What to do with a coffee plantation with about 8000 trees?

The reasonable answer here, unfortunately, is to sell it, for reasons that others in this thread have pointed it out.

The YOLO "hollywood movie"/NYT best seller answer, however, is to drop everything you're doing, go to Madagascar, spend some time trying and failing (with hijinx!) to grow the crop yourself. Your neighbors at first are distant and doubtful, but slowly you gain their respect. 15 years from today, tsingy brand coffee is a household name.

As you're in Madagascar you might want to get in touch with CRS[1] who have a training program for coffee growers. A relative worked with them on another project in Tana a few years ago and found them good to work with.

[1] https://coffeelands.crs.org/2021/04/agroforestry-and-coffee-...

I don't know anything about your land or crop, but farming tends to be a regional activity so you probably have neighbors in the same business who know at least how the job is usually done. You need knowledge from them. How that shapes up, I dunno. Maybe you want to hire one of them to run your operations; maybe you want to lease it and watch what they do; maybe you want to work for them for a year or two to learn; maybe they'll just tell you what to do each month if you just stop by and chat.

I stand to inherit a farm (of a very different sort: dry plains, mostly growing wheat) and I plan to do the same thing my father does now: lease it to a local.

Read The Coffee Exporter's Guide: Third Edition https://www.un-ilibrary.org/content/books/9789213614860 Its free and will give you a good overview of the industry.

If you want to get into farming get Wintgen's Coffee - Growing, Processing, Sustainable Production: A Guidebook for Growers, Processors, Traders and Researchers, 2nd, Revised Edition https://www.wiley.com/en-us/Coffee+Growing%2C+Processing%2C+... (You will get a way cheaper from other sources).

Depending on the country you have different options. You can think about leasing it to other farmers or a cooperative. Talk to a local Specialty Coffee Roastery for a different perspective.

If you are interested in more information I could make a follow up post

I used to work on a coffee plantation of about 1000 trees in Kona. The owners ran a very lean operation. Coffee doesn’t require much maintenance outside of picking season. They had one farm manager and a handful of WWOOFers (work trade volunteers) to help with keep up with farm work and mowing. During picking season they would hire pickers from Ecuador and the Philippines to come pick the cherries. There was a co-op that weighed and processed the raw cherries on the island. The co-op also handled warehousing. They would sell raw beans to a bigger fish for roasting and shipping. Three employees total and they did quite well. Kona is out of the ordinary though. It is well regarded and fetches a decent price wholesale.

My grandfather took a trip west in 1945 after the war, leaving his wife and kids in Baltimore. He somehow ended up in what's now Rancho Mirage, talking to someone who was selling land. He'd saved up about $10k and sank all of it into a 10-acre grapefruit and date farm, basically a patch of desert with some palm and citrus trees and well water. Took my grandma and dad and aunt out there and they lived in an airstream trailer on the land. Sold the fruit to Dole mostly for juice. Barely made ends meet. When he died in the 90s, the patch sold for over $1m to a hotel conglomerate. So if nothing else... my family has a mantra: Never sell real estate.

For your specific situation, my grandfather had a different saying: "Find yourself a teacher". He claimed this philosophy came from the Talmud, but I can't say. In any event, my grandfather had already gone from being a door-to-door cloth salesman to a cutter to a tailor, and he always found an expert teacher to attach himself to and learn from, and this usually meant someone humbly but seriously devoted to the work at hand. In the case of the ranch, it was a Cahuilla Indian man who had lived nearby, and who taught him how to take care of the trees. My grandfather employed him as a full-time caretaker and kept up his house on the land for the rest of his life.

My advice with anything where you don't have the knowledge to do it yourself would be to find yourself a teacher by searching in the humblest of places for someone with that knowledge, and make them your mentor.

Let's be realistic here, your only option is to sell it.

Recap the facts:

       - You've confirmed you have no experience ("I have no experience in this at all")
       - You've confirmed your dad had no experience ("nor did he") ... so how do you know it's "good" land, or you dad did a good job until now ? Are you sure there are no "skeletons in the cupboard" ?
       - You haven't got long ("around 2026"), we're entering 2023 now, 3 years will fly by.  You have no experience, you have no coffee bean buyers lined up (in what is a very competitive market). 
      - Remember you are also taking on MORE financial risk by continuing because you will doubtless be required to incur CAPEX and OPEX expenses. So not only could it become a mental headache for you, but it could easily become a financial blackhole too.

