Anyone Making Money on a Small Acreage Parcel?

Lease to someone to cut hay off of it or keep a small cow calf operation on it or grow Christmas trees. Depending on your location (close to Portland or the Columbia River bar/Fort Stevens for example), providing parking for peoples’ boats and RVs could be an option. Tons of fishermen want to keep their boats closer to the water than the Willamette valley. All options in coastal PNW.

Prepare to be despised for dragging your California in to Oregon. I’d suggest Wyoming or Idaho instead.

Depending on your area bailing hay could be an option. However a mini round bailer is going to run you about 10k, compact tractor (has many other uses) another 25+k The rake and mower likely in for the two for around 3k.

Other option is things like apple trees or peach trees. We have roughly a dozen apple trees as well as peach trees, the best peaches you have ever had. However the deer are an issue as well as other pests (bugs) and the care for the trees does require a little money as well, but nothing like the mower. The mowing is something you are likely to do anyway, and that tractor will have many uses.

You can also do chickens, both for eggs as well as meat, as well as rabbits. Cows you could support about 4 on 20 ac, general rule is 1 hoofed per 5ac. However selling the meat you could get the attn of the feds, just ask that amish guy back east.

Chicken eggs are fairly easy and don't take up much space, they also sell well and if you let them range they keep the ticks down.

Pretty sure Wyoming or Idaho will hate him more.

Now to be productive: small acreage plots usually do well if they "break even". By that I mean you'll cover the property taxes. I'd definitely lease it for hay if the grass was actually good.

I have a buddy that managed to put enough bees (my bee knowledge is limited) on 7 acres to help with the cost of the land note...minus the fact that it takes up a lot of his time (no profit).

Chickens might be doable if you can stand the smell and cover the startup costs.

OREGUN said:

Lease to someone to cut hay off of it or keep a small cow calf operation on it or grow Christmas trees. Depending on your location (close to Portland or the Columbia River bar/Fort Stevens for example), providing parking for peoples’ boats and RVs could be an option. Tons of fishermen want to keep their boats closer to the water than the Willamette valley. All options in coastal PNW.

Prepare to be despised for dragging your California in to Oregon. I’d suggest Wyoming or Idaho instead.

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Around here most people don't want to mess with hauling all the hay equipment out unless they are doing 50ac or larger. Christmas trees are fairly heavy feeders and also prone to some disease. Then you need to remove the stump after you cut it down, and if you have the rows tight it is really hard to get even a SCUT with a backhoe like a Kubota BX or Deere 1 series in there to do the digging. And digging out by hand will flat suck.

For the type of property you are looking for, it is very likely it will be covered with timber. Selective logging may be an option or cutting firewood.

Any type of development on the property for commercial use is likely to be a permit nightmare, at least in Oregon.

Edited to add, if you find land that is reasonable flat, it is going to be very expensive. Most land is going to be hillside and probably steep at that.

I bought 25 acres a couple years ago as a remote tech worker.

You're not going to make money on a darn thing. You might save a buck on taxes if you can claim you do. Technically I'm a hay farmer. No receipts needed. Property tax on a 600k property is about a grand.

If you and the wife are into the homestead thing it's totally worth it and fun to have chickens, milk cow, garden, etc. But you have to grind to even come out even vs grocery store purely $$$ wise. Also getting setup will cost a fortune. Go price a Kubota tractor with a few implements.

Only way you can really profit is to buy outside an expanding metro and wait it out 5-10 years for someone to turn it into a neighborhood but it's a poor market season for that.

Privacy + Being able to shoot on your property and grow your own food makes it worth it to me, but if that needs to be explained to ya I probably can't explain it to ya

Willamette valley an option? Plant hazelnuts or buy an established orchard. Hire out the harvesting and processing.

On small land I have really only heard of a few success stories. The best one was garlic(who would have thought). One of the best things I have heard on small amounts of land is storage facilities. The cheapest is open land storage as mentioned before me for rvs or boats or whatever, but roofed vehicle storage goes for a lot more but startup is way higher, but highest yield ive been told is mini storage.

The one I have thought of is sheep farming. Just not sure how well they sell. They can eat near anything, take less feed per pound of animal than a cow, less issues raising them as well. Just the paddocks have to be sheep proof, but its not expensive. If done right and the rain isn't too much or too little you can get by without supplemental feeding. Rain water collection or ground water is healthier for everything more than city water. Where you are looking neither should be a problem.

OREGUN said:

Lease to someone to cut hay off of it or keep a small cow calf operation on it or grow Christmas trees. Depending on your location (close to Portland or the Columbia River bar/Fort Stevens for example), providing parking for peoples’ boats and RVs could be an option. Tons of fishermen want to keep their boats closer to the water than the Willamette valley. All options in coastal PNW.

Prepare to be despised for dragging your California in to Oregon. I’d suggest Wyoming or Idaho instead.

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Wyoming is full.

Wyoming is full.

