Becoming a farmer

You're giving up after 12 years? Come on man, you've got another 12 in you. I'm just fucking with you... I'm at 25 (This January will be 26 years I've been doing system administration work in one capacity or another, either private organization, local government or contract) and I'm giving up to become a farmer. This isn't just a spur of the moment decision either, I put a lot of time and effort into how the farm itself will operate. Yes I'm looking to turn a profit eventually but at first I'm sure there's going to be a massive learning curve. Technically, it's already a farm but I'm still doing IT and I haven't retired yet. But very very soon, within the next 3 to 5 years, all of the houses will be finished and All equipment for farming will be purchased so it's already a production farm but not 100%, but will be very very soon. Look to be putting in some things that will make a return in the long run now. Think trees: fruit trees take a good amount of time before they start bearing fruit so it's a good idea to get them in the ground as soon as possible. You're looking at a good 3 to 5 years before peach, plum, Apple or cherry trees really start producing enough to be worthwhile for either processing or as wholesale. Christmas trees are a high return on a cheap investment. I say cheap investment, the trees are not really cheap but you've got to remember that you're going to purchase three or 400 of them so that at least two or three hundred survive (with farming, always hope for the best but plan for the worst but never plan on 100% success rate so you don't sell yourself short)... Depending on the variety it could take anywhere from 5 to 10 years for full maturity. But here's the good part, what you spent $5 on 5 years ago you'll be able to turn around and sell for 50, 60, $70. Pine trees... They're shitty trees but they grow fast and they're easy to harvest. You'll probably end up selling them for pulp or somewhere making MDF or shitty furniture but who cares? They require very little upkeep and as long as they get water and sufficient sun (which they will cuz you're going to plant them in rows and you're going to mow between them so nothing grows up and chokes them out) they'll grow from a $10 tree to $2,000 worth of board feet. And you don't necessarily have to wait the full 10 years, you can harvest it whenever you are certain you'll get more out of it than you put into it lolz. Sure you'll get more if you wait but people got to eat so you can cash that in whenever it's ready or whenever you have to. The proper answer here is really going to depend on what you've got available and what's your locale is. Like some people make decent money growing hay every year. This isn't really viable if you're not in a flat area or if you're somewhere that's a little drier doesn't get regular rainfall. But it's something that farmers and people that have animals and livestock must have. It's difficult for some people to grow enough hay for themselves but if you've got livestock you want a full barn so people still buy hay and it is still a good producer. It's somewhat tedious to grow and you need some equipment to do it right like if you want to make full on bales or you want to make mats whatever but if you could find buyers it's a decent crop. It grows fast and doesn't require much upkeep. Usually it rains enough on its own but you won't have to put water on it like it's soybeans or something. And this is something I'm going to do because I think I could do enough side work to pay for life in a rural area like that: small cheap hourly contract work. Imagine you walk into a small rural area with very little skilled workers. You know those people still need computers regardless how rural it is. So you start doing hourly IT stuff for like half the rate of everybody else. Even though it's rural they still probably charge $160 an hour for some stuff so you advertise 40% off any quoted ticket. You know people would eat that up in a place like that. And you do adjustable rate and you do word of mouth and discounts for friends and family etc. You would seriously be killing it and that's all single hourly slop and drop tickets, clean my computer or do a new install or upgrade RAM. Even if I only did 50% of my regular rate which is $150 an hour, and let's say I did 10 hours a week, that's more than enough money to live in a house that's already paid for in a rural area where I'm growing my own food (You're going to have to have a chicken coop and if you're not a vegetarian you might want a pig or two or some turkeys or ducks) in a house that's using a well and solar panels, this is plenty of money... Sorry that was kind of long and all over the place but I'm actually really excited about farm life. Thanks for letting me share! I hope some of it was helpful. But seriously, think about trees for right now until you decide what kind of short-term crop you're going to be working with. And don't ever feel like you need to be limited to one crop, it's best just like any stock to diversify your options into as many different areas as you can afford to invest in and able to maintain.