You could lease it out, but do you HONESTLY (a) want the headache of managing tenants, legal contracts, collecting rent and all that jazz (b) have enough experience to make sure you are not getting screwed and your tenants treating the land well ?

I’m a home roaster and buy my green beans from a website called www.sweetmarias.com. Everything about this company is awesome but there’s guy there named Tom who knows probably as much as anyone could know about the entire coffee process from growing to wholesaling to roasting. He always travels to farms to meets with growers before purchasing. I guarantee if you get a hold of their customer service and explain your situation, you’ll be able to get a hold of someone there who can give you answers to most of your coffee-related questions.

Second the book recommendation below and can highlight one thing about having spent time on plantations myself: do NOT cut the trees. There will be folks who will tell you that by cutting the trees you will get more sunlight and hence more coffee production. I've seen first hand how hundreds of farmers (mainly in India) cut all the trees on their coffee plantation and a few years later lost most of their land due to water issues and landslides. Depending on where in the world you are, you also want to understand what companion plants (could be macadamia nut trees, banana plants, etc.) are best suited for your coffee plants.

I would not try to compete with low-quality bean production. Not sure how much land you have but you most likely don't have the resources to compete at scale. There is, however, a massive specialty coffee market and people are willing to pay good money for good coffee. So besides my recommendations above, try to find some specialty coffee producers in your region and learn from them.

Most of my family are farmers. It's crazy hard work, requiring a massive amount of effort and know-how. Most of my farming relatives are better educated than me from a pure academic perspective.

Making a success of a commercial farm requires deep knowledge of the crop, the land, the weather and the local pests. Gone are the days of doing things the way your forefathers did things. Moreso if you actually want to be competitive in the market that you are producing for.

Please dont make the romantic mistake of thinking you will become this farmer and it's all sunshine and success. One bad crop (which could be because of no fault of your own) can mean financial ruin.

My advice: rub shoulders with the locals in the area. Maybe theres a farmer interested in renting your land and trees. Alternatively, appoint an expert to manage and run the farm for you.

Theres a certain romanticism associated whith owning land you inherited. But you have to be honest with yourself and look at the numbers. If it's not your expertise and the financials don't make sense you'll probably be better off selling the land.

My dad and I had exactly this conversation recently. He has some land that he got from his father, that he's renting out to the farming relatives. My dad's at the age now where he needs to plan for what happens to his estate. We looked at the numbers and relaized me and my brother will be better off selling and taking the money. In my country you are liable to pay hefty taxes on inheritance. Neither of us have the reserves to pay those taxes on a piece of land we have no idea how to run or manage. You inherit an asset that you are forced to liquidate in order to afford the inheritance taxes on that asset.

Where is the farm at? I own one in Manizales, Colombia. We have around 25,000 trees.

Is the plantation located somewhere with nice views? If so you might be better off turning it into a bed and breakfast and offering guided/tasting tours. Many local coffee farmers here in Colombia have opted for this option as simply "selling beans" is no longer profitable for them. Best of luck

How do you end up in a situation where your dad, knowing nothing about coffee plantations, ends up buying one and then leaving it to you?

Farming experience since 2014-15. My advice would be to immediately contact a coffee contract farming company in your area. Work out the minutest details in terms of work and costs, something similar to WBS in project management.

Next sign a 3-5 year contract with the contract farming company (WBS was to make sure you're not getting a raw deal). Get them to provide you technical help. The way this works is, they recommend and you execute.

All the best!

Ok, this may be a dumb answer but bear with me, I’ll reiterate an idea that I often proposed to a colleague who has a heirloom land and house in Wisconsin: turn it into a adult farming fantasy retreat!

Two indisputable facts: (1) Most city dwellers like myself dream about a simpler life, working in a farm with their hands, raising up at 5am, harvesting crops, etc. (2) As most people commented farming is back braking work so (1) is just a fantasy for 99.9% of people who think about this.

Why not let people live the farming life, e.g. for 5 days, living on a farm and doing the actual work as well as paying for the experience. I would easily pay $200 a night to live on a coffee plantation during harvesting time to collect and process beans or help operate a combine or milk the cows, etc (am so ignorant about farm life it’s hard to give legitimate examples :-)

I don’t know if this idea already exists in practice. The colleague I propose it with excitement always gave me a bemused but incredulous look!

https://www.amazon.com/Coffee-Growing-Processing-Sustainable... I've heard this book recommended a few times when this was brought up.

There are roasting certificatations you can get. It might help knowing the work that is downstream of your coffee beans.

