We do not have a very large farming operation, so I tend to want to refer to it as small or little or otherwise try to ensure no one gets the mistaken idea that we are “real” farmers. I always seem to have this image in my mind of a farm being over a hundred acres with hundreds of head of stock or hundreds of acres of crops that is a full-time job with no need for the farmer to have to work off the farm.
The 2017 Census of Agriculture was released recently. It turns out that over 273,000 farms are under 10 acres – over 13% of all farms in the US. Also, about 60% of farmers have jobs where they work off the farm as least 1 day a year, and around 40% of farmers work off the farm at least 200 days a year.
Both of us have full time jobs outside of our little farming operation. I am fortunate to have a job with a somewhat flexible schedule that allows me to adjust my hours when necessary when I need to take a lamb to the vet or leave work to rush home if I notice a ewe or lamb in distress on my “lamb cam.”
Our operation is small compared to many, but I was having a conversation with someone recently about my sheep and lambs that made me see things from a bit of a different perspective. She asked how much land we had, so I told her that we only have about 8 acres and her eyes got wide and she sort of laughed because to her, 8 acres is a lot.
If you have livestock, it is a 365 day a year commitment even if you only have a few. You need to ensure that there is always fresh water and hay or pasture available. It is also important to keep an eye on your stock to ensure that they are healthy -the more watchful you are, the more likely you are to notice if something is wrong. Just the other day, we noticed that some of the rams seemed to be fighting and just not quite acting right. Once I went out to investigate, I found that one of our ewes had managed to get into the ram pen somehow. I managed to round her up and get her out of there and things settled back down to normal. Any vacation or extended trip must be planned for ahead and a “farm sitter” must be found.
I also found some interesting information in the Census of Agriculture about sheep farming. By far, the largest number of sheep farms (about 70,000) have 1 to 24 animal and the second largest group has 25-99 animals with about 24,000 farms. Only around 6800 farms have over 100 sheep. I was somewhat surprised to find that our operation is bigger than most sheep farms -we have over 25 sheep.
I guess our “little” operation may not be as small as I thought it was. Do you have any thoughts or opinions on what is a “real” farm?