I'm not saying to raise bees but with the suggestions of raising grapes by others and your interest in olives and/or pecans, you should go check out Walker Honey Farm in Rogers, TX. They have a commercial side to their apiary but also have a retail part that combines honey, mead and wine. They just have a really cool set up that you could get ideas from. Also, Bee Weaver in Navasota, TX has combined their apiary with Mead production (WildFlyer Mead), campsite, glamping, lofts and B&B. At any rate, just might give you some ideas to combine the dove hunts, grapes/wine and pecans and/or olive (oil) into a retail income side hustle.

p_bubel said:

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Link

If you haven't already read that article on olives in Texas. They're cool trees and I would love to just have some around.

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Several olive tree orchards were tried in the last 15 years in Southeast Tx in the Winnie area. They have had one setback after another. Droughts, Floods and tropical weather knocking off the blooms and olives to the big freeze a couple years ago ruining many of the trees. They did make several olive crops over the years and one partnership even did the organic certification and marketed their own olive oil. Unfortunately, it was never profitable and is now for sale. I don't think any of the orchards in that area are still in production.

I think the chicken tractor/grazing pig/rabbits/sheep idea wished be interesting/should be fun for the kids, etc.

I'd put in a garden, some fruit trees etc at a family scale first.

To make money, you'd probably have to find a way to sell a retail product.

I think you need to plan on a well, at some point.

Frankly, part of me thinks much of Texas is really meant for occasional grazing.

Naturally, much of the US is meant to have a massive amount of bovines, in dense herds, which migrate in and off - and also went through massive die offs, on a regular basis.

fightingfarmer09 said:

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All the suggestions and even the OP show a disconnect folks have from the investment capital and access to competent labor required to do all of the ventures mentioned.

I hope the OP really does some homework and takes some time to find a good direction.

Best of luck.

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Everything is easy when I'm not doing it.

Quote:

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I think you need to plan on a well, at some point.

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I should clarify: We do have three wells on the property (one windmill and two electric), just not an Edwards Acquifer well. They are sufficient for small projects, but not to irrigate the field. To do something like that, I'd need to go deeper.

We used a great landscape architect - I think it might be a really interesting idea to use one to lay out an attractive "family farm" design.

(And, he's an Aggie) If you want his contact info, PM me, and I'll dig it out.

First of all, congratulations on keeping the family place. Quite envious.

I would err on the side of living there and soaking it all in, and in time maybe take on something small. Perhaps a tree nursery or something like that. I would stay away from option three, doing something on a larger more ambitious scale, taking on investors.

I did tax returns for around 40 years. From the little guys who had 35 - 60 head of cattle, or three horses on five acres behind the house and the female half would buy square bales and haul a few of them in the back of her suburban, to those who farmed 200 to 3,000 acres of rice and/or soybeans, to those with olive trees, to one guy who owned five ranches (from 900 acres to 1,400 acres or so each) and ran a couple thousand head of cattle. Almost all of them lost money, and lots of it. Year in, year out. The two exceptions were one guy who farmed about 400 acres of rice, he had only one hired hand, the land he inherited, the place (just over 5,000 acres) had two reservoirs on it so bought no water, he had old equipment he maintained himself, and was pretty frugal, and the other guy did hay. I guess my point is that going big is going costly. Once visions of going bigger entered my head, I'd temper those expectations for a couple of weeks, then temper them again, lol. The last thing I (personally) would want to do is to turn something into a job, something to worry about, hoping for rain, fretting over fertilizer costs, etc.

The cabin idea seems pretty cool, passive income is the way to go, but having to run electrical and such is going to be expensive. Plus, cleaning bathrooms after tenants won't be fun.

A lot of good suggestions on this thread. One thing that I think is an absolute if you go beyond just soaking it all in, is spending some money on improving your water situation. No matter what route you go, without adequate water will mean failures in the years with poor rainfall.

And, as cool as it is you getting to stay on the family place, it is even more awesome that your son gets to as well. Good luck to you!

To the person who said "sell the farm" you clearly don't get it. If you've never owned land, you never will, I guess. But even if it wasn't the family farm, and I was looking at a mercenary way to make a buck, keeping it is still the best option. I'm 30 minutes outside of the 9th largest city in the country. Just by sitting on it, I'm building equity for my son. In 20 years, he can sell off a quarter of the land for the price I paid for the whole thing.

