The Accidental Farmer

After years of living in the city, my wife and I had an opportunity to purchase an older farm that required some definite elbow grease but was located on a beautiful piece of property.  Being country kids ourselves, it was our desire to move our young family (4 kids at the time) to a place that was quiet and scenic where our kids could have some of the same experiences that we did as children.  Little did we know this decision would affect a large part of our livelihood?  One of our first goals was to lease our farm fields so they could begin to be properly managed.  To our surprise the few local farms in our area had all the land they needed.  One of the farmers who ran an organic dairy asked us why we didn’t farm it ourselves?  I am a broadcaster by trade and I had no idea how to even drive a tractor much less own one.  Plus I was told farmers didn’t make any money and it was almost impossible to start a farm these days.  After doing some research on organic farming we realized we could be profitable on small acreage and improve our property at the same time. Our goal was to stay debt free and grow slow. We started by hiring contract farmers to till and plant for us.  Then we begin buying our equipment as we made some money from the crops we sold.  Not knowing anything about farming did come with some humbling and embarrassing moments.  Like the time a farmer asked me if I was going to take the PTO (power take-off) for a piece of equipment that I had just bought and was not quite sure what he was talking about.  If it was not for the help of our local farmers we would not be where we are today.  Since that first year in 2013 we have increased 10 times in size, had 3 more kids (7 if you’re counting) and found that we really enjoy farming (most of the time).  We have become good friends with our neighbor farmers along this journey. We know that God has blessed us to live in such a beautiful place and we look forward to what the future holds at Red Wagon Farms.