Given the PNW climate and recent decriminalization efforts..., perhaps out of the box thinking is required.

Cocoa plants? Magic mushroom plots? Poppy field? Weed lots? Etc....

OldSalty2 said:

Given the PNW climate and recent decriminalization efforts..., perhaps out of the box thinking is required.

Cocoa plants? Magic mushroom plots? Poppy field? Weed lots? Etc....

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Beat me to it Salty.

Hemp.

I think poppes would get you into a world of hurt even in Oregun. Plus, they need a drier, cool climate.
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Cannabis, for smoking, is, from what I hear not a good long term investment as every grubby little hippy is growing it.

Hemp has a lot of uses for cloth and paper. I heard that they are now making housing insulation from it. Plus it will out produce trees hands down per acre.

Thats why it was made illegal...William Randolph Hearst had huge timber tracts to sell for pulp for newspapers. He was worried that hemp would hurt his business so he teamed up with Dupont (who wanted to sell its newly developed nylon for ropes to sell to the Navy) to make the movie Reefer Madness.

So much depends on location.

How the hell is anyone making money off of hay on a small parcel? Round bales go for around $40 here, $70 for horse quality. It also requires ~70hp+ tractor and a big $$$ bailer.

Heirloom seedlings and duck eggs are where it's at around here. People who are allergic to chicken eggs are usually G2G with duck eggs and they sell at a premium. You can make a hell of a lot more money raising seedlings than you can off of produce around here too.

Beef isn't profitable here unless 90% of their food is coming out of the ground. The butcher's fees kill it and besides, grass fed beef sucks anyway, regardless of whether or not it's healthier.

Chickens aren't worth it from a financial perspective either. I can't get eggs for less than 50 cents a piece after amortizing all costs.

Microgreens, gourmet mushrooms, etc. might be worth looking into.

Are you an Infrastructure IT person?
Are you a helpdesk person?
Are you a Developer?
Client, Server or Network?

I cant help but LOL when someone says "Remote Tech"....sorry no offence just so generic

I personally see the remote thing ending for certain job levels in IT, so don't live outside your means and take to big of a risk (just sayin).

My wife and i have a similar size plot on flat land. We’ve come to the conclusion that the best use of it is homesteading. You can make a little extra off chicken eggs and meat chickens but knowing where and how your food is grown is nice.

You can keep a few cows, eat one sell one and you basically get the beef for free. Use your chickens the same way. Grow a large garden and only buy what you can’t grow at the store.

Maggot said:

Beat me to it Salty.

Hemp.

I think poppes would get you into a world of hurt even in Oregun. Plus, they need a drier, cool climate.
,
Cannabis, for smoking, is, from what I hear not a good long term investment as every grubby little hippy is growing it.

Hemp has a lot of uses for cloth and paper. I heard that they are now making housing insulation from it. Plus it will out produce trees hands down per acre.

Thats why it was made illegal...William Randolph Hearst had huge timber tracts to sell for pulp for newspapers. He was worried that hemp would hurt his business so he teamed up with Dupont (who wanted to sell its newly developed nylon for ropes to sell to the Navy) to make the movie Reefer Madness.

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Just FYI, hemp isn’t the huge boon it was supposed to be, at least in the Midwest in my experience. I have a few buddies who got in on the first year IL Dept of Ag started permitting farmers to grow hemp. Everyone was assured there was money in the crop, and plenty of demand. He wound up selling his crop for a loss. In order to do even that, he had to truck it out of state himself. The market got so flooded, there just aren’t enough processing facilities for all the guys growing a new crop. My buddy swears he’ll never do it again. In addition to his market issues, the crop is very labor intensive (unless you have the money for VERY specialized equipment/machinery).

Franko said:

Technically I'm a consultant that sits between IT Ops and Legal and makes sure that everyone involved actually respects HIPAA and state privacy regulations. It's weird and esoteric so it's just easier to say "tech consultant".

Yeah, I'm still not sure that remote work is hear to stay so it's why I'm taking it slow. Nothing would be worse than finding the perfect piece of property, building it up, and then having the IT industry decide that they hate remote work again.

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Ahh got ya. Id say then that yeah your job will be remote. I can work remote also as much as I like but I cant per say just buy a property just anywhere. I have a 2nd hunk of land 47 acres that is 2.5 hours away and I basically get enough to pay the yearly 800$ land tax on it (I let the original farmers down there crop it (like 20 acres tillable).

I just wanted it for retirement and a [place to get away from it all] for now at least.

Many of the earlier posts are things that will work.
I would also investigate solar leases for the area (the money is ridiculous) or see if sod farming is viable there. Both create excellent cash flow and could allow you to lease half or so and still do ok and have the remainder to fool around with.

I don't know about Oregon, but in Texas you'd need at least another 0 on the end of the plot size to even sniff a MLD (landowner) or depredation tag...

I do OK with a 5ac parcel here in California. 1500 sq ft of machine shop, a few machines and good retirement income.

