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What Can I Do with my Small Farm? Selecting an Enterprise for Small Acreages, EC 1529

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What Can I Do with my Small Farm? Selecting an Enterprise for Small Acreages

EC 1529 Reprinted September 2006

Do you want to print a copy? We recommend downloading the print version (2.4 MB). First download the free Adobe Reader, if you don’t already have it. Contents

  • Goals for the farm
    • Hobby
    • Ag deferral
    • Income
  • Crop production costs and returns per acre
  • Physical resources of the farm
    • Land–types of soils
    • Water–potential for irrigation
    • Climate and microclimate
  • Type of enterprise
    • Production technique
    • Type of crops
    • Marketing
  • Family resources and skills
    • Finances
    • Credit
    • Family skills and desires
    • Other factors to consider
  • Summary
  • Resources and references

Often, when people buy a small farm they simply want someone to tell them what they can “do” with it. As strange as it might seem, this isn’t an easy question to answer. When landowners begin to make important decisions related to the use of their property, they might not recognize the complicated web of details involved. Before making decisions, you should consider these major factors that interact with and influence each other (Figure 1):

  • Goals for the farm
  • Physical resources of the farm
  • Family resources and skills
  • Type of farm enterprise and crop produced

For instance, the type of soil on a farm influences what crops can and cannot be grown, which in turn influences the level of gross farm income. Also, the farm owner’s skills for (and enjoyment of) working directly with consumers might influence the farm’s marketing technique (direct marketing versus wholesale). Small farms are like any small business. They often require long hours, long-term commitment, and stamina. And like many highly successful small businesses, they require a risk taking, entrepreneurial spirit.

The major components involved in a farm enterprise decision and how they interact with each other

Figure 1. The major components involved in a farm enterprise decision and how these factors interact with each other.

Goals for the farm

The owners of small farms vary in both resources and aspirations. Many people are interested in having a few animals, growing some fruits and vegetables, and providing a high-quality rural lifestyle for their families. Others seek to manage a small farm intensively to produce supplemental or total family income. The goals you set for your small farm must realistically consider the feelings of family members, your financial situation, the farm or business-related talents family members have (or don’t have), and more. Consider these questions:

  • Do you view the farm as a “hobby” and a way to achieve quality of life for the family?
  • Are you simply trying to keep the agricultural tax deferral?
  • Do you want the farm to produce a supplemental or even a full income for your family?

Small farms as a hobby

Rural areas are attractive places for families to live. A great deal of satisfaction can come from experiencing farm life without the pressure to make a profit. In this situation, money from off the farm supports the farm’s activities.

In addition, many small-farm families wish to replace some of their purchased food with home-raised foods. This can be extremely satisfying and surprisingly easy. Two acres will produce a year’s supply of vegetables, ample fruits and berries, some meat, and possible opportunities for small cash sales. Another 2 acres of well-managed woodlot can heat a well-constructed house indefinitely. This path is different from a commercially focused farm, but is very appropriate for many families.

Agricultural deferral

Many small farms are located in areas that are not zoned exclusively for farming. These properties are subject to higher property taxes if they are not kept in farm use. The agricultural property-tax deferral lowers the property tax burden of farms that are not located in exclusive farm use areas but are producing income from farming.

In order to receive and maintain the deferral, these farms must meet certain income tests. For some property owners, this requirement results in the ag deferral dilemma. In this situation, people sometimes spend $2,000 to save $1,000 on their taxes. How do otherwise rational people get into this bind? Either they misunderstand how the system works, or they don’t get good numbers.

To qualify for the agricultural property tax deferral, you must show the following annual income:

0-6 acres: $650 minimum 6.1-29.9 acres: $100/acre 30 or more acres: $3,000 minimum You must demonstrate the minimum income 3 out of 5 years. The assessor can request a copy of the “Farm Schedule F” from your federal income-tax filing to evaluate your claim for deferral.

Here is a hypothetical situation:

No deferral With deferral

Value of house: Value of homesite: Value of 10 acres: Total:

$125,000 70,000 100,000 $305,000 $125,000 70,000 5,000 $200,000 Difference: + $95,000 in assessed or taxable value

Let’s assume the tax rate is $18/$1,000. (Your assessor can tell you your specific tax rate.) What you actually would pay each year in additional property taxes without the agdeferral is $18 x 95 = $1,710. Note that the homesite, house, and any buildings are not affected by the ag deferral.

It’s important to find out from your assessor what the assessed value of your land would be with and without the deferral. Then do the above calculation on your own property and decide where you come out.

Finally, if you convert all or part of the property to non farm uses, you most likely will be liable for back taxes at the difference between the ag deferral value and market value for the previous 5 years, even if you just purchased the property. This consideration can be an important item to look at before you buy property.

The income tests for the ag deferral are not connected to the separate (and usually steeper) income test that a county might require before a dwelling can be built on agricultural land.

Timber land deferral has a similar impact on property taxes but doesn’t require annual income proof after the stand is planted. Growing trees for timber could be considered for all or a portion of your rural acreage.

There might be tax incentives to manage your property as wildlife habitat. Under the “Wildlife Habitat Conservation and Management Program,” landowners can retain their agricultural assessment when they enter into a management agreement with the Oregon Department of Fish and Wildlife.

This program is entirely voluntary, and counties are not required to accept applications for it. To qualify, the property must be zoned as agriculture or mixed farm and forest use, and must be within a participating county. Contact your county assessor for more information.

Supplemental or family income from the farm

Farming in order to produce a supplemental or family income is serious business. It should be approached with thorough planning and realistic expectations. Consider these questions:

  • Are you realistic about how much income you expect?
  • Who will do the work?
  • Do you have or can you obtain the necessary business skills to help the farm succeed?

On most small parcels, land prices are disconnected from the value of the land for use as a farm. Most small parcels sell for their real estate market value rather than for what a conventional farmer would consider a “fair farm” price. Compare the rental value ($35-175/acre/year) with the actual cost of buying land, which probably is much higher.

Table 1.–Crop production costs and returns per acre. Establishment Costs Annual Costs Gross Returns/Year

Nursery stock** Flower bulbs Fresh vegetables Garlic (fresh) Onions Apples** Wine grapes** Strawberries (3-year life) Raspberries (8-year life)* Blueberries** Christmas trees*** Wheat Grass hay Cow/calf Sheep

$3,000-20,000 – - – - 3,000-7,000 7,000 1,500-2,500 3,000 5,500 1,000-1,600 – - – - $3,000-10,000 2,000-9,000 1,500-5,000 1,800-4,500 2,500-3,000 1,500-3,000 1,200-2,300 2,000-3,500 1,700-2,800 2,000-4,000 600-800 200-300 70-150 80-100 100-500 $10,000-30,000+ 4,000-14,000 2,000-7,000 3,500-9,000 1,600-5,000 3,000-7,000 1,800-4,000 3,000-6,000 2,000-6,000 2,000-6,000 9,000-16,000 200-400 100-180 70-200 275–650

*Might be 1-3 years before return. **No return for 3-4 years after establishment. Costs vary with harvest requirements. ***No return until 6-8 years after planting. Most annual costs are concentrated in the last 3 years before harvest. “Annual costs” is an average per year over the production cycle. “Gross returns/year” is for the year of harvest.

Note: These figures represent a range of returns under normal conditions for commercial-quality crops. They do not include expenditures for equipment except structures for nursery production. They also don’t include weather-related crop loss or extreme price swings. These values are based on sales via wholesale markets and do not represent the higher gross receipts from direct marketing.

It therefore is challenging to expect such a parcel to pay for itself, much less the cost of the house or other non-farm improvements.

However, with intelligence and persistence, it is possible to make money from a small farm. A lot of exciting small farms in the region are producing excellent crops and are marketing in creative ways. The potential definitely exists.

Let’s look at some of the options. Table 1 shows the gross income/acre of a variety of crops as reported from farms, both large and small, in Oregon. These values are for sales via wholesale markets and do not represent the higher gross receipts from direct marketing, a technique used by many small farmers. These values offer excellent comparisons and are a good place to start.

If you are seriously considering a crop, you should know the equipment requirements and develop a cash-flow budget for each year in the production cycle. Pay particular attention to harvest and marketing costs. For example, blueberries usually cost 22-28 cents/pound to harvest and transport. A heavy crop requires more up-front cash for harvesting and delivering the crop to market than does a lighter crop.

What stands out from Table 1?

Clearly, there are a lot of options to generate $100/acre. As your expectations go up, the crop choices that will meet those expectations diminish, and the investment and skills needed increase. If you want to generate gross sales of $1,000/acre, beef, hay, or grains are not viable options. Other crops do show significant income potential.

Assume the direct operating expenses on most crops are 50-60 percent of gross sales. For example, how much will it take to raise an acre of nursery stock? You must include capital investment in facilities (such as greenhouses and winter houses) as well as all operating expenses (fertilizer, labor, crop protection products, and marketing costs). This is cash up front, and $5,000 to $9,000 is a bare minimum!

The profitability of any farming enterprise, large or small, is very difficult to predict. You must identify what you mean by profitability. Does it mean just staying in the black for a specific crop? Does it mean providing a small supplemental income? Does it mean providing a full family income? Small farms can provide all of the above, given good resources and skills.

The physical resources of the farm

Not all farms are created equal. They vary widely in the types of crops they can grow. A farm’s capability to grow various crops is related to its physical resources: soils, access to irrigation water, and climate. These physical resources might seriously restrict the types of crops that can be grown or might provide nearly unlimited options. Successful farming includes the ability to match crop options to your farm’s capability.

Land–Types of soils

Soils are complex mixtures of sand, silt, and clay. The relative abundance of these soil components determines which soil type you have. The types of soils on your farm are directly related to crop options. The better your soil, the more options you have. Poor soils can be improved by enhancing drainage and soil tilth but never will be as versatile as good soils.

West of the Cascades, a challenging soil type is one that is largely clay and, as a result, drains poorly. Such soils cannot be cultivated early in the spring and can contribute to root disease problems in many crops. Installing drain tile can partially correct poor drainage, but it adds $800-$1,000 per acre to the cost of the land. Very sandy soils drain excessively and present special problems, but you would much rather have a soil drain well and add water through irrigation than have it drain poorly.

East of the Cascades, saline or alkaline soils can limit crop options.

Soil maps are available that allow you to identify the exact soil types on any parcel. These maps are published in soil surveys for each county. Soil surveys include descriptions of each soil type that give some indication of the soil’s strengths and weaknesses for agriculture and forestry. Contact your USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service office for the soil survey for your area. You can find their phone number under Department of Agriculture in the federal government section of the phone book.

