Could have should have would have

Hindsight is always 20:20 right? You never know what you should know until you’ve crossed the river of learning and experience. Most of us learn by trial and error and in fact it’s often one of the best teachers as you learn both sides of the coin. 

When we began farming in 2010 and then started our own farm in 2011, I was  27.  I had grown up in rural Kansas with a family hobby farm, a BSc in Agricultural Sciences, and worked as a forest ecologist. With my experience and education I thought farming shouldn’t be too hard for me. I was wrong, so wrong. It has been one of the hardest things I’ve done in my life and I often think of the things I could have done earlier on in my farming career to make life easier, sooner.

Andrew in his potato field

My wife and I often talk about the tuition of “the university of farming.” The tuition being failed projects, and being run down and burned out from hard lessons learned. There were mentors that had given us advice in our early years, but we ignored what didn’t align with what we believed at the time and trudged forward stubbornly. Many lessons have been learned in our 12 years, I can assure you!

I am here to tell you that when a farmer with proven resilience in the game gives you advice when you are getting started, listen deeply; it  might just make your life a little easier and the tuition fees a bit more bearable. 

In this blog I hope to share three things that three different veteran farmers wished they had known when they first started farming. I just may save you some backache, heartache and perhaps some money as well!

First, I’ll share three things I wish I would have known and/or done when I first started farming:

1. You don’t have to do it all. You don’t need to be the Noah’s arc of animals and/ or vegetables. Remember you are trying to make profit as a business. The more moving parts you have, the less of an ability you have to do any one thing really well. Think of it as spinning pie plates. How many can you do well at a time? Farming, like any business, is about efficiency, and that only comes with specialization and optimization of processes. Being extremely diverse and good at any one thing is a real challenge unless you are independently wealthy to begin with and can create good systems and place the right individuals in positions of management of each “product line”. For the rest of us starting peasant farmers, less is more. It was recommended to me that I don’t do more than four crops to start with. Hone the quality and the production on those four crops, and once those are successful, expand and diversify.
2. From the start of each project, make sure you are accounting for your time in your business plan. If your crop plan can’t pay yourself a living wage, don’t proceed. I know there is going to be some sweat equity to build infrastructure in the beginning and I think that is relatively normal – but once your infrastructure is in place, make sure you a wage is calculated into each venture. The longer you don’t calculate your wage into the expenses of a venture, the more you will miss your target goals in the future. Speaking of goals, if you need help setting a few, go here for some tips and tricks creating realistic goals on the farm.
3. Debt. Don’t be afraid of it, just use it wisely. In our beginning years, we invested only what we could afford which really hampered growth and development of our farm. We really didn’t need to work so bloody hard. We eventually used some credit cards to “help” when things went awry, but I can tell you, if we had a more sound business plan and loans from the bank sooner, we could have had less stress, faster development of the farm, more efficient systems –  and it would have cost us less. With a good line of credit for the farm we were able to develop our systems faster, have a way lower interest rate than a credit card and have an overall better work-life balance.

Andrew planting Haida potatoes

In short, if we had less products from the beginning, better business plans with those few products which allowed for better financing, we could gotten to the place we are now far sooner and more comfortably. Achieving work-life balance is of the utmost importance on a farm. With all this being said, we did have to “grunt” out the early years to develop numbers that the bank was happy with to allow for financing. Asking for family help or loans can also help if you don’t have those numbers just yet for the bank. Don’t be shy, your family and friends likely believe in you and your ability. Prove them right. It was a family friend that sparked our journey into financing from the bank by believing in us and wanting to help us with a portion of the financing on a large project on the farm. We thought our big project wouldn’t happen for another five years or more, so we are glad we chose to really hone our numbers and go to the bank.

Hope Farm Organics family in their greenhouse

If you need help with coming up with your business plan/crop planning I highly recommend chatting with the good folks at Young Agrarians Business Mentorship Network.

Conversations from the field:

I spoke with Robin Hunt of Big Rock Ranch in 100 mile house about her big three. Robin operates an organic vegetable operation that sells to the local market, wholesale distributors and also a dog food company.

