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Title: Making Your Small Farm Profitable by Ron Macher, Howard W., Jr. Kerr ISBN: 1-58017-161-3 Publisher: Storey Books Pub. Date: November, 1999 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $19.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 3.89 (9 reviews)
Rating: 1
Summary: Where's the beef?
Comment: I kept reading and reading looking for the exciting practical information promised by all these reviews. Then the book ended. Then I looked back at the reviews to see what I'd missed that (mis)lead me to believe there was practical information in it. They use words like 'overview' to indicate that there ain't much in the way of real meat in this book. I can sum it up in one sentence: Find yourself a niche market locally and grow what they want. If you need details about producing the product, this is not the book you're looking for.
For extensive, detailed, practical information about making money by pasturing mixed species of livestock, look at books by Joel Salatin. But even he could still bring in more complementary planting for winter forage. Greg Judy has a detailed book about making money with livestock without owning the land or the livestock.
Rating: 5
Summary: Being a Farmer does not mean living in Poverty
Comment: I enjoyed Mr. Macher book. His realistic examples and stories on how to get started have convinced me to leave writing software and become a business man who's products are farm products.
The appendicies are great with current information about where to get more information.
His true stories boxes let you know that he understands what beginging farms needed in the way of encouragement and information to help them make the decision to farm.
He is correct when he writes "to survive as a farmer you must have a market before you start to grow and you must provide a quality product with even better customer service."
Worth the money and a pleasant read for anyone thinking about starting a business or farming.
Rating: 3
Summary: A good book for the really, really small farmer.
Comment: The author has written a good beginning reference guide for the small farmer. Just be aware that by small, he means very small scale. So, if the reader is contemplating part-time farming on 80 or 160 acres, this is a really great book. If the reader is involved in larger-scale operations, the excellent niche advice in this book won't likely do the trick. This isn't really a fault of the book, one just needs to know for whom it's written.
The best advice in the book is that small farmers should have a business plan that will allow a farm to be financially viable. Forget stockmarket-like returns, farming is a tough business. Stand alone cash flows from land investment rarely are greater than maybe three-to-five percent at best. Most successful operations leverage equipment investment by tenant farming or land leasing in order to make a decent return. Passive land investment is even less lucractive.
And, smaller owner/operators and part-timers have it harder still. The author offers a few excellent ideas that may help the really small farmer make a go of it.
This exercise in making a business plan is a very practical reality check, that will make aspirant farmers go into the business with their eyes open.
--Jeff
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Title: Small-Scale Livestock Farming: A Grass-Based Approach for Health, Sustainability, and Profit by Carol Ekarius ISBN: 1580171621 Publisher: Storey Books Pub. Date: November, 1999 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur's Guide to Start & Succeed in a Farming Enterprise by Joel Salatin, Allan Nation ISBN: 0963810928 Publisher: Polyface Inc Pub. Date: June, 1998 List Price(USD): $35.00 |
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Title: Successful Small-Scale Farming: An Organic Approach by Karl Schwenke, Ben Watson ISBN: 0882666428 Publisher: Storey Books Pub. Date: April, 1991 List Price(USD): $14.95 |
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Title: Storey's Guide to Raising Beef Cattle by Heather Smith Thomas ISBN: 1580173276 Publisher: Storey Books Pub. Date: June, 2000 List Price(USD): $18.95 |
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Title: Five Acres and Independence by Maurice G. Kains ISBN: 0486209741 Publisher: Dover Pubns List Price(USD): $8.95 |
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