You are far better off with 5 acres of great soil than 50 acres of mediocre soils. However, you might need a certain critical acreage to produce some crops economically. For example, growing grain on less than 200 acres would not support the purchase of even a used combine. While garlic can be produced on small plots (3 /4 acre or less) using hand labor and a rototiller, 5 acres probably is needed to justify a fully mechanical operation.

In addition, your farm’s location can have a large bearing on your marketing options. Does it have good road access? It must be appealing to the public if you are planning direct sales. If the crop you grow requires a semi-truck for transportation, is your farm able to handle it?

Water–potential for irrigation

Water is another critical resource that determines crop options for your farm. Most, although not all, high-value crops require irrigation. Nurseries are heavy users of irrigation, as are vegetable operations. Christmas trees, wine grapes, garlic, and in certain situations, raspberries and strawberries, can be grown without irrigation.

Various Extension publications detail crop water-use requirements at various locations in Oregon. The estimates take into account irrigation method, crop growth stage, and weather.

In Oregon, water resources are controlled by state authorities and are distributed to landowners based on historic use and the quantity available. This system prevents one landowner from damming a river that serves many other landowners. The recent regulations supporting salmon recovery often require higher minimum stream flows during certain seasons, further restricting water withdrawals for irrigation.

The ability to irrigate is based on your farm’s water rights. Water rights determine whether your farm may access water–and how much–from wells, rivers, or other bodies of water.

If you do not have water rights, you might not be able to get them. Check with your local water rights authority about water rights attached to a particular parcel or about restrictions on the development of new water rights in your area. It is illegal to use a domestic well for irrigating a commercial agricultural crop.

In Oregon, contact the Water Resources Department, 158 12th St. NE, Salem, Oregon 97310. Phone: 503-378-2496.

Water-quality concerns such as salt content, pH, or specific minerals in the water can affect its suitability for irrigation. Ask for a detailed water analysis when purchasing a water right.

Climate and microclimate

Climate and microclimate are important to farming. An area’s climate refers to the generally predictable patterns of temperature and rainfall across the seasons. Your climate zone limits the crops you can grow (such as bananas or apples). This limitation generally is based on the plant’s ability to survive the area’s temperature extremes and the potential for enough heat to mature the crop. Some crops require the accumulation of a certain number of heat units (the number of degrees over a critical minimum temperature, taken as the average high and low each day) to mature. Many crops require more heat units than are available in some locations (e.g., certain wine grape varieties cannot be grown in Oregon’s cool coastal climate). For many crops, considerations such as sun exposure, rainfall amounts and pattern, air movement, and frost are critical to success.

The crops already grown in an area are a reasonable indication of climatic limitations. If your proposed crop is not grown locally, there might be some very good reasons for its absence. This does not necessarily mean it cannot be grown, but there might be some significant limitations to its production that you must discover and plan for.

Oregon has two major climatic areas and many variations on these. The mild, maritime climate on the west side of the state favors many crops. It is estimated that more than 800 crops have been grown in the Willamette Valley. Yet the dry summers require irrigation for most high-value crops.

The central and eastern parts of the state have more arid conditions and tend toward extremes of heat and cold. There you might be limited to hardy, dryland types of farming. With irrigation, however, these areas have numerous crop options.

Be alert to microclimate variations on your property. A microclimate is a particular weather pattern in a small area. Is your property warmer than surrounding farms? Or wetter with poor air flow?

Microclimate is related to how air drains and collects on the land, how natural features such as small bodies of water moderate temperatures, and so on. The tendency for a farm, or an area on a farm, to have early or late frosts, or to avoid frost, is an example of a microclimate. In some instances, a microclimate can make it possible to grow a crop not normally grown in an area, or it can make it impossible to grow some crops that are grown on surrounding farms.

Type of farm enterprise and crop(s) produced

The crops you grow and any other services or processing offered by your farm are the products of your farm business. Choosing a production technique, specific crops to grow, and marketing channels requires some thought and planning.

Production technique

Currently, several farming methods are used to produce crops. The three most commonly used on small farms are:1. Conventional–utilizes synthetic pesticides and fertilizers and depends on mechanization for most farm practices.2. Organic–integrates farming practices, utilizes organic pest controls and fertilizers, and relies more on labor and low levels of mechanization for most farm practices.3. Sustainable–perhaps a hybrid of the two methods above, sustainable farming techniques minimize synthetic pesticide and fertilizer use and decrease fossil-fuel consumption.

Your choice of farming method will affect the costs associated with establishing and operating your farm, the amount of income from products grown, and how and where the products are marketed.

Type of crops–traditional or specialty?

The easiest crops to grow are those that have a long production history in your area. Standard or traditional crops or varieties provide some security. There are no surprises besides weather and prices. If a crop has been grown in your area for a long time, there will be equipment, custom operators, and plenty of free advice. These products include familiar options such as tomatoes, corn, sheep, and so on.

Growing a diversity of crops can spread the risk of changes in the growing environment or market price in a given year. There is a risk, however, in trying to grow too many crops, particularly if they require very different skills and equipment.

When you begin to look into specialty or nontraditional crops, you must spend much more time on research. These crops might be new to your area or on the cutting edge for the nation. Such crops might include medicinal herbs, exotic livestock, or varieties of traditional crops new to your area. New crops might have little production information available. There will be a lot of on-the-job learning ahead of you. The consolation is that when you have perfected the production system, assuming the product appeals to the public, you will be ahead of your competition.

Some small farmers are able to grow specialty crops profitably. However, marketing is critical to their success. As with any enterprise, it is necessary to do a good job assessing wholesale and retail customer demand. You have to decide where to sell the product and how to maintain markets and customers. These crops always are difficult to identify and generally involve a higher level of risk than traditional crops that already are well known in the market.

Before you invest any significant amount of money in a crop, you should know the crop’s biology, production technology, and marketing options in some depth. You should be able to put together a cash flow and enterprise budget for your particular farm for each crop. In many cases, it’s possible to grow the crop on a small scale to give you a feel for production issues. However, difficulties tend to compound as the size of the cultivated area increases. Sometimes you can hire yourself out to a farm producing the crop and thereby gain invaluable experience. It’s important to read everything you can get your hands on and to talk to all sorts of people about the enterprise you’re considering. Understand thoroughly and use the traditional production system for growing a crop before making major changes.

Look for parts of the production system you can contract out while you learn the rest of the process. For example, you could learn to grow container nursery stock by buying rooted cuttings at first rather than building a greenhouse and propagating the cuttings yourself.

Look for enterprises that can grow incrementally (without major new investments in land or equipment) as your skills, finances, and marketing ability increase. Examples include container stock, Christmas trees, fresh vegetables, and beehives.

Crop rotation (not growing the same crop on the same land each year) can be important in some crops for disease management and weed control. Rotation requirements can quadruple your acreage needs.

Marketing

Small farmers generally are at a disadvantage competing against large farmers in the wholesale market. Large farms usually are able to produce greater vol- umes of product over a longer time period at a lower cost to the wholesale buyer. Therefore, most successful small farmers choose to market their product directly to consumers via one or more of the following methods:

There are many exciting examples of small farms that profitably produce nursery stock, high-quality small fruits, culinary and medicinal herbs, specialty livestock, tree fruits, vegetables, and numerous other crops. Often, there is a value-added component to the enterprise, such as jam production from fruit. Farms might include nontraditional services such as farm-based bed and breakfast operations. A small farm with a high-quality product mix and a good plan for getting those products into the hands of consumers can do exceedingly well.

Family resources and skills

When committing to a hobby or for-profit farm, a number of financial resources and skills are necessary for success.

Finances

Farming, like any business, involves financial risk. All crops require you to spend money in advance to establish the crop. What is returned when the crop is harvested is determined by the skills of the farmer, the weather, and what happens in the market. Some crops, such as tree fruits, might require several years before any income is realized. Knowing in advance where you stand financially and your capacity for risk taking will influence the types of choices that best fit your situation. Consider these questions:

  • What can you invest in startup and operating costs without putting your family in financial risk?
  • How long can you wait for the crop to begin to create some cash flow? How long can you wait for the crop to generate some profit?
  • How much can you afford to risk financially to fluctuations in the market? If the market price is high when you plant but low when you harvest, what will happen?
  • How much time and money can you allocate toward “selling” your crop? Most farmers will not plant a crop that does not have a reasonably predictable market.
  • What financial obligations are you taking on with the farm? Make up cash flow and enterprise budgets and evaluate them against your experience often.

Credit

Many people think there is money waiting to be given to “exciting” new farm ideas. Nothing could be farther from the truth. The farm credit crisis of the early 1980s took some banks totally out of agricultural lending and made the remaining banks much more selective. The federal government sometimes is a lender of last resort, but that role has diminished greatly.

For most small farmers, financing is available only after they can show several years of successful experience. If you are a new farmer, expect to finance your enterprise from other resources for several years. If you have a good track record with one or more crops, you might be able to get a loan to try a new crop.

When you do decide to seek financing, what are some of the issues you face?

  • Many small farmers are terrible record-keepers and simply cannot back their claim to creditworthiness on their production capabilities. Lenders want tangible evidence that you can produce and sell at a profit.
  • Experience is the hardest quality to prove and the most difficult one for a lender to assess. A documented 3-year progressively successful personal track record for the crop in question is the best information you can bring to the table. Learn to keep meticulous records and analyze them from a business perspective.
  • Small farmers represent a large part of the potential credit market in terms of numbers but not in loan volume.
  • From a bank’s perspective, the earning potential from a large loan is much greater than that from a small one. (The same time and paperwork are needed for both.)
  • It probably takes a farm loan of at least $50,000 to be profitable for a bank if it isn’t secured as a personal loan (since a farm loan requires asset appraisal and significant financial analysis). On the other hand, personal loans of any size are hard to get without a strong credit history and a stable non-farm income flow.
  • Many small farms lack “bankable” equity. A small farm might be well capitalized with two incomes but have little hard collateral or a loan history.
  • If the first mortgage on a property is large relative to a conservative estimate of liquidation value, it might be tough to get operating capital as well.
  • Lenders look for a capacity to weather mistakes, market changes, etc.

It is not impossible, by any means, to secure credit, but it takes a lot of planning, no fiction, and a solid record. As a practical matter, many small farms expand into new crops on personal credit cards. This method is risky and expensive, but often the only path available.

