg Burns of Natures Image Farm. Greg's journey began one day out of the blue, in a way that you wouldn't expect, and in a way that you could say was by the grace of god. Imagine living the American dream. Owning your own business, living in nice house in a subdivision with a well-kept yard, money to buy everything that you need and more. It's the good life. Then one day you're driving down the road on the Connecticut, New York border in your truck and suddenly everything changes in an instant. It was in that instant where it all went wrong that sent Greg's truck airborne on the highway, tumbling in mid-air, slowing down time, and flashing his life before him. It was an instant that left him upside down on the road wondering if he was alive or dead. It was an instant that left bystanders saying, I can't believe you are alive! It was an instant the changed the course of life of Greg Burns. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

Today we'll be going to Louisville, Kentucky to talk to farmer Luke Groce of Groce Family Farm. Luke and his wife Katherine started their farming career in 2009 as a vegetable farm. An operation that had its successes and it's failures. As Luke said... "I've got a few war stories from the deep trap of doing too many things at the beginning of farming a piece of land with no experience, and then not doing any of it well enough. After treading water, and trying to keep up with all of it for six years, I've decided that CSA farming is a team sport. And I can't be good at, and stay on top of, growing 30-40 things by myself (plus keep up with 40+ pigs). It's a kind of humbling thing to say, 'I can't do this well.' " It was through some of the failures and struggles with the vegetable operation that led Luke down the path of raising pigs. Another path that's full of war stories... having tried a bunch over the years from keeping pigs behind two strands of hot wire to experimenting with a unique bulk pork sales program, two things he will talk about today. Not everything has worked, but some of it has and he's learned along the way continuing to grow his pork operation. The move to pork was one that might not have happened, but it did, and it was a move that he wouldn't regret, because it was a move would bring his family together living on the farm, and one that would save his farm. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

When it comes down to the changes there's three main areas that Darby would have handled differently – getting more startup capital, utilize USDA and NCRS financial services, and enterprise selection. Even though he started with chickens, in hindsight his farming business, his life, and his marriage might have been better off if he had started with pigs. If you are thinking about starting up a farm, transitioning over your farm, or making a big shift in your farm business, there's a lot of good advice and tips in this one. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

With summer farmers markets starting around the county over the next couple of months it's time to start looking at the markets in your area, if you want to sell at farmers markets. In last week's episode which was effectively part 1 of this mini-series we took a look at how to select markets and what to do when you are apply markets. It involved casting a wide net and narrowing down your market choices to the ones that seemed like the best fit and the ones that would accept you. Today in part 2 of the series we'll move a little further ahead in time, to when you actually get accepted into a market, and we will take a look at some of the specifics that come into play with that. Things like… How to choose a farms market stall spot? How to price cuts? Two of many things that you might not think about when your applying to a market, but something that's critical to think about once you are accepted. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

With summer farmers markets starting around the county over the next couple of months it's time to start looking at the markets in your area, if you want to sell at farmers markets. Today we'll look at two cases - return to the same farmers market and starting at a new market, and how would you approach the two different situations. In both cases you need to advocate for yourself and talk about what benefit you are bringing to the market. At least when you are returning to a market, you are dealing with some knowns. When you venture out to a new market, it's a different story, you don't know what that market will be like. Darby will discuss some ways to deal with those unknowns and what factors to consider. He'll also get into... How do you deal with a farmers market that only allows you to sell X? What do you do if your market turns out to be terrible? Both realities in a farmer's world, and neither is an easy situation to deal with. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

