Growing Farms Podcast: Recent Episodes
Farmer John Suscovich
Wondering when your chickens are “done”? Whether you’re raising broilers or layers, knowing exactly when a chicken is fully grown can save feed, time, and money.This guide breaks down growth timelines by breed and purpose so you can make smarter decisions on your farm or homestead.
Wondering when to process your meat chickens? Learn the sweet spot for both Cornish Cross and Freedom Rangers to get the most delicious birds and best return on your feed investment.
Transform your farming experience with "Linger Grazing"—a mindful practice of pausing to observe and appreciate your farm's daily rhythms, helping you find balance and joy in agriculture's challenges.
Pastures are measured in different ways. See how your pastures stack up against this grading system…
A look back to 2013 when I was first starting my Chicken CSA. A chicken every week for 20 weeks. Read on to hear more of the details.
This guide reveals how proper grass height and mowing timing can significantly improve chicken health and reduce feed costs.Learn to synchronize grass growth with your flock's needs, creating an ideal environment that boosts both bird happiness and farm productivity.
Unlock the secret to happier chickens and a healthier bottom line! Discover how understanding your flock's foraging preferences can slash your feed bill and boost your soil's organic matter.We've cracked the code on perfect chicken pastures - and it's not about buying fancy seeds. Learn the simple management tricks that'll have your chickens pecking with joy and your wallet sighing with relief. Ready to turn your farm into a chicken paradise?
How many chickens would you need to raise in order to earn $50,000 a year from your farm? If that’s the magic number that is going to get you on the farm full time, how do you find it? Once you have it, how do you verify it?
Why don’t your customers care about your farm or homestead as much as you do? Don’t you wish they could see the magic that you do every day when you’re doing your chores? In this blog post we explore the benefits of nature and the unfair advantage you have of radical transparency.
Raising broiler chickens for meat SHOULD be simple, fun, and delicious. There are only a few core principles you need to consider when raising your birds. This blog post will lay out the 6 fundamentals for successful pastured poultry farming. These principles work for meat chickens and egg layers. #6 is going to have you shaking your head!
You’re stuck on the side of the interstate, steam pouring from the hood of your truck - and you’ve got a trailer full of chickens, which are now sitting in the sun. You knew the truck’s radiator had issues, but you didn’t think it needed fixing just yet. Now, instead of a $1,200 repair, you’re in serious trouble. How did you get here? Was it simply that one decision about when to fix the radiator, or was there more to it?
Today’s Episode will discuss the one rule that governs every decision made on a farm, and will also point you to other material which will help you start your farm business.
The methods are many, the principles are few. You can start any type of farm you want, but will you be happy? In this blog post we break down the core fundamentals of starting a farm business. It doesn’t matter if you raise chickens, cows, vegetables, bees, or fruit. These core principles will apply, and this blog post will help get you there.
In this blog post, we are going to talk about how raising broiler chickens on pasture benefits your customers, and how you can market those benefits to sell more product and grow your business.
To help you achieve your social, environmental, and financial goals, I have a special collaboration to share with you that I did with my friend and mentor Troy Bishop, The Grass Whisperer.
In this video series Troy and I will explore the beginning relationship between a farmer and a Conservation Professional, and the new farm business ideas that come from that relationship.
A podcast, two videos, and half-a-dozen pictures about raising pigs on my farm in 2022. I bring on a guest speaker for the podcast to discuss how to raise pigs, what pigs to raise, where to get them processed, and what to do when tragedy strikes…
In this farm podcast episode, you will:
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get an overview of Instagram best practices
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learn my strategy for Instagram
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learn how to get over writers block
I see social media as a necessary evil. It can be a great tool, but use with caution, and go into this relationship with realistic expectations. We talk about those realities in this episode of the Growing Farms Podcast.
In this farm podcast episode I give you some perspective on how my farm brewery business looks and functions. We are all on different paths, and I share these monthly updates to give more depth behind the farming and business advice that I share in the other content that I produce.
