Man, that's a tough question. I'm a niche farmer and I'm hear to advise that farmers really don't make money, not unless they're doing huge acreage. Mother nature is brutal and will kick your ass every which way but Sunday. Even nursery ops are tough. An old RIU member's family lost their large nursery biz because of the poor state of the economy. Guess what I'm saying is "don't do it". Get you a well paying job, make some money, buy some land and hobby grow. That's what I do in addition to my niche farming. I grow outdoors and using a greenhouse. Regarding my ag farming, I'm ready to throw in the towel and will do so in a couple of years - I've taken enough of mother nature's beatings and when it comes to the cost of my inputs (fuel, chemicals, capital outlays, equipment, labor, etc.) there's no profit left.
Some of the farm advisors make good money but the jobs are few and far between. Grape growing in Texas can be profitable as there is not near enough grapes to begin to fill the Texas winery demand, but again, mother nature is brutal. For example, the Lubbock area and high plains area of west Texas has thousands of acres of grapevines but no grapes this year due to 3 hard freezes this spring. About a week ago our area got a nasty hailstorm. A friend just lost 5,000 newly planted grapevines....beat down to a pulp.
UB