Not sure how everyone else’s season went by, but this year kicked my ass.
There was never a window to get all the corn and beans in and weeds are already emerging before our crop.
I’ve heard Nebraska and Kansas are not going well either
not trying to be that guy but every time someone asks about money for their small farm operation it's the same reply chain. SARE. talk to your extension office. good luck.
I've spent way too many hours on the USDA websites and sitting in county FSA offices trying to figure this stuff out for our own place. some of it surprised me. figured I'd share since I never see it come up here.
the FSA beginning farmer loan is more accessible than people think
most people assume they don't qualify. the thing is, eligibility is calculated at the individual operator level, not the farm entity. so if you're a younger operator working within a bigger family situation — maybe the family has a lot of acres, maybe it looks large on paper — your personal numbers might still clear the bar.1.5% fixed. covers up to 45% of the purchase price. I know people who called their county FSA office fully expecting to get laughed out of there and walked out with a loan that beat anything a bank would've touched.
worth a call before you assume no.
the microloan thing is real and almost nobody talks about it
up to $50k. shorter application than a standard FSA loan, fewer hoops. it's specifically built for operations that don't look like what a local bank wants to see, which is most small farms.
if you've been told no by a lender or haven't even tried because you figured it was pointless — this is the one to look at.
VAPG. seriously. look it up.
Value-Added Producer Grant. up to $250k. actual grant, not a loan, not cost-share. USDA Rural Development runs it.
if you do anything with what you grow beyond selling it raw — jams, syrup, fiber, cut flowers, meat under your own label, cheese, anything — you're potentially eligible. the application isn't fast, I won't lie about that. but the competition is way lower than you'd expect because most people in small farm communities have never heard of it. talked to someone last year who got funded and said there were barely any other applicants in their state.
EQIP has a whole separate track for organic transition that pays more
if you're working toward organic certification, there's a specific organic transition payment schedule within EQIP that runs at higher per-acre rates than the conventional side. and it's available during the transition years — when the money pressure is actually worst — not just after you're already certified.
you have to ask about it specifically. if you just ask about EQIP you'll get the standard overview and probably never hear about the transition rates
state programs almost always stack with federal ones
every state has its own beginning farmer or small farm programs and they're designed to run alongside federal stuff, not instead of it. most people have never called their state dept of agriculture to ask. that call takes 15 minutes and can meaningfully change what's available to you.
anyway. happy to answer questions if any of this is useful. I'm not an expert and I'd tell you to verify everything with your county office — but I've been through enough of it that I can probably help someone figure out where to start.
hey everybody, my name is Sonja.
let me start by apologizing for the length of this post, i honestly needed somewhere to vent and someone, anyone, to listen.
my husband has listened to me vent until im out of breath and im sure he’s had his fill.
my husband and I are egg hands/chicken tenders here at a commercial chicken farm in South Mississippi.
This is our life, we live on site with our two children. Around lunchtime yesterday we had a fire breakout in our number two house.
It was completely engulfed, a total loss.
We lost 7400 chickens to a horrible devastating death. My children lost all their toys and half of their clothing (my workroom was their playroom) we lost out the freezer and refrigerator as well as numerous belongings. I’m in complete shock. I don’t know what to do. I’m so so grateful that we were managed to get out in time and that there was no injuries or loss of human life. The generator shed that is full of diesel was minutes away from blowing up. I need to share this because I’m hoping that someone or anyone will see this and realize how quickly life can throw curve balls with devastating results.
I never thought I’d have to explain to my kids this type of situation ,or what happened to our pet chickens or why they don’t have toys anymore or try to explain and console my four-year-old all night and morning that her squishmallow she’s slept with every night since she was one is now is gone.
it’s crazy the significance the smallest things hold. i’m not sure where to even start on trying to recoup our losses. We don’t make much. This is a very, very, very modest, Very honest job and we live week to week.
I’m sure the owners will get to recoup their losses with insurance, but because this wasn’t technically a place of residence, there are absolutely zero resources to help us place the material items that we will lost. Now I’m left with the fear that a single breeze can come and cause a still burning ember to fly and hit our remaining chicken house and us lose our camper and the rest of our belongings or even our life.
if that would’ve happened in the middle of the night, I probably wouldn’t be here to make this post. The fire was silent. We didn’t hear anything until it was already completely engulfed. We had just just left to go walk our number one chicken house, hadn’t been out of #2 house for more than an hour when we realized. it took 12 hours to put the fire out. please say a prayer for my family while we try and put our remaining pieces back together, say a prayer for our farm owners and their family, and pray that the poor chickens we lost didn’t suffer too badly. thank you for listing to my word salad.
I'm close friends with a local farmer who does strawberry farming on a small scale (like only sells at his little stand) and he's always had a problem with birds eating the seeds off of the strawberries he has. He runs a Upick and sells his own strawberries and he used to hire a guy to scare off birds but labor is super expensive now so like he just let the birds do their thing. But now it's a huge issue, and I'm pretty into engineering and thought it would be cool if I could provide him a solution. Started with a drone but quickly realized the flaws there. They currently are trying out reflective paper strips on poles to scare them away but the birds get used to it and it doesn't work well in no wind. Have you guys found any solutions to this or tried out anything to prevent birds from coming by? They always perch near power lines that are really close to the farm so that might be a limitation too. Sorry if this is the wrong subreddit. Thank you!
hey everybody, my name is Sonja.
let me start by apologizing for the length of this post, i honestly needed somewhere to vent and someone, anyone, to listen.
my husband has listened to me vent until im out of breath and im sure he’s had his fill.
my husband and I are egg hands/chicken tenders here at a commercial chicken farm in South Mississippi.
This is our life, we live on site with our two children. Around lunchtime yesterday we had a fire breakout in our number two house.
It was completely engulfed, a total loss.
We lost 7400 chickens to a horrible devastating death. My children lost all their toys and half of their clothing (my workroom was their playroom) we lost out the freezer and refrigerator as well as numerous belongings. I’m in complete shock. I don’t know what to do. I’m so so grateful that we were managed to get out in time and that there was no injuries or loss of human life. The generator shed that is full of diesel was minutes away from blowing up. I need to share this because I’m hoping that someone or anyone will see this and realize how quickly life can throw curve balls with devastating results.
I never thought I’d have to explain to my kids this type of situation ,or what happened to our pet chickens or why they don’t have toys anymore or try to explain and console my four-year-old all night and morning that her squishmallow she’s slept with every night since she was one is now is gone.
it’s crazy the significance the smallest things hold. i’m not sure where to even start on trying to recoup our losses. We don’t make much. This is a very, very, very modest, Very honest job and we live week to week.
I’m sure the owners will get to recoup their losses with insurance, but because this wasn’t technically a place of residence, there are absolutely zero resources to help us place the material items that we will lost. Now I’m left with the fear that a single breeze can come and cause a still burning ember to fly and hit our remaining chicken house and us lose our camper and the rest of our belongings or even our life.
if that would’ve happened in the middle of the night, I probably wouldn’t be here to make this post. The fire was silent. We didn’t hear anything until it was already completely engulfed. We had just just left to go walk our number one chicken house, hadn’t been out of #2 house for more than an hour when we realized. it took 12 hours to put the fire out. please say a prayer for my family while we try and put our remaining pieces back together, say a prayer for our farm owners and their family, and pray that the poor chickens we lost didn’t suffer too badly. thank you for listing to my word salad.