Farming in America is extremely challenging. Unless a farmer inherits the farm, or, comes with fun funds from Wall Street, or the Film business for example, it can be nearly impossible to start farming. There are many funding opportunities and grants, but most have very specific requirements that we can not meet, at least not yet. For example, there are two "Beginning Farmer" fund sources, but they have an age requirement of 35 years or younger. Additionally, for those of us whose timing for purchasing a farm property fell when property values were ballooned above reality - such as in 2007 when we purchased ours - we cannot currently take on any additional financing until some of our current property debt is paid down.
For us, this has meant a lack of much needed capital to renovate and update our former dairy farm. Our on hand funds and credit have been expended on the property itself, replacing the barn and the house, and purchasing our base flock of rare, Herdwick cross sheep and laying hens. Additionally, the stars have handed us the unique and special repsonsibility of our breeding program for the rare Herdwick sheep. Below are some of the items we are working on acquiring as we can, which are needed in order to further utilize the property we have and, to aid in the daily operation and maintenance in order to continue to produce our wonderful products. |
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