Hello and welcome to the Bleeding Rock Tree Farm business model! I will be updating this model as i refine my plan. (I have no issue conforming my homestead plan to suite your most profitable avenue for repayment. I.E. If your focus is cannabis we ought roll out a full scale cannabis project before ever focusing on trees. Or alternatively if your focus is on solar my focus is as well)
I've found ideal property for growing trees, 3000 acres of rolling hills for soil drainage. There is a dispensary nearby to sell cannabis locally, if pursued. It is prime for a solar farm with many southern facing hills.
Using composting efficiently all waste can be used to feed next rotations crop. (Mainly mass amount of leaves, conifer needles, and vegetable garden waste. Planting permanent trees ensures a plentiful supply of organics for compost.) A strong variety of edible crops would help keep feed costs lower and provide income, while also supplying plant waste and infinite seed production. Having chickens, cows, pigs, goats, or sheep, can all be used to keep grasses mowed, fertilize soils, and be sold for their meat or, renewable products (eggs, milk, wool).
Solar has two routes, one really; depending on your personal investment budget. lease the land to a company who then installs the field.
Or install said field big enough to effectively sell the excess power. I intend to install a solar field for myself to have off grid power. Maybe you are a solar venture-ist and you fund my farm and install your own field?
Lastly cannabis. If I acquire property I intend to plant lots of trees. Establishing a nursery is a natural way of funding this project. Cannabis or hemp would fit right along that avenue! Being one of the faster growing industries with many applications and a fast growing seasonal or a year round greenhouse venture makes it a sure thing. I would be highly interested in growing an acre or many of this highly profitable plant.
This venture will strategically benifit the tree nursery through a few avenues.
Profit. Being a seasonal plant this crop is harvestable every year, starting in the greenhouses through winter, being acclimated to the outdoors and allowed to grow as big as it wants to maximize product per plant.
After harvest the usable materials being sorted and the excess being shredded to prep for compost. The cannabis plant is full of nitrogen and carbon. The two essentials for the tree farm. I already have a strategy of planting trees that reload the soil with nitrogen. Mycorrhizal fungi provide all plants with the essential nutrients. If these two specific compounds are readily available on the ranch to be composted it will make the crops that much more successful and the fungi will not have to source the compounds deeper in the soil.
I may be familiar with growing plants, but I am not familiar with the legal side of this venture. It is a long term goal to grow cannabis or hemp. During first year start up i think this could provide a fast turn around of capital. As said i do not know about the legal side, it would probably raise start up costs gathering permits to grow but i do foresee a much faster turn around adding this crop to the ranch.
So where's the catch? Well the property is just dirt. It's got alot of rocks, and I saw a herd of North American Antelope when I went out to inspect the sight. There's no well drilled. It's about 75 dollars a foot to drill a well and my research says ground water is between 100 and 150 feet could be more due to site elevation. This property of 3000 acres has three springs. Plenty of ground water nearby meaning the soil holds good moister near the surface for the plants. L
This will need to be surveyed, the person that surveys water would also survey the property's corners. A pond is permitable. Up to 20 acres and 20 feet deep. And can filled after the well is installed. Would also purchase AG water rights from someone locally to supply such permanent volume for the nursery.
This a ground up operation that I am very committed and highly passionate about. Trees!
The upside to this piece of land is that it is five miles outside town. There is an airport nearby, also hospital and a train station in town. these could be of use to you, me, or shipping. It also is located along one of our countries most utilized roads; Interstate 80.
As well as high soil ph and good drainage.
My detailed list of expenses so far
-Site acquisition 3000 acres. surrounded by BLM 1.2M
-Needs a tractor or two for separate duties. A skid-steer / trac-steer with attachments and a motor grader will do anything needed 50-70k (there will be some shipping costs i cannot yet predict)
-Punch a well and a Water Truck. This a full scale operation in five years. it could really use a water truck and it would prove vital during start up being used immediately instead of waiting for a well to be drilled and a solar grid to be installed to power the well pump. Well 10-20k. Water Truck 5-10k cost to fill about 6$ per 1k gallons.
-Irrigation products $500 an acre. 1-2 acres a year is manageable exspansion during start up. As field's become established they will require less work each season, be it first start, maintain, or replanting.
-Seeds are the least expensive I could get a life time supply for 1000 dollars. Seedlings are sprouted plants they cost a bit more and I'll be acquiring some of those as well.
-A few products would be useful to lower the natural ph (8.5) of the soil. most evergreen species thrive at an acidic level of 5.5 to 6 with some tolerating up to 8 but would have stunted growth. I would prefer any natural solution like sphagnum peatmoss, and conifer needles but the products average about a 1000 an acre if thats the necessary route . Fortunately conifer and evergreen needles have a natural ph of 3.5 so we'll till those into the land for all the years to come.
-Solar field 10-15k. fully capable offgrid for rv or small house set up
- 20k fuel budget for tractors and autos. should last 18-24 months
-15k for perimeter fencing combination of wood and metal posts with single wire and barbed wire as well as electric fence controller being added once completed
-60k for myself to acquire a suitable RV, truck to pull it (and get used on the ranch forever. Gotta move material and fuel equipment somehow) and live on site full time and invest 100 percent of my time, focus, and energy into this passion project.
