[Video] Farming For Life, Part 3: Growing Your Farming Career

Growing a business is a trial-and-error process, but there are a few areas of focus that many farmers point to as being key to successfully growing your farming career. In this video, we hear from a variety of farmers who share some of the lessons they’ve learned about how to successfully expand a farm business. What are those lessons?

Mechanization, hiring help, designing efficient systems, reinvesting profits, thinking strategically, and planning for expansion are only a few of the messages they convey as they talk about their varying approaches to doing business as farmers.

Are Internships Required to Become a Farmer?

Do you have to be an intern in order to farm? No. Do you need farming experience to start a farm? Yes, if you expect to succeed. People come to farming from WWOOFing experiences, from years of paid farm labor, and from formal internships and apprenticeships.

Training takes many forms, but the key is learning the varied tasks involved with farming, and coming to understand how to integrate and manage those tasks as part of a larger agricultural system.

Do Farms Differ From Other Small Businesses?

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All businesses begin with an understanding of what type of product or service they are providing, why they’re doing what they do, and how they intend to continue doing what they do. In that sense farms are like any other business. But when variables like the weather are added to the mix, farming successfully and sustainably becomes more complex than many undertakings. But at its core, farming is about growing and providing good food for your families and communities.