I was just kidding. I saw this thread and had to post since my user name checks out.

For the record…I have no recollection of how I ended up with this user name and think it's awesome what you're doing. Good luck with the farm.

You could always build a cheap big shed that would fit several busses and maybe 6-7 vans inside at one time. Set up a few bathrooms and a small eating area. Then start importing illegals and charge the coyotes that use your facility … although that may actually be illegal I don't think they will stop you!

If you can pay the bills with your job and keep the land. Dude, life is short. Enjoy it!! Put a few water catchments that will fill a plastic tote and keep some water in a few troughs. Shoot a few deer, hogs and dove with your kids. Make some more memories!

Thanks for all the ideas. I'm not committed to anything, just wanted to solicit inputs, logical or crazy, to help me frame the situation. My most likely scenario will involve keeping the tennants for the 4/5 of the land that I would never have time to do anything on, and do some kind of small agriculture that I enjoy that maybe makes a little side money. Realistically, whether I go into something more intensive is going to depend on my son's level of interest. If he wants to do something like this when he is an adult, the building a small business will set him up for success. But if he decides to go to A&M and become an engineer or scientist or whatever, then this will probably be my retirement place and his weekend place down the road.

Congrats on your endeavor!!

My dream was to find the family farm and buy it back when I moved to Texas (born in OK but my grandmother was from Fort Worth) but turns out the family farm is now the main drag through Springtown, TX.

I'll preface this comment by saying I'm completely ignorant of grazing lease prices vs. fence building/maintenance prices.

With that said, I'd be weary of coming in and running off your neighbor that just fixed all the fences w/ the agreement they had with your mom.

Yes, it's your right to do so. But in his mind, he could very well have spent more fixing those fences then leasing the land thinking it'd be a longer term thing and he'd come ahead that way. (again, I'm ignorant of these costs)

This board is filled with neighborly conflicts in which I guarantee both parties think they're perfectly in the right.....

I haven't seen this piece of advice posted yet so I'll give you my idea.

Before you try to start something that will make money for the farm, however small, try growing what you want to eat at home. This will do a couple of things for you:

1. You'll get the chance to work out the kinks of growing something on your land with your equipment and your time availability. That'll give you context for what you can and can't do as you start exploring the resources available through Extension, USDA, and all the other suggestions here. You understanding your own context will also help someone like an Extension agent help you more effectively.

2. Comparing your grocery bill with the cost of raising the crop, you might only save a couple bucks a month, but every little bit counts, right? You'll either be replacing something you were having to buy before or growing something you consider a luxury food item so you don't buy all the time. Whatever that is to you. And if you have extra you can sell it on craigslist like someone mentioned before or give it away to friends. All told it's still cheaper than golf.

Go by the USDA NRCS* office on 173 across from Mumme's and ask for planning assistance. Not only is it FREE, but they may have some cost-share programs to help you along.


*I worked Medina County with NRCS in one capacity or another for 14 years. They'll fix you up.

one safe place said:

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First of all, congratulations on keeping the family place. Quite envious.

I would err on the side of living there and soaking it all in, and in time maybe take on something small. Perhaps a tree nursery or something like that. I would stay away from option three, doing something on a larger more ambitious scale, taking on investors.

I did tax returns for around 40 years. From the little guys who had 35 - 60 head of cattle, or three horses on five acres behind the house and the female half would buy square bales and haul a few of them in the back of her suburban, to those who farmed 200 to 3,000 acres of rice and/or soybeans, to those with olive trees, to one guy who owned five ranches (from 900 acres to 1,400 acres or so each) and ran a couple thousand head of cattle. Almost all of them lost money, and lots of it. Year in, year out. The two exceptions were one guy who farmed about 400 acres of rice, he had only one hired hand, the land he inherited, the place (just over 5,000 acres) had two reservoirs on it so bought no water, he had old equipment he maintained himself, and was pretty frugal, and the other guy did hay. I guess my point is that going big is going costly. Once visions of going bigger entered my head, I'd temper those expectations for a couple of weeks, then temper them again, lol. The last thing I (personally) would want to do is to turn something into a job, something to worry about, hoping for rain, fretting over fertilizer costs, etc.

The cabin idea seems pretty cool, passive income is the way to go, but having to run electrical and such is going to be expensive. Plus, cleaning bathrooms after tenants won't be fun.

