Welcome!
Welcome to Small Farm Answers, a website written by farmers, for farmers. The vocation and career and lifestyle of farming is one filled with both rewards and challenges. The purpose of this website is to help small scale farmers answer those challenges, and claim all the rewards this life has to offer.
We bring only well-researched, proven information to this website. That information might be yesterday's research results or techniques from 100 years ago which are still proving cost effective today. Much of the content here was originally created for our sister site, FrogChorusFarm.com where we wrote not only for our customers but also for those who wanted to duplicate what we were doing. We finally realized that we needed two websites: one for our customers and one for our fellow producers. We kept the original frogchorusfarm.com site for our customers, and created this website for our fellow producers. If you are a farmer, rancher or homesteader (or want to be), and you are looking for how to do various related activities in the most cost effective ways possible, you've come to the right place.
Our task here is not to sell you on a single approach. We do not subscribe to the "my way is the right way" approach. Rather, we have seen plentiful evidence of this belief, that there are usually multiple ways to do something well. Our task is to show you those multiple approaches, give you as much detailed information about each, along with all the pro's and con's of each, and then let you decide. Every situation is slightly different and every farmer, rancher and homesteader has slightly different strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (this is often abbreviated as SWOT analysis, which we'll address elsewhere on this website). Every producer must decide for him/herself which approach is the best overall solution. We can't make that decision for you, but we can give you as much information as we have available at any given time. That is our goal.
We will also review equipment, supplies, materials and resources for you so that you can make educated purchase decisions about the 1,001 different elements which go into producing either livestock or horticultural goods. Again, our job is not to convince you on anything. Our job is to share information about the options, and then you can decide for yourself.
Please note that this website is an outgrowth of our own farming operations. As such, we get things done here only after we get them done outside with our own production. If you would like to see specific information or have specific questions which are not yet addressed on this website, send us a note and we'll look into it. It's very possible we've already done some work with it but haven't yet taken the time to write it up. We LOVE getting questions from other producers and researching the various options. Whatever we learn, we'll share here.
Here's to your small farm, small ranch or small homestead success!
Our Successful Farm and Ranching Books
We released our very first self-published book, The Chicken Coop Manual, in 2014. It is a full color guide to conventional and alternative poultry housing options, including 8 conventional stud construction plans, 12 alternative housing methods, and almost 20 different design features. This book is available on Amazon.com and as a PDF download. Please visit our sister website's The Chicken Coop Manual page for more information.
Rabbit Colonies: Lessons Learned
We started with rabbits in 2002, and we've been experimenting with colony management ever since. Fast forward to 2017 when I decided to write another book, this time about colony management. Rabbit Colonies: Lessons Learned is chock-full of practical information, and is available from both Amazon and as a PDF download. Please visit our sister website's Rabbit Colonies page for more information.
The Pastured Pig Handbook
We are currently working on our next self-published book: The Pastured Pig Handbook. This particular book addresses a profitable, popular and successful hog management approach which sadly is not yet well documented. Our handbook, will cover all the various issues involved with pastured hog management, including case studies of numerous current pastured pig operations. If you have any questions about this book, please Contact Us.