Farming & sustainability

One farm, several sources of income

Hardly any farm in the mountain area lives from one thing alone. That sounds like a stopgap, but it is the opposite: it is the way small farms have survived since time immemorial.

Accommodations on the farm Become a host
01 · Risk

Why one source of income is too little

A mountain farm has little land, a short growing season and steep slopes. It cannot win on quantity – lowland areas are too large and too cheap to farm for that. So it spreads the risk: livestock and milk, plus forest, plus a few products from the farm gate, plus winter road service or a trade, plus letting.

If one area fails for a year – a poor milk price, beetle-damaged timber, a rainy summer – the others carry it. A farm with a single source of income doesn't have this cushion.

02 · Logic

Letting is the same as the farm shop

Direct marketing and letting follow exactly the same calculation: you turn something you have anyway into an offer – and sell it without middlemen. At the farm shop it's the milk; with letting it's the empty Austragshaus (retirement cottage), the old hut on the Alm, the converted hayloft.

Neither brings quick riches. But both bring regular money from your own substance, without someone else taking the margin. And both only work if they are honest. How this looks legally when selling is covered in Direct marketing.

03 · Quantity

Even a few products are worth a lot

We often hear: “There’s almost nothing here – just eggs and sometimes Speck.” That is exactly the point where farms underestimate themselves.

A guest who has an egg in the pan in the morning from the hen behind the house talks about it at home. A guest who finds a piece of Speck on the table on arrival remembers it longer than the sauna. This experience doesn't need a product range. It needs a single product that is really from the farm.

Quantity doesn't count. Authenticity counts.

04 · Effect

That is exactly what guests want

When you book a hut, you're not just looking for a roof. You want to be somewhere where something happens that only exists here. A barn next door, a tractor in the morning, someone who tells you at the key handover why the meadow is being mowed right now.

For the farm

A second income

The hut is there anyway. Rented out, it helps carry the farm.

For the guest

A real place

Not a holiday park, but a working farm with an annual rhythm.

For both

The circle closes

The guest shops at the farm and reorders in winter.

05 · Matching accommodations

With these hosts, the farm is part of it

For hut owners

Frequently asked questions about letting as a source of income

Is it worth it with a single property?

Yes. One property, honestly described, brings more than three half-finished ones. We deliberately broker few huts and know each one ourselves.

I have no time for guests in summer.

Then you block the weeks when hay is being made. Setting time windows honestly is not a disadvantage – it prevents trouble on both sides.

Do I have to offer products?

No. If you have some, we add it to the listing – even just “eggs to order”. Otherwise nobody asks.

What about the regulations when selling?

For primary products it is simple; for processed goods separate rules apply. The overview is in Direct marketing.

Read on

Direct marketing

Why around 30,000 farms sell directly and what still counts as a primary product.

A building standing empty – and a few products of your own?

That's all it takes to start. It is still work, though, which is why we look together beforehand at what is realistic.

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