What does it cost to maintain a hobby farm?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:I’m curious about the cost of maintaining a rural property. Let’s say a house, a barn, some chickens and a few hay fields. I know there’s a lot of variation but just for the equipment, building upkeep, landscaping etc?

The house is normal house cost, the barn is much cheaper since you only need to maintain it enough to not be structurally hazardous. Chickens depend on how many and how serious you are about them not being eaten by wild animals. Maybe $100/month? The hay fields you rent out to a real farmer for a small cash inflow. Equipment? Buy a small tractor for the ‘gram, a lawn mower, and a four wheeler for funsies. After the initial investment none of those are going to be that expensive. Assuming this is your full time residence, the maintenance costs aren’t crazy if you only do the above. The amount of work you decide to put into gardening and landscaping is up to you.

[Anonymous]

Can't all this stuff just be written off on taxes anyway?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, thanks. I’m thinking of this more as a luxury project, and 10 years feels about right. I like to daydream about moving to the country and while I was out near Round Hill recently I watched a small army of guys with mowers turning into a small farm and it made me wonder. Like I can guesstimate what it takes to maintain a big house and an acre in Bethesda, but not a small farm property. I thought maybe someone here would share a benchmark. I’m not trying to make a profit from goats.

So like, as an example - let’s say you need one main employee ($75k) and maybe average $25k/year on equipment? Plus idk what else but maybe $50k? So is $150k/year a good guess? I have no idea.

That is stupid. You do not need full time employees for a hobby farm.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't all this stuff just be written off on taxes anyway?

It’s not as simple as that.

Everywhere has different requirements. Where my relative lives to be considered agricultural land you need at least 5 acres AND to sell at least $1,000 a year. Yes that’s one thousand dollars. Their property taxes are super low because it’s taxed as agriculture not residential. You don’t even need to bother writing anything off.

Many people with these small hobby farms rent out one or two acres to grow hay to a farmer who has all their own equipment and takes care of everything thus satisfying the requirements. Often they have a barn and a couple horses. An easy way to get some flexibility in your schedule is to let someone else board their horse in your barn in exchange for taking care of your horses.

[Anonymous]

I highly highly recommend that you watch Clarkson’s Farm on Amazon Prime.

[Anonymous]

In some states the government pays you to keep the land fallow

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents have a hobby farm. It is managed by a farm manager and 4-6 men. The outlay for payroll and regular equipment maintenance is roughly $500-600,000 a year. This is on top of any other unusual outlays (another field truck, another tractor, replace the barn generator, reroof the stock barn). It is a complete money suck. On the other hand it provides a huge amount of pleasure to them and it is hard to argue with that. They do not live there fulltime so these expenses are all on top of their regular expenses.

This is so helpful, thank you!! -OP

I know nothing about this topic, but am curious about whether OP is actually willing to pay a half million or more per year for an 11 acre farm. I would watch that reality TV show.

No, but I might spend $150k. What’s it to you? People on this board drop that much on private school all the time even after paying millions to live in a “good school district” and it’s fine with me. We don’t all pursue the same things. Maybe I’d like to bring eggs to the office sometimes. Have a shed with a pottery wheel. Do flowers for a friend’s wedding from my cutting garden. I wouldn’t be hurting anyone. And historically, I’m a good employer.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:My parents have a hobby farm. It is managed by a farm manager and 4-6 men. The outlay for payroll and regular equipment maintenance is roughly $500-600,000 a year. This is on top of any other unusual outlays (another field truck, another tractor, replace the barn generator, reroof the stock barn). It is a complete money suck. On the other hand it provides a huge amount of pleasure to them and it is hard to argue with that. They do not live there fulltime so these expenses are all on top of their regular expenses.

This is so helpful, thank you!! -OP

I know nothing about this topic, but am curious about whether OP is actually willing to pay a half million or more per year for an 11 acre farm. I would watch that reality TV show.

