Diversify your farm business

Farm diversification offers many ways to generate extra income from your farm. Farmers can use tourism opportunities, manufacture products or branch out from traditional crops.

How to boost farm income

Are you looking to boost your farm's income? Consider these diversified farming examples. These ideas can help increase revenue and sustainability on your farm.

Alternative crops and renewable energy

Farms can also move beyond traditional farming by exploring non-food crops and renewable energy:

• Non-food crops - grow non-food crops such as industrial hemp or ornamental plants to get an alternative income through niche markets or specialised industries.
• Renewable energy - solar panels, wind turbines or biomass systems on your land can support sustainable farming and generate extra income through energy production or government incentives.

Events and hospitality

Exploring leisure and hospitality on your farm can create new income and improve visitor experiences:

• Experience days - run pick your own events for people to forage fruits or host arts and crafts workshops for the local community.
• Adventure outings - organise adventure days where you can take a group of people on outdoor pursuits/survival days to boost their skills.
• Provide tourist accommodation - if you have unused land, consider using it for camping. You could also provide glamping facilities, like teepees, treehouses, or huts.
• Become an open farm/petting zoo - family farm day experiences are very popular, eg you can provide an opportunity for children to interact with animals and ride a tractor.
• Use seasonal opportunities to open your farm to the public - piggy-back on seasonal opportunities throughout the year, eg Halloween pumpkin patch, Christmas wonderland, sunflower season and summer events.
• Venue hire - revamp barns and hire them out as a wedding venue/party venue.
• Leisure attractions - use scrubland, woodland or open country to create venues for activities such as paint balling, rope courses, mazes, off road driving or mountain biking.
• Festivals - farmland can be great venues for one-off music festivals, country fairs or other themed gatherings.

Farm production and direct sales

If you prefer a more conventional approach, you may want to consider direct sales:

• Open a farm shop - sell produce from your farm and the local area, consider including a tearoom for visitors with home cooked food/baked goods from your farm.
• Livestock products - invest in goats, cows, or chickens for your farm so you can produce and sell milk, cheese and eggs.
• Crop products - consider growing and selling speciality flowers or vegetables that will attract the local community.

You can use our tool to find inspiration for diversifying your farm business by searching for detailed business profiles for 600 small business ideas.