Farmers have my utmost respect, admiration, and prayers. You are teaching and passing on priceless skills and investing in the health and welfare of your family and others.

I like upfront profit, loss farm videos. And also like Mikes attitude about more room for cows.

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Me too. Maybe next year I will buy a hot tub as a farm upgrade 😄

Y’all are so sweet. I think your wife is wonderful. Y’all as a couple are a good example to your children. If you had any more land you would wear yourself out. You both work so hard. Love to follow y’all. God Bless!

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Thank you!

One day guys! We’ll get there. For now we take care of our chickens and goats. Great video! 👍🏻

I’m learning that you definitely have to keep it all in perspective and be honest with yourself about what your goals and motives are. I sell milk for less than the cost of producing it. Oops. I’m selling bread and sourdough starters and things like that. It helps take the edge off the money we hemorrhage here. Here’s to the hope of a profitable 2024!

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Yes it’s a labor of love at the heart of it for us, but it needs to pay for itself at the end of the day. Thankfully the numbers are looking better each year as we grow the farm.

You all are doing great! Wish we lived closer to your farm so we could buy some of your goods! We just got started with some painted desert sheep

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Oh how fun! Congratulations on becoming shepherds!

@taylorsessions4143

6 ай бұрын

What climate are you raising your painted desert sheep? Those animals are beautiful. Best of luck

Another great video, 2024 will be a stellar year!

Great video 😊 thank you for sharing

I’ve laughed and learned from your videos. Keep it up:) wishing the best for 2024! And your baby is due soon (I think February, sorry if I forgot)🚼.

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Thank you! You too!

Great information for us who are just becoming a homestead ❤

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Glad it was helpful!

Great video, stay positive!

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Will do, thanks!

I think you guys are doing great! You are living your dream. Happy New Year and have a Happy and healthy year!😂🎉❤

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Thank you! Happy new years to you too!

Love you guys. Just got y’selves a new sub

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Thanks for coming along! We appreciate it!

Great work you two! Whenever you post to social media from the produce stand I'm sad I'm too far away, I'm sure your customers love the quality and the affordability!

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

I don’t think I made too many people mad last season by increasing my bean prices 50 cents a bag. I called it the 40 year old man tax 😄 If it wasn’t for the spring drought we would have had a better year at the produce stand. The failed pumpkin crop was a big loss.

t wanted to say THANK YOU

Thanks for sharing your numbers. were up in ontario canada and january is when i make sense of our numbers. we run a 7 acre farm of sheep, pigs, chickens and goats with similar numbers. im sure next year since you're holding onto those cattle you just bought it'll start to pay off in the years to come. we broke even with our kune kune pigs with our first litter but that doesnt equal profit. were in year 4 of sheep and finally starting to see a return. farming is a long game for sure!

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

It sure is a long game. Thank you for sharing!

Hey I am back on board & and may have some Binge watching to do- Pinched my Sciatic nerve 2 weeks ago in my lower back & have been in such pain like nothing else(hopefully recovering slowly). Great video as always very interesting & the truth. Kelsey I hope you are putting your feet up as much as possible as not long now 🥰🥰. Cheers Denise- Australia

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Oh no! We made a few silly short videos the past week. Currently under a blizzard warning with up to 18 inches of snow by Saturday evening. We will probably get a quick video out Sunday. Kelsey has Weekly check ups now. Could be as early as next Friday we shall see! Feel better!

Farming is a great lifestyle. I loved being a farmer's daughter. Wish I was young enough to farm, too. I'll stick to growing a garden, raising bee's and chickens 😊 you have a great farm. Thanks for sharing The space under your bedroom window will fit your new arrival 😉

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Hope your bees thrive!

@diannemiller4754

6 ай бұрын

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan yours also. We need our bee's for our garden. I just set up a wind break hoping to keep them from the high winds. I also have been feeding them candy boards from David Burns.

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

@@diannemiller4754 I cleared the entrances today. I have them with 2 deep boxes so they should have plenty of food. The mild start to winter will hopefully help.

Mike you might want to give pumpkin some thought they are money makers. They’re our second best seller, handmade Christmas wreaths are #1 . Good vid 👍🏻

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

I grew pumpkins for years after 3 years of bad spring weather and last years crop failure I am unfortunately done growing pumpkins. But you are right I had a loss of about $3-$4000 due to that last year. I forgot to mention that in the video.

Your investing in your future. Good job.

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

That's the plan!

You should start doing farm accounting on the side for extra income. You already have a perfect system established. Receipts in a plastic bag works!

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

😂😂 my friend that does our taxes cringed at that!

Im still just running a total loss, all expenses and no income but im only starting up. What is your cattle head count now? And estimated total weight of them? Because only 10 bales a month thats not bad or im overestimated your head count. You seem to be doing good. You all are such inspirations to me. This channel showed me its possible and I'm not totally crazy.

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

I think we have 19 head (6 steers and the rest breeding stock). The 2 bulls go through one round (4x5) every 2 weeks or so. The 2 cows we have penned up with the calf about the same. And the rest of the cows go through 2 rounds a week on average. So it’s right around 10 a month. That is a benefit of the dexters is they consume less feed. The bull is the biggest at around 1000-1100lbs the cows/ bred heifers I would say an average they are 500lbs. The yearling steers are probably around 450lbs and the spring 23 born steers are probably 300lbs. Rough estimate.

