GARRISON, Ky. – Starting a business can be mind-boggling, and starting a farm can be even more intimidating. Farming requires a lot of hard work and a vast amount of knowledge. It involves challenges, like the cost of equipment and obstacles to acquiring land. There are no promises in starting up a farm and there’s no guarantee that all the hard work will pay off.

 “It’s a big undertaking, but you have to be realistic about things,” said Shane Fields, a start-up farmer from Greenup County in Kentucky. “You have to stop and prioritize and make realistic goals and work toward those goals.”

 Fields, who calls his new farm Phoenix Farmacy, started this past spring on 27 acres and about $8,000. His plan was to use a small amount of space for growing unusual plants and vegetables, as well as a variety of cooking herbs. His main goal is to grow healthy food naturally for use at home.

Using galvanized steel watering troughs for raised beds, Fields is growing Thai bitter melons and Kiwano, or horned, melons. He also grows Purple Hyacinth beans, also called Jefferson beans because they were first planted at Thomas Jefferson’s Monticello. He has the highly unusual unicorn plant, native to Argentina, Brazil, Paraguay and Uruguay. He also dabbles in white zucchini, mini butternut squash, pineapple squash and stevia.

“Sometimes you just want to grow something for fun,” he said. “When growing plants you’re outside, being physical, getting fresh air and sunshine. If you’re learning something and spending time with people, family, it’s good for your mental health. There’s pride in growing your own food.”

 Fields makes his presence known at the Greenup County Farmers Market, selling herbs and plants, and eventually bringing vegetables.

 “We’re still going to be very small scale,” he said. “We can’t compete with the big boys, but we’re going to have a good variety.”

 In Johnstown, Ohio, roughly 25 miles northeast of Columbus, 26-year-old Luke Garrabrant and his wife, Paige, launched their agribusiness (L. Garrabrant Farms) in 2019. Today, they grow corn and soybeans and raise cattle on their farm.

 “I think every new or aspiring farmer would agree that access to land is the No. 1 challenge in starting and growing a farm,” Luke said. “Another challenge is having a strong, liquid working capital position. Farming is an asset-rich, cash-poor business but requires a lot of cash to operate. It can be a struggle.”

 Luke grew up helping his parents’ farm before studying welding and sheet metal fabrication. In 2019, Luke stepped away from his father’s farm to launch his own.

Fast forward. Today the Garrabrant’s farm includes 850 acres of leased and owned land, where they grow commercial corn and soybeans and tend a small herd of cattle. It didn’t come easy.

 “I underestimated what it would take to build an operation from scratch, navigate business decisions, and figure out how to make a living farming without working an off-farm job,” Luke says. “It’s been a tremendous amount of stress.”

 Various programs and workshops are out there that aim to teach new farmers the basics: how to come up with a business plan, how to get a loan, what federal or state programs they can use, how to grow a particular crop or raise livestock.

 Networking and some type of on-farm experience are also incredibly important for new farmers, though paid internships and farm hand positions are hard to come by.

 “I often tell people that it is much wiser to make mistakes on someone else’s farm than to make them on your own,” said Rachel Tayse, executive director of the Ohio Ecological Food and Farming Association and coordinator of the association’s Begin Farming program. “You can also learn a lot faster working with someone who made mistakes already.”

 “You don’t need to know everything,” said Ginette Simko, who leads Countryside’s New Farmer Academy in Peninsula, Ohio. “You just need to know who knows.”

In Grafton, Ohio, Joe and Hannah DiVencenzo are in the beginning stages of building a farm. In 2019, the couple purchased 35 acres that had belonged to Joe’s great-grandparents and the following year launched a pasture-raised poultry operation, Healthy Harvest Organics. They also raise chicken for meat and eggs, which they sell through the online farmers market Market Wagon.

 “As first-generation farmers, we were fortunate to buy land from family, so land access was not an issue for us,” Hannah said. “We started from scratch and watched a lot of YouTube videos about how to do most of what we do now.”

For anyone wanting to engage in farming, large or small, there is help available throughout the Farmworld readership area.

In Ohio, the Ohio State University’s College of Food, Agriculture and Environmental Sciences holds a New and Small Farm Conference each spring. In Indiana, Purdue Extension hosts the two-day Indiana Small Farm Conference the first week in March of each year.

In Kentucky, the Central Kentucky AgStart program focuses on young, beginning and small farmers in this part of the state. This program not only educates farmers but allows for networking opportunities and special loan servicing programs. Information about this program can be found at https://www.agcreditonline.com/AgStart

 New Illinois Fruit and Vegetable Farmers (http://newillinoisfarmers.org/) presents the content of a University of Illinois project focused on training new and aspiring farmers in Illinois.

 In Tennessee, the Tennessee Beginning Farmer Outreach Program (https://beginningfarmers.tennessee.edu) provides a coordinated, systematic and holistic educational program for new farming operations.

 In Illinois, Illinois Farm Beginnings http://illinoisfarmbeginnings.org/ highlights three programs to assist rural and urban startup farms: Stateline Farm Beginnings, Central Illinois Farm Beginnings and Southern Illinois Farm Beginnings.