When you obtain money, make it work productively for you in the business. Analyze every decision. Don’t buy a tractor because you like to smell diesel. Any asset (time, money, skills, or equipment) needs to be employed for the greatest benefit of the business.

Family skills and desires

Whether your enterprise fits your family’s goals and abilities is a big factor in its success. For example, families often take on a farming enterprise based solely on financial factors. They might discover they really do not enjoy the crop they grow, and the work becomes drudgery. Here are some things to consider:

Use your strengths

  • What do you love to do? Growing a crop that you enjoy working with and believe in will get you through hard times and help you market it. Don’t force yourself into a type of farming based solely on external factors. If your real love is working with animals, you might not be happy owning a nursery.
  • What do you know how to do? Farming is made up of many important skills–mechanical, bookkeeping, management, and so on. Involve yourself and other family members in farming tasks for which they have some related training.
  • What do you do well? People have a variety of abilities– for example, a knack for nurturing calves or growing bedding plants.

Be aware of how you and your family want to live

  • Check into the production calendar for the crop you are considering. How do you feel about the schedule? Does it fit with off-farm work schedules? Does your family like to take a long vacation during the summer? How important are holidays? For example, if you plant Christmas trees, harvest is likely to interfere with some winter holidays.
  • How many hours and what months of the year do you want to work on the farm? It’s easy to work incredibly long hours on a farm. What about the social activities your family likes?
  • What is your comfort level with risk? Do you thrive on a bit of it or does it scare you? Some crops pose little financial risk but promise little income. Other crops have the potential for high profits but pose very high levels of risk.
  • Direct marketing usually involves a lot of contact with people. Do you like dealing with people?
  • Is the whole family excited about farming? Moving to a rural environment can cause stress to family members that prefer a more urban lifestyle.

Some other factors to consider

Farm community. An active farm community promotes group learning, innovation, and cooperation. Quality suppliers of equipment, services, and information are more available where there is a “critical mass” of farmers. Nevertheless, isolated farmers can join commodity organizations and take other steps to improve their technical and marketing skills.

Isolation. If you are isolated, you must carry larger parts and supply inventories, and, most significantly, you probably cannot contract as easily for custom farm work. Thus, you must have the ability and equipment to do all of the work yourself. This requires a much higher up-front investment in capital, time, and skills. In addition, it will be more difficult to attract buyers for the crop.

Labor pool. Many horticultural crops are very perishable and must be harvested and marketed in a timely fashion. Access to reliable and productive labor can mean the difference between success and failure. Are you comfortable managing labor? Are you willing/able to supervise and do the additional paperwork involved with having employees? Can you pay for labor before you are paid for your crop?

Access to markets. This factor is crucial for the small farmer who must get a high percentage of the crop dollar to survive.

Summary

Small-farm operators develop economic vitality by:

Small farms can be a springboard to significant business opportunities. They can be an incubator for skills and creativity. Many large enterprises started from very modest bases. However, there are significant risks associated with a commercial farm. Successful enterprises are exceedingly well managed and focused on a profitable marketing niche.

Resources and references

Buying and Setting Up Your Small Farm or Ranch. 1997. Lynn R. Miller (Small Farm Journal, Sisters).

Country Life: A Handbook for Realists and Dreamers. 1998. Paul Heiney (OK Publishing, New York).

Five Acres and Independence: A Practical Guide to the Selection and Management of the Small Farm. 1990. Maurice Kains (Peter Smith Publisher, Inc., Magnolia).

Pests of the Garden and Small Farm. 1990. Mary Louise Flint (ANR Publications, University of California-Davis).

Small Farm Handbook. 1994. Small Farm Center, University of California-Davis. Publication SFP001 (ANR Publications, University of California-Davis).

Successful Small-Scale Farming, An Organic Approach. Karl Schwenke. 1991 (Down to Earth Books, Storey Communications, Inc., Pownal, VT).

Sustainable Vegetable Production from Start-up to Market. Vernon Grubinger (NRAES-104).

You Can Farm: The Entrepreneur’s Guide to Start and Succeed in a Farming Enterprise. 1998. Joel Salatin (Polyface, Inc).

Web sitesFood and Farm Connections. Washington State University Cooperative Extension

National Sustainable Agriculture Information Service. Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas (ATTRA), National Center for Appropriate Technology

Oregon Small Farms. Oregon State University Extension Service

Small Farm Center. University of California-Davis

Small Farms @ USDA

What Financial Resources Are Available to Assist Small Farms? USDA Rural Information Center

In addition, enterprise budgets are available for many crops. They contain useful information on the costs of specific activities involved in producing and marketing a crop.

Contact your county Extension office for more information or visit the OSU Extension Publications and Videos catalog.

Prepared by by Oregon Small Farms publications series coordinators Chip Bubl, Extension horticulture agent, Columbia County; and Garry Stephenson, Extension small farm agent, Benton County; Oregon State University. Published March 2001. Reprinted September 2006.

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Making a Living on a Small Farm

| Author Money

Making a Living on a Small Farm

John Ikerd

University of Missouri

Published in Sustaining People through Agriculture column, Small Farm Today, November/December, 2000 issue

In times past, forty acres, a mule, and a lot of hard work were all that it took to make a living on a farm.But those times are gone. A family could live well on a lot less money in those times, but hard work also was worth a lot more back then regardless of whether it was done by a mule or by a man. The conventional wisdom was that anyone who was willing to work hard enough could make it on the farm. During the financial crisis of the 1980s, many farmers virtually worked themselves to death trying to save their farm. If they could just work hard enough, they could make it. But, they couldnt they went broke.

Work simply isnt worth as much as it once was at least not on the farm. Tractors took the place of horses and mules. Other machinery and equipment took most of the work out of most jobs around the farm. Physical labor isnt worth any more than the cost of using a machine to do the same job maybe even less because machines are less bothersome to fix or replace and far easier to manage than are humans.

Mechanization made farming easier. Farmers became machine operators rather than laborers. But a mechanized farmer could farm a lot more land or raise a lot more livestock than could a farmer doing everything by hand. And farmers still had to expect to put in full-time on the job if they expected to make a full-time living. So a full-time mechanized farmer had to have a lot more land and a lot more capital tied up in machinery and equipment just to make a living.With mechanization, farms became larger and it became more difficult to make a living on a small farm.

Agricultural chemicals also made farming easier, taking some additional labor out of farming, but mostly, making a farm far easier to manage. A farmer didnt need to know nearly as much about maintaining the natural fertility of the soil they could take a soil test and apply the right fertilizers. They could specialize in crops or livestock they didnt need manure to go back onto the fields to maintain fertility. Farmers didnt need to know how to till the fields to control weeds they could spray with herbicides. They didnt need to understand how to use crop rotations to control weeds, insects and other pest they could use commercial pesticides.Livestock farmers didnt need to know how to keep their animals healthy and growing, they had antibiotics and hormones to fill in the gaps in their knowledge. Farmers now could farm by recipe. As farms became easier to manage, each farmer was able to farm more land or raise more livestock. However, a farmer still had to expect to put in full time on the job to earn a full time living. So with increasing use of agricultural chemicals, farms grew still larger, and it became still more difficult to make a living on a small farm.

In economic terms, there are only four basic factors of production, or four basic ingredients in any production process land, labor, capital, and management. Over time, machines, agri-chemicals, and other technologies have resulted in substitution of capital and land for labor and management.Consequently, a typical full-time farm today requires far more land and capital today than fifty years ago. It takes far more money to buy and operate a farm today because of high land and equipment costs and expenses for fertilizers, pesticides and other commercial inputs. But, in a typical farm today, labor and management are far less important than fifty years ago. If a farmer has enough land and enough money to buy the latest equipment and technology, they dont have to work much or even think much except about how to manage their money.

In economic terms, each of the four factors earns something in return for its contribution to productivity. Land earns rent, labor earns wages, capital earns interest, and management earns a salary. Profit or loss is the reward or penalty for taking the risk associated with investing land, labor, capital, and management in an enterprise without knowing whether the net results will be positive or negative.Profit is the reward for taking the risk of farming rather than renting the land, putting the money in an insured CD, and working for someone else. In general, each factor of production earns a return in relation to its contribution to the production process.

As the nature of farming has changed, the returns to land and capital have grown and the returns to labor and management have declined. It isnt necessary to quote statistics; its just plain common sense.Returns to labor and management are returns to the farmer to the human investment in a farming operation. The land and capital can be owned by anyone increasingly by someone other than the farmer. Actual farming is about working and thinking labor and management.And in general, the return to farming can be no more than proportional to the working and thinking done by the farmer. If there isnt much working and thinking going into producing a crop or a batch of livestock, there isnt going to be much in it for the farmer and it will be tough to make a living without a lot more land and capital. Farmers who dont do much working or thinking simply cant expect to make a living on a small farm.

The ultimate low-return agriculture is contract production.Farmers are being told that the only way they can remain competitive in agriculture is by signing a comprehensive production contract with one of the giant agribusiness corporations. But, farmers need to stop and think who can logically expect to benefit from contract production? Under most contracts, the corporation arranges for capital mostly loans to be repaid by the grower. The corporation provides all of the technology genetics, equipment, feed, health care, etc. And the corporation provides virtually all of the management the growers mainly do what they are told to do. The grower provides the labor, but the highly mechanized operations require little labor. Contract livestock or poultry operations require little land, although the grower is expected to find some place to dispose of manure. In summary, the grower provides a small amount of equity capital, a small amount of land, and some low-skilled labor. The corporation provides everything else. The grower gets a fixed amount per animal produced, regardless of costs or price, so the contractor even takes most of the risk. So who is going to benefit from a corporate contract operation?Certainly not the grower the grower doesnt do anything that would justify making a living in such an operation.

So what does all this say about making a living on a small farms? It says small farmers have to put a lot more of themselves into their operations a lot more management and labor than do most farmers today. It says a farmer cant expect to make a decent living if someone else makes all of the important decisions and they only contribute some low-skilled labor. It says that farmers must rely on management and labor far more and rely on land and capital far less if they expect to make a living on a small farm.It says that the way to turn a small farm into a full-time farming operation is to find ways to substitute management and labor for land and capital.

There is a limit to how hard anyone can work or, more important, would want to work on a farm.Working harder is still not the secret to making a living on the farm even though most of us would be better off if we did a bit more physical labor and a bit less sitting. However, thinking is potentially far more productive and is far less limiting than is working. So the key to making a living on a small farm is more intensive management mixed with an appropriate amount of skilled labor. A small farmer has less land and capital so they have to do more thinking and decision making per acre or dollar invested and they have to be willing to work when working is the logical thing to do.They have to put more of themselves into it if they expect to get more for themselves out of it. The successful farmer of the future might quite accurately be labeled a thinking worker or a working thinker the key is to do both together, simultaneously, in harmony.