When you start a farm, what's one of the most important things that you need to do... Hint… it's not growing the food... It's selling the food that you do grow. I hear this time and time again from seasoned farmers, and I most recently heard it from a long time USDA loan agent when she said... "Growing is the easy part. In California we can grow almost any crop, the hard part is selling that crop." Biology supports that. Plants and animals are genetically pre-programmed to grow and reproduce. As much as we think that we need to be involved, in a large way, we are just ushering along biology. And for many people it's the growing of food or the raising of livestock that's the fun part. Not the selling or the marketing. But without the selling and marketing and cash flow coming in, you're not a farmer, you are homesteader or a gardener, there's simply no business. Given that it's critical to get some cash flow going right away when you start the business.. One way to do that, is to pre-sell some of your product, even before you raise it, through a CSA. That's what we're talking about today.. Darby's going to be sharing his experiences and insights running a chicken CSA. It's a program that brings in a lot of cash early in the season when a lot of cash is going out of the business to pay expenses. Overall the program has worked well, and his business wouldn't be the same without it... READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

Starting a Successful Farm on the Road - How Wilson Marsh of Whole Earth Farm built a customer base in a town of just 1700 people. Today will be the first episode that steps away from Darby's farm, and takes a look at another farmer's story and what they are doing. We'll be going down to South Texas to talk to Wilson Marsh of Whole Earth Farm. While Wilson and his wife Kayla now seek to raising livestock humanely and go beyond organic, it wasn't always that way when it came to farming with Wilson. Because he grew up on a conventional farm with a family that farmed thousands of acres with chemicals. It was a lifestyle that he hated as a kid, and it thought that he would ever come full circle back to farming as adult which he did, but in a very different way than his family did. Because in the interim he found out about permaculture and regenerative agriculture and it was something that resonated with him. And the more he learned, the more he wanted to do, but initially there was one problem. He didn't have any land. So he started on his families land developing his own pastured livestock enterprise on the side while working on the family farm during the day. While conventional agriculture wasn't something that he believed in, it was a means to an end, and end that we'll talk about today. Starting a Successful Farm on the Road - How Wilson Marsh of Whole Earth Farm built a customer base in a town of just 1700 people. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

Today we are going to take a look at a common fork in the road - chickens or pigs or both. Chickens and pigs are the two common starter enterprises for people getting into livestock. There's a lot of similarities... they both have a relatively low cost to start up, you don't need a lot of land, the time commitment isn't huge, and they are scalable. And there are a lot of differences - infrastructure, feed, processors, market perception, and price points of the finished products. Both enterprises make a lot of sense for a beginning farmer, or for an existing farmer ad an add on enterprise. But it's the subtle differences and how those differences fit your context, your life, and your land which make all the difference, often times leading to a clear choices. Given these subtle differences, if you are starting out, how do you choose? That's what we will explore today, with Darby going through a consultation with person interested in farming. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

Darby and I are going to start the year out by taking on the topic – If You Want to Farm in 2017, Do This… I think today's episode can go behind those of you that want to start farming in 2017, I think these ideas also work for anyone look to change the direction of their farm, improve their farm, or add an enterprise onto their farm. This is the time of year a lot of people use for planning, so we'll give you six different things that you can start doing now to get better prepared for later in the year. If you are thinking about a change in 2017 whether major or minor, start planning out that change now, and stay tuned to find out how. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

If you want to do this you aren't getting any younger and you probably already know enough to start now. As listener Zach said... "One big lesson I learned early on. Education is important, but actually doing the work and experimenting with new products, markets, and techniques is what helps you learn and improve over time. You need education to help you generate ideas and learn new concepts, but you need actual real world experience to be successful. There's no way to learn your way to success. You can only work your way to success. " For those of you currently farming, best of luck in 2017 on the continuum of your farming journey. And if you are thinking about farming in 2017, but are on the fence, here are five reasons why you might want to start. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

Today Darby and I will take a look back at his season on the farm looking at what went well, what didn't and some lessons learned. Because despite 10 years of trial and error and farming experience, not everything always goes as planned. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

If you are value adding your meat product via a processing by having them make something like sausage or bacon, then you might be more tied to that particular process than you think. Depending on how that entity makes that product and what they put in it, it creates a specific flavor profile. A flavor profile that your customer base likely associates with you and your farm. But that flavor profile isn't coming just from you. What happens then if that other piece of the puzzle goes away? How do you then replicate that same product using another entity? If the success of a particular product is in part based on an entity that isn't you, what do you do? If the product changes, what will your customers think? Will they notice? Maybe, maybe not? But it's something to think about, and it's the topic of today's show. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