No, but I might spend $150k. What’s it to you? People on this board drop that much on private school all the time even after paying millions to live in a “good school district” and it’s fine with me. We don’t all pursue the same things. Maybe I’d like to bring eggs to the office sometimes. Have a shed with a pottery wheel. Do flowers for a friend’s wedding from my cutting garden. I wouldn’t be hurting anyone. And historically, I’m a good employer.

I am on this ride with you OP. Sell this one to TLC so you can actually make some cash. I will watch!

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:Can't all this stuff just be written off on taxes anyway?

Only useful if you turn a profit.

[Anonymous]

We have a few dozen acres in the NC mountains, 20 or so in pasture. A neighbor keeps cows on the pasture, maintains the pasture and fence line, and looks after the place when we're not there. But that's more a gentleman farming than hobby farming, I guess.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, thanks. I’m thinking of this more as a luxury project, and 10 years feels about right. I like to daydream about moving to the country and while I was out near Round Hill recently I watched a small army of guys with mowers turning into a small farm and it made me wonder. Like I can guesstimate what it takes to maintain a big house and an acre in Bethesda, but not a small farm property. I thought maybe someone here would share a benchmark. I’m not trying to make a profit from goats.

So like, as an example - let’s say you need one main employee ($75k) and maybe average $25k/year on equipment? Plus idk what else but maybe $50k? So is $150k/year a good guess? I have no idea.

Why would you bother to post such guesses, when you have no idea?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, thanks. I’m thinking of this more as a luxury project, and 10 years feels about right. I like to daydream about moving to the country and while I was out near Round Hill recently I watched a small army of guys with mowers turning into a small farm and it made me wonder. Like I can guesstimate what it takes to maintain a big house and an acre in Bethesda, but not a small farm property. I thought maybe someone here would share a benchmark. I’m not trying to make a profit from goats.

So like, as an example - let’s say you need one main employee ($75k) and maybe average $25k/year on equipment? Plus idk what else but maybe $50k? So is $150k/year a good guess? I have no idea.

Why would you bother to post such guesses, when you have no idea?

Sometimes it’s helpful to just put a stake in the ground and let people who know better tell you how far off you are. It gives the conversation a starting point.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:This is OP, thanks. I’m thinking of this more as a luxury project, and 10 years feels about right. I like to daydream about moving to the country and while I was out near Round Hill recently I watched a small army of guys with mowers turning into a small farm and it made me wonder. Like I can guesstimate what it takes to maintain a big house and an acre in Bethesda, but not a small farm property. I thought maybe someone here would share a benchmark. I’m not trying to make a profit from goats.

So like, as an example - let’s say you need one main employee ($75k) and maybe average $25k/year on equipment? Plus idk what else but maybe $50k? So is $150k/year a good guess? I have no idea.

Why would you bother to post such guesses, when you have no idea?

Is this your first day on the Internet?

[Anonymous]

I feel like nobody replying has any idea what a "hobby farm" is. It certainly doesn't help that OP hasn't provided any details. (Probably because they have no idea themselves)

I worked on a hobby farm many years ago, and I imagine it was probably very close to what the OP is actually imagining.

They didn't plant any crops, they kept like 2 horses, 4 cows, and a few chickens. It was a "farm" for tax and conversational purposes, but it was never intended to be a business and certainly never intended to turn a profit. It was a place where well off city folk could come out for the weekend and enjoy nature and pretend to be salt of the earth.

The costs were very minimal compared to the numbers you all are throwing out. They had a horse caretaker who they paid barely anything but in exchange let her live in the farmhouse and use their horses for riding lessons and keep all the money. Then they had me who came out like 3 times a week for 8 hours at $10 an hour, and that was it for staffing costs.

The cows were taken care of by their actual cattle farming neighbor who took most of the meat in exchange, the chickens were free range and mostly took care of themselves, but the horse girl helped as well. The cows and horses took care of most of the mowing.

Not counting the mortgage, I'd estimate they probably spent about $50K a year on payroll, animal care, maintenance (so many fences to repair!) tractor gas and maintenance, and everything else.

[Anonymous]

Start small scale. Sell eggs and rabbit meat. Grow enough to self sustain. If you have excess take it to a farmers market.