DDFJ_11-12-2009

Why don't I write everyday, like I was for a while? Hmm, that is an interesting question indeed. I guess it is because I lack discipline, or maybe because I feel I have other things that I am doing that seem to be between me and the writing. I used to write a lot, but now it seems it is really sporadic. I really need to write more often.

So anyway, what's going on with the farm. Well not much to report on the farm really, at least as it stands now. We have been offered a farm lock stock and barrel so to speak. Well the cows, and feed, plus a lease on the barn, at least until spring, when we will buy a near by farm and continue from there. Now I only have to get the money to buy everything, and I need to move quickly, so I can get this running on before winter really hits hard. What I need is for someone to come in as my partner with some money and good credit, so that we can get this show going. I have the contract to sell the milk, and the offer to buy the farm, now I need a good partner who is willing to come on with some cash and run with the plan. Okay so I am a little short on the plan now, as the previous plan does not apply, and I haven't really wrote a new one yet.

This is an opportunity for the FSA to actually help me out, but it is doubtful that they will, even though they indicate that they have the farm start type of program just for such a situation. I can only hope that they will see the opportunity and understand that the loss of another farm will not be good for the economy, and if we don't buy it, it will be lost.

As far as the future is concerned, well that is still up to the wind. No really, once we have purchased this farm, we will operate it from its current location until spring, and then we will have to refinance to buy the farm down the road. When we buy that farm, we will need to cut cost every where, so we will look to building wind power on the farm to cut our input cost. We have other plans though for the farm. We will increase the diversity by many fold to decrease our exposure to economic factors. We will buy 10 Tamrac sows and a boar to produce pork and piglets (which will be increasing in demand in the near future). We will buy an additional 9 Sanien goats, and 10 Oberhalsi goats (does) and a few Nubian goats to round out our dairy herd and for pasture health. We will buy 40 sheep to provide fleeces and lambs for market. We will also fill out our chickens with about 60 more standard egg breeds, although for the most part we will be looking at heritage breeds. We will also purchase about 10 Muscovy ducks, added to our current ducks and chickens for pest control and pasture health.

We will also be buying Milking Devon cattle, Kerry Cattle, and a few other dairy cattle, to begin to build the dairy herd towards 100 head of cattle by January of 2011. To assist in the animal control we will be looking to acquire two more boarder collies (females only) and at least two horses, Belgian would be preferred as I would like them for farm work, although we will also use a tractor for some of the work, we will do as much as we can with the horses.

I still have some pretty ambitious plans, but we can do this if we can just get started. The hardest part seems to be finding a partner that will ride with us to make this happen. I am not asking for much, but I am not doing much to find that partner either, so I guess that may be why we haven't found them yet. I have to be more social, something I am not very good at. I need to write more, in the hope that maybe I can write enough to support the farm until the farm can support its own growth.

Well that's all for now, have a pleasant day.

DDFJ_09-26-2009

Still searching for a new farm property, with very little luck there. It always seems like we are close to a deal, and then something happens. This last deal just seemed to evaporate. The land owner seemed to be on board, and we seemed close to closing the deal, and then nothing, no returns of our calls, nothing. So I am looking again, with little success. I am trying to get EcoContracting running, but that too, seems a little retarded. I can't get to the sites to make bids, and I don't have the capital to float the cost of materials. The job I did for ServiceComUSA seems to have gone dead, so I will have to try to force them to pay me for the work I have done. This is why I required them to pay for the materials on the job, because I sent in my quote, and they have ceased to contact me. Not some type of refusal or even counter offer, just nothing. I hope to get this other work from Easy to Own Homes, but I don't know about them either. The lack of capital is hurting me, but I think if they agree to the bid with a 50% deposit, I can get a loan for the materials and operating cost, so I can move forward on that.

The rest is going as it goes, I don't get out to the farm nearly early enough, and the animals are still just getting by. We are getting no eggs from our chickens, but I am not certain of why. I need to build so many things, but for that I need to build a building, but for that I need a piece of land, and for that I need to work to get the money, and for that I need to spend money, so that's where I am at. I have got to go, maybe I will try to post again later.