Always room for more cows😂😂😂

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

😄

i just subscribed without even watching the whole video. amazing how much you produce on 6 acres. i assume you buy hay? how many hours a week are you putting in?

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Yes we buy hay. Right now the hours are minimal 2 times a day chores. We will get busier as the birthing and growing season starts. The summer when we are off work it’s pretty much a full time job. Thanks for subscribing!

My brother who lives there is West Branch tells me you have a blizzard going on, how are you guys weathering it? Tough on the animals.

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Yes the blizzard kicked in mid afternoon. The critters are all tucked in and hunkered down. So far so good.

You can rent out your trailer for a few bucks. They sit idle a lot.

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Very true

Why a Bobcat? You could have gone to tractor house and got a used tractor for way less with PTO and a front end loader

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

I have a little 25 hp tractor that suits the needs for discing my field. I like the bobcat for maneuverability. I do small jobs on the side with the cat and use it at my dad’s place too. He has 160 acres we make food plots, pick rocks, maintain trails, etc. He has a larger tractor but in the woods we have often busted hydraulic lines from getting limbs caught or he ends up getting stuck in swamp muck.

Do you plan to add a chicken enterprise, ala Salatin's model?

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

No we used to run chicken tractors back when we started in 09. We have a few problems here for running chickens. One being the hilly terrain and our creek the other is space. We raise meat birds every other year now and use our heifer pen to raise them. Usually we do 100 at a time sell 50 and keep 50 for us but this year we will probably just raise around 30-40 since we don’t eat as much chicken now that we raise our own beef and pork. Prior to that we would mainly eat venison and chicken.

Why don't you sell any of the soap you made? I'd think that would be very profitable

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

We were able to sell to a few local shops. Kelsey just started last summer. So we just mostly broke even. It’s something we continue to do on a small scale.

did you factor in value of food your family consumed vs store bought? with prices these days that's a big chunk of change too.

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

The food (meat) we produce and consume is more or less factored into the expenses for the feed and butchering costs. For the pork anyway that $2000 worth of inventory in the freezers is pork we consume as well as sell. We do preserve most of our vegetable food each year mainly broccoli, cauliflower, sweet corn, potatoes, squash.

Hi there from Kentucky! How much of your day is spent on farming? I know you both have professions outside of farming.

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

It all depends.. Usually in the summer the livestock chores are 2 times a day and fairly quick since we will have automatic waterers set up. This time of year with freezing temperatures everything takes longer mainly dealing watering. The kids and I (Mike) work together to get the chores done before school. Now if we have to work the cows for whatever reason those are weekend tasks that can take up half a day. Or trimming goat hooves will take a fair amount of time as well. Milking in the summer depends on who or what we are milking. Summertime with the growing season I am usually busy most of the day with the gardening. So really in the summer it is a full time job but since we are teachers I have 2 months off.

@ms73spicer

6 ай бұрын

@@SweetBriarFarmMichigan Thank you! I love your videos and appreciate you sharing 🙏

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

@@ms73spicer thank you we appreciate your kind comments.

That many cows on small acres seem like a mistake.

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

Many ways to pet a cat

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

How many cattle barns do you see with cows penned up on dry lots? There are a lot around us with 50 plus head on about the same amount of acreage.

@CrawfordFamilyFarm

6 ай бұрын

This is the first video of yours that i have watched, and i do wish your farm the best of success. There are also many ways to skin a cat, but most of the time if you don't have enough land, the grain supplement cost let alone, full feed will but you in the poor house on cattle. Im not trying to criticize, just trying to point out the obvious. My family runs 150 head of brood cows for our cow calf operation. We supplemented limited feed last year and the bill was over 30k. The point of a farm is to make money so it's not just a hobby. Grass is your friend in a cattle operation. Feeding year round hay and grain gets old fast.

@SweetBriarFarmMichigan

6 ай бұрын

@@CrawfordFamilyFarm we don’t feed grain. We feed all hay and micro graze what we do have. We would love to purchase more land to graze cattle on but here in Michigan 7 months out of the year grass is dormant. We look at it like this we could buy 40 acres say that cost me $3k/acre a loan on that plus taxes would cost $1000 a month. I pay $600 a month for hay. Then I would either need to invest in hay cutting equipment or crop share. The only reason I lost money is due to buying breeding stock. The farm goal is to sell registered Dexter breeding stock along with some beef. Big picture… We need more small farms too many small farms (100 head of cattle or so) around here are selling out to large dairy producers (1000 head) and we have been showing viewers how we do it here. Going into year 5 with cattle as first generation farmers sharing what we are spending and bringing in is beneficial to those thinking of doing something similar.

@CrawfordFamilyFarm

6 ай бұрын

I would honestly hop on 3k land, the taxes aren't as bad when you get into larger properties in agricultural use. We pay like 12k a year on 500acres. We're preparing to buy land for 5k an acre in ohio. I personally saw some land locally go for 13k an acre on a larger chunk. Unless there is a depression, land prices will more than likely rise.