How much would a 1/2 acre farm earn (organic) a year?
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Question by PChardwareExpert: How much would a 1/2 acre farm earn (organic) a year?
A friend who is extremely interested in agriculture, wants me to invest in his farm. He said I will receive my money back+25% interest. He said he would be growing ONLY organic vegetables by hand on a 1/2 acre farm. How much (estimate) do you think he would get a year from farming?
What do you think? Answer below!
3 Responses to How much would a 1/2 acre farm earn (organic) a year?
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It really depends on the crop – some vegetables earn a lot more than others. Consider potatoes vs asparagus or artichoke etc etc.
It also depends on where he is selling – a farmers’ market? A grocery store? A distributor?
All of these could earn a different cost.
I would ask him to be more specific and give more details.
Annie
November 14, 2011 at 10:40 pm
1/2 an acre is a long way from being a “farm”! That sounds more like a vege patch to me. I’d be extremely careful about getting more details if I were you.
jemima
November 14, 2011 at 11:12 pm
I farm on 4 acres of mix [roduce and sell my goods via CSA, farmers market and have farm store.
The first couple of years your friend will be lucky to net $ 2000 a year as he will be learning how to grow for market (very, very different than growing a home garden, even a huge home garden) and will have to learn how to do things such as succession planting.
Also your friend, unless this person is a very savvy marketer, will need at least a year to build up a customer base. He also will need a year or two to figure out what sells in his particular region 9actually this takes many years and changes from year to year)
The high end crops tend to be perennials like raspberries, grapes or asparagus but these crops take between 1 and 5 years before they are going to be able to be 100%
Than there is the question-does one sell direct or wholesale? With Direct sales you tend to make 2x to 4x over wholesaling but at least 50% of your time is spend marketing
Do you have an educated customer base? I have found I can make 200% to 400% more if my markets are in university towns rather than rural towns or inner cities because the customer base in far more educated and also makes more money than less educated populations.
Do realize in order to use the term Organic without going through the USDA Organic certification program you must gross under $ 5000 in sales per year and you still have to follow all the regulations. if you want to gross more than $ 5000 a year than you have to get your farm certified in order to use the term Organic in any marketing, labeling or description of one’s farm on things like websites. the USDA does indeed enforce this on both big and tiny farms.
So my estimate is he will net around $ 2500 the first year (assuming there are no crop failures) and by year 5 he ought to be up to $ 5K to $ 7K a year if he always has really great growing seasons and a vibrant customer base (which does not happen in reality and your friend will make mistakes and have to deal with bad weather). I would not expect him to ever net more than $ 10K on 1/2 acre no matter what he grows and I would not expect that kind of return for at least 10 years, probably more. And you can this only if you carry zero debt.
personally I think this is a very bad investment if you are expecting much monetary return. But and excellent investment if you want to help out the local foodshed.
Ohiorganic
November 14, 2011 at 11:21 pm