Commercial Hop Farming

Anyone do it or know where I can get information about it? I'm talking about 5-10 acres.

Plan on $2800-$5000/acre for startup. Depends on if you can get by without drip irrigation, the low figure is for the trellis & plants. That small an operation means hand-picking, which is a bit labor intensive at 1-2,000 pounds an acre. You'll also need a drying building, which you'll only use a couple weeks a year. Lots of natural gas or propane.

Hop yards run 500-1500 acres and use automated pickers, so finding info for a small operation will be tough.

If you read German, most hop farms over there are in the 4-5 hectares. They tend to specialize in flavor/aroma hops and that might be your best bet.

Based on the yield per acre, you might want to look at a smaller size yard. Here is a decent resource for small scale hop farming.

Thanks, both post have good information and I have some reading to do. I actually "farm" about 8 acres with hay now. I put farm in "" because someone else does that for me but is giving it up in a few years and I thought of giving something else a try. I have a 35x48 2 story barn and a tractor big enough to plow the acres. Sometimes you just have to go and give it a shot, but do your research first. By the way, I live in the NE and would expect to sell locally if possible.

These folks might be worth contacting. http://www.parisviewfarm.com/DIR/FARM/index.html They are in Maine.