If you have the cash and time, I recommend visiting roasters and other coffee farms. I took a 2 day roasting class on a coffee farm in Bali. Learned a TON in very little time.

Professional consulting and crop insurance were created for that.

We don't have a minimum context. area?, rain?, acid soil?, market location?, variety? (early/season/late?), potential load of fruit?

Without data, we can't suggest you anything of value

Try the advice of an --independent-- professional consulting. Hear local sellers also but not only locals. Specially if they are local sellers also (Will try to sell you as many useless products as possible).

Remember this: Chemicals are not a magic wand. Is the number one mistake of a newbie. Sometimes are useful, but incorrectly used can do more harm than good. If your plants get ill, first discover the real problem. Your plants are alive beings in the Family Rubiaceae, try to understand their ecological needs and fix those first.

If you are newbie I would suggest to diversify your crops to reduce the possibility of failure. Some years are bad, other good. Do your location allows avocados? zapotes? icecream beans? plant a couple of trees somewhere to exercise your skills where they don't disturb the coffee plants or where they help them (If I remember correctly coffee plants need some light shadow to grow well, check it). Just an example, not need to be followed literally but, in resume, don't put all your eggs in the same basket.

Might be worth reaching out to a company like Equal Exchange. They may be able to connect you with educational resources.

https://shop.equalexchange.coop/

I also own (and live on) a small coffee plantation, and I know a little about it. Feel free to dm me for any questions. I’d be up for a call to chat a bit, maybe I can answer some questions? Glad to share what I have learned.

Basically, you will either sell to the local processors or you will process it yourself. We are gearing up to process ourselves. We have about 10k trees, and we do all organic and no non natural fertilizers or pesticides. This year we are producing about 500 lbs of coffee after roasting. I think we can get to maybe 1000 lbs ( more with chemical fertilizers).

We will be making a boutique coffee with a story and a negative carbon footprint (we don’t do mechanized agriculture, and have solar charged electric vehicles for transport to the nearby, downhill port. and will be shipping on sail-only vessels to the USA)

Farming is a hard and unforgiving activity. Most guys who have a dream to become farmers fail miserably since it requires a ton of grit, know-how, problem-solving and luck. With the help of science (measuring soil, pests, weather and so on) and capital input to buy tools (hand tools, sprays/pesticides (if really needed), farmhands, vehicles, watering systems, monitoring systems and so on), you might succeed.

If you are willing to be honest with yourself, you might find that being a farmer is not for you and it might be better to sell. You can also run it purely as a business, aka being a kind of farm manager and not be too close to the ground but employ good people that knows the plants/cultivars and the local environment (weather, soil, pests), listen to your people, treat them well, treat your new neighbours extremely well, as they will assist with a ton of knowledge and sometime physical help. Most importantly, honour the land & the plants; take good care of them and your environment and everything might fall into place a bit easier.

This is tough thing to be given/gifted, to be honest. Please prepare for the worst, emotionally and physically. It might also be the most rewarding and freeing thing you can do with your life and/or become.

Do not discount alternative income streams: if there are more land available, plant some other low maintenance crops or small stocks like chickens and so on for cash flow. If there is a river/stream, forest, small mountains etc, it can be worthwhile to build a handful of cabins or a camping terrain (but small, you want to stay niche, have good ablution blocks, skip electricity, just supply clean water) and so on. Multiple income streams can do wonders for farms. All depends how much money you have upfront to invest into the property. Luckily, you already have the 8K trees.

Good luck mate, hope that the journey ahead works out!

One of the problems in the third world is that thugs backed by local politicians can illegally take over your land. Neighbors can start stealing your land meter by meter every year. Even if your relative becomes a guardian of this land, don't expect anything good from such relatives. For instance, people get fake death certificates of the real owner in order to take over others' lands.

8000 tree coffee plantation could be 4 to 18 acres of land. Unless you visit Madagascar every 6 months, unless you have a trusty hand, better sell it. I don't know the prices in Madagascar, you can get at least $200K for it.

Short-term: hire someone to keep the trees alive.

Longer-term: start reaching out to top agricultural programs for advice. Look for lists like this one & write to faculty: https://agronomag.com/best-schools-for-farmers-in-the-us/. You’ll probably be able to find people with expertise in coffee. I bet there are also conferences or industry associations that will help with networking. There are probably also government programs in your country.

What happens to the coffee today? Is 8000 trees a lot (sounds like it to me)?

This happened to me.

I couldn't compete with the coffee berry borer and ended up chainsawing them down one by one. Coffee is surprisingly hard wood.