I will be throw one out there, meat goats ( yes it really is a thing), they eat anything and people will pay extra to be able to do their own processing.

n0glock said:

I will be throw one out there, meat goats ( yes it really is a thing), they eat anything and people will pay extra to be able to do their own processing.

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You can also rent out your goats to clear land. Or Transportation hires them for spots mowers can’t access near roadways.

50 acres, somewhat coastal... Live in the big house and build a small "coastal cottage" and list it as an Airbnb.
Locate cottage in a private part of the property and advertise trips to the coast and vineyards are good trips from the cottage.

You're going to work a full time job and run a small ish farm? That smallish farm is a second full-time job.
I have approximately 50 acres, a dozen cows, a dozen and a half chickens. Between mowing, fixing fencing, cutting downed trees, fertilizing and everything else it's tough to find time to do much. Take a vacation? Kiss that goodbye. Winter time your animals need water that's not frozen so that needs to be watched every day. Don't feel good? The animals don't care! Get your ass out of bed cuz the work is backing up..
There's plenty of full time farmers here. They'll tell you what a job it is. But I wouldn't trade it for anything.
As I sit here on a tractor waiting for the next load of hay after a full days work.

Sawmill. Easy money.

Bigfatcock said:

Sawmill. Easy money.

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Mr. Rogers in the land of make believe.

RV Park.
Minimal investment, maximum return.

There's no easy. Somebody's got to pick it, clean it, box it, ship / take to distribution, find buyers, deal with pricing, broken equipment, will local distributor deal with a small operation or will you have to find a farmers market .... The list is endless. Things sound good until you find out you have a second job. It's not bad if you really love what you do for that second job.
A few weeks ago I was going out the driveway to my first job. I noticed a cow in distress giving birth. Back to the house and put on the boots and get to the cow and have to pull the calf and get it breathing. Get it nursing on the mother and make sure everything is good. Take a few pictures and back to the house for a shower and clean clothes then off to the first job again. For me, that's an awesome day.

Just saying that if you go down that road you really need to love whatever you decide on.

Franko said:

I am not looking at quitting my current job and running a farm. I don't have the skills or the experience to so. What I am looking for is something that might put a little money in my pocket with a modest investment. So far, an orchard looks interesting but I could be totally wrong as I know nothing about this subject.

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Hops.

Franko said:

Prior to Covid I had resigned myself to living in a major metro due to what I do for a living (tech consultant). Covid seems to have made remote work now an acceptable thing. If this trend holds, I might be able to move to coastal Oregon or Washington. My budget will probably allow for 20-50 acres. I'm not a farmer or have aspirations to be one, but I am interested in is finding out if there are any ways to earn some money off the property without too significant of an investment in time and money.

So what I am looking for is suggestions, gotchas, or resources where I can go educate myself.

Thanks for reading and thank you in advance to anyone that responds.

P.S. I don't expect the acreage to be big enough for landowner tags but perhaps with the right planning I can qualify for depredation tags to protect my "crops" from deer and maybe waterfowl...

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20+ acres in Oregon? Hippie hobby farm or lease it to a pot grower.

Hobo Hilton said:

50 acres, somewhat coastal... Live in the big house and build a small "coastal cottage" and list it as an Airbnb.

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That's a very good suggestion. Get a couple of those little trailer tiny home things and pour concrete pads big enough for cars/rv parking. Maybe 8k in septic system. Rent them out to oldsters who RV and yuppie mountain biker/hiker types.

Has anybody mentioned growing maryjane? that wile probably yield more profit per acre than anything else you could do

Not going to make money off land other than buying and selling it. Lucky to pay taxes. Regardless of where you go folks will resent another cali transplant. Add in buying land and resent is squared. Buying land angers locals more than about anything else you can do. Long story but true.

OldSalty2 said:

Given the PNW climate and recent decriminalization efforts..., perhaps out of the box thinking is required.

Cocoa plants? Magic mushroom plots? Poppy field? Weed lots? Etc....

Click to expand...

Do this!! If not come back in a year or two and tell us about all the money you didn’t make.

BCP said:

That's a very good suggestion. Get a couple of those little trailer tiny home things and pour concrete pads big enough for cars/rv parking. Maybe 8k in septic system. Rent them out to oldsters who RV and yuppie mountain biker/hiker types.

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People from all over the world take the wine tours in that area. A fun outing.

Start up a new movement on your property! Jim Jones comes to mind!

AHorn said:

Has anybody mentioned growing maryjane? that wile probably yield more profit per acre than anything else you could do

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Poppies…

Raise goats? LOL. Friends had goats to clear land they owned just outside of Florence. Worked well until the bears figured out the goats made an easy meal.

Orchard? Only if you fence it with an 8 foot fence and ideally have several large dogs to keep deer out. This is from last year under my apple tree in the side yard. Closest is 20 feet from the house.

Poppy or weed, or both

Cows and timber is what I do. You won't get easier in time investment and cows sooth the soul.