Starting Small and Crawling Out of The Box

I get a lot of questions on starting a farm these days. One thing I have tryed to stress is starting small. Think small. Modern industrial agriculture requires debt, lots of debt. It promises returns that barely pay down the debt and creates an ugly cycle that ends with tears and bankruptcy. Starting small does not mean a small version of the ugly system but a totaly different system. This is one reason I think Joel Salatin's books and articles are so valuable. He offers a system that requires little capital investment with higher returns than commodity farming. If I was starting out today, I would do things much different than I did when we started out. There are some things about how we started that I wouldn't change though. We started small. Our 50 cow dairy is the result of a couple of heifer calves. My dad worked for years as a farm manager/herdsman and put all his money into calves that we raised. He did this for me, so that I would have a farm of my own. We started in a 9 cow barn and used our milk to feed humanely raised veal calves. We didn't have cows enouph to ship milk but added value to it by turning into veal. Later we had 15 cows or so and moved them to barn owned by a man who only milked half a barn full of cows for fun. He had a full time job and a farm. We traded labor (all the milking and feeding) for boarding. We paid him for the feed and we got the money from our milk. With our profits we bought more cows and eventually rented a 30 cow barn of our own. Latter we rented a 45 cow barn and we now have moved to our present location we a herd of cows we own free and clear. We never spent a lot of money on tractors. We have just recently bought our 2nd tractor after farming here with one for many years. The point I'm trying to get across is this, there are ways to get into farming without a lot of debt. It takes time and creativity but it is possible. That said, if I was starting today I would not be getting into the business of selling a commodity product like milk. Mabey cheese or something but not "just milk" and not through normal marketing channels. We are presently working toward implimenting some of Joel's poultry systems into our dairy farm. The milk sales supplemented with broilers and eggs seems like a workable option for us. There is a great market out there that is growing every day for products that are local, natural, environmentally friendly, and unique. This is the future for small scale farming not the commodity model. Perhaps the first step for you is just growing a garden or raising a small group of broilers, the point is you need start somewhere. Don't put your eggs all in one basket and pay as go, when at all possible. The future is bright once you get the courage to push the lid off of the boxes that have been built around us and let some sunlight and fresh ideas in.