Away from the Farm

We had to get away from the farm we used to share with another sort of farmer. Well he wasn't and isn't a farmer at all, not even a little bit. He is a biker who thought he would like to be a farmer, but he isn't one at all. I could go into great detail, but I won't right now, we just had to leave that place, and the animals show it. Before our goats were stunted in growth and starving, even though we provided all the grain for his entire farm (cows, chickens, calves, and whatever else) our goats were still starving. They didn't get their grain although we had to buy it every week, so it must have been used or eaten by something. We don't know, but what I can tell you is that since our animals have been off that guys farm they have flourished and grown by leaps and bounds. We lost most of our ducks and chickens on his farm, we have lost none as of lately, and they have begun to grow much faster and fatter. We didn't have proper fences on his farm, and the goats were everywhere, now they stay in their fence, as small as it is, and we move it to keep them with fresh forage. We did lose one goat to my own stupidity, but had this guy not gone ballistic for at least another two days we would have not lost our goat, or had to scramble and put our finances in the spin they are in.
I will rant more about the non-farmers I find and have found along the way at some other time. Things that make me go hmmmm.

Doud Dairy Farm Journal

Doud Dairy Farm Journal
Sunday, September 06, 2009

I missed a couple of days, with all that has been going on. I am not sure where I left off, but I think I didn't write entries for the fifth and the fourth, and the third is on another computer, waiting to be loaded to Frontier Spirit blog. So anyway, today we got a late start because I had a couple of things to do at the house, and we had to pick up Justin, my step-son and Arleta's youngest son. We went out to look at the property, and it is basically just woods and a couple of trails running through it. I am ready to provide Eddy with an offer. We will offer him 450.00 a month for 6 months, with an option to purchase at the end of the lease terms. We will then discuss the building thing, as we will offer to build a small barn and a cabin on the property, as well as dig a well. We will use this as equity if we buy the property in the spring, but if we do end the contract in spring we will leave the buildings, thereby providing him with more value for his property. I talked a minute with the next door neighbor, and he says they have 88 acres, so there may be potential for purchasing more property in the future. This would be good to discuss with Eddy as well. In lieu of a security deposit we will dig the well and put in a septic system, as well as build the buildings, which will benefit him if we leave the property. If we do decide to purchase the property in the spring, we will offer him $1,000.00 an acre or $44,000.00 plus what we have paid him for the rent.

Well now we have to see if he accepts the deal we present. Or if he comes back with a counter offer, we will have to consider that as well. I want to talk with him about the additional acres, to see if we can include that in the spring purchase option.

As far as the animals are concerned well, last week I couldn't get a chicken at all and this week we are in the process of buying chickens from everywhere. We bought 6 last night (RIR) from Williamstown, and we will be buying another 7 or 8 today from Homer. Now we will have 16 RIR chickens, and if we can get the 11 Orpingtons we will have the 20+ chickens we need to winter over with.

All the other animals (Goats, Ducks) are doing well, and getting fat on the land.

I need a truck, as there is just to much that I could do with a truck that would be helpful that I can not do with the Kia. Although the Kia is cute and it really is a nice vehicle, and all that, it will not accommodate the needs that a truck will. That or I need to get the Kia fixed, and a tow hitch attached so we can pull a trailer. I like the trailer idea, because a trailer is more versatile than just a truck, but it may be easier to get a truck than fix the Kia at this point.

That's all for now, more tomorrow when I get everything in its place.

Peace.

New Plan B

“The Farm”

Starting over, okay, in an old home town. We know the where, we need to discover the how. This is a document to discover how we are going to build, operate, and finance “the farm”.

Where is in Oswego County. Exactly where in Oswego County is a little more difficult to determine as yet, but preliminary searches has identified at least a couple of potential opportunities; however further investigation will be necessary to completely vett out the short list of properties. Some indicators are, that it is East of Mexico, West of Parish, and South of Central Square, although this is not precise enough to determine that it be exactly in an area, or that it is not in any of the particular municipalities, but that our belief is that our opportunity is most likely in an area near or between the Hamlet of Hastings, and the Villages of Mexico and Parish.