It takes more thinking to work with nature to reduce costs of inputs and increase profits while taking care of the land more eyes per acre as Wes Jackson says. It takes more thinking to find and keep customers who want, and are willing to pay for, the things a small farmer can produce in harmony with nature relationship marketing as Joel Salatin calls it. It takes more thinking to fit your unique talents and skills as a farmer to the needs of your land, to your particular customers and your community linking people, purpose, and place.Literally thousands of these thinking workers are on small farms today all across the land putting more of themselves into their operations and are getting more for themselves in return. Each is doing something different, but one by one they are finding ways to make a good living on a small farm.

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Making Money on A Small Farm

| Author Money


By Herman Beck-Chenoweth
Recently, on another forum, there was a discussion about making money on a small acreage. Since I have some personal experience on this subject I thought I would share it. I always wanted to farm, even since high school, but never could figure out a way to buy the land. Then, I became successful in another business and was able to purchase a worn out 160 hill farm in southern Ohio in 1990.

It had run down but usable buildings, minimal water but some systems in place to capture roof runoff in substantial cisterns, and some tillable ground. We went to Soil & Water and they dug up some aerial photos of our farm from the late 1940′s. There we discovered contour lines and what the individual fields were used for (they gave us the complete information package they had about the farm).

We had purchased the farm for $100,000, and due to owning other property we were only able to put 5% down. We started slowly, working in our other business while we grew more and more self-reliant. By 1992 we were ready to move into more farm based products. We sold our other business on terms payable over two years after a $25,000 down payment. So basically I had an “off-farm” income to help buy a good used tractor (Massey 175 diesel) and some new equipment.

To keep this story to a reasonable length I will omit some details (maybe I’ll write another book someday) to concentrate on the process and the results. At the conclusion of a year or so of experimenting we started raising free-range chickens (broilers, fryers & roasters) on about five acres of our land. At our height (1994-2001) we produced 5,000 meat chickens, kept 2,000 egg layers, raised 500 turkeys per year, grew “dairy beef” on pasture (no grain, raised 3 years before sale), and gardened 5 acres of vegetables. We were effectively utilizing about 20 acres of our farm to produce 90% of our income. All products we sold to restaurants, a health food store and at a Farmer’s Market. We processed all of the meat, eggs and vegetables on our farm. Our poultry processing plant was equipped with used machinery and staffed with FFA students after school. I had 1 full-time farm hand. So, the bottom line here was that we worked hard, but were self supporting on 20 acres. We did hay about 35 more but that was not a major net income producer and the rest of the land was forest and open areas for our own pleasure and isolation.

I neglected to mention the reason that we were only able to put 5% down on the farm was because we had our other home on the market but it had not sold. We rented it but it was a wash as far as income went.

We became regionally famous because everyone said you couldn’t make enough money on that small acreage to make it pay but we were doing it anyway. So we led farm tours to show how we worked and invariably some 20 something asked where they could get the money to buy a farm such as ours. I explained that we had waited until we were in our late 40′s to acquire our land, but that they could start by renting 5 acres and keeping a few chickens to sell and collect manure from, sell at retail like we did, work the land by hand (after hiring out garden preparation) live frugally, and save their money to purchase 20-50 acres somewhere where land was still reasonably priced. Usually, the response was they wanted the whole enchilada without waiting.

Now here is the story behind how we made everything work. I hand built feeders and housing on skids buying “outs” (imperfect white oak) lumber purchased from a local sawmill. Purchased used equipment from retired farmers, ate what we grew (less than 10% purchased off the farm), balanced animal production with gardening fertilization needs, spent next to nothing on farm inputs such as fertilizer or ag chemicals, and sold all our products at retail (no commodities).

The results: We paid off our farm in 11 years solely from farm income. We ate like kings and queens. We had FUN even doing the hard work. Our son, and nieces and nephews had a great place to hang out and learn to work and love animals and gardening. Basically we farmed as though it was the 1930′s, even to the point of adapting horse drawn equipment of appropriate size and scale to cut down on our work load. I can’t tell you how much money we made from our “automated” potato beds (see related information and photographs under the Resilience Research board on this forum below, but I can tell you it was a substantial amount. We had “new” potatoes all year and potatoes to sell all winter long.

The bittersweet side of this story is that our County Commissioners decided our County should become a “bedroom community” or weekend getaway for folks in a city 50 miles away. Land around us was subdivided into small plots. Folks found following my farm equipment on the road frustrating and blew their horns or passed in inappropriate places. I became the last full-time farmer between our farm and 12 miles to the county seat. All ag support systems (feed mills, in-field tire repair, etc.) shut down. We could have made these newcomers our customers and stayed, but as more and more of our pets died on the county road running past our homestead, we decided it was time to move on. We knew that because the land prices had increased dramatically that no one could purchase our farm at market price and make a living from the land.

Even though it was a hard decision to make, we had a survey done, divided our land up into 10-40 acre workable parcels, set restrictions that made the land un-resubdividable, encouraged farm production, supported the construction of smaller homes and in general tried to make sure the farm would continue to be farmed but as smaller acreages, and the neighborhood would be impacted as little as possible. Realtors told us land restricted in such a way would never sell so we put the farmettes on the market ourselves. We sold 2/3 of the parcels within a week after I put a 4″ ad in the local Sunday classifieds. The rest sold just as quickly and all to folks that LOVED the restrictions. For our part we made a substantial profit on the land and that enabled us to buy a better 175 acre farm in the Missouri Ozarks.

We no longer produce food for others because we are too far from the markets for our products. We now operate a Research Farm, run an on-line book store, continue to grow nearly all of our own food, breed animals and vegetable varieties, and market native nursery stock and heirloom seeds that we produce. The end result: A beautiful remote farm, never going to work off the farm, making trips to town about every two weeks, and loving where we are and what we do.

My fondest wish is that our experiences can give others the faith to start small, farm sustainably and supply good local food at prices equal to or greater prices than the local food markets. “Greater”. Yes, I did write “greater”. Good quality, properly grown and processed, fresher local food is worth more. But, that is another story for another time. Production agriculture and agricultural marketing ARE different but successful farmers can make them work together for the good of all. How do I know? Not only did we succeed but so did my Grandfathers and Great Grandfathers. I know. I have inherited the photographs of the old home places: giant 3-story barns, beautiful well-built houses, farms to pass on to future generations. They marketed as well as produced and they prospered. In fact, they did it so well that the period from the 1920′s through the 1940′s became known as “The Golden Era of Farming”

Today a return trip to those farms would most likely find an old house falling down, the glorious barns collapsed, a pole building for a combine (some farmers don’t even plant of till their own crops, the equipment is too expensive), no livestock and a double wide for a home. The farmer (and most of the time) his wife work off the farm for income and to make payments on the equipment and their 2000 acres of mono-cropped land. A sad turn of events, indeed.

Copyright 2008 Herman Beck-Chenoweth. All rights reserved. May not be used in any form without written permission. Such permission may be negotiated by e-mailing Info@ResilienceOnLine.org

Click Here for Info About The Free-Range System I Developed:http://www.back40books.com/get_item_9780918779045_free-range-poultry-production.htm Click Here for Info About Small Farm Management: http://www.back40books.com/get_list_1114.htm

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Start a Small Farm or Make Money From Your Garden

| Author Money

Have you wanted to start a small farm? Interested in organic farming? Want to start a country Bed & Breakfast? Would you like to produce a nature-related home business income stream and make money from your garden? Any or all of these are more attainable now than ever.

Their size can range from an urban rooftop to a small town backyard to small acreage in the country. It’s wonderful to have the sunlight and birdsong be your “office surroundings,” and to tend the earth’s life force while high class restaurants, world travelers, or your local community eagerly pay premium prices for your organic, heirloom and sustainable products.

You can grow many crops: Vintage cutting or edible flowers, rare ethnic and culinary herbs, medicinal herbs, heirloom and gourmet vegetables. There’s a growing trend among those from urbanites to small town dwellers to those with small rural acreage (or in the process of buying it), who are starting sustainable home businesses that are earth and family friendly, or living the country life as real farmers again with rural traditions and the sound of birds and crickets from their porches. The huge demand for local, sustainable, and heirloom and gourmet foods, plus the growing demand for hand-made artisan foods and sustainably produced unique flowers and other unusual ornamentals is fueling this trend.

Farm examples include one who grows the crop used to make brooms, and sells hand-made ornamental or vintage brooms from his own crop. Or the spa mini-farmer who grows fresh ingredients for the facials for her local spas and estheticians, such as lavender, cucumber, and even pumpkin now proven to benefit the skin. Or the couple who raise tiny Shetland sheep that produce wool in many natural colors, and make hand-woven blankets sold for high prices online and to tourists who visit their area.

Whether you’re planning to start a small farm, begin organic farming, start a country Bed & Breakfast, or earn money from your garden, to begin making this dream come true, start with the concept of the “Micro Eco-Farm” that brings them all together. It’s the 21st century version of sustainably producing from the land in larger quantities in smaller space than anytime in history, because with technology and world travel, humans have now discovered and blended the best growing techniques that combine ancient discoveries (such as Chinese or French intensive growing methods) with cutting edge research on creating living soils and sustainable food supplies in smaller spaces than ever before understood.

To start a small farm, use micro eco-farming techniques to begin from as small as a half acre, and even stop there, or grow into a few more acres if you have the land. Start in your spare time until your business has built up enough to let you quit your office job. Micro eco-farming involves organic farming techniques, but adds beyond organics to make your mini-farm more productive than any farm in humankind’s history.

To start a country Bed & Breakfast, plan your B&B’s breakfast menus first, then design the small farm to grow the menu’s products, the organic farm that will wrap around your B&B from the information gleaned from your menu. You may want to raise laying hens, blueberries, strawberries, a few antique apple and pear trees, an herbal tea garden, and a couple dairy goats. Your B&B customers will love this small farming demonstration and setting, and it all “synergizes.” The goats and hens will provide organic fertilizer along with ingredients for breakfast omelets and yogurt, the chickens and goats can eat prunings from the plant crops, which will provide your customers with freshly baked blueberry muffins, strawberry jam and pear butter (which can also be sold as a product to your customers) and spicy apple bread and apple cider.