A lot of good suggestions on this thread. One thing that I think is an absolute if you go beyond just soaking it all in, is spending some money on improving your water situation. No matter what route you go, without adequate water will mean failures in the years with poor rainfall.

And, as cool as it is you getting to stay on the family place, it is even more awesome that your son gets to as well. Good luck to you!

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But let's be honest. if you're a farmer/rancher and you're not losing money, you need a better tax advisor.

Prince_Ahmed said:

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one safe place said:

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First of all, congratulations on keeping the family place. Quite envious.

I would err on the side of living there and soaking it all in, and in time maybe take on something small. Perhaps a tree nursery or something like that. I would stay away from option three, doing something on a larger more ambitious scale, taking on investors.

I did tax returns for around 40 years. From the little guys who had 35 - 60 head of cattle, or three horses on five acres behind the house and the female half would buy square bales and haul a few of them in the back of her suburban, to those who farmed 200 to 3,000 acres of rice and/or soybeans, to those with olive trees, to one guy who owned five ranches (from 900 acres to 1,400 acres or so each) and ran a couple thousand head of cattle. Almost all of them lost money, and lots of it. Year in, year out. The two exceptions were one guy who farmed about 400 acres of rice, he had only one hired hand, the land he inherited, the place (just over 5,000 acres) had two reservoirs on it so bought no water, he had old equipment he maintained himself, and was pretty frugal, and the other guy did hay. I guess my point is that going big is going costly. Once visions of going bigger entered my head, I'd temper those expectations for a couple of weeks, then temper them again, lol. The last thing I (personally) would want to do is to turn something into a job, something to worry about, hoping for rain, fretting over fertilizer costs, etc.

The cabin idea seems pretty cool, passive income is the way to go, but having to run electrical and such is going to be expensive. Plus, cleaning bathrooms after tenants won't be fun.

A lot of good suggestions on this thread. One thing that I think is an absolute if you go beyond just soaking it all in, is spending some money on improving your water situation. No matter what route you go, without adequate water will mean failures in the years with poor rainfall.

And, as cool as it is you getting to stay on the family place, it is even more awesome that your son gets to as well. Good luck to you!

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But let's be honest. if you're a farmer/rancher and you're not losing money, you need a better tax advisor.

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lol, not really. The smaller operations (such as someone fully employed but has losses from 30 head of cattle) have got to hope the IRS never attempts to apply the hobby loss rules. And while taking every available deduction is a good plan, losing money means you are, over time, spending more than you take in. Spending $100,000 to save $35,000 in taxes is a fool's errand.

Two words:

WEDDING VENUE

You only have one son?

Make more kids.

Animal said:

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Two words:

WEDDING VENUE

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I can't believe I did not mention that. And not only weddings, but quinceaneras, family reunions, receptions, etc. Several have sprung up not too far from me, in pretty rural settings. Most of them are very nice set ups and charge from $6k to 14k for the use of the facility. Two or three of those a month would be some nice money!

Congrats! Sounds fantastic. Some good advice and I would second the "don't rush into it" ideas and keep the day job. I am in a somewhat similar situation in East Texas. I have considered most of the options mentioned and currently have bees and cattle. I have chickens on a smaller scale, but the pasture raised idea could really do well. You can build small, moveable (by hand) pens and there is definitely a market for eggs. Most of the other ideas are going to be tough to make money for awhile due to initial costs and no economy of scale. But to me, the big thing I think you need to consider is that many of these ag projects are goiing to dictate your time. You will have to hire people to maintain if you travel. Or let your travel be determined by the animals or crops you raise. Good luck! It is awesome for me to fish a pond I fished with my grandfather as a kid or to look at a post and realize my dad and gdad put it there before I was born.

I grew up as a weekend warrior on the "family farm." The rancher that leased the place from my great grandmother gave me this advice before he eventually put himself in a grave from depression and alcoholism.

"Never make this property your livelihood. You'll begin to hate it and it will consume you. Have a real job and come down here to play, maintain the place, and keep it in the family. Never let this place become your job."

He lived from experience and I already mentioned how he ended up.

Option #1.

Quote:

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manual typewriters

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You lost me there. I learned on a manual, which was fine. But my frosh/soph (first half) years in HS, that's all I had and I had to type a lot (debate stuff) and it SUCKED. I'm surprised I can still play the piano (some say I can't). Good thing I didn't get a synthesizer for a couple more years. I would have destroyed the key action on that thing after using the manual.