Eleven generations have been on Ryan Valley Farm, which almost went under. Now this generation is taking a new approach and bringing grass-fed animals back to the land. Their story is a good one, but they’re not alone…
I’m John Suscovich—farmer, entrepreneur, business owner, author, YouTuber, husband, and father to two beautiful girls. Ten years ago, I was living in New York City, working as a technician for a major television show. Then I took a life-changing, year-long, 6,000-mile road trip around North America – by bicycle – to discover how and why people farm. And now I run a farm brewery in rural northwest Connecticut.
It wasn’t easy for me to leave my first career in order to pursue agriculture, but I was deeply motivated to have a hand in the production of the food I eat: I figured, if we are what we eat, what we eat should be pretty good.
My start in farming wasn’t easy. Through hard work, persistence, a little bit of luck, and a lot of sweat equity, I finally got my own operation up and running. I was fulfilling my dream of growing and providing healthy food for my community, while living life on my own terms.
Once I got my farm operation underway, I discovered that, while I had a whole lot of enthusiasm, I lacked clear direction. As I navigated the growing pains of a startup farm, I failed a lot more than I succeeded. But through those failures, I learned many valuable lessons which have shaped me into the successful farmer I am today.
I’m now 10 years into my farming career, and I’ve finally hit my stride. I live a balanced, intentional life where I am in control of my own destiny, I get to spend time with my family every day, and I am part of a larger purpose - promoting the health of the soil, people, and planet.
On today’s farm podcast Dave Shields shares how Pastured Life Farm got started, why they set up their farm the way they did, and how they have been able to provide healthy food to people while adhering to safety guidelines during a pandemic.
Sales are up 300% with 30-40% new customers on average. Learn how the farm is dealing with the increase in sales and production.
Once you taste a chicken that has been raised out on grass in a chicken tractor you will never look at poultry the same way again. The great thing is you can raise all the chicken you can eat in a year on just .05 acres! Whether you are starting a homestead of growing a farm business pastured poultry is a great addition to your life.
Professional farmer Ginger Shields raises pasture-based livestock with her family in North Central Florida. On this farm podcast episode she shares her struggles, her success, and her advice for new farmers.
At times it can feel like the to do list gets longer before it gets shorter, that at times the world is out to get you, or things aren’t going your way. It is ok to want to quit, but what defines us as people is how we react to being in these situations. Work toward a better life, hang in there, and tomorrow will be brighter.
Think of the reason you do what you do. Whether you are farming or thinking about starting a farm, why are you doing this? The key to keeping a business going, and creating a lasting lifestyle is to find what drives you, and let it keep driving you forward.
I would love to publish the podcast episode or YouTube video where I have the magic bullet to making farms financially viable and “successful” but I do not think a magic bullet exists. It takes a stupid amount of hard work and determination.
When the going gets tough you are going to have to define and hang onto your single motivating purpose. Your kids, the earth, millions of dollars, fame, posterity, free beer, whatever… Find it, take a picture, keep it in your wallet, and look at it every day.
They told us it can’t be done. They told us you cannot make money farming. They told us you can’t raise sheep without a heavy parasite load. They said you can’t have 0% mortality in the brooder. They said that you have to farm this way or that.
Today Troy and I discuss what makes an expert. They’re not always right, and they’re not always wrong. They are merely presenting facts based on their research that you as the professional farmer have to take and adapt to your goals, your farm, and your systems.
There is a lot to farming that will keep you awake at night. Is the brooder closed, are all the birds in, are the predators out, is the greenhouse warm enough, did you remember to check this or that?
Then there’s all the life stuff that keeps you up at night. On today’s episode of the Growing Farms Podcast Troy and I cover three areas of concern that are universal to most people.
With all that advice and information floating around how do you tell what is good and what is not? With a wealth of knowledge at your fingertips, what’s the best advice? That is what Troy and I tried to capture with today’s farm podcast episode. The best piece of advice we have ever gotten.
It’s a cliche as this point that “farming is hard”. Yeah, we know. Anyone that has tried to work the land knows full well how ruthless Mother Nature can be and how unforgiving the farm can seem at times.
What gives me hope for the future is that the current generation of farmers getting into agriculture are bringing with them tools of all kinds. Drones, software, new planting innovations, and the knowledge sharing tool that is the internet. We now have the opportunity to farm in ways that have never been done before.