To make money from your garden, the possibilities are endless. You can grow a cutting garden with a flower stand out front to earn money from your garden, or sell the flower bouquets to in-town B&Bs that don’t grow their own, or to restaurants and hotels; sell high priced rare gourmet food crops to nearby five star restaurants, such as rare edible flowers or fresh ethnic food crops.

Whether you plan to start a small farm, earn money in organic farming, make money from your garden, or open a country Bed & Breakfast, your livelihood will be helping restore the planet by maintaining green life and living soil to your outdoor “office.”

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Making a little money on the farm? – Farm Life Forum

| Author Money

Dan, as of yesterday unless the sky opens up and the temp’s stay down the haying is finished for the year. Equipment’s put up (but not washed) and the hay is in the barn.

I re-read most all of this thread including your location which sounds about perfect for a market garden. Have you checked yet to see if there are available spaces at the farmers market where your wanting to sell your produce? I know the area we moved from last year had a waiting list as space was limited.

A great book for the market gardener is ‘On Good Land’, by Michael Abrams. Not so much for the advise given but to inspire you.

I think with the land you have I would concentrate on produce. Have you made any trips to the farmers market and got any ideas on what’s selling good and what’s not? I’d really start there. No gurantee someone else is not gonna do the same thing and have a supply of it the next year. I’d not concentrate on one single item and attempt to keep a wide assortment of things.

Do you have a truck and trailer to get your stuff to market yet if you decide that’s the route your gonna take? Sounds like you have all the other equipment you will need for a market garden.

I have a VERY limited ammount of experience on gardening so it’s tough for me to tell you what you need to grow and how much space will be needed for each crop. Sounds like you have plenty of help at home which is nice.

I think your just gonna have to experemient and do some trial and error stuff before you can find your nich’ and really get things going.

Heck, a 1-5 acre garden depending on the crop can keep one busy all day almost every day.

I’d go ahead and stay away from livestock except for what you want for your freezer. You don’t have enough land to really make a good go of it but you do have enough land to raise your family’s and at least one other’s plenty of meat including beef, pork, and chicken. Start on some fencing for the cattle, coop’s or tractors for the hens, and whatever one has for pigs. My chicken tractors I used to use were of the same size as my raised beds. It looked like I had a bunch of people burried in my garden to folks not familiar with raised bed as there were 13 4×12 raised beds.

One nice thing about a small ammount of livestock will also be if you want to start your kids in 4-H. Great fun come fair time plus the kids make some good money off the sale of their livestock. It’s not as big a thing here as where we moved from as there all the kids 4-H animals sold GREAT at the fair and the whole community came out for it. Here it’s kinda on the lame side but hopefully it will pick up. Great learning experience for the kids plus they meet others that also have intrests like theirs. FWIW, pigs were the easiest keeping money makers for the 4-H kids but we had great extension agents there that really worked with the kids and helped them pick out whatever they were gonna raise.

I guess in short my advise would be for you to head to the farmers market. Check out the availability to make sure they have room for you, and if they do sign up for next year and if not get put on the waiting list. Make a plan for next years garden. Line out your garden area. Begin amending the soil by making each bed or area specific for what your wanting to grow in it. Get fencing and irrigation in place. Then see what happens! Worse case looking at what you have is you won’t have much of a need for a grocery store especially if your wife and kids can some of the veggies.

There are so many ideas out there floating around that one can make money on it makes your head spin. Heck I’ve got neighbors that raise native grass and wildflowers. Some of thier seed goes for over $600 a pound! I also remember a story of a guy that went around collecting pollen. He collected it from tree’s and then sold it to a pharmacetucial company and they used it to make allergy medications. He was only one of a very few in the US that did it and had more work than he could handle. He would of course do most of his work in the spring and simply ask folks with lots of tree’s if he could collect some pollen and very rarely did anyone object as it don’t hurt the tree. There’s more stories out there but you’ll just need to find out what will work out best for you and your family.

Good luck, Jamie

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How to Make More Money on Farm Town – Associated Content

| Author Money

If you are just getting started on Farm Town, you’re probably looking for every possible way to make more money. If you are saving up to buy something, you too, are probably looking for a way to make more money. There are a few different ways to make money on Farm Town. In this guide, I will show you the different way to make money on Farm Town.

Get Hired At The Market Place

One of the best ways to make money is by getting hired at the Market Place. To go to the Market Place, you will need to click your Map in the bottom of your Farm Town menu. When the map opens, click the Market Place icon. When you arrive in the market, you will see a pop up message. Click the X on that message. Now you will need to stand in the Market Place and wait to be hired. Here are a few tips; don’t beg for a job, try to stay front and center, and dance around to stand out. To dance, move your mouse back and forth.

If someone hires you, a message will pop up and ask if you want to take the job. Click the Sure….. message and you will be hired. You will then be taken to the person’s farm and you can start harvesting. Once you are finished, say thanks and leave. Sometimes you will receive 25% of what they make and sometimes you will receive 50% of what the person makes. Every time you harvest a field, you will see how much money you made.

Harvest Friend’s Farms

Another way to make money is to harvest your friend’s farms. You will have to visit your friend’s farm. Then they can click on you and hire you to harvest their farm. It’s done about the same way as the Market, except you have to go to your friend’s farm.

Sell Gifts

When friends send you gifts, you can sell them at the market instead of placing them on your farm. Of course, you won’t get much for the gifts, but if you have a lot of gifts, they will add up. To sell the gifts, you will have to have crops in your storage. If you don’t have crops in your storage, that’s ok. The gifts can sit there until you have crops. Then you can go to the market place to sell. Once your storage opens, click the Gifts tab and then click each gift to sell it. You will have to accept the gifts for them to be placed in your storage. Just don’t put them on your farm.

Plant and Harvest Crops

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Best Way – How Can I Diversify My Farm to Make Money?

| Author Money
  • Just because his grandfather and his father grew only tobacco and corn, it does not mean the modern farmer must continue the tradition even in the face of a falling market. Farm diversification is possible with thinking that is outside the box. The farm is a wonderful recreation opportunity waiting to happen. From fishing ponds to nature tours, and petting zoos to hayrides, pumpkin patches and old-fashioned singing and dancing hoedowns, there are hundreds of opportunities from which to choose.

    With the onset of Colony Collapse Disorder and focus on the plight of diminishing honeybees and other pollinators, many are turning to the old-fashioned art of beekeeping. Bees can earn income for the farm by the farm renting them out to other farmers for pollination of their crops, from honey sales to consumers or industries that use the honey in products.

    A focus on organic certification and all organic products will net the farm a large segment of consumers actively looking for healthier foods.

    Themed farms are an option. Several farms operate as “pizza farms.” They grow or raise everything required to make a complete pizza. Gimmicks such as these work for other companies, so why not for a farm?

    Along with the trend of returning to the land and green living, many people would love to buy their produce as local as possible to reduce their carbon footprint and ensure healthier food for their families. Opening the farm to visitors for educational tours, classes in homesteading and farming, gardening, beekeeping, horticulture or the like may be an excellent source of extra income.

    Create a Plan of Action

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    Best way to farm money?

    | Author Money

    Making money comes in quite a few different forms. And doing ONE of them usually isnt the best way.

    I suggest doing a quick daily run up on the Isle. You will make 100 gold in an hour. Not a bad start for the day. From there, take your preferred profession on the road. If you are mining, remember that Iron/Mithril are still very valuable and often times it will earn you more money per hour than farming Fel Iron +. While you do have a chance to pull out some Motes of Fire while farming the higher tier stuff, its up to you which you would prefer doing.

    Herbalism will net you cash too. Not much anymore though because Wrath is on the horizon and everyone that has powerleveld inscription hs already done so. Raiding is at a halt on most servers because nobody cares anymore. So flasks arent as expensive as they once were.

    Skinning is always a seller. It hardly ever puts the gold out that the other two gathering professions do, but it sells easier imo.

    With the acheivment system comes 2 easy ways to make money.
    1) People wanting the Ambassador title. Farm + Sell Runecloth. On Icecrown Im selling stacks for 10 gold. Not bad at all considering how fast and easy it is to farm.

    2) Cooking achievments. Tons of people are leveling cooking because it is easy. They just dont want to farm the mats for it. Neither do I. But fishing supplements cooking and you can rake in some easy cash from an hour of fishing at.. almost any level.

    As far as farming primals, its pretty moot now. Nobody needs the Primal shadows now because if a guild is still learning Sharaz, whats the point? You dont even need the SR now, most guilds with a decent chunk of DPS can down her in a minute. That includes Tier 5 guilds. Primal lifes arent really work farming either (taking from my server). The price dropped from 15-20 gold to 5-7 gold per Primal. Waters + Air’s wont sell as well either. They are mostly used in crafting recipe’s and people dont much care to make those now that wratch is coming in less than a week.

    So as far as primals go, I wouldnt even worry about those. If you pick some up, bonus… but dont farm for them.

    You can still farm greens at low levels and sell them on the AH for insane prices. Level 57 greens go for a lot on my server.

    Whatever you do, try to do a combination of 1-2-3 things instead of just 1.

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    Small Business Ideas for College Students

    | Author Money

    College students consider fast food joints as the best option to earn money. However, starting a small business would be a great idea to earn extra money without spending much time. Let us have a look at the different options available for earning money while simultaneously studying.

    Small Business Ideas for Students

    For beginners, these cool small business ideas for college students would prove to be a good source of earning money.

    Tutoring: It is the perfect business for a student who wants to just earn as much money as is required to cover his expenses. In order to start tutoring, one can consider teaching subjects, like, Mathematics, Science and English. This business doesn’t require any kind of investment and one can earn enough to pay for one’s expenses.

    Handmade Crafts and Items: Selling handmade craft items can earn you handsome cash required for your expenses. The craft works, paintings, knitting, etc. could be sold at fairs, gatherings, etc. One can even start selling such arts and crafts from the home itself. The art and craft items one has prepared during his school days could also be used for this purpose.

    Note Taking: One can take notes for their fellow students and charge them for the service. This task would require one to work hard, however, it is an easy way to earn money without investing anything.

    Yard Work: It is one of the small business ideas for college students who want to earn money without spending anything. One can mow grass, carry out weeding, reeking, etc. and charge people for the service. If one knows a bit about gardening, he can help the neighbors in giving their garden an artistic and beautiful look. Tending the vegetable patches of neighbors could also help to earn a decent amount of cash. Read more on lawn care and gardening.

