10/18/2026
5 mistakes (costly) we've made as first generation farmers
We may fall in the grey area, but we consider ourselves first generation farmers – although we both had experience raising animals and farming when we were growing up, we were not involved much with the day to day operations of the farm like we are doing ourselves. So when it came to building our own farm we had a lot to learn and some of it we learnt the hard way leaving us wishing we had done some more research before.
1. Expanding too quickly
It's easy to get excited about new opportunities and want to do it all at once. We tried adding meat rabbits to the farm, only to realize we didn't have the time of infrastructure to incorporate them into our into our operation.
2. Not knowing what to look for in conformation
When you're starting out, it's easy to focus on the animal in front of you without fully understanding how its conformation will affect your long term breeding goals.
3. Buying cheap instead of buying quality
We've tried getting into livestock at a lower price point, only to end up with poor quality stock that wasn't suitable for our goals. Replacing those animals has cost us significantly more than investing in better breeding stock in the first place would have.
4. Acquiring livestock before we're fully equipped
Cue the last minute scramble to find a milking machine!
It's easy to get caught up in the excitement of bringing animals home and figure you'll sort out the details as you go.
5. Cute doesn't pay the bills
Running a farm as a business means you can't keep every animal just because it's cute, you love its personality or you've become attached to it. Building a quality herd requires making tough decisions and culling animals that don't align with your breeding goals.
We're still learning, and we're sure there are plenty more lessons ahead. But if sharing our mistakes helps another first generation farmer or homesteader avoid a few costly ones, then at least something good has come from them.