I planted noni instead, but that turned out to be a fad, and those were removed next.

Then I grew taro, and all was well.

I don't know anything about it, but I'd suggest the first question (to yourself) should be do you want to learn/do, or do you just want to own it and have it be productive/successful?

Hire a professional to do it for you.

There's coffee as a hobby, and coffee as a professional business. 8000 trees is the latter.

Hack beans? :)

Well, very original post for HN. Even considering, I myself was deeply involved in beekeeping. I even now eventually consider to become beekeeper ;)

What I think, seriously, I started beekeeping from two hives (one initially was empty).

Unfortunately, this was initiative of my grandfather, but other relatives was not interested in this, so after his death they just sold all tools and forgot about it. And I was not successful enough, to save anything.

So, primary question, You should have strong enough income, to pay this business payments, and still have normal life and make adequate savings.

If You have bold answer on overall finance question, could proceed next questions (but will return there).

Next, as I read from Your answers, this planned to give wholesale amount of beans, this is not small business.

This mean, You need not only knowledge about gathering trees and keeping them, but also, warehouse management, marketing, and selling beans on agricultural stock exchange, and medium size business management.

So, that is list, of what to learn:

- gathering trees and keeping them

- warehouse management

- marketing

- agricultural stock exchange

- medium size business management

And the last advice, from my own business management experience - to maximize probability of success, You should start all these activities immediately, don't wait until Your own beans will grow. I mean, start just tomorrow, buy beans directly from other bean producer (buy on stock exchange is not so good for learning) and process them and sell.

If you do wish to take on this project and investment, I would highly recommend building a relationship with an importer/exporter. They can support you and help build the program, provide feedback, etc. I don't personally know of any in relation to Madagascar, but I would reach out to Coffee Quest, Royal, Caravela, Red Fox, Long Miles, or CCS. They all work in specific regions and might be able to steer you in the right direction.

As for the production process, it is very labor intensive. You'll most likely want to grow other plants for the sake of building an ecosystem and help diversify your farm crops. The other fruit trees can help provide shade to your coffee trees as well as offer other benefits.

It'd also be good to know what the variety and cultivar of plant you have and have a soil test done in multiple areas of your farm. It'd be most profitable to grow specialty coffee and the price is set based on quality. The higher the cup score, the higher the price (in most cases).

Good luck!

Depending on where you are located in the world, find a local artisan coffee roastery and see if you can talk to the owner. It's the fastest way to gain access to face-to-face deep knowledge of the coffee industry because they typically work directly with the farmers. In the process, you may also find someone who is willing to work with you and buy all the beans you produce in 2026 and beyond.

Heck, 8k trees is a lot. Definitely find a professional. Growing coffee is exceptionally difficult.

Do you have an idea which crops have been planted? Is the plantation in a favorable location (altitude, weather)?

Depending on both, you should become clear about whether you want to produce commodity coffee or specialty coffee. The latter is more difficult to produce, but also more profitable.

If you're going the specialty route, it may even be fruitful (hah!) to get in contact with content creators. They usually have useful contacts in the industry, and they might be willing to connect you.

In any case, try to get in touch with European roasters, as they usually value traceability and prefer to roast single origin coffees.

Best of luck! And enjoy the journey.

Oh, and if you had your first batch, please drop me a message. I know a few local roasters (Germany) that may be interested in new sources. :-)

Welcome to farming, it's a continuous learning curve and like everything, be mindful of those who sell snake oil.

The next few years should see coffee prices increase due to the losses this year in South America due to the prolonged / unexpected frosts.

All I could find for a starting point. This might not be totally applicable to your region, but I'd suggest you seek out coffee growers association in your area for further advice. Best of luck.

https://agrifutures.com.au/wp-content/uploads/publications/1...

https://www.agrifarming.in/coffee-growing-information-beginn...

Be sure to give people their favorite gift on their birthday to increase your relationship quickly.

You've had advice to hire a farm manager; and research roasting.

Nobody so far has mentioned the processing. Roasting is for roasteries; that's not really the farmer's business. But in most coffee-growing areas, the farmers organize into collectives, with shared processing facilities. A lot of the distinctive characters of coffees are the result of the way the cherries are processed. Since the collective's output is all mixed together, it's not single-estate; I assume that sales are handled by the collective, not by individual farmers.

Maybe there isn't a processing collective in your area; perhaps you could launch a processing facility, and encourage your neighbours to have a go.