    Freelancing: The activity of freelancing could include works, like, writing for newspapers, doing photography, etc. It is a creative job and would help in bringing out the best in your work. However, there are a lot of uncertainties involved in this activity. For example, the news that is covered should be appealing and one might not get paid if the employer doesn’t find it interesting. However, just like the above mentioned businesses, even freelancing doesn’t require a person to invest anything beforehand. Read more on freelance writing.

    Laundry Service: Starting a laundry service is one of the good business ideas for students to earn money. One can advertise this small business by means of mouth publicity. Since, washing clothes is a boring job and not many people are ready to do it, one could find a better business opportunity in this work. A good washing machine that is capable of washing multiple clothes would prove to be helpful in easing out the work. Moreover, one would be able to save time for studies and other extracurricular activities.

    Data Entry Jobs: It is the kind of job which can be done even by a layman and doesn’t require much skills except for speedy typing. It is a good source of earning money for students in their available free time. Basic knowledge of handling the computer is enough to do the data entry jobs. Data entry jobs are considered to be one of the popular online business ideas for college students.

    Entertainment: If one is fond of playing a musical instrument, like, piano, guitar, etc. he can try to earn money by performing in receptions and parties.

    Here’s more on small business ideas for college students:

    • Easy Ways to Make Money for Kids
    • Ways to Make Quick Money

    There are many other small business ideas for college students besides the above mentioned ones like snack delivery business, bakery service, writing service, etc. Thus, one should find an appropriate business which suits him and start earning money.

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    Farm Town User Guide

    | Author Money

    From SlashKey

    • 1 Avatar Creation and Editing
      • 1.1 How do I create an account?
      • 1.2 How do I change my appearance?
      • 1.3 How can I change the name and sex of my Avatar?
    • 2 Game Basics
      • 2.1 What are Farm Town Coins?
      • 2.2 How can I earn Farm Town Coins?
      • 2.3 How do I make money quickly?
      • 2.4 How do I visit other people’s farms?
      • 2.5 How do I move around the marketplace?
      • 2.6 How do I change my farm name?
      • 2.7 Is there another way to move my farm besides clicking on the green diamond-shaped logo?
      • 2.8 What is the Farm Town Lottery message that appears on my screen each day?
    • 3 Toolbox (top right of farm screen)
      • 3.1 What is the Computer Disk Symbol?
      • 3.2 What is the Musical Symbol?
      • 3.3 What is the Speaker Symbol?
      • 3.4 What is the Wrench Symbol?
      • 3.5 What is the Plug Symbol?
      • 3.6 What is the Questions Mark Symbol?
    • 4 Trophies
      • 4.1 Why can’t I sell the items on my farm?
      • 4.2 I won a trophy and it says I have got $500 to spend in the store – is this correct?
    • 5 Neighbours
      • 5.1 Who are my neighbours?
      • 5.2 How do I add friends as a neighbours?
      • 5.3 How do I my neighbours farms if they are not on my immediate neighbours tab?
      • 5.4 What are the differences between neighbours and buddies?
      • 5.5 Can I have more than 8 neighbours?
    • 6 Buddies
      • 6.1 How do I add someone to my buddy list?
      • 6.2 How do I visit my buddies?
      • 6.3 What are the buddy lists for?
    • 7 Farming
      • 7.1 How do I plant crops in my farm?
      • 7.2 How do I harvest crops and trees?
      • 7.3 How do I put down the plowing tool once I am finished?
    • 8 Tending
      • 8.1 How do I buy a water hose, gloves or a rake?
      • 8.2 Why do my exp points go from 6 to 1 when tending a neighbours farm?
    • 9 Harvesting
      • 9.1 How long does it take for a planted field to be ready for harvesting?
      • 9.2 Why did some of my crops go to waste?
      • 9.3 Can other people visiting my farm harvest my crops?
      • 9.4 Why is there a plus (+) sign in my storage area instead of the number of crops harvested?
      • 9.5 Why do some of my harvested crops that I sell say “Large” and others don’t?
      • 9.6 If a group of people harvest my crops do I earn more money?
      • 9.7 Can we harvest our neighbours crops when they are away on holiday?
      • 9.8 How do I sell my harvest or gifts in the marketplace?
    • 10 Hiring
      • 10.1 When should I hire someone?
      • 10.2 How do I hire someone to work on my farm?
      • 10.3 What are the benefits of hiring somebody to work at your farm?
      • 10.4 If I am hired and I work at somebody else’s farm, how many coins do I receive?
    • 11 Flowers
      • 11.1 How do I water my flowers?
      • 11.2 Do flowers die if not watered?
      • 11.3 How long does it take for flowers to be fully grown?
      • 11.4 Do I earn experience points for watering flowers on my farm or a neighbours farm?
      • 11.5 Why can I not see the flowers I placed on my farm?
      • 11.6 Why do I get a message that says “Flowers can only be watered once a dayâ€?
      • 11.7 How much am I charged for watering my flowers?
      • 11.8 Can I harvest the flowers?
      • 11.9 Can I water a buddies flowers?
      • 11.10 Can you freeze your flowers if you go away on holiday and cannot water them?
      • 11.11 Why did a flower revert back to the first stage of growth when I moved it?
      • 11.12 I cannot plow/harvest my plots near flowers, what do I do?
    • 12 Animals
      • 12.1 How can I add Animals to my farm?
      • 12.2 My animals are all over the farm. They are eating my crops!
      • 12.3 What is the “Eat” command on the menu when I click on an animal for?
      • 12.4 How do I sell an animal?
      • 12.5 What can I do with the animals on my farm?
    • 13 Items on Farm Town
      • 13.1 Why won’t my animals stay in the pens I made using the fence pieces?
      • 13.2 How do I rotate the fencing?
      • 13.3 What are the bales of hay, barrels and other items available for purchase for?
      • 13.4 When I click on a tree I get a “Send as a Gift” option – what does that do?
      • 13.5 I have accidentally hidden a tree – how do I get it back?
      • 13.6 Why won’t the pop-up menu activate when I try to select my well to move it?
      • 13.7 Why did the fruit disappear when I moved a tree and reset it to 0%?
      • 13.8 Why are some of the trees locked for purchase in the store?
    • 14 Farm Town Gifts
      • 14.1 How do I send gifts to my Farm Town Facebook Friends only?
      • 14.2 How many gifts can I send per day?
      • 14.3 Why are some of my gifts missing – I accepted them in Facebook?
      • 14.4 Why am I no longer receiving gifts from a specific friend?
    • 15 Blocking Users
      • 15.1 How can I report users for inappropriate behavior?
      • 15.2 I accidentally Ignored one of my neighbours/buddies, how do I unblock them?
      • 15.3 Can someone leave me messages on my farm wall if I blocked them?
    • 16 Messaging System
      • 16.1 What is the envelope on my farm screen for?
      • 16.2 Why can’t I type in the chat box when I am in full screen mode?
    • 17 Other areas in Farm Town
      • 17.1 How do I access the Real Estate Office to increase the size of my farm?
      • 17.2 What is the Inn for?
    • 18 Super Rewards Offers
      • 18.1 I did not receive the coins from an offer that I completed, what do I do?
    • 19 Technical Advice
      • 19.1 Will removing & reinstalling the application help fix errors and glitches?
      • 19.2 What are the minimum computer requirements to successfully run Farm Town?
      • 19.3 How do I stop Farm Town e-mailing me notifications?

    Avatar Creation and Editing How do I create an account?

    When you first log into Farm Town, the mayor will guide you through the setup process. You need to enter a name for your Avatar and select your gender. On the next screen you are presented with the Avatar Editor, where you can change how you want your avatar to look.

    How do I change my appearance?

    You can change your look at any point by clicking on your Avatar and selecting ‘Change Appearance’ from the popup menu. This will launch the Avatar Editor where you can change your look.

    How can I change the name and sex of my Avatar?

    Click on the Account tab at the top of your farm screen (it is the last tab on the far right). This will take you to another screen where you can key in your new name. Once you have changed your name it will automatically update all your neighbours and buddies listings to reflect your new name. You also have the option here to change the sex of your Avatar.

    Game Basics What are Farm Town Coins?

    Coins let you buy seeds, trees, animals, buildings and more for your farm.

    How can I earn Farm Town Coins?

    Coins can be earned by selling your harvests or by working at someone else’s farm. You can earn Coins by selling the gifts your friends send you. Or by tending your friends farms.

    How do I make money quickly?

    When your crops are ready to harvest, make sure you hire someone to harvest them for you so that you make more money. For the first few days, re-invest all the money you make into planting new crops. Potatoes are a good starter crop since they take a single day to grow. You’ll then find you have made a decent enough profit to at least buy a couple of fence pieces. Always re-plant your plowed squares before spending money so that you have a constant source of income.

    How do I visit other people’s farms?

    Image:neighbours.jpg

    You can click on people in your neighbours list to visit their farms, or you can click on the list of people right at the bottom of your screen when you are in your farm (it has a horizontal list of people playing with their Avatars underneath).

    How do I move around the marketplace?

    When you arrive in the marketplace click on the walk button and then click your cursor on an area you would like to walk to. Your avatar will move there. If you have sold crops and then want to move you might get a Saving message. Just wait for a couple of seconds before trying to move again.

    How do I change my farm name?

    Click on the bar on the top of your farm screen to the right of the experience points bar. When you hover over it you will see a message appear that says “Click to edit farm name”

    Is there another way to move my farm besides clicking on the green diamond-shaped logo?

    You can pan by clicking on a specific spot on your farm and dragging your farm around with your mouse.

    What is the Farm Town Lottery message that appears on my screen each day?

    This is an amount of money that you earn for each day that you log into Farm Town.

    Toolbox (top right of farm screen) What is the Computer Disk Symbol?

    This is a new save function and it must be clicked every time you exit the game, visit another page on Facebook, exit the browser window, log off etc…

    Every 20 seconds or so the system reloads on its own saving 99% of data, however when you don’t use the save button there is still a margin of time where you could be kicked out or signed off/timed off of facebook/view another page/or for whatever reason have to close the window. When this happens, and you haven’t clicked on the save button, you have more chances of losing data, or one or more items on your farm.

    What is the Musical Symbol?

    This is the Toggle Music feature which will turn off the music in the game. Click on the musical symbol and the button will turn red . You will no longer hear the music while playing the game.

    What is the Speaker Symbol?

    This is the Toggle Sound feature which, when clicked will turn red and will turn off the sounds the animals make.

    What is the Wrench Symbol?

