For many people, the idea of escaping the city and getting out into the country is the ideal scenario. If you want to fully embrace the rural life, running a small and sustainable farm might be the best way to go about it, but if you want to do that you’re going to need to have the right equipment in place to get started. Here are the most important basics you'll need.

If you’re a farmer, the reality of food waste and its impact on the environment is probably a shock. Half the land in the United States is used for farming, yet food is wasted due to storage issues, weather and pests, labor problems, and the fickle customer. Markets, restaurants and consumers want visually appealing fruits and vegetables that “match” in size, as this equates to quality in their minds. So, you toss up to half your crop for a variety of reasons. Considering you see only what’s wasted on your farm, the global impact is mind boggling.

The business landscape has changed a lot in the past ten years. Men don't rule the workplace, wages are growing, and technology is improving processes. Probably the greatest change, though, is the switch to green products and services.

If you feel like you want a quieter life and would like to leave the city behind, starting a farm might be a good idea. Unfortunately, the majority of “townies” fail to make profits out of their farm, due to the lack of planning and competency. You should think twice about moving to the country and adopting a new lifestyle. Waking up early in the morning and doing physical work, doing everything yourself, even the accounts can be more exhausting than working 9-5. To help you avoid some of the most common mistakes, we have created a list of tips below.

Running a farm, whether it’s a small hobby one or a big industrial production, is not without its costs, but if you’re trying to live even more frugally than you already do, and reduce your day to day costs, there are a number of things you can do.

Farming and agriculture are by far some of the most challenging industries nowadays. Not only that there is a huge need for actual interaction, but also there is quite a need as well for machines. In actuality, almost 25% of the operational costs are allocated to the machinery and equipment. Hence, investing in a good and quality equipment and tools are very much beneficial in a small to big farming business.

As you go through the motions of running your own business, it’s easy to tend to focus on what you’re doing in terms of the impact it has on your business. Sometimes, this can be a dangerous frame of mind to get in to. When you’re focused entirely on your own gains, you can forget about all of the things that you’re doing, and the impact they might have on others. Because every single decision you make with regards to your business practices, will have an impact externally as well as internally. Now, many of those effects will be positive, but not all of them always are. And it’s at this point that we all need to be a bit more conscious and take action.

These days we should be looking for how we can maximize our business and diversify our income streams. More and more farmers are looking for more ways to make money from their farm, they can no longer rely on making money from what they farm. Farming is a tough business. Profit margins are slim and farmers have to worry about weather and prices amongst other things.. It only takes one small thing to go wrong and that could spell disaster for a farmer. That’s why farmers are now looking for different ways to make money, and some are realizing that weddings could be a farmer’s happy ending. The wedding business is often considered recession proof because even when times are hard, people are always in love and people always want to get married. Apparently just over 2 million marriages take place in the US every year. The wedding industry is a profitable one.

Working on a farm, whether you are running the farm as a business, or you are assisting someone, is a very physically demanding role. It can be very hazardous in many respects, and there can be potential for grave injuries, such as falling from heights, or accidents involving vehicles and machinery, which are very common. The injury rates working on a farm is very high, and it must be difficult to continue working in this respect, and in fact, the amount of self-reported injuries is higher than most other types of industry. So, what can you do to minimize this?

Winter will be upon us before you know it, and when you have a job that involves working outdoors like farming, this means battling some difficult weather conditions. Staying safe involves taking a few extra precautions and following some common sense advice which we will look at in more detail in this article. After all, it is always better to be overprepared rather than underprepared.

As a child, we are often asked what we would like to be when we grow up. Some children voice wishes to be a firefighter, a nurse, a vet. Then there are those who voice the wish to be on the land and raising their own farm. It’s not one of the responses that many children give, but those children grow up and still have a passion for being in the outdoors raising crops and animals for profits. It’s time now to do something about that passion, and begin your own farm. Farming is often overlooked, but did you know that the world needs farmers in a big way? There is an article here that you can read that tells us you can likely find more bus drivers than farmers in the USA. Food is one of the biggest factors in our lives – obviously. Without it, we cannot eat and we need farmers on our side to provide us that food with their crops and animals. The fact we need food means we need people who are intelligent, compassionate and determined enough to grow it for us. And that’s where you come in.

Farming is one of the most intriguing industries on earth. It’s one of the world’s oldest business models but it’s about far more than simply “running a business”; it’s a way of life. If you’re committing to a life of farming then you have to be ready to commit to living on that farm and weaving it into all aspects of your lifestyle. Nonetheless, you need more than a passion for mother earth and a readiness to get stuck into some manual labor if you want your farm to succeed.