With all due respect to Rural Heritage magazine for allowing me to post on the "front porch", may I draw your attention to page 51 of The Draft Horse Journal summer 2009 issue.
I have spoke of this topic many of times to people who post here. They want to farm but just can't seem to be able to financially leave that off farm job. The ones that want to farm but want a "life" too. The ones that want to take a trip to Holmes County, Ohio every so often or order out for a pizza once in a while.
My hat's off to the writer, Chet Kendell for wording what I have been trying to say. Enough said...comments????

That is an article worth reading.My way of thinking also but how to get to the full time farmer situation is the question. Different ways to get there I guess.I am thinking that with the way land prices are increasing it is hard for a young person to get a start without some help of a farmer relative or friend.

we all talk about how hard it is to get started farming- its not easy to get started in any business. tho it may be easier to borrow money for a more conventional business. it seems to me unless u have parents to help you get started ( another type of bank or lending institution) everyone starts out small and slow-- maybe some rented ground. a place not in the same community as you are currently living in. i didnt really get started until i was over 40. ran cattle on shares on someone elses ground. and rolled it all back into the cattle until i could buy the first place-- 32 acres-- stayed there 5 yrs and moved on to another place- each a bit further from the metro area than the one before. and i still have a mortgage-- but i think i have found a place to stay-- good grass, good water, some plow ground and a nice snug house and a great barn ! each generation moans that they wouldnt want to pay the current price for land. and it keeps going up. buy all you can- but buy it right-- you make your money and the property when you buy, tho you collect when you sell it.

I would like to read it but don't subscribe to it . I bet he said live like a coyote and you can do it. America is soft and getting softer.

I would like to farm, but don't have the money to get started. With the economy its hard to put money aside. I have a house that has been on the market for nearly a year with little to no bites. That would be my only chance to buying a small farm. I also live in northern maine with only 3 months of growing season.

Land prices to much? Read page six of the same magazine.
Mind you this is strickly an assumption. I doubt the fellow in the article has spent to much time calling the local pizza parlor. I doubt he's the tourist type that travels around gawky. Nor is he looking for a "life". He's living, he's happy, he knows how to be satisfied/ content.
The last paragraph of the article that starts on page six "rings" oh so true. As does the quote of Helen Keller.

What is wrong with all this cost of land thinking? You DON'T own land to farm it. Land is an investment to stave off inflation and other governmental actions. RENT land to farm. If you are thinking of buying land, if the rental value won't cover the costs of owning, you don't want it.

Dale Wagner is right on. We all would like a piece of real estate to call our own but you can't make it pay. You buy real estate with your profits so it can grow. I didn't come to this conclusion because I did it right. I came to it because I have a town job so I can pay for the land I bought. Had I leased land I could afford to live on it.