Farming is one of those careers that are more than a career. It's a lifestyle. A lifestyle in every sense of the world. Because for a big part of the year your life will be the farm. Extreme work hours and murderous weeks are pretty much universally synonymous with farming. During parts of the season it's not uncommon to work 12, 15, or 18 hour days, putting in those types of days back to back. The work becomes everything during those periods and it is a long, long cycle of do this then this then this then this, then when you are tired and cranky, do more, and more. It's those periods of the farm season that put you to the max and test your commitment to this lifestyle. Fortunately those periods are just that, periods or snapshots in time. They are temporary. They are hell weeks, not hell months or hell years. And if you can push through those hard times you are rewarded later on in the year by the exact opposite. Call them heaven weeks where the workload is extremely minimal and many tasks and projects are now optional, not required. It's the off-season. For Darby, that off-season begins with the arrival of Thanksgiving. And that's where we pick up today's show. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

If you are thinking about transitioning from a career in one field to a career as a part-time or full-time farming, you need to be careful in this stage. The obvious reality is that you get infinitely many chances to make a business work, but the not-so-obvious reality is that everyone gets infinite changes, and most people will only use one. Their shot misses, it doesn't work, and it's over. They never get back up for whatever reasons - emotional, family, financial, emotional. The goal of this episode is to help you become resilient enough not to blow yourself up taking those shots by taking some time on the front end to think through it and plan. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

The person buying Darby's turkeys isn't focused on the sticker - they have other reasons to buy a turkey from him, reasons that are strong enough for them to look past the price. Reasons like being locally raised, being raised in better conditions, being raised by a farmer that they know, and them as a customer being able to support a farmer and a method of agriculture that they believe in, and one that's preciously opposite the methods being used by the Butterballs of the world. It's these factors that have made growing turkeys an attractive niche business for Darby. And it might be a business that fits you and your enterprise, especially if you already have an established customer base. Think about that as we go through this episode, because today, it's a turkey day. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

Set yourself up for success from Day 1 by putting in place a plan that has a chance of success in reality. There's some danger in putting in a plan that's too aggressive up front, because what happens on the back end when you don't meet your own level of expectations, unrealistic or not? Not a situation that you want to be in. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

When it comes to a small scale livestock operation, there are two main choices that stick out when it comes to selecting starter enterprises: pastured poultry and pigs. This season we have discussed each of them in depth, looking at the nuts and bolts and pros and cons of these enterprises. And if I had to guess, I would assume that most people getting into small scale livestock start with poultry. But that might not always be the best option. In many cases raising pigs may be a better option given your market and your competitors in the area. Part of making at that assessment comes to looking at the potential numbers for each of the enterprises. So far we have done that with poultry, but not pigs, at least not until today. If you go way back to episodes 8, 9, and 10 we talked a lot about the methodology of raising pigs in the woods. We covered a lot of the management, the infrastructure and equipment that use to execute a successful and profitable pig enterprise, now let's see how that all works out in reality when it comes to the numbers. What types of costs are involved? And how profitable is a small scale pig enterprise? Those are just some of the topics that we cover in today's episode, Part 4 in the series How to Raise Pigs Regeneratively in the Woods. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

What you will hear today, is an episode that I published about a year ago with Darby. It's an interview talking about his transition into farming and his farm beginnings. If you think you may have heard this interview before, then you probably right. It was published as one of the founders' stories last year before PV3. Given the timing I think that re-airing this interview makes a lot of sense. There's a lot of stuff in this interview that we haven't covered in GFL before. And it should help fill in some of the gaps regarding his early days in farm and how he transitioned from nonfarm to full time farmer. It also goes to show that the Darby that you hear today, wasn't always this way, like everyone, he too had to start at the beginning without any experience or knowing exactly what he was doing... I think that makes Darby's story relatable and applicable to many people listening to this show. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