I inherited a farm as well as a listed manor attached to it. I'm in the process of selling the manor and much of the fields after 10+ years of looking for a buyer. Here's my .02:

1. You should not feel obliged to continue your father's work. You're a different person and I'm sure your father would prefer you to be happy above the farm staying in the family. If you think selling the land is a better option, do it. If you built your own career, don't sacrifice it for the farm.

2. Consider leasing it. I'm in the EU so I get subsidies (even if there's nothing there but grass), plus a lease from people who want to actually grow something there.

Hey I think the best bet is to reach out to some people in the gourmet coffee bean space who are trustworthy. Like some coffee-roasters who you've been buying from for years who have dealt with farm-to-table approach. With some vetting you can probably get some worthy deal going.

Off the top of my head I can think of a couple of places in New York that I believe are ran by diligent people. I could probably point you to their direction if that's of interest, but I am in no way affiliated nor interested in getting into that kind of business, just would love to see such a resource not go to waste.

Farming is hard, and margins are low. Coffee is also labor-intensive.

What I'd do is find a local farmer in the area and lease it to them. You can probably set up something where they pay you something like 25% of the crop for rent.

Depends on where it is, and what your ambitions are, but you can potentially make an awful lot more from agritourism (think vineyard hotels) than you can from agriculture directly, which is a brutal business in general.

If your spanish is decent, just go to any country in south america and find a farmer/owner. Farms aplenty out of every major metro about 1-2 hours from the metro, in every direction. A quick google will help you find the regions in every country where coffee is grown, or maybe even google maps.

They will gladly talk to you for hours and show you the ropes. If they like you they will give you carte blanche to come in to the property unannounced and speak to their employees, anytime.

Because in the end, its possible you buy their plants or seeds, and many farmers make money from that too.

Lots of people saying "sell it" vs "keep it". But OP was only looking for advice on farming. Not financial advice.

My guess is there are coffee farms nearby. If so, lean on a local experts advice.

A friend of mine had a similar situation. They retained a few acres around their ancestral home and run a homestay during tourist season.

The bulk of the land was leased out to a large coffee company on a multiyear lease.

Familiarize with Fair Trade practices (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fair_trade_coffee), get in contact with other bean growers, like Equal Exchange as someone else mentioned. Consider operating as a co-op where the workers are actually owners too. I get the sense this industry is pretty fraught with worker abuse problems regardless but at least try to be on the right side of things.

You might look into "Syntropic" agriculture and "Permaculture". The basic idea is to mimic natural ecosystems with agriculturally productive plants and animals.

https://agendagotsch.com/en/what-is-syntropic-farming/

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Permaculture

Farming is about sales and marketing.

My FIL bought two farms as a hobby, and he essentially has two choices: selling to middlemen for peanuts or going direct-to-consumer. DTC is problematic for obvious reasons - you have to do last-mile delivery and "how do people buy when they don't know what's available."

Middlemen buy low from you so they can sell high from someone else, and have market-making ability.

So before you do anything, try to figure out who you're going to sell these crops to.

If you have the money, hire an expert grower and pay them a salary. Have them manage the plantation and the migrant workers.

That’s it. Keep it simple. No partnership. No business deals. A simple employee arrangement.

That’s basically step one. However, it will free up your time to find a buyer for the beans when it’s time to harvest them and sell them. Rinse and repeat.

Sell it. It's going to be a massive drag on your life until you're up to speed (easily a decade) and won't make enough money to be worth it.

If there isn't a massive attachment to the land, that's what I would do. Bona fides: I manage a 7th generation family cork farm that I will one day inherit and promptly sell.

Talk to the folks at Sweet Maria's (https://www.sweetmarias.com/) in Oakland, CA if possible. They work with coffee farmers all over the world. I'm sure they can find someone in the immediate area that can help.

i am sure people have already reached out to you, but my wife and i managed a large plantation, permaculture (more work, better for the environment ((sustainable)))- in Nicaragua (Masaya area). We are looking to relocate from Berlin, and this could be an idea. send me a message to bigmusicshoe@gmail.com

Can I come stay and help out? I also know nothing about coffee other than it’s delicious. Maybe you could turn it into a bit of a learning experience and document your journey as part of marketing. I’m a writer and can do video production and socials so could help with that.

Where is it located? Is it a region that has experience growing coffee? Because perhaps you can link up with a coffee distributor or a fellow farmer and get their advice. Also to be clear unless the coffee is in a warm high grown area, or on an island, it may not be worth a lot.

I know someone a few years ago was trying to start a trade in coffee leaves, to help better annualize income from coffee plantations. Apparently you can use them like tea leaves.

