Possible business idea

[luvmyhackney]

So I’ve been tinkering with how to utilize my farm and turn it into a side hustle. My options so far are:

A. Farm Stand - eggs and veggies
B. Sell my compost - I have a never ending supply
C. Wine and farm animals - no riding just wine tastings and chilling with ponies and goats - looking into licensing for this
D. Farm centered Birthday parties
E. Pony/Farm play camp for kids aged 3-6
F. Community garden- pay x amount and get a space to garden

I’m debating on doing a combo of these as A and B will be easy. The others require more thought and proper business plan.

Any thoughts or things to avoid?

[ParadoxFarm]

Because of the likely needed extra insurance, having the birthday parties and play camp would be a no for me.

The rest sound great!

[hoopoe]

I would probably avoid the activity on property like parties and experiences. The insurance alone will probably eat any idea of profit. If you are selling food I think you will already need some kind of liability.

eggs and your own veg would probably be the easiest sell. Keep in mind, depending on your demographics , evenings and weekends would likely be the busiest time.

I think having a pea patch would be like running a co-op stable. Only with hoes and trowels

[2DogsFarm]

I vote F
A & possibly B may be subject to local licensing restrictions.
& NWIH, would I want the liability of having the Great Unwashed (& farm animal ignorant) on my private property.
Even F could mean added insurance, ask your agent.

[Obsidian_Fire]

Around here there are several folks with little stands on the front of their property with extra eggs or veggies in the summer. I seriously doubt any of them have insurance for this.
For B, I don’t know too many people who actually “sell” their manure… most of us are desperately trying to give it away!! LOL.
The rest… would be a hard no from me but that’s just from a people perspective; social skills are not my thing.

[luvmyhackney]

So for A and B I have to register with the county and as long as I stay under 25k in business I can buy a basic insurance policy from the state for 300.00 a year.

The other options, I’m still waiting on feedback from my agent. I maintain a 1 million $ liability currently and not sure if that would cover me.

[clanter]

we have several friends who are doing all of what originally posted plus having a booth at several Farmers Markets on market days

They started because they were seeking an ag tax exception so got some miniature cattle and goats. Others were asking about these animals which has lead to doing all of the original post.

We have been doing public service events of introducing animals to grade school children. After having the miniature horses at on of these events another school offer us $1,000 to do the same for their school within the same district.

A local international defense contractor after having seen some videos of our granddaughters working with their goats doing tricks requested the goats to attend an intercompany conference to be used as a friendly icebreaker to get the employees comfortable before the conference. This turned into a very successful event for the manager of the event, he says he is now known as The Goat Man. Even company personal who were not part of the conference were coming by to see/touch/watch the goats do their tricks

As for the compost sales, if they hay was sprayed with a herbicide some of these persistent herbicides can last in soil for months to years making it unsuitable for gardens

[MunchingonHay]

We needed to get rid of a huge, old, rich manure pile one year, and we bagged it up in 10 gallon bags and went to the local greenhouse/garden centers to see if they would sell it for us. We got X and they sold it for Y. We could not restock the bags fast enough. Then my brother started making manure tea out of it and that sold even faster for more $$.

It took us all summer to bag that pile up and sell it, but it was worth it.

I love being able to stop and pick up surplus eggs, veg, cut flowers, honey with a roadside stand with a cash box/venmo QR code to pay.

I like E as well, but you need to be careful of people not being as tidy as you are with their plot. Would you have set hours people could come and play in their space?

[LCDR]

If you bag the manure your customer base would be larger. Have a stack of bagged composted manure displayed and ready to go for impulse buyers who stop for eggs and veggies.

[S1969]

@MunchingonHay

We needed to get rid of a huge, old, rich manure pile one year, and we bagged it up in 10 gallon bags and went to the local greenhouse/garden centers to see if they would sell it for us. We got X and they sold it for Y. We could not restock the bags fast enough. Then my brother started making manure tea out of it and that sold even faster for more $$.

Might even be possible to sell in larger quantities if you advertise in the right place and offer to help load (e.g. by the FEL bucket load, or bring your own muck tub) 10 gallons sells well for people with small container gardens but for people who have larger gardens it might be more convenient to take a truck bed load.