Maybe it was my particular typewriter but why anyone would put themselves through that torture, I'll never know. AT LEAST get yourself a Selectric and cheat just a little bit. We won't tell anyone. You know how Hemingway ended up. There's no reason to do what he did. I digress.

Keep the job for now. Austin isn't on the other side of the moon from where you're going. Even if you have to go into the office for a week, it would suck, but you could always get a hotel for T-Th or something. I did a week's training in Austin while staying with my folks in Waco once. Made the hour and a half daily commute. I certainly wouldn't want to do it all the time but having to do it every now and then isn't going to kill anyone. Your's may be a little longer (mine was before Austin's traffic issues exploded but they were still there -- it was 2009).

My advice is to raise female dairy calves.
You can buy them just weaned and grow them up big and strong to breeding age, then sell them. You aren't doing any of the really hard work, and you are providing a much needed part of the birth-to-milk-production transformation. Further, you can buy more or fewer calves depending on your growing experience level and or free cash. Just my 2 cents.

Do a lot of research on the pecan idea and talk to other growers in the area. Most of the pecan folks I have met recently are getting out because the wholesale prices for pecans are so depressed. Funny thing is they haven't gotten any cheaper at the store..

bmfvet said:

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Plant sunflowers and lease for dove hunting!

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Only do this if you're good with finding shotgun shells everywhere you walk for the next 40 years.

If I was planting for dove in Hondo, it would be sesame. You can't keep them off of it. You are gonna have to water it though.

And we pick all our hulls up when we pay to hunt. We don't trash other folk's land. Not cool!

Get in to the NRCS and the Ag agent for your county.

Lots of great resources.

Also.. I thought I remember that you are a veteran too....?

Google Battleground to Breaking Ground. The program might be helpful.

Sorry about losing your mother. Happy that you got to secure the farm. I was in the middle of a post and lost it so I'll just hit some bullet points.

• Whatever you do, don't lose the ag tax valuation on the property. Leverage the 1-d-1 special valuation use with wildlife management for flexibility and mixed-use of your property. This is my field of expertise.
• I think the best ideas have been dove hunting lease and wedding venues. But if you can make some money off the existing pecan trees then knock yourself out.
• Lots of free resources out there from the state, county, and federal. Take advantage of those.
• I second cavscout96 in the rec for Battleground to Breaking Ground if you're a vet. That program seems extensive and you come out of it with some certification. Looks like a great program.
• The other idea that I would throw out there is using it to host outdoor events such as BBQ cookoffs, outdoor festivals, and concerts. Of course you'll need to make sure the right insurance is put in place and you'll need to be up to speed on all your Ag law as well. But you need to do that anyways because you are a landowner! Your best source for overall Ag law in Texas is Tiffany Dowell-Lashment with Texas Agrilife. She published "Owning Your Piece of Texas" which is a great broad resource for all Texas landowners.

Enjoy the land! And don't let it become something you lament.

Yesterday said:

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Grow some grapes. Make a few bottles of wine. Throw up a few cabins and market weekend stays on the vineyard. People will eat that **** up.

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this x1000.

couple that with dove leases and you're talking a luxury hunting opportunity. Not $100/day but $$$$ for weekends.

Learn to cook and put on a bit of a show of hospitality and actually get birds on the property and you'll be set... 000's of dollars for something like that.

Then start to grow your empire.. add a few more cabins. Build a "Barn" for weddings/events... You can make this into a very profitable venture but it definitely takes away from the "farm"...

but if you just want some small operations, that will get eaten up by yuppies.. let their kids pick apricots, stomp some grapes, take intstagram pictures in the pasture or with the sunflowers...

The place the OB is plotting out is basically a cross between Falcon Crest and Duck Dynasty.

Surely am not the wise one here.
My 2-cents

Builder friend was buying a house in Austin, whose retired Owners' pecan trees produced enough money to pay the property taxes

Another builder friend's retirement dream was a pecan farm near a Texas river

Weaver's honey was doing very well in Navasota

Sunflowers were side-hussle for many, now seen more frequently near Snook than cotton

Oil fracking money came to North Zulch, oil drilling to Caldwell in the '70s

Animal said:

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Two words:

WEDDING VENUE

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We thought about that at our place. Decided against it due to possible awkward situations arising and lawsuits for refusing certain couples.