Shipping containers will be necessary for storage as well as being used to build a barn and greenhouse; (simple design of parralel lines with a roof. Clear roofing makes a good greenhouse and double stacked reaches 16 foot x 40 long. Roofed, this will be a great barn for the equipment. Undetermined price but between 5 and 10 containers will be enough for any project for the ranch. Prices vary with the market and delivery. They need not be bought all at once but at least 2-4 to start. They will be arranged parralel to eachother and roofed to create larger buildings.
-Water Rights. Unknown price as of now. Containers average less then 6k individually
This list comes out to 182 thousand all in. I am asking for 1.5 to buy property and to have ample cushion for any unforeseen circumstances and the nickle and dimes that add up. Such as shipping costs of anything needed or repairing something on the ranch.
I am passionate about this project, I have always wanted land. I want to pass it along to my grandchildren, a heritage forest hand made. A nursery where I could grow native species to be sold in my area for landscaping would be a highly rewarding career. 3000 acres is large enough for anything. It is checkered with blm land. Prime grazing terrain for pasture raised animals. I picture a nut orchard as well as fruit. native berry bushes along all four sides to feed the antelope and keep them happy without my food crop. A few acres of Christmas trees. and many landscaping ventures. bushes, flowers, vines, and trees! Lots of native species for Nevada. plus many exotics all to be sold! Food crop sold. cattle/pigs/lamb sold. Any and all waste used for composting. electricity coming from off grid solar.
Just gotta grow some plants. it's a science really. right ph, enough nutrients, don't over water. bam. growth. now repeat everyday for a few years.
fruit will take a few years to produce. same with nuts. X-mas trees at least 6-8 years. so gotta grow seedlings. buy a few thousand seeds. sow them. get them just right and in 1 year theres a crop. small market but there. two years bigger market. after two years the seedling is mature enough for most markets and after three it is open to all markets. four, five. and six, make it a full tree for many more nursery markets. Buying seedlings gets a years jump into the market. The real niche is selling large sale to other tree farms that start with seedlings each year. This costs them money but they have to buy from somewhere. If i can become fully sustainable starting all my plants from seeds gathered on the Rock Ranch yearly costs can effectively come close to zero. Minus equipment fuel, and hardware.
Clones and seeds will be free from existing plants and mothers. And there is always waste on a farm. Leaves from oak, maple cottonwood and fruit trees. manure, and any uneaten food will all be used for compost, then fed to all the fields to ensure a healthy crop. so again, compost free.
I personally think the hardest part is finding someone willing and capable to live on the land. I operated equipment building highways, roads, and driveways with various construction companies. I can operate the equipment necessary to create a successful operation. My knowledge on the husbandry of plants is ever expanding and I am starting this project as a backyard venture. I have compost generating from last falls leaves and invested in a potted Norway Spruce for my xmas tree that i plan to clone for my Norway Spruce lineup. and this coming spring i want to start my vegetable garden with a few raised beds. These would be taken out to the Ranch and established used to speed up the process of first year harvest using aged plants.
A profitable/expandable Homestead.
Lets dig into some expected profits. I want to lay out first thing that it would take ten years for everything to mature.
As stated xmas trees take 4 to 8 years to mature depending on size wanted by customers. The average tree costs between 50 and 80 dollars. You can squeeze between 1200 and 1700 trees preer acre. 50$ X 1200 tree equals 60,000 per acre.
Walnuts trees begin producing nuts between 6 and 10 years
They typically produce between 60and 300 pounds per tree. As stated about 1000 trees per acre.
100# X 1000 trees makes about 100,000 pounds. $5 per pound =$500,000.
Almonds trees begin producing fruit after 10 years.
These trees typically produce between 50 and 65 pounds per tree. 50# X 1000 trees = 50,000 pounds. $10 per pound =$500,000
The Arborvitea tree comes in two lineages the emerald green. Growing to about 20 feet tall and the green giant growing up 40-60 feet maximum. Both are wonderful landscape trees providing wind, shade and privacy.
Young trees selling at 10-15 dollars per specimen at 1-2 feet tall. Basically these are yearlings. What doesn't sell continues to appreciate in value over the next year.
An acre of these could bring $25,000 for a 1-2 year old crop
Japanese maple is a highly sought after landscape product for its variety of sizes shapes and colors. Due to its wide variety its prices vary too. Greatly even sometimes.
We can average the low side to about $50 dollars per specimen. An acre of landscape size would being abou $50,000. If sold as seedling about $3000.
With prices doubling once the trees reach 4-5 feet tall yeilding almost 150 per specimen.
My mission is primarly to establish a native tree forest from seeds gathered from mother trees around my local Great Basin and Sierra Nevada area. Many of our trees historic survival gentics have been lost due to logging of old growth forests. I want estabish and clone these genetics to deepen and richen the trees being planted for landscaping.
These old Mothers, many of them more then 200 years old! Have endure countless fires and droughts making them hardy, sturdy and most importantly native to our wildlife and ecosystems.
Thank you for your time and attention
Bleeding Rock Ranch
-Brian Staugaard
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