Big Rock Ranch

Robin’s big three things she wish she would have known when she started are the following:

1. A farm must be financially viable before anything else. Don’t let ethics and idealism cloud the realities of what a farm must be in terms of economics or it will simply die and you will be essentially funding a charity. That’s fine if you want to be a charity, but join a non-profit so you don’t end up overburdening yourself and burning out. Quality of life and down time are so important and often if a farm isn’t financially stable you are likely burning the candle at both ends
2. Rockstar farmers on social media platforms like Jean Martin might be doing things that appear to work for them but that’s just it, it works for them. Don’t try to emulate them on your farm. Every farm is different and every market and economy is different. Farming is very location based.
3. I wish I would have got a big loan from the beginning and got all the right labour saving equipment and infrastructure we needed to have a better quality of life now.

Robin and her tomatoes

Robin went on to add that diversity is great in the long run, but don’t start that way and be really realistic. You can care for your community deeply and want to give them everything they want and need, but don’t do so at your own expense. Also, don’t compare your prices to others and grocery stores. Do your own cost analysis on your crops when setting prices.

Lydia Ryall of Cropthorne Farm

I also spoke with Lydia Ryall of Cropthorne Farm. Wearing my Agriculture Land Commissioner hat, I got to visit Lydia last October. I’ve followed Lydia’s farm for several years on social media and also got to be on the same podcast series as Lydia, the Winter Growers Podcast with Clara Coleman. I really appreciated hearing the wise words of Lydia who has been in operation for 15 years.

Cropthorne Farm is a family farm located on Westham Island, just outside of Ladner, BC. They sell their bounty at Vancouver Farmers Markets, to local restaurants, through their Farm Stand and through their CSA programs. They cultivate twenty four acres of mixed vegetables and cover crops and have a pasture based poultry operation. All of their produce and eggs are Certified Organic with PACS.

Cropthorne Farm Family

Here are three things that Lydia wishes she would have known when she started her farming endeavors:

1. When you first start out farming, make sure you have the right foundations. She started when she was 23, and wished she had worked on other operations or apprenticed to learn the business end better. The stakes can be very high when leasing land for those starting out. She recommends taking as many learning opportunities as possible, so you can make mistakes on others’ dime instead of your own. If you think it is your calling in life, it’s worth the education and work experience. If you are going to school, get a business degree. Lydia felt she bumbled her way through HR for the beginning years and it wasn’t a strong skill of hers. Really understanding effective supervision and what motivates people is key. She didn’t know it was an important skill when she first started. She now has a manager that is way more into the HR aspect. If you have shortcomings, hire the right person to take care of those things.
2. She thinks that whether you are in year one or year 15, it can all be stressful. Your mental health is critical and you must acknowledge you are your best asset and know your boundaries with your job. You must have a life away from your business. There has to be more to life. When they decided to have kids it was the best thing because she lowered her work hours. Don’t let your farm run you. You run the farm. There are times when you need lots of time and energy for the farm, but there are other times where it shouldn’t. It should be flexible and built to suit you. The farm can be overwhelming and consuming in the beginning. When you first start farming you don’t think you can take weekends off, but you never are going to get your time back with your kids. Now Lydia doesn’t work weekends and she built better SOPs for crews so the farm keeps going if she needs to step away. She thinks in business you must work to stay resilient as you are your own best asset. You are also not a good role model to your children or your staff if you overwork. You must show them that you have a sustainable work model. You need to hold yourself to the same standard.
3. Biggest take away is YOU run your business, it doesn’t run you. It may run you in the beginning, but don’t let it do so for long. You don’t want to get to the point that you don’t love it anymore. You don’t want it to just be work.

Lydia adds that she thinks that the value of community is so key, such as her neighbor that helped with a tractor that she couldn’t get started. There is a level of respect among farmers despite what type of farmer you are. Lydia’s family background was non-soil bound greenhouse farming. So having that sense of community as a resource that you can call on for help was imperative to her success. When you have a really tough day you can call up a fellow farmer and chat about challenges together to have that solace and camaraderie. Having  to complain with is very valuable – it helps mental health wise.

There is much to be said about the unique situations facing each farm across the diverse landscape of British Columbia, so when taking advice from a weathered farmer, do so with that in mind. What may be good for them, may not be good for you. With that being said there are some simple takeaways that are common with every operation and when someone has been in the game long enough, it’s best to listen when advice is given. Farming is a challenging career/life path and more so now with climate change. Veteran farmers have likely been through very challenging times and their survival speaks loudly.

If you are interested in furthering your experience and knowledge in farming check out the Young Agrarians apprenticeship program.