Believe it or not, not all surprises on the farm are bad surprises. Not every surprise is a baby calf dying, turkeys arriving days early, and having a car crash through your fence on Christmas Day setting off a chain of events that has your cattle and thousands of dollars heading towards the highway. Some surprises are actually good surprises.... and recently Darby got one of those. It came out of the blue, and it's a good one. What is it, and how is he dealing with it. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

At any given time, in any place, in any area of business, there is usually an established set of businesses operating in that geographic area. If you are new to that area and/or if you want to start a business in that area, how do you compete? Think about farming. There are a lot of conventional and better than conventional producers of poultry, pork, and beef in many of the markets around the US and Canada. If you want to get into one of those markets, how do you deal with the competition? On one hand they are competition. On the other hand they are comrades, other small scale farmers, in the battle against big ag. And in some ways, the total market would be stronger if more locals were supporting more local farms. It's competition versus co-opetition. Directly competing in a battle to the death versus competing on more friendly terms knowing that the real battle is the little farms versus the mega industrialized farm complex. As a new farmer you have to walk this line carefully. If you are new farmer, then you could benefit from a lot of your competitors knowledge - knowledge about the market, the local climate, local processors and suppliers, knowledge about the livestock, knowledge about the local grasses. Despite being your competitor they know a lot that you would benefit from knowing, while at the same time, being your direction competition. When you start farming or start farming in a new area, how do you compete and deal with the competition? READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

Today's episode is Part Two of our series on pasture. In this episode Darby will go into detail with a plan that converts conventional row crop into perennial pasture,dealing with invasive weed pressure, and practical considerations for establishing new pasture. Things like should you mow long grass, why or why not, and when could you graze cattle on a new pasture, and even chickens. There's a lot of practical advice in this one. Hopefully some of this advice can help you get establish more pasture or improve the quality of your pasture. Because more grass, means more animals, and no extra land needed. It's like getting another farm for free. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod

When you have an animal that eats grass, then you as a farmer have a big advantage. Grass is free. You don't have to buy it, and depending on where you live you might not have to water it. So your input costs on your end product, are low. But not all grass is created equal. If you don't have a lot of grass or grass year round, then you might find yourself in a situation where you need to purchase hay, which drives input costs up. It's in your interest to have the healthiest most productive pastures as possible. As a farmer, you are both a manager of the animals and the grass to help avoid this problem. It's practices like mob grazing that lead to improved soils which can sustain more life, for longer. Poor practices can lead to the degradation of land, and conversely good practices can lead to a dramatic improvement in the land, soil, and pasture. And improvements can be truly dramatic. Take someone like Greg Judy for example. Greg grazes using planned high density grazing. Putting a lot of animal weight on a small piece of land for a short period of time. Since adopting that system his grazing ratio has changed from 4.5 acres per animal unit (AU=1,000 lb.) to 2.2 acres per AU and forage production has doubled. Judy is using the extra forage to expand his cow herd for a grass-fed beef business, and he has added 300 head of hair sheep. Judy manages the livestock on 900 acres (300 acres owned and 600 acres leased.) "This reduction in grazing acres per AU is like having another 600-acre farm, and we don't even have to pay additional land taxes. In our area, 600 acres is worth $1.8 million," Judy says. More grass, means more animals, and no extra land needed. As Greg said, it's like getting another farm for free. It's all about building soil and that's the focus of today's episode, the first in a multi-part episode series on building pasture. READY TO START YOUR OWN LIVESTOCK FARM? The Farm Business Essentials Online Course is here, and it's not just a piece of the puzzle. FBE is a complete step by step A to Z system to plan, market, and grow the farm enterprise that's right for you. Built by a farmer for farmers just like you - https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com Profitable Pastured Poultry Course: https://www.farmbusinessessentials.com/poultry Lots more free content at Grassfed Life: http://bit.ly/2D5gRJX Subscribe: https://apple.co/2hayYod