The why may be easier to determine. “The Farm” is the base of all our operations, including our agricultural ones. First “the farm” is exactly what it is, a farm. A diversified agricultural operation with dairy and meat purposes, as well as horticultural and grain purposes. The basis behind this is a sustainable operation that supports itself, and its community through full development of all the processes that are needed to provide the basic products that are the result of the operations. For example; grain such as wheat is useless to most animals including humans until processed. On “the farm” we will build a grist mill, to process the wheat and other grains into usable products such as groats and flours. Further we will also build a bakery that will process the flours into baked goods (mostly breads) that then will be used on “the farm” and also sold through our marketing programs. We will also provide a percentage of our production to help support our food programs for homeless and people with low to no incomes (see food bank program). Grains will not be processed for use by the animals as such, as there is very little value in the processing of grains for animals, with the exception of post processed materials, such as shaft and other hard materials which will be processed further for cellulose values, and then the final use will be as filler for animal supplements (see animal feed stock programs). This same processing program is followed throughout the outputs including the building of a dairy and creamery for the processing of raw milk products. In addition we will be building cheese caves, for the processing of dairy products. To facilitate all this building we will build several support operation buildings, such as a large back draft kiln, a foundry and forge, various other shops such as a cabinet shop, a mill wright shop, a blacksmith shop, and the list is continued (see support operations). The additional benefit to this design and building is that we will be providing work for more people in the community that will work the various operations that are on “the farm”. The secondary benefit to this plan is that we will also be preserving talents and arts that are seldom used in current technological society. We will also be providing many educational opportunities to the community to see the operations, to learn from the operations, and to duplicate the same operations in their communities. We will also be providing a tourist attraction, including accommodations and hospitality, appropriate to the programs. Additional support systems include development of a community school, a community health and wellness center, and a knowledge center for independent study of the greater knowledges. We will also be developing energy programs some of which will be traditional and some of which are experimental; such as wind generation and water powered mechanical systems, but also hydrogen fuel cells, and other more experimental solar technologies (see energy plan). This is a multi year plan, with many programs being conducted through a process of appropriate development from one technology to the next. Our first program will be to build the draft kiln and forge to facilitate the processing of local materials into building materials for the other programs. We will also build a wood mill, and supporting shops to enable us to build other structures using those processed materials. We will then build housing for animals, including humans, allowing us to then begin to allocate the animals (see animal matrix) that will then provide the products that will be further processed as we continue to build other programs. We will be continuing the building programs for the first three years as we continue to build the initial functional programs of “the farm”.

The second easy question is when, well sort of. If the question of when is when will we get started, well that is now, or at least as soon as possible. We will work with the various organizations to try to get the operation started and through basic functioning by Spring of 2009. The basic functioning will require certain tools and equipment and focus to enable us to begin with the basic functional constructions while developing the basic living structures that will also be needed temporarily to create a workable foundation. We have nothing to start with, which in some ways is considered a disadvantage; however it also is an advantage. How is it an advantage? On the basis that we can structure our entire operation to be sustainable, and “green” (see “green” initiatives). One particular area where this is evident is in equipment, where we will utilize alternative fuels such as bio-diesel, but we will also utilize electrical equipment, with the energy coming from our initial energy programs. This of course means that we will need to build a bio-diesel plant very early in the process. We will need a skid steer tractor to begin building. We will need to look for one that utilizes diesel to ensure that we can utilize renewable bio-diesel fuels. This will also be the main piece of equipment that will be used on “the farm” throughout its operations. Many field operations will be performed through horse drawn processes, although, some will be performed with mechanical machines, some of which will be electric. So the when is more determined by the completion of this document, the working with various organizations (such as Cooperative Extension and Farmlink), and obtaining the seed capital to begin the process of building after we have solved the where, why, and how problems.

