Everything to Know About Starting a Hobby Farm in Ontario

Dreaming of starting a hobby farm in Ontario, gathering fresh eggs each morning, growing your produce, or raising a few animals on your land? Increasingly, Ontarians are embracing hobby farming—not as a full-time business like traditional farming, but as a fulfilling lifestyle rooted in nature, sustainability, and self-sufficiency.

What is a Hobby Farm?

Not everyone knows what makes a ranch vs farm vs homestead – especially when it comes to hobby farms. So what is a hobby farm?

A small-scale farm, ranging from 1-50 acres of land, cultivated for lifestyle needs and domestic animal use in ways that promote self-sufficiency. Hobby farms tend to house smaller amounts of standardized/unique farm animals, ranging from cows and horses to the most common, chickens, as well as animals such as bees and ducklings. Other common activities include gardening and tree-planting as innovative methods of sustainable farming.

Who Are Hobby Farms Ideal For?

Owning a hobby farm is ideal for those starting a farm in ontario, to run a small-scale farming operation without the demands of commercialized farm work. Often these are young families, multigenerational families living together, and retirees.

Young Families

For those who want to provide their kids with a traditional upbringing and situate themselves in a rural setting, away from the chaos of city life.

Multigenerational Living Situations

Allows for budget friendly living where parents and grandparents can live together with their children. Offers a unique lifestyle that typically brings on a slower pace of life and one which is appealing due to the peace and quiet of farm living, balanced with the sense of purpose and self-fulfillment it can provide.

Newly Retirees

For those stepping away from the inner-city due to retirement or the crave for a different kind of lifestyle, hobby farming will provide you with just that. With lots to do to keep yourself busy and feeling rewarded for your work, owning and operating a hobby farm makes sense for those that are still chasing a get-up-and-go kind of lifestyle in their retired life.

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What to Look For When Buying a Hobby Farm?

So now, you might be feeling even more drawn to the idea of owning and operating your hobby farm! Let’s go over some of the key ways to look for the perfect property to call home! What to look for:

Size of Land

Normally, a hobby farm does not command a large amount of land because of the nature of its use. In most cases, anywhere within this 5-10 acre range will work if you are contemplating owning and housing animals.

However, where things get more complicated is when you begin to think about the future. If you plan on ripping out, expanding or renovating your home, if you anticipate changes in your living situation (wanting to have ADU’s, an Inlaw suite or guest house, an AirBnB on the property or might have family members moving in), you will want to think about these life changes as you are buying your farm.

More to that, you will also want to consider how many animals you intend on homing and the healthy amount of space required for those animals. This will be easy for small animals such as chickens or bees, but more challenging for larger farm animals like horses and cows.

Maybe, you will fall in love with farming and decide to start a business based on this passion, such as training and boarding horses, starting a small dairy operation, making maple syrup or starting a commercial garden. It may be hard to anticipate these lifestyle changes but they are important to consider regardless of your long-term concepts.

Soil Quality & Drainage

Soil quality will be key if you are considering gardening as a part of your hobby farm or even, using the land to cultivate crops. If this is the case, having the right kind of soil for your farming needs will be the determining factor of the land being the right move for you.

Drainage will also be an important factor for farms housing gardening facilities, used for small-scale crops (tree planting) or animal pens.

Existing Structures

More than just what exists– you will want to think about what could exist. If there are already auxiliary buildings on your farm, you may want to renovate or expand them for different uses. Other plans might include tearing them down to maximize your farmland or reimagining them differently.

If the structures are in good, solid condition, then using them for the purpose of rentable storage or for your own machinery and toys, may be the best use. Regardless, it’s important to see what’s already standing and think about the potential of you wanting more there.

Proximity to Water & Electricity

If you are planning on housing animals on your hobby farm, beyond how you are planning on creating a safe and comfortable habitat for them, you will want to think about how close your utilities are.

Water and electricity will undoubtedly be the most important considerations for raising and housing animals of various kinds. Your water source will have to be steady and safe to drink, which means if your water is drawn from a well, ensuring that the water is free of any harmful bacteria will be vital.

Future Expansion or Livestock

What tends to happen with many home owners who envision themselves owning and operating a hobby farm is with time, they will undertake more animals and larger farm responsibilities. What starts off as one project, will likely expand into many additions over time. Considering your long-term plans is key.

Factors such as if you are planning on having more children or having a child, whether you intend to keep multiple kinds of animals, if you are looking to expand your home or build outbuildings of various kinds or if your in-laws or parents may move in with you eventually? These are all the kinds of questions you will want to ask yourself as you are looking at properties.

Legal & Regulatory Considerations

These will all be the kinds of questions you will want to ask your Realtor as you are hunting for your forever farm!

What are the by-laws in the area surrounding farming?
What are the zoning restrictions and or any future zoning proposals?
Hobby farm property tax classifications and how is this going to affect me on a yearly basis?
Are there any livestock limits for that region?

These regulations will help you see into the size of operation you are permitted to operate as well as the kind of farming that is permitted within that area. If you are planning on creating your dream hobby farm, you will have to make sure you check in on logistics like these so that you are aware of the capacity of your plans before you begin.

Now let’s go over what starting a hobby farm looks like for most people:
Here are some of the most common features:

Chickens
Raised gardens and small-scale greenhouses
Small herd of goats or sheep
Fruit and vegetable gardens for the purpose of self-sufficiency

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Budgeting For Your Farm

Think about the initial setup when starting a farm and begin to plan out the things you need to add and or change to ensure that the set up is going to work for your lifestyle needs and your wish list. However, it isn’t just about the initial costs– it’s about maintenance. If you are planning on housing animals, you will have to factor in the costs of ongoing care including setting aside additional budget room for vet visits.

Equipment needs are another major cost factor– maintenance costs will be common when it comes to farm equipment, the same way you have to pay for your car to be fixed when something breaks. However, how much you have to pour into this is dependent on the amount of equipment your farm requires to function properly.

Making Local Connections

One thing about living in rural areas is that you are going to be surrounded by others who understand your needs and lifestyle as a hobby farm owner. The small-town feel of living slightly outside of the city allows you to make close connections with neighbouring homes.

Connecting to locals through the land, the food and the lifestyle will help you feel all the more at home. A great way to do this is to join community efforts– events such as town hall meetings, Sunday morning brunch at your local restaurant, heading over to your local weekend market in the morning, or visiting a neighbour’s produce stand.

These kinds of connections will help you feel at home.

Getting Started

Now the biggest takeaway is that contrary to what you might think, you do not have to be an expert to understand the ins and outs of starting a hobby farm. The best thing you can do is go into things with an open mind and give yourself enough time to decide if this is the right move for you.

More to that, speaking with a local Realtor who understands the market, your needs and can find the properties in your area that speak to the lifestyle you are after will help give you peace of mind and determine, early on, if owning and operating a hobby farm is the best option for you!