The most common question we get here at Farm Marketing Solutions is “how do I start a farm?”. That question comes from all walks of life and all corners of the globe. Seriously, we’re data nerds and our analytics say we get visitors from over 97 different countries.
Because there are 7 billion people in the world inevitably all of our stories and circumstances are going to be different. That is one of the inherent difficulties in agriculture. There is a lot of good information out there on “how to grow stuff” but the real art of farming and being a farmer is adapting that growing information to your specific situation.
Working to find a balance that works for you between farm life, home life, and your personal life is the ultimate goal of sustainability. You want to be a member of your community, a member of your family, and at the same time take some time for yourself. In this episode Troy & John discuss their efforts at a balanced sustainable life.
In today’s episode we tackle the topic of getting into agriculture as a hobby or profession. What draws people back to the land? Once they are there what keeps them working when things get difficult?
We use QuickBooks accounting software to track our finances. Within QuickBooks the different items that we track are broken down and organized into categories like income, expenses, and payroll.
When you are starting to farm your financial accounting may be simple enough that all you need is a spreadsheet or even a notebook. QuickBooks is just a fancy notebook that helps you keep track of what you are doing with your farm business finances.
When I started using it I had to learn too things:
- It's not as complicated and terrible as I thought
- It's best to not make things too complicated
Camps Road Farm works in conjunction with Kent Falls Brewing Company and Neversink Spirits as part of The Food Cycle, LLC. Camps Road Farm works in a supportive role of the other two businesses while also producing farm goods for sale.
In 2018 we are focusing on the definition of a farm brewery and putting the most effort into agricultural enterprises that add value into the brewery while minimizing the farm's overhead.
2017 brought with it one of the most fun opportunities I have ever had the pleasure to be a part of. After a couple years of selling chickens off the farm and running the brewery mostly off wholesale we were finally able to open our own tasting room.
This was fun for me for a few reasons. There’s the business reasons like being able to finally pour beer and sell at retail prices (until now it was primarily wholesale). But that’s the boring stuff.
If you remember back a few blog posts, I went to school for scenic and lighting design. Here at my home, the place I’ve been toiling over for the past few years, I got to scratch an itch and help design and build a tasting room and farm store.
As I've now looked back at every year leading up to this one something became very clear to me. Not for one season have I ever tried to be only a farm. What I mean by that is I never told everyone else "sorry, I can't do that, I have to focus on the farm."
Granted, that wasn't necessarily the original vision. The farm was always part of a bigger strategy involving two other businesses. However, looping in land and project management along with other odd jobs was just too much. Where we fell short was thinking I could create a viable farm while balancing all these other obligations. Lesson learned.
2015 was my second year on farm. After the successes and failures of 2014 I had a little bit of a better handle on things but it was still a big growth year for the farm. We were busy digging out of old farm “infrastructure” which means we were throwing out piles of junk, while trying to build too many farm operations at once.
In my 2013 farm season I grossed about $20k which is about what I expected for the year. That number does not support a family of three by itself, especially when you consider that doesn’t account for my farm expenses, but it was the start I expected.
When I moved onto my new farm I took on partners. I was given the goal to gross $100k while also growing two different perennial operations that weren’t going to make any money for a few years. I figured that if I grossed $20k with 1300 broilers and some herbs that if I just took that and multiplied it by five I could hit my goal. Man was I wrong...
There are a handful of major milestones that you can go through in life. Being born is a good start, graduating school, getting married and starting a family, buying a house, etc…
In 2013 I was fortunate enough to experience several of those milestones. Now several years later they remain important aspects of my life for one reason or another. For those of you following my story looking for advice, I would advise against trying to cram all of this into one year.
Together, my wife Kate and I traveled 5,500 miles all by pedal power. From New York City to Seattle to San Diego we visited farms and craft breweries across the United States of America. We have dozens of great stories from the road that usually start with “oh man, remember that time we…”. Perhaps those stories will surface in future blog post, but for now I must stay on task.
Today’s post highlights some of our farm experiences from our trip. If pedal power was how we got there, let’s talk really quickly about why we were there in the first place.
I left a cushy job on the Howard Stern Show to live on my bicycle and work the land. If I had to do it all over again I would not change a thing.