What does it cost to maintain a hobby farm?

[Anonymous]

Why are we talking about employees and farmers markets? OP said they wanted “some chickens.”

[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.

Didn’t Marie Antoinette have this idea already, op?

[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.

Didn’t Marie Antoinette have this idea already, op?

There’s your answer OP - it will cost you your head.

[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.

The key word is "hobby." A hobby is something you pour money into for the pleasure of doing the thing; you don't make a profit off of a hobby -- if you did, then you'd call it a job.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote: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.

This is helpful, thanks! -OP

[Anonymous]

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

And the movie "The Biggest Little Farm" and also research Jean-Martin Fortier in Quebec.

[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.

Didn’t Marie Antoinette have this idea already, op?

Yes, and that is not far off from my vision here although I am sure I will require fewer servants than Marie Antionette. -OP

[Anonymous]

If you want your hobby farm to also "do good," you might consider Care Farming and make your hobby farm a non-profit. https://carefarmingnetwork.org

Some examples:

Red Wiggler Farm in MD
A Farm Less Ordinary in VA
Telmar in Baltimore

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you want your hobby farm to also "do good," you might consider Care Farming and make your hobby farm a non-profit. https://carefarmingnetwork.org

Some examples:

Red Wiggler Farm in MD
A Farm Less Ordinary in VA
Telmar in Baltimore

Thank you but that sounds exhausting, if I don’t want to pay taxes on it I’ll just make it a church.
-OP

[Anonymous]

If you have to ask this on DCUM…

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want your hobby farm to also "do good," you might consider Care Farming and make your hobby farm a non-profit. https://carefarmingnetwork.org

Some examples:

Red Wiggler Farm in MD
A Farm Less Ordinary in VA
Telmar in Baltimore

Thank you but that sounds exhausting, if I don’t want to pay taxes on it I’ll just make it a church.
-OP

Well, it wasn't supposed to be about the taxes .... but, never mind. Clearly not your thing.

[Anonymous]

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

Nope. There is a difference between growing a garden in a residentially zoned property with a lot of acreage and a property that is still zoned as agricultural.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:If you want your hobby farm to also "do good," you might consider Care Farming and make your hobby farm a non-profit. https://carefarmingnetwork.org

Some examples:

Red Wiggler Farm in MD
A Farm Less Ordinary in VA
Telmar in Baltimore

Thank you but that sounds exhausting, if I don’t want to pay taxes on it I’ll just make it a church.
-OP

Well, it wasn't supposed to be about the taxes .... but, never mind. Clearly not your thing.

I’m highly skeptical of any enterprise where people in vulnerable positions do farm work as “therapy.”

[Anonymous]

Anonymous wrote:If you do not make money, you cannot farm. A farm is a business

She said a hobby farm.

My sister lives on a hobby farm in Purcellville. She absolutely does not make money. It's something rich people do to pass the time.

I have no idea how much it costs. I do know she's in Loudoun and the taxes can be killer so she bales hay which she out sources. The person who bales it does it for the hay, so it's free to her and she gets the AG zoning.

What you have to have is a passion for it. She's very busy and it's a lot of work. She also goes to the farmers market all winter to sell her goods. This is more of a social affair than anything else ffor her. She has her horses, equestrian community and her little pet project of chickens, goats, random rescue animals, dogs, cats, and a gigantic garden.

[Anonymous]

The people I know who have Farmettes lease out their land and barn to farmers who use it for their own purposes