Just a few comments over here from the peanut gallery. I have usually 20-25 cows and a few assorted steers and yearlings for replacements and meat. I guess its what you look at as costs. Are they legitimate costs? I know that what goes down on my income taxes is different than what I would consider to be legitimate. I am back and forth to town everyday with work anyway so even though I write off 25% of my gas to the farm, that probably isn't a 'legitimate' cost because when I'm picking up supplies, I'm usually in town anyway. I write off my cell phone and my phone for tax purposes, but really, I'd need those anyway, farming or not. 25% of my hydro gets written off but does 25% get used up by the fencer or the water pumps. I doubt it. I have a tractor for chores that cost me $3500. It kind of a P.O.S. but for a good tractor, my annual payments would probably be higher than that. Trying to justify owning land and equipment to do my own baling doesn't pencil out especially when you consider that I would probably need to schedule time off work to go bale it. I pay about $35 a bale delivered and unloaded in the yard (the guy uses my tractor). Right now, I'm feeding one bale of hay and one bale of straw with alot of chaff in it for every three days ($.66 per day per cow). That's a legitimate expense. So is deisel and repairs on the tractor. Is my time a legitimate expense? I only really consider that to be a legitimate expense if there's something else I should be doing instead and there are days when you should be charging for your time but usually I do it because I like working with cows. There is also a benefit to being able to come home after a stressful day and take a walk through the cow herd. There's probably quite a savings right there on therapy bills. Not something you can really figure in in concrete numbers. As far as taxes go, I would be paying the same on a two acre lot on the outskirts of the city, so I question if that is legitimate, not to mention that I don't like people enough to want to have them living that close to me. (Another unpriced benefit). The land didn't cost me much more than a city lot either so I don't know if you can tie that directly back as a cost either. As far as the whole hobby idea, I put in my time throwing bales and hauling chop as a boy. Chopping holes in the ice, which I don't imagine is a chore you guys spend much time doing down south but its time consuming for a young lad up here. Anyway, that's my two cents. Until you can actually break out legitimate expenses for a hobby farmer, its pretty tough to say what you are making. JMHO.
