I recently came into several acres of land from a former pony farm. The ponies are gone and I am wondering what would be the best use of the land, commercially speaking. Is there anything I can do with it besides making hay?

-- Robert S. (rcsltd@hotmail.com), September 06, 2001

Answers

What about putting it back into ponies? Pony rides are popular at fairs (at least the ones I've seen have lines), plus pony rides for kids parties?

If you don't have a copy, e-mail me and I'll send you a free copy of my e-book on How to Earn Extra Money in the Country. There might be some possibilities in there which might interest you.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 06, 2001.

Oops, I should have mentioned I cannot send it to anyone with a hotmail.com account. They don't have sufficient space in that system for large attachments. Here they will need to find another account to have it sent.

-- Ken S. in WC TN (scharabo@aol.com), September 07, 2001.

You could look into growing christmas tree's. OSU has a great beginers guide at: http://agweb.okstate.edu/pearl/ click on forestry and then general forestry.

All kinds of good info on their site for numerous AG activities.

-- Stacia n OK (OneClassyCowgirl@aol.com), September 07, 2001.

SEveral acres of land, just dumped in your lap... I am turning green.

-- daffodyllady (daffodyllady@yahoo.com), September 07, 2001.

It would depend on some things. Just how much land do you have? How far are you from town? What's the population around you (10, 20, & 30 mile radious)?

Options for what you could do (some of which take time to grow): Hay fields, livestock (common, rare, &/or exotic), orchard, pick your own berries, vegitable farming. You would be better off doing a combination of things. People will drive quite a distance for orchards, & pick your own berries (A road side stand for vegi's will boost your fruit sales, not to mention value added products like pie fillings, jams/jellies, cider, juices, dried fruit, vegitable soups, other soups, stews, beans, if you have your stock butchered you might have some frozen meat sales (especially if it's farm raised rabbit or deer meat). These things also store better then fresh fruit, so can be sold over a longer season there-by extending your selling season). Direct selling to the public is more profitable then selling to the middle man (grocery stores). However, what ever you do start slow/ small & work your way up. It's a waist of time & money to plant an orchard of several acres when you start as you need to have a customer base started first. You might go belly up before your orchard matures enough to even get your first harvest. Start small, establish a good reputation with your customers, & ask them (survey) what they would like to see most added to your products. Take the most popular request (or even the 3 most popular) & add those. For ex.. they might want blue berries, brocolli, & sweet corn more then any other food product.

Sorry to ramble on (I'm trying to this same thing so have done lots of research). Just start small so you don't bank rupt yourself before you have a chance to get started. Be carefull, & good luck.

animalfarms (IN)

-- animalfarms (jawjlewis@netzero.net), September 07, 2001.