As I stated at the end of Blog #9, I spent much of my first year farming full time in 2018 focused on learning as much as I could about farming and business. As a result, I came out of this first year with a mission for Carwood Farm and a really clear vision for what I wanted the farm to become.
"Raising happy, healthy cows, while building a happy, healthy community." This became the mission statement. The vision of Carwood Farm is to produce high quality products, exceed customer expectations, become a pillar of the community and constantly improve through innovation. These are the four things I strive to do everyday, ever since!
I once knew a guy who was still farming his own farm at 96 years old. He was a cool dude. My goal is to farm full time until I'm 95 (no need to try to exceed him), so I need to make it until 2071! With that in mind, I decided, I need to have a BIG purpose or a BIG WHY. As much as I love farming, to do it for 53 years, I need to leave an enduring legacy.
My intention is to permanently change the landscape of the small family farm in this country. Right now, the typical small family farms are either sitting idle, run as hobby farms or run as fully operating farms with the operators working other jobs to make a living. My intention is to create a model that a farmer can follow to make a solid, comfortable living from just farming full time and share this model across this country.
The components of this model include:
1) The skills of the farm trade: animal management, efficient and regenerative land use and finding your niche
2) The skills of business: community connection, customer satisfaction and efficient use of technology
3) The skills of mindset: growth, faith and determination
These will be the topics of my next several blogs.
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