Organic Herbs for restaurants
Organic flowers/herbs for folks making specialty soaps and lotions
Fresh greens like jlccoffee said.
U-Pick-em blueberries or blackberries (you'd have traffic but just for a limited time)

Those are some good Ideas. We are planting different fruit on our place as we can afford it. Blueberries, peaches, muscadines, apples ect. We hope to one day have a Upick operation. Just going slow and payng for it as we go. You also have to figure your irrigation cost.


The challege you face will be to pay someone and break even. The fruit is a lot of work initialy with no income.

It has been a year or so. After I typed this, I checked the sale prices lately, and I agree. The price has gone up a lot in the last year. So it isn't a good time to buy them, I will admit my mistake and flip my answer.

Toothdoc, you want to buy some cows?

The thing about cows is, if you are going to raise calves, you need a least an acre of land for each cow calf pair. Some people say two acres. It depends on how much you want to feed and hay you want to give them and how good your grass is. That is where the real cost comes in. In the winter, 10-15 cows will eat a lot of hay. Last fall, we averaged probably a round bale of hay every week per 5 cows.

I usually get paid for evaluating properties for best use classification. But since this is a wild as guess seems how I nothing about the layout, terrain, and location of the property I'll give you a freebie. You get what you pay for.

Dove Field?

Retriever Training?

Archery Range?

Honey Bees?

Sharecrop?

Fee Catfish Pond? Don't even know if you have a place for a pond.

Driving Range?

Trail hiking?

RV Campsites?

My personal favorite, timber.
--I'd suggest intense longleaf management with reforestation efforts directly correlated to capitalize on the growing pinestraw market. Within 6 years you could be making big money.

Combination of the above?

There's a market for pinestraw??

I thought about the honey too

You should build a small (<1 acre) shallow pond, fence in with hog wire about 3-4 acres and build dog kennels. You could board 30-40 dogs with one person on the payroll. At $10 - $20 a day boarding fee you'll book it out all spring, summer and fall 7 days a week. Winter will be slow. $500 a day for 200 days would more than cover construction, help and costs. If you really get brave you could get a mobile home to use for your hand and make it an office. Let him do all your farm upkeep on the side for room/board. P

Put you in one of the oriental massage parlors that gives a happy ending to the massage for an extra $20. You hear about them up here getting busted from time to time, but I think you could rake the dough in before you got busted.

I represented a Korean that ran one of those places. She made a ton of money, but now she is in jail. I also represented a Mexican that was busted by the Feds for running illegal Mexican hookers. He is not in jail, we got the charges thrown out. So, as I see it, you got a 50-50 chance.

Sounds like the hookers is a better deal to me

If you have the patience for it, getting into higher end dog breeding can be an excellent income. My Aunt has a kennel and raises/sells Bull Mastiffs and Boston Terriers and she can't keep puppies. She takes great care of her dogs and isn't a puppy mill but because of that she has a waiting list of people to buy her pups. Last I talked to her she had sold dogs to folks in 21 different states. It's a pretty sweet gig, IMO.

The only money making reply... J/K

Toothdoc, we've got about 300 between leased and owned and couldn't make a profit if we hired things done. If you figure out how to make a profit without working it yourself on 30 acres, please let me know.

That's the Exra Specia Numba 2. It only take 10 minnet

I agree about the labor. If it isn't something you want to do and will enjoy doing it yourself and with your family, I would not do it. You will have a hard time finding and keeping labor for what you can pay them, and they probably won't do the job to your standard anyway.

Farming on a small scale is a job. The people that do it are doing it to produce a product that will pay them for their labor (if it pays that). If you pay someone else for the labor part, it leaves very little or nothing for you.

If you don't mind the noise of a bunch of dogs around your house, you might be better off to consider fighting cocks.

I don't think he wanted 3toe and Buckscent to be involved.

Can we use the term Fighting Chickens so that everything is perfectly clear?

No...the hens don't fight. If you can't get with the lingo, best stay out of the business.

toothdoc, (if you haven't figured it out) I don't really have a good answer for you. I do know this for a FACT, you cannot make money with 10 head or less of cattle. If you could find a niche market for grass fed beef, you wouldn't be able to have but half the # of momma cows because you'd have to keep, and graze the calves for 15-18 months.

To become certified as organic is not an easy process.

takes 3 years

Where are you getting your info?

Cattle prices have been at an all time high for the past 6-8 months. They are tapering off slightly, killing bulls & cull cows that is, but calves are still bringing big prices.

I sold some 8-9 weight calves for $120.00 per cwt.

But you're spot on with the number of cattle on that acreage being high profit prohibitive.

You might net $200.00 per head but with 10 head that won't go very far.

There are so many using farming as a tax shelter, it's a tough business now.