Any other hobby farmers out there???

[Kubota_Girl]

I'm preparing my BX1830 for Springtime, which is just around the corner here in Langley, BC. We don't get a lot of snow here, but the ground still freezes pretty good until March/April. I have 5 acres and primarily use my tractor for clearing the garden beds where we grow some veggies and a variety of wild flowers. Just wondering if anyone else has a hobby farm and what kind of Kubota equipment and attachments they are using?

This will be my second season hobby farming, and any tips of the trade will help!

 

[Mr. K]

Hobby farming? Where's RevDoc when you need him? I think I remember him mentioning something about that. Me? I barely know my carrots from my onions.

 

[RevDoc]

I don't believe there is such a thing as a "hobby farmer". The term is pejorative, flung about by large land owners, urban navel gazers, and commission salesmen wanting to sell you a "real" machine.

There are Farmers, which raise a diverse number of crops and animals to feed themselves and their families, and sell the surplus to defray expenses...

and then there is Agribusiness, where a near-worthless agricultural commodity is produced in ever increasing amounts in an effort to pay the interest on ever increasing debt by corporations that used to be family farmers.

Farming is a happy, healthy, rewarding lifestyle.

Agribusiness is about money, power, credit, chemicals, and checks from government, monsanto, con-agra, and a handful of other international criminal organizations out to control our food from farm gate to dinner plate.

I wish there were MORE beginning Farmers, and the Agra-cultists can take a bath in the chemical soup they spray on the world...after they've been genetically modified with a rusty probe, of course.

I have farmed all my life. I have a team, and 8 tractors, not counting the backhoe and trencher.. My 'bota is by far the smallest on the place, but critical for my garden and orchard. I would be delighted to share what little I know about the subject with anyone interested.

/the above nearly qualifies as a rant, eh

 

[Mr. K]

Indeed! An excellent rant I think.

I've heard that quite a bit actually - regarding the Kubota being the smallest piece of equipment on site. They are well suited for tasks that require a bit more... nimble piece of equipment. Here in BC in the Okanagan where all the vineyards and orchards are, it is very common to see Kubota equipment pulling a trailer full of freshly harvested fruit down the rows and rows and rows of peach trees.

 

[Mr. K]

RevDoc, with that kind of equipment and crew sounds like you've got quite an operation on your hands... would looooove to see some pictures of that. Share some more details?

 

[Kubota_Girl]

I don't believe there is such a thing as a "hobby farmer". The term is pejorative, flung about by large land owners, urban navel gazers, and commission salesmen wanting to sell you a "real" machine.

There are Farmers, which raise a diverse number of crops and animals to feed themselves and their families, and sell the surplus to defray expenses...

and then there is Agribusiness, where a near-worthless agricultural commodity is produced in ever increasing amounts in an effort to pay the interest on ever increasing debt by corporations that used to be family farmers.

Farming is a happy, healthy, rewarding lifestyle.

Agribusiness is about money, power, credit, chemicals, and checks from government, monsanto, con-agra, and a handful of other international criminal organizations out to control our food from farm gate to dinner plate.

I wish there were MORE beginning Farmers, and the Agra-cultists can take a bath in the chemical soup they spray on the world...after they've been genetically modified with a rusty probe, of course.

I have farmed all my life. I have a team, and 8 tractors, not counting the backhoe and trencher.. My 'bota is by far the smallest on the place, but critical for my garden and orchard. I would be delighted to share what little I know about the subject with anyone interested.

/the above nearly qualifies as a rant, eh

Thanks for the enlightenment RevDoc... I guess I've felt typecast into that dumbed-down "hobby" category since I'm not a multi conglomerate feeding the masses. It is nice to know those of us with a small operation are recognized.

What kind of orchard do you have? What size? I've been toying with the idea of planting some hazelnut trees, since there are some big operations in the area, but need to do some more research on them first.

 

[Mr. K]

HHF - hawk hills farm has 75+ acres of vegetable farm that he maintains as well - he'd be a handy guy to show up in this thread....

