Off Farm On Farm  

For many of us, working off farm is necessary to support our dream of owning a hobby farm.  For that matter many family farmers need to have off farm jobs.   Currently, I work off farm to support Rivers Critters Ranch and am often asked "How do you work fulltime and run the farm?"  That's a really good question because in our case, my wife and I are the primary care takers of the farm with occasional help from my daugher and a couple of close friends.  Take a look at the section, Living the Dream and you will see that farming for us is more than taking care a couple animals or planting corn and beans in the spring and harvesting in the fall.   Instead, farming for us is a a life style.

So how do we do it?  Can working off farm help you in running your farm?  Does running a farm help you in the real world?  I have found over the years that many of the principles in business apply to running a hobby farm and many of the farming principles apply to my business life.  The purpose of this section is to share my thoughts and observations on how I've come to the realization that two worlds, farming and business, can coexist.

Enjoy

Tom Rivers
February 13, 2014