Haven't heard much about that since. Anyone know what I'm talking about?

Lease it to someone who knows what they're doing, is able to make a living as a farmer, and wants to take care of the land, as opposed to trash it. You're in a much better position to be a good landlord than you are to be a good farmer.

Contact a direct-to-farm coffee distributor like PT’s Coffee and ask them if they know anyone who can help you evaluate and manage it or sell it to a co-op. At the very least, they will find it interesting that you thought to ask them :)

I dont know where you live, but goverments like Brazil and UK, normally have courses and conselours to help new farmers settle in. If you leave in the us is problably something in the state level. Try call the local city hall.

I was really worried this post was going to be about selling it so I came by to say don’t!

I don’t have any answers about how to make coffee but two thoughts:

* start a brr.fyi blog about it, we love that here

* if Jason Mraz can do it, so can you!

Hacker News Coffee Blend. Got a ring to it. Sure a few of us in here will buy a bag or 10 if you manage to get this going. Hire someone, setup a blog so we can follow pls and good luck!

Lol I replied and forgot you can’t DM on HN. If you want to reach out (see my other comment) drop me a line here and we can figure out a way to get in direct contact.

I actually know a family with a small coffee plantation. I can put you in touch if you’re interested. Let me know and we can figure out a way to contact each other securely.

I cannot provide advice but I would like to follow along in your journey to learn as you learn. Consider a blog or vlog, I am happy to contribute financially. Best wishes.

I'd diversify the plantation with many fruit trees, you get some seasonal workers (who collect and sell at market). As a fruitarian, I'd love to be in your position

Look into selling the coffee cherry husks after debeaning them.

Read “Teaming with Microbes” and other books in the series.

Make sure it is used in full capacity! If you don't, even more forests will certainly be cut down to satisfy growing coffee demand in e.g. Asia.

This is similar to the plot of the game Hundred Days. It's wine, instead of coffee, but I guess you can pull some inspiration from that.

Coffee is a weird crop. 8000 trees is probably about 8 or 10 acres, and you're not going to be able to work that yourself.

Where you at? Hawaii?

Well I would find someone with knowledge, maybe on the old side, and hire them, and if good pay them well. They can then teach you.

I don't think asking here is the best idea

There is serious money in roasting and selling good coffee. Think vertically. Supply yourself beans and roast in rich locations!

If it was me, I would focus on the business side, not the farming side.

Farming is extremely labor intensive and largely a commodity business. Marketing and branding are largely where profits are made in the beverage business.

As an example of a recent successful high grow beverage company, take a look at Liquid Death, which turned a low budget AD into a billion dollar company within years:

https://youtube.com/watch?v=iXjhNZlqexs

Who’s currently running the plantation? You need to hire someone who knows farming if you don’t already have such a person.

I noticed your trees are 60% Robusta and wanted to address the suggestions about targeting boutique coffee houses and higher-end customers: I doubt very much Robusta will be sought after.

My understanding is that market for Robusta may be only for instant coffee production or to adulterate Arabica to make cheaper. I've only rarely seen Robusta sold green and there's good reason for that: it's distinctly unpleasant by itself.

Is selling the coffee the only business model you can execute?

How about events hosting? Weddings, parties, trainings, etc.

Whereabouts is this? I work with farmers and I may be able to put you onto someone who can help

You could simply do nothing with it and let nature take back the land. Natural restoration.

One important question, Do you want to do it?

If not then sell or rent it to someone who does. Do what you want

you need a farm manager with experience managing operations of this size, in this region, with this crop. good luck finding one who is trustworthy.

aforesaid manager is also a person who would be essential if and when you choose to sell this farm.

I played hundreds of hours of farm simulator.

just spend 2mi on machinery and you should be good to go.

Best thing is to profit share with a farmer. When you make money they make money.

This is such an odd post for HN and it got real attention. What gives?

disclaimer: no farming experience

If I got that, I'd look into either sell it flat-out, or try and run it as a company..

disclaimer 2: only had one company, was not terribly profitable

I'd try to hire someone in to run it for me

Amazing. No idea. If it were me I would hire someone experienced in both the growing, finance and marketing aspects of this. Then it becomes a question of how to pick someone good. You can be their apprentice.

It might be simpler to sell it to someone else though!

How much money and time do you have to burn to get it started?

One word: SimFarm

If you try, you’ll probably end up with locust swarms.

Serious suggestion: sharecrop it with a neighbor.

Get rid of it and invest the money

I’d sell it!

Sell it.