I own a farm in north/west central PA and am planning to start an operation this year. I think it could be a decent way to make a go at farming aside from "normal farming" that we currently do. Everything costs so much these days and a small outfit like mine is hard to keep up. The big guys are the only ones succeeding around here.
I have standing larch poles just waiting to be cut for this hop yard, I already grow lots of stuff, we have free natural gas here so it seems I could use my existing grain dryers for drying the hops. Already have tractors and tillage equipment, fertilizer spreaders, and all the manure I would ever need. I'm just trying to figure out all the negative things to come. Could anyone with a commercial type operation give me some pointers as far as the pitfalls. I guess I'm looking for some negative feed back to doing this. I really feel confident about it right now.
I have standing larch poles just waiting to be cut for this hop yard, I already grow lots of stuff, we have free natural gas here so it seems I could use my existing grain dryers for drying the hops. Already have tractors and tillage equipment, fertilizer spreaders, and all the manure I would ever need. I'm just trying to figure out all the negative things to come. Could anyone with a commercial type operation give me some pointers as far as the pitfalls. I guess I'm looking for some negative feed back to doing this. I really feel confident about it right now.