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Software engineering is usually the more predictable, lower-capital path; farming can produce higher business income at commercial scale but carries much greater exposure to land, equipment, markets, weather, and debt. In May 2025, U.S. software developers had a median annual wage of $135,980, while the median U.S. farm household recorded -$1,830 in farm income in 2024. That negative farm figure does not mean every farm loses money: commercial family farms had median farm income of $174,933, and farm households also reported median off-farm income of $86,900.
The practical choice is therefore not “which occupation has the bigger number?” It is whether you prefer an employee wage and collaborative computer work, or ownership of a land-based enterprise with variable returns and substantial operational responsibility. The startup gap is equally wide: an illustrative 5–15-acre vegetable operation budgeted about $39,700 with used equipment or $94,000 with new equipment, while a modern grain operation may require roughly $750,000 in equipment spread across 1,200–1,500 acres.
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1Clear out junk files and repair common Windows errors2Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minute3Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsWhat is the fairest way to compare software engineering and farming?
Compare a software developer’s employee compensation with a farm’s business and household results, not with a fictional “farm salary.” The U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) publishes wages for an occupation. The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports farm income, off-farm income, and total household income across very different farm sizes and business types.
| Measure | Software engineering | Farming |
|---|---|---|
| Primary benchmark | Software-developer employee wage | Farm-business and farm-household income |
| Latest figure in the cited data | $135,980 median annual wage, May 2025 (BLS) | -$1,830 median farm income across all U.S. farm households, 2024 (USDA) |
| Upper/lower distribution detail | 10th percentile below $82,460; 90th percentile above $214,670 (BLS, May 2025) | Commercial family farms: $174,933 median farm income (USDA, 2024) |
| Other household income | Not part of the occupational wage statistic | $86,900 median off-farm income and $102,748 median total farm-household income (USDA, 2024) |
| What the number represents | Pay for an employee occupation; it is not a guaranteed starting salary or contractor rate | Business results that can include expenses, losses, reinvestment, and income from other household members |
This distinction explains why a farm household can report a negative median farm result and still have six-figure total income. Many small farms are operated alongside jobs or other income sources, while commercial farms are a separate, more profitable segment.
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How much can a software engineer earn?
Software developers had a $135,980 median annual wage in May 2025, according to BLS. The published distribution puts the 10th percentile below $82,460 and the 90th percentile above $214,670. These figures are useful as an employee-income benchmark, but they do not promise that a new graduate, self-taught applicant, freelancer, or contractor will earn the median.
What the BLS benchmark includes
BLS describes most software developers as full-time workers. The work is generally performed in collaborative teams and commonly requires a bachelor’s degree. Employers may also hire candidates with other combinations of education and experience, but the occupational profile should not be read as proof that a short course automatically produces a $135,980 job.
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What you must spend before you are employable
Software engineering has no universal startup-price tag. Your entry costs may include a degree or self-directed training, a computer, software and cloud services, internet access, and months of practice building demonstrable skills. The BLS source establishes the typical degree requirement but does not publish one standard dollar amount for becoming job-ready.
The financial structure is nevertheless comparatively simple: you are usually buying skills and time, then applying for an employer role. You are not required to purchase farmland, production equipment, livestock, seed inventory, or a complete transport system before you can apply for a job.
Why do farm-income numbers look so different from developer wages?
Farm income is a profit measure, not a wage. It reflects revenue after business expenses and can be negative in a given year. The USDA’s 2024 median of -$1,830 covers all U.S. farm households, including many small operations that depend on off-farm employment.
All farms versus commercial family farms
The commercial-family-farm figure is a different population. Those farms had median farm income of $174,933 in 2024, but that number should not be presented as a beginner’s expected income. Commercial scale, enterprise choice, acreage, market access, financing, and management capacity all change the result.
Why off-farm income matters
USDA reported median off-farm income of $86,900 and median total farm-household income of $102,748 in 2024. Off-farm wages, a spouse’s job, or other household earnings can support a farm while it is small, seasonal, or reinvesting in equipment. A comparison that uses only farm profit can therefore understate how a farm household actually pays its bills; a comparison that uses total household income can overstate what the farm itself earned.
How much money does it take to start farming compared with becoming a developer?
