How long does it take to become a farmer?

Answer 1

There really is no definite answer to this question, nor is there a defined span of time that it takes a person, or even the average person, to be "officially" designated a farmer or producer of sorts. Many can say that you would become a farmer the instant you start a farm, raising crops and livestock to be made or produced into food for others. However, others would disagree with this and state that a person only becomes a farmer after succeeding and lasting through the first start-up phases of farming to get to the point where the operation is fully functional. It may also be the phase where a person goes through a massive learning curve to the practices and management of farming. How long the start-up phase of a farm takes and how long it takes for a person to learn as much as they can--enough to be relatively successful in running a farm--depends on the individual. It can take anywhere from one year to ten for a person to "officially" earn the title of a farmer and lose the title of "newbie" or "rookie" or "beginner farmer."

As mentioned above, it depends on the individual. It depends whether that person has had prior farm experience as a child and has a goal and a want to go back to it again after being away from it some time, or if the person is taking over the farm in succession of his/her parents, or if that individual has absolutely no farming experience (nor knowledge) to lay a hat on and wants to start and run a farm (or ranch). As such the learning curve these individuals of these three scenarios will be different: the one with absolutely no farming experience (the one who is generations removed from the farm) will have a far steeper learning curve than the one who is just taking over an existing and still-operational farm. As such, the one with the steeper learning curve will obviously take longer to earn the title of "farmer" (and not newbie or rookie) than the successor of a farm operation.

So, you might want to ask yourself what your experiences and knowledge is with agriculture and farming, and whether you have to deal with start-up time and costs or not before you can consider the time it may take for you to become a farmer.