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I don't know how things are in your jurisdiction, but here in Europe making a profit on farming just isn't possible. This sector lives and dies by subsidies. Y
by brnt 6y ago
I don't know how things are in your jurisdiction, but here in Europe making a profit on farming just isn't possible. This sector lives and dies by subsidies.
You're going to have a cash crop or market the hell out of your product, both seem opposite to the goal of starting the farm in the first place.
- holoduke 6y agoDepends on which farm sector. Part of my family is into flowers. I can tell you that flowers are like gold. Almost every flower farmer in our region is loaded. Lowest tier for farming are traditional crops. You need lots of acres and good machines to get efficient en break-even. Only a few manage, but most do not. I would probably focus on farm tech. Automated greenhouses growing tomatoes, cucumbers etc is for example big business. If done right you can be 10-50 times more profitable per square feet than a outside potato field. 100k isn't enough to start something like that. More in the line of 5-10m start capital needed. I
- avar 6y agoYour other comments reveal you're living in The Netherlands. The farming sector there is massively subsidized both via EU and local funds. Now during COVID-19 the state is bankrolling up to 70% of the revenue of the horticulture industry[1]. And that's before you get into all the indirect subsidies like zoning, fuel subsidies for industrial use etc. that are largely aimed at subsidizing farmers. 1. https://www.arc2020.eu/flower-power-commission-somehow-approves-dutch-pillage-of-pillar-2/ https://www.arc2020.eu/flower-power-commission-somehow-appro...
- adwww 6y agoMy family make more profit renting an old workers cottage on the farm as an Airbnb than they get revenue from the entire organic diary operation.
- telesilla 6y agoWithout the dairy operation I'd suspect they'd have less land, less beauty, less reason to live where they are - the workers cottage wouldn't be so charming if it were on the edge of a lifestyle block 15 minutes from the city. Don't discount the value of their investment!
- adwww 6y agoYeah, the Adam Smith, purely financially motivated thing to do would be to sell the cows and charming old barns, move out of the ancient manor farmhouse and make a fortune from renting that out as well. But the life satisifaction of being a hotelier compared to someone who works the land and raises livestock would not be nearly the same.
- leemailll 6y agoIt might depend on which crop to grow. I remember in KING CORN (2007), farmer can't make a profit without government subsidy.
- bluGill 6y agoFarmers can make a profit without subsidies. However you might not want to live in that world: with less farmers food prices will go up - particularly in a bad year when large numbers of people in your city need to starve to death because farmers tried to raise only as much food as needed, and guessed wrong because of the bad weather the previous season.
- pragmatic 6y agoIronic that it came out during the largest Ag boom in the last century. Huge fortunes were made during that time. Sadly those tunes have ended, but this year is going to be good for some.
- carlob 6y agoI think it's pretty much the same in the US, even though it's sometimes less apparent. Look up the Reclamation Act of 1902: most of the West would not be cultivated without the huge public investment in irrigation which have never made any economic or ecological sense (growing alfalfa in the Colorado highlands for example).