Software engineering usually requires a comparatively modest physical setup; farming can require tens of thousands of dollars for a small specialty operation and hundreds of thousands for mechanized grain production. The figures below are illustrations, not universal quotes.
| Path or example | Illustrative capital requirement | Conditions and limits |
|---|---|---|
| Software engineering | No universal total published by BLS | Costs can include degree or training, computer, software, connectivity, and time; the amount depends on your education route and existing equipment |
| 5–15-acre vegetable farm, used-equipment scenario | About $39,700 | University of Maryland Extension illustrative budget, 2021; enterprise-specific estimate |
| 5–15-acre vegetable farm, new-equipment scenario | About $94,000 | University of Maryland Extension illustrative budget, 2021; replacing used equipment with new equipment |
| Modern grain operation | About $750,000 of equipment | University of Maryland Extension illustration, 2021; spread over roughly 1,200–1,500 acres |
The vegetable examples show why “starting a farm” is too broad to price. A small direct-market vegetable business and a mechanized grain operation use different machinery, acreage, labor, storage, and transport systems. Used equipment can reduce fixed costs, but it may increase repair needs or limit capacity.
Land is a separate decision from equipment
You can lease, rent, or purchase land, and each route changes the cash you need up front and the control you have over the site. USDA identifies access to land and access to capital as probably your biggest challenges. A plan that prices only a tractor or greenhouse is incomplete if it does not establish secure land access and a way to pay living expenses while production ramps up.
What a complete farm budget must include
USDA’s planning guidance calls for costing:
- Land access, whether leased, rented, or purchased
- Equipment, buildings, irrigation, and other fixed assets
- Labor, including hired help and the operator’s own time
- Production inputs such as seed, livestock, feed, fertilizer, and crop-protection materials
- Transport, storage, processing, and sales costs
- Household living expenses during the startup period
- Interest, loan payments, insurance, taxes, and a reserve for operating risk
The budget should show whether projected revenue can cover operating costs, family living costs, and loan obligations. If it cannot, you need a smaller launch, more outside income, additional capital, a different enterprise, or a delayed start.
How can a beginning farmer finance the operation?
USDA’s Farm Service Agency (FSA) programs can finance farmland, structures, seed, livestock, equipment, operating expenses, and family living expenses, subject to program rules and eligibility. Financing does not remove risk: it converts part of the startup burden into repayment obligations that continue when yields, prices, or weather are unfavorable.
Questions to answer before borrowing
- What exactly will the loan buy? Separate land, buildings, equipment, operating inputs, and household living needs instead of combining them into one vague startup figure.
- What revenue assumption supports repayment? Use realistic yields, prices, sales volumes, and timing. Identify which assumptions are uncertain.
- What happens in a weak year? Show how you will pay debt and household bills if production is delayed, prices fall, or equipment fails.
- Who will perform the work? Include your own labor, hired labor, seasonal help, and management time.
- What market is already available? A crop or livestock plan is not a business plan until you know who will buy, at what quality and price, and how the product will reach them.
USDA’s guidance recommends a written business plan and asks whether projected income will cover operating, living, and loan costs. Treat that test as a financing gate, not paperwork to complete after you buy assets.
How to account for equipment beyond the purchase price
The University of Maryland Extension uses the “DIRTI-5” framework for fixed ownership costs: depreciation, interest, repairs, taxes, and insurance. These costs sit alongside fuel, labor, supplies, storage, and other operating expenses. A used machine may lower the purchase price while still creating substantial repair, downtime, or replacement risk.
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Software development is generally full-time, computer-based, and collaborative. Farming requires direct responsibility for production and business operations, with schedules shaped by the enterprise, season, climate, hired labor, and whether the operator also holds an off-farm job.
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Software engineering work structure
- Work setting: Screen-based work performed with a team, using code, documentation, testing, project tools, and meetings.
- Income timing: An employee normally receives an agreed wage or salary rather than waiting for a harvest or sale.
- Role boundaries: Your employer generally owns the business assets and carries the company’s sales, financing, and market risk; your responsibility is the role you are hired to perform.
- Geographic options: A computer-based role can offer more location flexibility than land-dependent production, although the actual policy depends on the employer.
Farming work structure
- Operational responsibility: You coordinate land, inputs, machinery, labor, maintenance, compliance, sales, and financing, not just the production task you enjoy most.
