First look at your Land

[ogfor]

An old Chinese Farmer told me that the first thing you do is look at what is already growing here, then you can decide what can be grown effectively on that land. And of course they may be wild treasures just waiting to be harvested and propagated by you. This goes very well with the other old Master Organic Farmer "Masanobu Fukukoka" whose advice is to look at the weeds growing in your fields and grow plant of the same botanic family in those fields.

[kwjp66]

I'm considering buying a small 21-acre farm. At present it's only being used for hay, but I hope to build a new home on it within the next 10-15 years and do "something" with it.

It currently has a barn (in good condition), and an abandoned 700 sq ft house that most likely needs to be removed. Here's the thing; I grew up on the ocean and don't know the first thing about farming. I also have limited time to spend on the land over the next 3-5 years. Does anyone have any experiences with this type of situation, or know of any resources I should be exploring?

It would be great if the land could be used in the interim in some manner. Maybe rent it out or some other situation?

Part of me thinks I should just wait until I have more time, but the location is ideal and small farmland this close to our town is quite scarce.

If it matters, we're in our late 30s and I would like to imagine this home as my place of retirement. We're also in the Midwest, about 5 minutes outside a small town with a major university. I wouldn't need to make money from the farm in order to remain financially secure. Also, the farm is only a mile from where I currently live, so I would be able to keep an eye on it until we build the house.

[ogfor]

May be a fun project to do with this farm would be to plant windbreaker hedges to protect it from winds and augment the yields of the crops you will eventually plant on that farm. By having it surrounded by diversified hedges containing big and small trees and also bushes and perennial herbs and flowers you also build a population of beneficial insects that will help pollinate your crops. There will be also some less desirable insects, but they are essential too because they will serve as feeding ground for a population of predatory animal like spiders, tiny parasitic wasps, birds, etc, that will be available when the crops in your fields get infected by insect pests. Otherwise these pest predators are not numerous enough, cannot reproduce fast enough to get rid of the infestations and you may need to use pesticides.
These windbreak hedges can contain nut trees that will not only provide food but also form a long term retirement option as some of them could be cut in your old age to make good money.
The protection effect of windbreak hedges is well know. Farms protected by them need less water to grow their crops as the protected crops evaporate less water in the air, thus having less water stress and better growth rate.