 

[Barnboy]

Kubota Girl i hobby farm on 10 acres. I raise blackberries for my self and plenty for my 2 boys to sell for summer cash. I end up doing all the work. I use the Kubota B3030 for garden prep and hauling mulch. They boys and i raise pumpkins for fall cash. They love harvest time. Its a big game to see who finds the biggest pumpkin.

 

[MXZXGADE]

Just took off my wood chipper yesterday and picked up my new Log Grapple today. Now I have to wait for the rear valve kit to come in. I've been told I've got to many toys. Can't wait for it to dry up a little so I can start discing my food plots. Theres lots of great attachments for these little tractors.

 

[clucks]

I don't believe there is such a thing as a "hobby farmer". The term is pejorative, flung about by large land owners, urban navel gazers, and commission salesmen wanting to sell you a "real" machine.

There are Farmers, which raise a diverse number of crops and animals to feed themselves and their families, and sell the surplus to defray expenses...

and then there is Agribusiness, where a near-worthless agricultural commodity is produced in ever increasing amounts in an effort to pay the interest on ever increasing debt by corporations that used to be family farmers.

Farming is a happy, healthy, rewarding lifestyle.

Agribusiness is about money, power, credit, chemicals, and checks from government, monsanto, con-agra, and a handful of other international criminal organizations out to control our food from farm gate to dinner plate.

I wish there were MORE beginning Farmers, and the Agra-cultists can take a bath in the chemical soup they spray on the world...after they've been genetically modified with a rusty probe, of course.

I have farmed all my life. I have a team, and 8 tractors, not counting the backhoe and trencher.. My 'bota is by far the smallest on the place, but critical for my garden and orchard. I would be delighted to share what little I know about the subject with anyone interested.

/the above nearly qualifies as a rant, eh

Revdoc and Kubota girl,

I couldn't help but want to respond to your thoughts. As a producer of a niche market/ specialty product (my name says it all)....I just wanted to say AMEN. My family has been involved in agriculture in BC since immigrating in the early 50's (I am 3rd gen), I lived the transition of the family farm into an agribusiness and saw it's consiquences first hand. I am making the choice to revert what's left of the original farm back to a more diversified, slow growth based operation.

I may not produce as much volume or make as much on the top line as the big commodity producers , but I won't borrow as much and be enslaved to everyone else either. I feel good about the products I produce and my customers are happy to compensate me fairly for them.

So...Kubota girl, you go farm that place of yours and produce something good and be sure to tell everyone why it's better to buy wholesome products from local folks such as ourselves and if we're lucky enough people will hear the message that Revdoc speaks, enough that we will be able to feed ourselves.

Clucks

 

[Borane4]

Run cow-calf pairs on 27ac with 15 ac pasture, starting bees this spring and constantly "harvesting" mesquite and honey locust.

 

[johnjk]

Will be putting a half acre of hops this spring on my 25 acres. Phase 2 will be 6.5 acres and will follow in 3 yrs. the B3200 will do the initial tilling and maintenance between the rows.

 

[Captain13]

I have five acres as well. We grow and sell blueberries and pecans. We always have a garden where we grow vegetables and then small areas when we grow tomatoes and peppers. The tractor gets a workout with a six foot Wooks disk harrow, bottom plow, Coleman planter and cultivator. We usually get two crops in every year with greens, peas and other assorted stuff in the spring and then a big planting of turnips and collards in the fall. We do all organic with no pesticides but plenty of mulch that gets turned under each spring. It been to wet here to get into the garden so far so I’ve been bucking and splitting firewood for the past couple of weeks to get ready for next year. Oh, yeah, and I mow a lot in the spring, summer and fall.

 

[Fastball]

We have 5 acres in Coldstream, BC...just outside of Vernon. It was my parents’ place until me and my wife moved out here about 5 years ago to take it over. I’ve yanked out most of their old, dead heritage apple trees, and tried to rejuvenate the salvageable ones. I’ve gone big time into black currants, and planted about 150 shrubs which should come into full maturity this summer. We discovered a whole bunch of hazelnuts shrubs for which people pay dearly. I have an older, bare-bones L2900 to which I’ve been steadily adding implements. I now have a 60” finish mower, rotor-tiller, rear blade, rake, and a new rear snowblower (barely a lick of snow this winter, naturally). I replaced the turnbuckles with the sliding turnbuckles, and I am just now deciding to get a set of Pat’s quick hitches.