Who is the next question. At this time the program is headed by myself and my wife. We feel the need to begin this program and direct it through its first few years, while we are certain that others will be involved in different capacities as we continue to build “the farm”. I am currently unemployed at this time, so I am collecting unemployment while I search for a job in the area where we are planning on locating. I am also a self employed general contractor, although because we are currently not located where we are planning on being located, I will have to re-build the business once we are located in the area we plan on being located. I am also seeking to obtain my insurance certificate so that I can offer people and businesses in my community insurance products. This will be in addition to all that we are planning on doing with “the farm” and the various other organizations that we are planning or will be involved with. My wife Arleta, will be obtaining her degree in Accounting so that she will be able to offer that service to people in our community. She is also obtaining her tax preparer certificate so that she can offer that service while she completes her degree. She will also be making products for sale, with some proceeds going to our not-for-profit organization. She will be making candles and jewelery which we will sell on-line and in various boutiques in the area. She will also be working to building her soap and personal care products company, as we are able to fund that program as well. We will be selling our agricultural products in various stages of production, continuing to build the diversity of production systems to better serve our community (see farm production).

Lastly is how. This is where I have the greatest difficulty. I have nothing but my knowledge to bring to this. Well that and my determination and physical capability to get the job done. I am not a great sales person, so selling the plan to investors will be difficult for me, but necessary. We will need to find not just seed capital to allocate land and basic equipment, but also operations capital, growth capital, and of course capital for the purchase of animals, seed stocks (see seed banks), and tools and equipment for operations of “the farm”. I do not know how much this will cost, as this is a work in progress. I will work to determine at least how much we will need to seed “the farm”, but there will need to be more cost figures determined. We will need to estimate our potential incomes from all the various steams. Consider that a portion of the production is provided directly to needs organizations through our not-for-profit organization. This is not loss, but overage that will be absorbed by the incomes and funding derived by the members of such programs as the Community Supported Agriculture, and home delivery programs (see income stream plans). We will also market our products in local markets, through local farmers markets, local grocery stores, local restaurants, and local schools. We will also be developing hospitality programs which will include an on farm market, an on farm restaurant, and other such processed food programs. We will be working with local farms to assist us in diversifying our product matrix, and to enhance the local agricultural network. These are but a few examples of our marketing programs, and will be included in our income matrix. I will need assistance in planning this part of the plan as this is not an area where I am very strong.

This is all I got for now, more will be done later, but for now, I must pack our belongings as we have lost our house and have to be out in the next six days. We have by the grace of great friends and relatives been able to afford to make the move from Geneva, NY to Oswego, NY (or actually North Syracuse, NY for the moment) and secure our belongings until we can complete the planning process at least to the point of obtaining the initial seed capital.

This is published on my blog so that anyone that wishes to comment may have that opportunity.

More notes on Agriculture Project 2008

Well now I am looking at animals.

In previous post I might have talked about animals, but today I am going to just look at how many animals we are going to need in the first three years to make the Farm profitable, while maintaining sustainability. Usually I talk a lot about the why and all that, but for now this is just a list, more will come later.

Animal	Min	Max
Draft Horse	2	4
Med. Draft Horse	4	6
Dairy Cattle	20	110
Beef Cattle	10	80
Alpaca	10	40
Swine	10	40
Sheep	10	80
Goat	10	60
Emu	8	20
Chicken	30	100+
Duck	10	40
Other Foul	10	20

I missed a few and I didn't include cats, rabbits, dogs, or other various animals because they are not specifically part of the breeding stocks, even if they may be breeding. One important animal to note is the Border Collies. We will start with four, three bitches and a sire, but we will add as the herds get larger. We may start with slightly smaller herds and not all the animals presented, but this should be the minimums we are striving for after three years. The objective is to provide sufficient stock for our own needs, surplus for the community, and enough offspring to trade with other communities to keep the stock fresh. We should also look to conservation of the breeds, and helping others get into farming by providing breeding stocks of heirloom animals at reasonable cost. We should also consider work exchange for equity in stocks, but this is going into to much at this point, these concepts will be covered later. For now, this list will be used to determine the base cost of stocking our Farm, and what stocks we need to build over the first three years to realize a profitable return on investment.

More to Come...

James