Market Farming

[Marcie Rosenzweig <fullcircle AT jps.net>]

Lori,

Most commercial banks won't back strart-ups of any kind, much less 
farms.  There are rural development funds and FSA funds available for 
beginning farmers to purchase land and equipment.  The definition of 
"beginning farmer" for these purposes is ne with at lest three years 
in a farming venture but less than ten.  Ther reason for this is to 
let folks understand what it takes to make a living form the soil 
before gettting into business with them.  Most "second-career" 
farmers bootstrap their business and borrow to grow.  There are 
USDA/FSA offices in almost every county.  Rural Development is in the 
same  building in most cases.

I'd recommend this path - you may already be somewhere on it.

1.  Apprentice for a season with at least two farms producing what 
you think you what to grow to see if the physical and outdoors 
workstyle is for you and to observe two different farm management 
styles.

2.  read anything and everything you can get your hands on  - 
especially about the production and sales of flowers, but also about 
the production and sales of any annual-semi-annual crop in the area 
where you want your farm.

3.  Get a job as a farm manager for a small diversified farm so you 
can see all the outlets and help plan, staff, recover from disasters, 
fix equipment, deal with fallen through sales.

4. Take a business planning class and write the business plan for 
your own farm.  Any lender will want to see this as part of the 
application process.

5.  Find a piece ground and approach FSA for the loan.

The alternative, of course, is to do what all the rest of us did, buy 
a 5 - 20 acre ag lifestyle parcel and dig in.
Marcie A. Rosenzweig
Full Circle
3377 Early Times Ln
Auburn, CA  95603-7900
(530) 885-9201