[SusanO]

If you are selling manure, bagged or otherwise, make sure it does not have a pass through herbicide like Grazon contaminating it. If you sell it and somebody contaminates their garden, flower beds, etc. with Grazon hell you could be looking at an expensive proposition. If you buy hay from one grower I would communicate with them that you need to know what herbicides they are using. If you are like me and buy from both growers and resellers you need to be cautious. You can do a bean test on the compost to check for these things. It is not 100% if you are getting different sources for hay. And be aware of what herbicides you might be using in your pastures. Grazon hell is no picnic. Been there.

[luvmyhackney]

I use two hay suppliers, one local and the other from a few hours away. Neither use Grazon or chemicals that would cause issues with selling compost.

If I have to find new suppliers, it might be an issue.

I love the bag compost idea as I could sell it at the stand or offer delivery vs people driving back to my compost pile. I’d prefer not to load in people’s vehicles with my tractor.

My farm stand is my most exciting thing as I grow so many herbs, tomatoes, onions, and other things I have a bunch away last year. It would be nice to at least break even.

[mmeqcenter]

We’re working on a farm stand too, it seems to be becoming a popular thing for homesteaders and people with small farms. I think selling compost in bags at the farm stand is a spectacular idea. A BO I had in Ohio would use empty horse feed bags and sell them filled with one-year-old compost from the manure pile. Great way to reduce waste from the feed bags, too!

I agree with the other posters that I would avoid anything that involves human interactions with animals. Personally, I’d avoid anything that requires regular human interaction, period

The community garden space is a neat idea. If you’re in a fairly populated area, might garner good interest. If possible, I’d built an area outside of your gate, so that people don’t have to come far onto your property to tend to the garden.

[NancyM]

We live in a small, semi remote community. We sell hay, veggies, and eggs. WE DELIVER. That way, we don’t often have people coming onto our property. No insurance needed for this. Multiple deliveries can be made with one trip. We use our own barn manure. Bagging manure by hand isn’t what I want to spend my time doing LOL.
For veggies, nothing gets picked or dug before an “order” comes in… so everything is totally “fresh” for the buyer.

[kaya842]

I’m surprised by the support of F. For some reason that’s the one that gives me the most pause. Maybe it’s just my ignorance of gardening but isn’t there the possibility that people will be wanting to be there all hours of the day and night (person A must get there before dawn to water or weed or whatever, whereas person B does it after dark in the evening, Person C’s plants have different needs so they come during the day etc). It’s the one that seemed to have the most opportunity for a larger number of people coming and going, and those people not being horse friendly but being on the property with proximity to horses and knowing the bad decisions people can make (leaving children unattended is top of mind). Maybe I’m super pessimistic and just wrong and those are non issues

[ParadoxFarm]

@LCDR

Have a stack of bagged composted manure displayed and ready to go for impulse buyers who stop for eggs and veggies.

That’s a great idea.

[js]

I would avoid anything that allowed people on your property whether for parties or for gardens, too much liability for what might happen, additional insurance, your property taxes could change to a business rather than residence, which could affect mortgage, insurance etc. and no control over people getting into other’s garden plots.

Selling eggs and vegies would be your best bet, personally I’d stick with just eggs and sell them at farm /feed stores, organic stores or at local farmers markets and avoid having one at your house.

[SusanO]

If you bag manure in leakproof plastic bags (like contractor clean-up bags) in 25 pound to 50 pound bags, that enables customers to put the bag in the trunk of their car or hatchback, thus eliminating the requirement to bring a truck. You can also sell by the tractor bucket scoop for those persons that pick up in a truck. Dry compost weighs a lot less than rained on compost and might be preferred by those persons buying by the bag. The local nursery sells some sort of compost for $60 a cubic yard? scoop. Or that was the price last year. So not cheap down here but that is the retail price and not buying from the producer.

Now is the time gardeners are looking to fill in their raised beds and add compost for spring planting. A bag of aged compost is sure better than those bark filled bags of “garden soil” sold by Miracle Grow.

[luvmyhackney]

Just got my quote from insurance agent. She brought me back to reality.

Farm stand and compost are the most viable options for me.

Community garden idea would cost too much insurance wise. Pony parties could be profitable if I did it 4 parties a weekend and I’m not sure I want to devote that much time. I can’t do weekdays do to current work schedule. When I retire this is an option.

I’m still waiting to hear back from two insurance companies but assuming they are going to be in a similar ball park. 2.5k a year for insurance is a bit much for a side gig.

[quietann]

The husband of one of my friends used to finance his yearly fly fishing trip from a front yard vegetable stand. At 87, he’s no longer well enough for that level of travel, and they moved to.a smaller property, but he still does a smaller stand to earn a little spending money.