HOW TO BECOME A FARMER WITH NO EXPERIENCE
Are you asking yourself ‘How do I become a farmer with no experience?’
Well, I’ll tell you now that you do have experience. Farming is far more than looking after some sheep or planting a garden. Any successful farming enterprise is a fully-fledged business. You need to be social and have customer services for selling produce. You need to have financial skills for doing the books, or studying experience for researching. Don’t be too quick to discount skills you may already have; they may not be in the agricultural field but everyone has some skill that they can bring to a farm business.
So, how to become a farmer with no experience?
Start a market garden
Or breed goats for milk and meat
RESEARCH
We’re lucky to live in the Golden Age of tech, and we have the Internet at the touch of a button. I still highly advise going out and getting hold of some books within your preferred niche, whether that’s livestock or crops, but there is also a wealth of information online. YouTube in particular has a wealth of information from real people who are actually farming and share a glimpse into their world. If you don’t know, I have have a YouTube all about my farm - Brimwood Farm. This, combined with blogs and other social media, can be a great place to start. BEWARE, however, that a lot of social media only shows the rosy-side of things; try and remember to research the downsides too.
GET ADVICE
Going online can also be a wonderful place for finding advice from fellow farmers and growers. Facebook (groups in particular) and platforms like Twitter, Mastodon and Instagram are full of people from all warps of life; including farming. On the whole I’ve found most farmers, despite being really busy, know the importance of getting more people into the sector and so are more than happy to talk, discuss and share their wisdom.
VISIT FARMERS MARKETS AND SALES
Farm shows are a great place to meet people and learn about the market
When you’re starting out and trying to build your local network, it’s a good idea to visit your local farmers markets and livestock sales. Finding online friends is a good start, but when you need real, in-person help, local folks are those who’ll come to your rescue.
Visit the markets and peruse the stalls to see what people are selling. Are there vegetable box schemes? Meat Boxes? Lamb? Pork? Beef? Are the markets busy? Could there be a gap in the market for a new producer?
Livestock sales - if that’s where you want to begin farming - is also definitely worth a visit. When it comes to keeping animals, you’ll need a larger network; animal disposal, abbatoirs, butchers etc. You need to know what breeds sell at auction, and what livestock you can expect to get good returns on. Like all businesses, farming is often a game of luck, but by arming yourself with the best knowledge can be a key to success.
CHOOSE YOUR NICHE
I’m telling you to choose a niche because I know so well how to choose a niche …. not! If you’ve been following my farm for any length of time, you’ll know I do a bit of everything. And that’s totally fine. If you want to go down the diverse route and spread your risk across several enterprises - a market garden, some poultry and bee keeping, for example - by all means, do it!
If you’re starting out with no experience, however, I would suggest you start small and stay to a couple of niches to begin with. Rarely does farming all tick along wonderfully well, and if it does, it doesn’t last long. You need to be prepared for ups and downs, and if you’re trying to balance multiple new projects with no experience, you could well burnout before you ever get properly going.
Maybe there’s a market for ducks and geese in your area. Or you want to have a go at setting up a market farm garden. Or perhaps you have you sights on larger enterprises; a small beef herd, for example. Find a niche and then research the hell outta it!
PRACTICE
I probably don’t have to tell you this but farming can be an expensive business to get started, is fraught with difficulties and you have to be all-in. I’ve got a blog here about how to start farming with no money that might also be of interest. If you’re able to it is a good idea to get some practice before you dive in head first.
There are many ways to do this. If you have a garden, you could consider starting a little backyard homestead complete with some livestock. Here I talk about the best 3 animals for backyard farms. This will give you experience keeping animals and growing food, along with initial ideas for marketing produce. You don’t even need a garden if i’m honest. With growlights, you could begin a microgreens business or do plant starts to sell.
If you want a larger place to work with community gardens can be a fantastic resource to become involved with. Again, this gives you practice first and it will also grow your local network of friends and farmers.
If you really want to get the inside scoop on farming, you could actually get a job as a farm hand in a field you’re looking to go into. This is something I did. Despite growing up on a farm and having some knowledge, I still wasn’t mentally prepared to go all-in without knowing I’d enjoy the lifestyle. I ended up becoming the livestock manager at a petting farm for three years, giving me access to not only a wide variety of animals to skill-up on, but people to learn from such as the network of vets we used. On top of that, I also got a wage to stash away to begin my own farm.
GET LAND
Of course, that’s not for everyone and you may just want to jump straight in. I don’t blame you - farming is an exciting venture! For growing plants and vegetables, it’s as simple as finding a space and this could even be a neighbours garden if you come up with an appropriate rental agreement.
It’s also worthwhile reaching out to local farmers and landowners. People often have plots of land on their farm they’re not utilising and might like to come to some arrangement to get you started.
If you’ve got questions or advice for other readers, please comment below!
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