I don’t know the details of this person’s situation, but farming is much more enjoyable when it’s done as a semi-retirement hobby than as a way to bootstrap one’s career.
The farmers I know in my family all struggled mightily because every year was about accumulating a little more capital so they could rent some more land or buy the next piece of equipment they needed to grow in a few years.
The people who do it as a semi-retirement after a different career often come in with funds to buy land (as an investment) and have some working capital up front. When the goal is more about getting any positive number out of the farm to offset property taxes and you’re not running it like a business where squeezing every penny out of rented land with rented equipment is the only way to make it to next year, it’s a very different experience.
Hopefully this person is lucky enough to be in the latter group and have this be more hobby than bootstrapping a farming enterprise.
The farmers I know in my family all struggled mightily because every year was about accumulating a little more capital so they could rent some more land or buy the next piece of equipment they needed to grow in a few years.
The people who do it as a semi-retirement after a different career often come in with funds to buy land (as an investment) and have some working capital up front. When the goal is more about getting any positive number out of the farm to offset property taxes and you’re not running it like a business where squeezing every penny out of rented land with rented equipment is the only way to make it to next year, it’s a very different experience.
Hopefully this person is lucky enough to be in the latter group and have this be more hobby than bootstrapping a farming enterprise.