What areas of the agricultural industry are profitable nowadays?

Question

Looking to change the direction of the family farm, what things are now profitable, traditional farming, factory farming or diversifying into other things?

Answer 1

Before delving into diversification of type, look at ways to develop sales of what you do already. Its far cheaper and has a quicker return. For example, vegetables to farm shop, organics, local produce, export, specialised, variety.  Moving to maximise returns on existing products can earn the money to grow.

Answer 2

As a farmer myself I often wonder the same thing. We just have sheep now, our farm is to high to have grain or any crop other than grass! Depending where you are, depends on what you can do. Organic farming, even on a small scale to begin with seems to be the way forward but to get a thriving business that way can take years and cost thousands. Homemade farm produce is good, but lots of farmers have gone into that so the market where you are might already be saturated. Bed and Breakfast, a hostel or similar could work if you can get your marketing right, as could education based farming help with schools, not only to learn about traditional farming and where the food comes from but also about how different farming practises affect the landscape and the flora and fauna. Personally I think traditional farming needs to be kept alive for all the skills it has, walling, hedge laying, ;and management etc etc.

I don't think there is one answer, but good luck in whatever you do.

Answer 3

Who's looking to change...?

Please let us know if you are a farmer

or just a student writing a paper.

Thanks!

Answer 4

Thr grain and oilseed market is the high flyer now. If you are part of a farm and aren't aware of that ???? Inputs have gone up as well. Fertilizer , land rents etc go up accordingly. Beef sector still depends on imports and exports to go its way and with the high inputs from the grain sector the return may be in decline. If you can find a speciallty. For example if you grow some new kinds of seed and sell them to other growers . Good luck

Answer 5

The two hottest trends right now are organic and local/direct sales. Pastured meats-beef, poultry, hogs are also growing by leaps and bounds.

Corn seems to be profitable as well because of the ethanol market, though I wonder if that is not a flash in the pan.

Answer 6

Culling.

Answer 7

conventional farming can be very profitable if...........you play the markets well,  produce a good crop consistantly, know how to keep costs down.  but its not that easy is it?

i suggest finding a niche market. one that can buy all that you produce and offer price stability.  this will allow you worry about production and not market risk.

one popular trend with conventional farmers today is farming as many acres as possible and paying the money for the gov subsidized cash flow insurance. this has less risk but the profit per acre drops.

what ever you do you should lock in crop prices and input costs as early as possible.

Answer 8

You ask a reasonable question, but the answer is in your question as well.  What is profitable these days?  Prices on agriculture products are not stable, today corn is the hot product because of ethanol.  By the time you gear up to change everything over to corn the bottom could fall out of the price and corn could be a losing proposition.  It is even more true if you get into livestock production.  Cattle prices may be great, so you buy some cows (at a high price) and get into the cattle business and the prices drop,, so people sell out  (at a low price).  The most successful farmers today are the ones that have gotten into something and stuck with it through good times and bad.  When prices are low they stay with it because they know it will change for the better.

Diversifying into other things is good, but make sure you research the market well and be sure you are going into something solid and not just a fad. You could wind up with a farm full of ostriches.

Answer 9

There was a good price for cereals this year.

Claiming all the handouts from DEFRA and the EEC also seems to make farmers lots of money.

Answer 10

Selling land for housing is tops as no-one gives a toss about farmers/farming anymore.The UK is the laughing stock of the world.Otherwise best  to not have all your eggs in 1 basket so try a bit of everything.Good luck

Answer 11

A very good question!

Haveing been out of farming since 1990, I am not to sure....But I have heard through the grape vine that turning farmland into mixed woodland and reverting parts of the land back to how it was before industrial farming realy kick in is doing quite well, as  then you can start to grow organic crops. Of course this take a few year to come into being as the chemicals have to have been washed away & not used for about 5 years. You could then convert say a barn into B&B accomadation or self catering and then rent out the rooms.

That way you are covered with an extra income untill you land can be certified as organic. once that has happened you can the breed organic beef/sheep(Lamb)/porkchickens, or go into organic crops.