New Chicken Farm, Where to?

[Chambertin]

I've decided my hobby will be a major part of my life, so I'm looking for opinions about where the best place to start a farm might be.
Without a doubt this will be my retirement activity and income. I plan to grow it into a profitable venture over the years until then.

My criteria are:
Property taxes - LOW
Proximity to a metro area - need customers
Land - I want to retire with 100 acres +
Law - Clear and not likely to change when big box company #27446 buys the farm next door and opens a store, or Suzy Richcakes sets up a McMansion project on the old farm down the road.

I really dont care about what country I end up in so long as the conditions fit into the right bracket.
Sure I'd enjoy returning to the good ol USA. I've even thought about a Swords to Plowshares type program for other Marines who are lost in this new economy. I'm going to document every step of my venture and hope to apply for a couple research grants along the way. (yeah I'm serious about this) However I've seen enough of the world to know that every country has some really nice advantages available.

So where do you think a good place to start would be?
I grew up in Michigan and was born in Kentucky so those two places have been getting a lot of my attention, but I also lived in Canada enough to know that its a pretty fine place to settle down.
Australia and NZ have always interested me and anyone who has read the rest of my posts knows I'm in China now, so I really mean it when anywhere is ok by me.

To be honest if it weren’t for a hugely insane property bubble here, I'd avoid the currency conversion loss and set up locally.
Land is going to rise for a while more, but soon enough it’s going to pop hard. I dont want to be part of that.

So that's about it, I hope we can have a discussion about where a good place to start a farm would be. I'd really like to hear everyone's opinions.
Just remember to stay on topic.

If it were just about emotion I'd go back to Kentucky, start a farm, write a book, get well known and be known as the Other Kentucky Colonel with chickens.

 

[ImpulsiveFarmer]

Canada maybe? but I think all the cheap land is in the middle of nowhere. I know that if you are a farmer with at least two years of experience you can immigrate there as self-employed. I live in western NY and the property is pretty cheap here and compared to upstate the taxes aren't bad. We are also about an hour from both Buffalo, NY and Erie, PA so we are relatively close to two larger urban areas.

 

[Chambertin]

Sounds like a good area for what I'm after.
Canada was great when I lived there, but "just outside the city" has a whole new definition up there.

I even saw someplace in the news selling home plots for 10$ Canadian.

 

[mickey328]

Can you give us a better definition of "proximity"? I spent many years in Winnipeg, and there is land within an hour or hour and a half that can be had for a reasonable price.

 

[Chambertin]

Well the closer the better.
Within an hour of the customer base is my dream, but as long I'm 30 minutes from some kind of grocery store life should be great for me and customer alike.
I remember living out in the UP where seeing a stoplight was a rarity... that was a bit too far out there for me.

I dont mind buying in bulk, but I dont want to have to fill a U-Haul to justify the gas spent going to and from the market.
Plus if I'm going to be selling hatchlings I dont want to have a once a week pickup address.

 

[mickey328]

You might want to have a look around Steinbach, Manitoba. There should be plenty of land in the area and Steinbach is a decent sized town. The drawback might be that the land, though reasonably priced, would need to be cleared.

 

[Chambertin]

Thanks for the tip, I'll be sure to check it out.

As far as clearing the land I'm not so worried about that right now. My first venture would be the chicken farm and so minimal land would need to be cleared.
In fact (I could be wrong) but I was hoping for more cover on the land. I think it will be easier to manage the birds range and provide some air cover.

To be able to afford a decent sized piece of land and the taxes with it I always figured undeveloped or minimally developed would be all I could look at.

 

[Chambertin]

Any more ideas?
I'm hoping to attract the attention of people with some experience of being hobby farmers, or those who have had to deal with large parcels of land.
I'm really curious how the growing phase goes and what kind of hurdles there are to just owning something more than a house.

As I research taxes, business laws, zoning, farm opportunities and more the questions only seem to grow.
Then again I think that is life, in reality every question probably just leads to another question.

I looked at the growers contracts for big intergrators... interesting to say the least.
Trying to find more information on the egg supply chain.
Learned about USDA and other certifications. Sigh... so many different state laws though.

Any stories out there?

I stumbled across this article and it really helped me learn more about property law and grower contracts.
Was probably searching for hours on law and legality of the idea. Quite interesting.
https://www.backyardchickens.com/t/...rom-me-they-told-me-to-get-rid-of-my-chickens