    This is the link to the Preferences Menu. The following options are available:

    • Show Trees / Show Flowers / Show Buildings – If these options are unchecked, all trees, flowers and buildings will be hidden from your view. You will be able to plow and plant on your own farm with these items out of the way and you can use this option on other farms when harvesting.
    • Freeze Animals – this option allows you to halt the movement of your animals so that you can move fences without your animals escaping.
    • Remove Space Between Fields – this option will allow you to place plots side-by-side when plowing instead of having a space in between. It is advisable to start plowing from the top left of your farm when using this option, also make sure that all existing harvested plots are deleted first.
    • Smooth Graphics – this option may produce higher quality graphics, but depending on the computer, may create slow-downs.
    • Follow Avatar While Walking – this option, when unchecked, stops the screen from jumping and following the Avatar around when you are plowing or harvesting.

    What is the Plug Symbol?

    If you click on the green Online Mode (plug symbol) you can select to go into Offline Mode. Once you do this you will become invisible on your farm. You will be able to plow and plant your crops without being interrupted by other farmers. They will still be able to access your farm and leave you messages, they just won’t see you. You can also use this mode to tend neighbours farms without seeing them if they are on their farms. This only works if you select your neighbours from your neighbour bar at the bottom of your farm screen. If you access them through your neighbour listing (top of farm screen) this will reset itself to online when you enter their farm. You can also use Offline Mode to go to the marketplace to sell your crops without seeing everyone else.

    When you enter Offline Mode, you are still connected to our servers. So all your activity, farm changes, purchases, gifts, etc, continues working as usual. The only functionality that doesn’t work is the multi-user functionality (e.g. chat, hiring, etc).

    Why would you want to go in Offline Mode? Users who are behind a firewall or a router, until now couldn’t play Farm Town at all. With this new mode, these users can play the game with most functionality enabled. Also, in cases that our servers become unavailable, you can play offline while the servers come back online. You will NOT lose anything using Offline Mode.

    What is the Questions Mark Symbol?

    This is the Help feature. It repeats the help that you received when you first set up your farm by indicating where the plow tool and the harvesting tool are, as well as the Store access. You can click on this button at any time to repeat these instructions.

    Trophies Why can’t I sell the items on my farm?

    To be able to start selling items on your farm e.g. animals, trees etc… you need to have earned the Influential Neighbours Trophy. To earn that trophy you have to have 8 neighbours (Facebook Friends that are playing Farm Town).

    I won a trophy and it says I have got $500 to spend in the store – is this correct?

    The trophy is won by SPENDING 500 coins in the store e.g. buying seeds, animals, hay bales, fences, barrels, windmill etc… You are not awarded actual money for this. You just earn the trophy once you have accomplished this.

    Neighbours Who are my neighbours?

    Your neighbours are friends whose farms are close to yours.

    How do I add friends as a neighbours?

    image:neighbours.jpg

    Go to the ‘My Neighbours’ tab. If your friends have a farm in Farm Town, click on ‘Add as a Neighbour’. If your friends do not own a farm yet, select them from the list, and invite them over.

    How do I my neighbours farms if they are not on my immediate neighbours tab?

    You can visit your other neighbours (Facebook Friends with the Farm Town app) by clicking on your neighbours tab at the top of your farm screen. This will take you to a list of all your neighbours. If you click on their farm it will take you there directly. You have no way of knowing whether these neighbours are online or not – a good suggestion is to put those neighbours on your buddy list when you see them. When you click on your buddy list in future and scroll down a green light will be activated to the right of their name if they are online at the same time as you. You can also get to their farms from there.

    What are the differences between neighbours and buddies?

    Neighbours have to be Facebook Friends and you can send them gifts. When you visit neighbours you will have the option to help them rake, water or pull weeds on their farm. You will be able to do this once a day per neighbour. You cannot do this with buddies.

    Can I have more than 8 neighbours?

    You can now have more than just 8 immediate neighbours. You can accept other people as Facebook Friends and they will be added to your My Neighbours listing. You can change your immediate neighbours by clicking on their pictures in the neighbour slots at the bottom of your farm screen. An option will appear to Change Your Neighbours. You will be redirected to your neighbours listing where you can click on a specific neighbour and choosing the option to Remove someone from Neighbours. It will not delete them from your app but will place them lower in your list and will give you the option to add someone else as an immediate neighbour. You will be able to send and receive gifts from all of these neighbours regardless of whether or not they are one of your immediate neighbours. To add neighbours from your listing onto your neighbour bar, just use the arrows to move across to an empty slot and click on that to add neighbours from your listing. They will receive a neighbour request which they will have to approve. To appear on their neighbour bar, they will need to send you a request too.

    Buddies How do I add someone to my buddy list?

    When someone is on your farm you can click on their Avatar and a list will pop up. Click on the add to buddy list option. They will receive a message asking them to become your buddy.

    How do I visit my buddies?

    Click on the two person logo at the bottom right of your screen and you will get a list of all the people you have added to your buddy list. If there is a green button on the far right of their name then they are online. If you click the “walking person” symbol on the left of the green button it will allow you to visit their farm.

    What are the buddy lists for?

    It gives you the option to visit people who are not your Facebook Friends and they can hire you to work on their farm. You can refer to your buddy list when you need someone to harvest your crops for you. When they are online a green button appears to the right of their names.

    Farming How do I plant crops in my farm?

    To plant crops you need to till the ground using the Plow Tool (Hoe icon) . After the field is tilled, you can go to the Store and purchase seeds for crops you want to plant, then with the seed bag selected, click on the tilled fields to sow. Note: You are only charged for seeds when you actually click on the plot to sow them.

    How do I harvest crops and trees?

    Once a planted field is ready to be harvested, use the Harvest Tool (scythe icon) and click on the field or tree to be harvested. Every time you harvest you are given the option to sell your harvests right there from your farm, or to collect them and place them in storage. If you sell the harvests from your farm, you earn less coins than if you place them in storage and go to sell them at the marketplace.

    How do I put down the plowing tool once I am finished?

    Click on the button with the Walking Symbol or the Harvesting Scythe to deactivate the plowing tool.

    Tending How do I buy a water hose, gloves or a rake?

    You cannot purchase these items in the store. When you are asked to help on another farmers farm a screen will pop up telling you what needs to be done e.g. if their farm needs watering it will ask if you want to do that. You will get two options – either Use Water Hose (if you have already bought one before) and Buy Water Hose. You click on this option and you will automatically purchase a water hose with 5 uses.

    Why do my exp points go from 6 to 1 when tending a neighbours farm?

    You earn 6 exp points for every neighbour whose farm you tend (watering, raking and pulling weeds) within a 24-hour period up to a limit of 50. After that you earn 1 exp point until the clock resets.

    Harvesting How long does it take for a planted field to be ready for harvesting?

    This varies among the different types of crops. The time it takes for each crop is shown in the store next to the bags of seeds.

    Why did some of my crops go to waste?

    image:ready_to_harvest.jpg image:crop_gone_to_waste.jpg

    If a crop is ready to be harvested and is not harvested right away it may go to waste. This time varies from crop to crop and is about the same time it takes for the crop to mature. Note: a Farm Town day is approximately 20 hours. At this point in time, fruit on trees do not go to waste.

    Can other people visiting my farm harvest my crops?

    No they can’t. They can chat with you if they are in your farm at the same time as you. They can also help pull weeds, rake or do other related tasks for which they will earn money.

    Why is there a plus (+) sign in my storage area instead of the number of crops harvested?

    Once you have over 100 crops in storage it will be reflected as a plus (+).

    Why do some of my harvested crops that I sell say “Large” and others don’t?

    Crops will appear in storage and in the marketplace in bags or crates, depending on which crop it is. If someone else harvests your crops for you then your crop will be labelled as e.g. sunflowers (Large). These are the crops that you receive more money for. Crops that you have harvested yourself will just say “Sunflowers” and you receive less money for them.

    If a group of people harvest my crops do I earn more money?

    You don’t earn more money if more than one person harvests your crops. One particular plot can only be harvested by one particular person and therefore you will only earn the regular set price on that particular crop.

    Can we harvest our neighbours crops when they are away on holiday?

    This is not possible but the developers are looking at taking this into consideration in the future. The best advice for now is, if you know you are going away for an extended period of time, to harvest all your crops and not replant anything until you return.

    How do I sell my harvest or gifts in the marketplace?

    When you first arrive a screen pops up asking you what you would like to do in the marketplace. One of the options is to sell your harvest or gifts. If this screen disappears just go over to Tom who is a stationary figure in the marketplace and click on him. The same screen with instructions will appear and you can sell your items that way.

    Hiring When should I hire someone?

    You only need to hire someone when you have crops that are ready to be harvested.

    How do I hire someone to work on my farm?

    The easiest thing to do is to go to the marketplace and to click on someone’s Avatar. A screen will pop up with a number of options – one of them reads as follows: Hire to work at your farm. If they agree to do it for you, you will get the option to go with them to your farm or to hang out in the marketplace. You will receive a notification to let you know when they are done and the harvested items will be placed into storage. You can then sell them in the marketplace. You can also go to a friends farm if they are active (a green light on their neighbour profile) and ask them to do it for you.

    What are the benefits of hiring somebody to work at your farm?

    When a hired user harvests fields at your farm, you get Large boxes of the corresponding vegetable or fruit. Earning you more coins when you sell them at the marketplace.

    If I am hired and I work at somebody else’s farm, how many coins do I receive?

    You will receive 25% of the coins fetched by the crops you harvest.

    Flowers How do I water my flowers?

    Click on the toolbox on the lower right-hand menu and select the watering can from the pop-up menu. Move the green square that appears over the flowers you would like to water. Hold down the mouse button, not simply click (you don’t have to hold it down too long though) to activate the watering process. All the flowers beneath the square will be watered, and 1 coin will be deducted for each flower/plant watered within that square. This process will fill all the raindrops regardless of how many drops were empty when you started.

    Do flowers die if not watered?

    Flowers do “die” if they aren’t watered at least once every three farm town days (a farm town day is 20 hours long). As soon as you water them again they come back to life.

    How long does it take for flowers to be fully grown?

    The flowers take about 3 days till they are fully grown and are in full bloom.

    Do I earn experience points for watering flowers on my farm or a neighbours farm?

    You do not earn experience points when watering flowers.

    Why can I not see the flowers I placed on my farm?

    Make sure you have “Show Flowers†checked (click on the wrench symbol on the upper right menu of your farm) and refresh your farm once you have done so.

