If you let people know you’d like to start farming or ranching, you may get a lot advice about how go about it.

And some of the advice might sound discouraging.

You may hear how it is nearly impossible to start farming unless you have a family willing to make room for you in the business.

You may be warned that there’s little land available, and how expensive it is to buy or rent when it does come up.

You may get a list of skills you need to be a successful. You have to be able produce grain and raise livestock efficiently. You’ll also have to be a superb marketer, a canny accountant and an extraordinary communicator.

It almost sounds as if you have to be Superman or Wonder Woman.

You’ll probably be told that now is the wrong time to get started farming or ranching — that grain, beef, hog or dairy prices are too low and that all inputs costs are too high.

Finish college and get a job. You’ll be better off, some will say.

Maybe it is all good advice. But you won’t hear it from me. I’m not a farmer. I don’t take the financial risks that farmers and ranchers do. But I’ve spent my career talking to farmers and ranchers. I’ve heard a lot of stories about how they have gotten started.

Very few say they timed it perfectly. Very few claim they were ready. Very few state that they knew everything they needed to know to succeed when they made the plunge. But all were willing to take a risk.

Do it now; start small
So if you are really passionate about farming and ranching, if you really want to give it a try, you should start doing it now.

Someway, somehow, no matter how small, get started. Life happens while you wait, plan and prepare. If you are single now, you’ll meet someone, get married and have kids. Then it’s not as easy to take big risks.

I’m not advocating that you should drop out of school or quit a job and gamble your whole future on farming and ranching full time. Instead, figure out how to start small. Rent some land or lease some cows while you are going to school or working in town. You can farm part-time and work full-time off the farm. Lots of farmers and rancher did, even when they had a family operation waiting for them. Maybe you can’t do it in your hometown, but you can do it somewhere. If you’re lucky, you’ll be working in agriculture perhaps for another farmer, rancher, ag retailer or ag business and farming on the side. Dual careers can be great. It gives you options.

If you start farming now you will probably need several jobs, not just one, to live and pay your bills. Maybe you’ll have a couple sideline businesses, too. Custom farming or custom grazing come to mind. Maybe you will be contract feeding.

Expect to be super busy if you start farming now. You will be cash-poor. But your life will be rich.

You’ve probably heard the cliché that no one on their deathbed says, “I wish I spent more time at the office.” But I bet they don’t say they are glad they didn’t try to make their dream come true, either.

I hope in the new year you can figure out how to start farming or ranching if that’s your dream. Take the first step, however small. And then take another, and another and another. You’ll be on your way.