 

[chevyman29]

Well I don't know if it qualifys as a hobby farm or not. But me and my son have a couple acres every year we work . Mainly it's peas , green beans, corn , okra , squash . Tomatoes. Peppers . Stuff like that.
We plant and cultivate with a farmall Super A .
No pesticides , no round up . Were not organic yet but I would like to be.

No veggies sold , No money made . It's all family and friends coming to pick every year to put in the freezer .
We tried truck farming one year just for the heck of it . It was way to much headache for the money.
My hats off to everyone that farms for a living .

It started out as a hobby to teach my kids about a garden and about hard work . Now it's just one of our yearly summer activities . Me and my son are really excited to get started using the new 4060 so we can see how it compares to the jd 4520 plowing and disking .
I love hearing what other people do with there land . It gives me ideas for improving my land .

 

[Crash277]

Would it count if it’s not on my land? Raised 3 pigs with a friend of mine last year, and plan on doing the same this year. None for profit just for our own freezers. This year there will be a lamb as well hopefully going into the freezer. He purchased 2 ewes and 1 intact ram and a fixed ram. I help with mechanics and odd jobs in exchange for raising some food there/ access to the land to hunt. He is working on a small orchard and I’m working the food plots for deer. we are both learning. This year I will be helping do hay, never done it before and neither has he, as the fields used to be done buy a neighbor who rented land for his cows.

 

[Captain13]

Kubota Girl, if you are planning to sell your veggies, you should look into some of your local restaurants. We have one here that gives preference to small farm, locally grown items including meat, tomatoes, onions, peppers, etc. Also, we had a new bakery open here last year and I stopped in to try them out. I asked the owner if they were interested in locally grown blueberries and they said they were. So I took them two quarts of fresh picked berries and they liked them enough that they started buying from me. We pick daily so when they call, I take them fresh berries over. They don’t have to order and receive them a day or two later and ours are fresh, not frozen.

Fresh off the farm has really started to take off. The two closest towns have a farmers market weekly for local growers to sell. You won’t get rich, but you can do OK because people like fresh food. Many of the small farms are certified organic and buyers like that as well.

 

[JimmyJazz]

You should check out Neversink Farm on YouTube. Talk about making money on small acreage. Not really a hobby farm but fascinating (for me) nonetheless. My farm is 36 acres in the mountains of Southwestern Pennsylvania. My neighbor makes hay and keeps fancy horses on it in exchange for his mowing the grass and providing occasional backhoe work. Mostly used as a weekend getaway and for having parties. One of the best things I have done was I built a Finnish sauna in the former milk house. It's fantastic at all times of the year and especially now. Its got a wood fired Kuuma sauna stove in it. Works great. I would highly recommend building a sauna. I use mine about once a week year round. The effect on the body is similar to a computer reboot. I have owned the place 10 years and consider its purchase one of the best things I have ever done. The wife hates it, that's another story!

 

[D2Cat]

No matter the size of the farm, selling the production to the end user is an intelligent method. Farming, the old fashion way, is buying supplies retail and selling wholesale!

 

[armylifer]

My wife is the farmer in our household. Her garden is about 1/2 acre. It is fenced to keep the deer and rabbits out. She has food growing all year long. Just yesterday she harvested some cabbage from her garden. She grows medicinal herbs (not the smoking kind), onions, garlic, grapes, tomatoes, cabbage, lettuce, and a bunch of other vegetables that I don't recognize. She uses heirloom seeds for everything. We vacuum seal and store seeds that we are not going to grow the immediate next year.

We don't use much fertilizer, we compost everything that we can. If we are lucky enough to get chicken manure, we use that, but if we can't get that we use Milorganite.

We do not sell anything that she grows. She trades her produce with friends and family. I think that they plan out what they will be growing each year, and what one does not grow this year, the other one will. It's almost like crop rotation but on different properties.