    Why do I get a message that says “Flowers can only be watered once a day�

    Your neighbours can water your flowers for you and earn 1 coin for each flower when they do so. Watering flowers is on a first-come-first-serve basis. Once a neighbour has watered them, you will not be able to water them as well. You are only able to water your flowers if there are two empty rain drops. When you activate the watering can all flowers will show a blue square around the base. Those that need watering are a light/dull blue and those that have been watered are a darker/brighter blue.

    How much am I charged for watering my flowers?

    You are charged 1 coin per flower/plant that is watered. If your neighbours water your plants for you, they will earn 1 coin per flower/plant that they water.

    Can I harvest the flowers?

    The flowers cannot be harvested but you can sell them. If you click on them (whether just planted or in full bloom) the pop-up menu will give you the option to sell.

    Can I water a buddies flowers?

    You can only water a neighbours flowers (and only those neighbours who are on your neighbour bar at the bottom left of your farm – NOT neighbours on your neighbour listing that don’t appear on your neighbour bar). You cannot water buddies flowers.

    Can you freeze your flowers if you go away on holiday and cannot water them?

    This is not possible. The flowers, at this point in time, will die if not watered but, will revive once watered again. If you click the “Freeze Growth” option on a flower, it DOES need to be watered as all you are doing is stopping it at whatever stage of growth it is at. In other words, if you like your roses to be rosebuds rather than in full bloom, you can freeze them at the rosebud stage. But the flower still needs to be watered. Please remember though that, when you unfreeze them, they will revert back to the first stage of growth.

    Why did a flower revert back to the first stage of growth when I moved it?

    When you move a flower it goes back to the first stage of growth. Once you have refreshed the game the plant will be back to the size it was BEFORE you moved it.

    I cannot plow/harvest my plots near flowers, what do I do?

    If you’re trying to plow/harvest your plots near flowers, deselect “Show Flowers” in your preferences (remember to reselect it when you are done) or you can simply “Hide†the flowers temporarily.

    Animals How can I add Animals to my farm?

    You can purchase animals in the store. Some animals are made available as you progress in the game. You can also ask your friends to send you animals as gifts (using the Send Gifts page).

    My animals are all over the farm. They are eating my crops!

    You can fence in your animals, to keep them from wandering around. To do this, buy fences in the Store, in the ‘Barn, Other’ tab. Note: this option has not been brought online yet.

    What is the “Eat” command on the menu when I click on an animal for?

    This is a command to make your animals eat e.g. if you do that with a squirrel it will sit and eat a nut. This does not make them eat your crops and is not a command for you to eat them either.

    How do I sell an animal?

    Click on the animal, and select ‘Sell’ from the popup menu. Notice that the sell price is much less than what you paid on the store.

    What can I do with the animals on my farm?

    You can sell the animals by clicking on them and choosing the option to sell. This is only worth your while if you have received them as gifts. They currently don’t have any other function.

    Items on Farm Town Why won’t my animals stay in the pens I made using the fence pieces?

    Bear in mind that a small pen e.g. 1×1 is not big enough for a lot of animals and they won’t remain in there. Make sure that your fence pieces connect properly. You can also use the perimeter of your farm as outer fencing, which also gives you more yardage. If you animals still escape you can use hay bales where the fences connect to stop them from getting out.

    How do I rotate the fencing?

    You cannot turn them manually but each piece you buy in the Store goes in a certain direction (one horizontal and one vertical – that is how you build your fences)

    What are the bales of hay, barrels and other items available for purchase for?

    At this point in time they are just for decoration. The bales of hay might be used to feed the animals at some point in the game.

    When I click on a tree I get a “Send as a Gift” option – what does that do?

    This does not send the actual tree you have clicked on. It merely redirects you to send a gift to a Farm Town Facebook Friend (neighbour). You can only do this is you have that specific tree unlocked in the game. This will also count towards your 24 daily gift limit.

    I have accidentally hidden a tree – how do I get it back?

    The hide function was introduced by the developers to help farmers reach crops that may be hidden by trees or buildings. When you click on a tree (or any other item like buildings) you will receive an option to “Hide” that tree. When you activate the option the tree will temporarily disappear from your screen, leaving behind a red square where the tree normally sits. To clear this you need to reload your farm page and the tree will be back in its old position. This option is not available to people harvesting your trees – the developers are looking at a way to introduce this at a later stage.

    Why won’t the pop-up menu activate when I try to select my well to move it?

    Make sure that the item you are trying to select is not too close to another item on your farm e.g. a tree. You can either move the tree out of the way or use the Hide function to hide the tree. You will now be able to select the well and the pop-up menu will appear.

    Why did the fruit disappear when I moved a tree and reset it to 0%?

    This is only temporary. All you need to do is to reload your farm page and the tree will be back, ready to be harvested.

    Why are some of the trees locked for purchase in the store?

    This part of the store has not been activated yet.

    Farm Town Gifts How do I send gifts to my Farm Town Facebook Friends only?

    There is a Farmer Friends Tab in the middle between the All Friends and Facebook Friends tabs. When you have clicked on a gift and have proceeded to send the item these options will appear. The Farmer Friends list will show all those people who are your Facebook Friends who all have the Farm Town app loaded (these are your neighbours in Farm Town).

    How many gifts can I send per day?

    The current limit is around 28 (this is determined by Facebook and may change on a daily basis). You can send a gift to the same friend twice during the space of a day (AM & PM) e.g. you can send 14 gifts to 12 friends in the morning and then again to the same friends in the afternoon, or 28 gifts to different friends once a day. Gift requests reset at 12am PST (you then have a full 24-hours from that period to send your daily allotment within). Bear in mind that your neighbour requests are part of the daily limit that you have for sending gifts e.g. if you send three neighbour requests you will only be able to send 25 gifts for the day.

    Why are some of my gifts missing – I accepted them in Facebook?

    You need to ensure that you accept your gifts one at a time. Each time you have accepted one, click on Yes to go back and accept the others. If you try to rapidly accept your gifts in Facebook you WILL lose gifts.

    Why am I no longer receiving gifts from a specific friend?

    Below the accept gift button in your requests box is a small link that reads ” Ignore All Invites From This Friend” Is it possible you accidentally clicked this at some point when accepting a gift from this person?

    To check this hover your pointer over the setting link in Facebook, wait for the drop down menu to pop up and choose Privacy Settings. When the page refreshes choose the Applications option. Next choose the Settings tab. Scroll all the way to the bottom of the page and you will see a link that says “Ignored Application Inviters”. Is the persons name listed there? If so, there should be a link to remove the block. Remember to save your changes.

    Blocking Users How can I report users for inappropriate behavior?

    Click on the user, and select ‘Ignore User’ in the popup menu. This will keep the user from contacting you again. If a user is reported by enough people, the user will be banned for all eternity and thereafter.

    I accidentally Ignored one of my neighbours/buddies, how do I unblock them?

    Click on the Accounts tab at the top of your farm screen. Click on Blocked Users next to Preferences and then unblock the user from the list that appears. Note: As soon as you have ignored someone they will be the first person on the ignored user list.

    Can someone leave me messages on my farm wall if I blocked them?

    Once you have blocked someone they can still access your farm if you are on their buddy list. You cannot see them or any messages they may try to leave in your chat box or on your farm wall. People visiting your farm will still be able to see them and to interact with them.

    Messaging System What is the envelope on my farm screen for?

    This is the messaging centre. When you have received a message red numbers will appear indicating the number of messages you have available. Click on the envelope and your messages will be opened. The message centre stores the last 10 messages that you have received. You can access these by clicking on the empty envelope. These will be overridden by incoming messages. If you click on the walking symbol on the bottom right of the message screen, you will be able to visit the farm of the person who left you the message.

    Why can’t I type in the chat box when I am in full screen mode?

    image:chat.jpg

    This is a limitation of Adobe Flash. When the game is in fullscreen mode, the keyboard is disabled. A quick fix for this is to type the message in a program like Word or Notepad and to copy and paste it into the chat box. You can also type the message in your browser address bar and copy it from there. Ctrl C can be used to Copy and Ctrl V will paste.

    Other areas in Farm Town How do I access the Real Estate Office to increase the size of my farm?

    You gain access to the Real Estate Office at level 15. The first upgrade will cost you $20 000 coins, the second $25 000, the third $30 000 (increasing in increments of $5 000 coins) except for the final upgrade (24×24). To gain access to each upgrade, you need to purchase the one before it – they have to be purchased in sequential order, you cannot skip an upgrade as all other upgrades will remain locked. You have to buy the 14×14 farm upgrade first and the next upgrade (16×16) will be unlocked. The 14×14 will then disappear from the Real Estate Screen. When you upgrade to the next size up the same thing will happen.

    What is the Inn for?

    The Inn is somewhere for players to congregate and to get to know one another. It is not a venue for people to ask for work – that is what the marketplace is for.

    Super Rewards Offers I did not receive the coins from an offer that I completed, what do I do?

    The service is provided by a third party which the developers of Farm Town have no control over. If you have problems click this link:[1]] for your Super Rewards Status and click on the Awarded Offers tab. This will show the current status of your purchases and offers and should provide you with a contact link.

    If not, find the specific advertizer that you used on the offer list and to click on their link to access their individual site. Once there, look for their contact number or email address and contact them directly.

    Technical Advice Will removing & reinstalling the application help fix errors and glitches?

    Removing and reinstalling Farm Town will not make any difference at all and will not help fix any errors or glitches you may be experiencing.

    What are the minimum computer requirements to successfully run Farm Town?

    Many new systems are often under-powered when it comes to one critical component, RAM (memory). Some antivirus programs are notorious users of RAM, and it’s important to have enough to go around, or your operating system starts having to use disk space as temporary RAM, which is a very slow process. A minimum of 1 GB is required for XP and 2GB for Vista. If you are a gamer you will require much more. To quickly determine how much RAM your system has see this link: [[2]] You should consult your computer vendor’s website or customer support to determine if you can add more RAM to your system. Sites like Newegg’s Memory Configuration System Tool at this link: [3]can help you determine what RAM is appropriate for your system. If the RAM is cheap, my personal preference is to replace the existing chips with matched new RAM. Using RAM from different vendors in a single machine can lead to trouble.

    Refer to this document (Computer Hygiene Tips) by fellow farmer, Farmer Jay, for excellent resources and advice on how to protect your computer via this link: [4]

    How do I stop Farm Town e-mailing me notifications?

    Hover over Settings at the top of Facebook and click Account Settings. Click the Notifications tab and if you scroll down you can turn off particular applications from notifying you by e-mail when something happens. Just turn the Farm Town one off.

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