Small farm living tips from New Terra Farm (2024)

1. Don't leave the farm
Small farm living is about being there. You can't build the farm if you aren't

the farm. Stay home as much as possible; try compressed work hours or tele-commuting if you still have an off-farm job. You can't learn about your farm unless you spend a lot of time there.

2. Be your own best customer
Start by growing stuff for yourself. This is a good way to learn to reliably produce food crops. From this it follows that you should start by growing stuff you will actually eat on a regular basis; I would start with chicken rather than emu, for example.

3. Reduce off-farm inputs
Every time you buy something in, money (and sustainability) flow out. We rarely buy in fertilizer or other inputs for our farm. We maintain fertility and control weeds in our garden and our fields by rotating both plants and animals.

The pigs and chickens are walking weed eaters and fertilizing machines. We also use cover cropping to maintain soil organic matter, and we make barrels of compost tea to feed our plants directly. Similarly, if you have a woodlot, install a wood-stove. Try to produce as much of your own food, energy and other needs as is feasible. Small farm living is (or should be) sustainable living.

4. Be a creative problem solver
If you have a problem, look around at all your resources for a solution. Most objects have more than one application. For example, when we needed to clear a heavily weeded area for our greenhouse, we could have spend hours digging weeds. Instead, we spread out a large black tarp that we use to cover hay. The tarp stayed in place for a couple weeks, and the weeds were gone.

5. Right tool for the right job
Sometimes the right tool is the only way to go. I used to till my garden with a walk-behind tiller and shape all the beds by hand. Then I discovered bed-shapers that fit behind a tractor tiller.

I got a neighbour to do the whole garden with one of these, in just one afternoon. Huge savings in time, money and wear and tear on my back.

6. Don't buy what you can borrow or rent
In the above example, it wouldn't pay me to buy a bed shaper that Iwould use once or twice a year. It usually makes much sense to borrowor rent useful but seldom-used tools, rather than tie up a lot of yourcapital in a purchase.

7. But if you do buy, buy the best
If there is a tool that you need and use regularly, buy the best qualityyou can afford. I spent a LOT of money on my chainsaw, but I have beenusing it steadily for 10 years with no problems. Cheap tools wear outquicker, and never do the job. You don't necessarily have to buy new;sometimes a top-quality used tool is a better deal than the inferior newone.

8. Get a truck before a tractor.
If you have to choose, get the pickup truck before the tractor. Tractorson small farms often see 10% usage rates or even less. And tractors canalmost always be borrowed or rented, or the neighbour can be hired todo the job. Trucks are much more useful, and used. And on a farm, a4-wheel drive pickup is the only way to go.

9. Support your local community.
Small farming living DOES NOT mean you can be totally aloof orindependent. Get involved in local events, buy from local businesses,support local charities. If the compost really does hit the fan in a fewyears (peak oil, global warming, Mars Attacks, etc) you will bedepending on your community for survival. Make sure they know who youare and what you can contribute.

10. Plan, plan, plan, then act.
Don't fall into 'paralysis by analysis'. Successful small businesspeople, including farmers, make their plans, assess the risks, and then pull the trigger i.e. take action. You can't create a life by what you intend to do.

Bonus Small Farm Living Tip 11: Involve your family.
Make sure your small farm living dream is their dream, too. Everyone in your family should both contribute to and benefit from farm living.

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