- Schedule: Planting, harvest, livestock care, weather, equipment breakdowns, and customer commitments can make the work seasonal or unpredictable.
- Physical and environmental exposure: Outdoor production adds physical demands and exposure to weather, pests, disease, and conditions outside your control.
- Business ownership: You control more decisions, but you also absorb more consequences when a market, crop, machine, or loan assumption fails.
USDA’s beginning-farmer definition emphasizes “substantial day-to-day labor and management of the farm or ranch.” Buying land and hiring occasional help does not automatically make the lifestyle hands-off.
Which path offers more predictable income?
Software engineering offers the clearer income ladder because BLS provides an employee wage distribution and most developers work full time. Farming income is inherently more variable: the result depends on enterprise economics, scale, prices, yields, operating costs, capital structure, and the share of household income earned off the farm.
| Constraint | Software engineering | Farming |
|---|---|---|
| Income predictability | Higher for an employee with a stated wage; still affected by hiring conditions and job changes | Lower; profit varies with production, prices, costs, and timing of sales |
| Capital dependence | Education or training, computer, software, and time | Land access, equipment, buildings, inputs, labor, transport, and working capital |
| Location | Usually more flexible because work is computer-based; employer policy controls the details | Land and infrastructure are essential, so location is a core business constraint |
| Schedule control | Defined by employer projects, meetings, and work policies | More ownership control but less ability to ignore weather, livestock, harvest, or customer deadlines |
| Physical exposure | Primarily screen-based and sedentary | Physical production, machinery, weather, and environmental risk |
| Responsibility | Usually a defined technical role within an organization | Production plus sales, financing, maintenance, compliance, labor, and risk management |
Should you choose software engineering or farming first?
Choose software engineering first when your priority is a comparatively clear salary path, lower physical-capital requirements, and the ability to work for an employer. Choose farming first when you genuinely want to operate a land-based enterprise and already have a credible plan for land, capital, markets, labor, and living expenses.
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Software engineering is the stronger first choice when you:
- Need dependable personal income before taking on business debt
- Prefer computer-based, collaborative work to physical production
- Want to build skills without first acquiring land and machinery
- Value geographic flexibility more than control over an enterprise
- Are willing to meet the typical degree expectation or invest substantial time in an alternative skills path
Farming is the stronger first choice when you:
- Have verified land access rather than only an aspiration to buy land later
- Can document a market, realistic production plan, labor plan, and financing source
- Accept variable business income and responsibility for assets and debt
- Want daily involvement in production and management
- Have enough household cash flow to withstand a slow or poor production year
When a hybrid path makes sense
Keeping software employment while testing a small farm enterprise can reduce the pressure to make the farm immediately replace a salary. It is only a sensible hybrid if the farm has a written budget, confirmed land, a defined market, adequate labor, and financing assumptions that still work when your software job limits your available hours.
- Write the farm business plan before purchasing equipment.
- Confirm land terms, water, access, zoning or other applicable requirements, and the production calendar.
- Identify customers and sales channels, then estimate realistic volume and price.
- Price labor, transport, storage, repairs, insurance, taxes, financing, and household living costs.
- Start at a scale that matches your available time and cash reserve.
- Review actual revenue and costs after each production cycle before expanding acreage or debt.
What mistakes make this comparison misleading?
- Calling $135,980 a guaranteed entry salary: It is the BLS median for the occupation in May 2025, not a promise to a new graduate or contractor.
- Calling -$1,830 the income of every farmer: It is the 2024 median farm income across all farm households, a population that includes many small farms.
- Using $174,933 as a beginner forecast: That is the 2024 median for commercial family farms, not a typical first-year result.
- Comparing household income with an individual wage: Farm-household totals can include off-farm earnings from one or more household members.
- Pricing only the purchase of equipment: Depreciation, interest, repairs, taxes, insurance, labor, inputs, transport, and living costs continue after the purchase.
- Assuming one acreage number fits every farm: A 5–15-acre vegetable enterprise and a 1,200–1,500-acre grain operation have fundamentally different capital and labor models.
- Starting without a repayment test: USDA’s planning question is whether projected income covers operating, living, and loan costs. If the answer is unclear, the business is not ready for more debt.
What should you do before making the decision?
Make two five-year budgets using the same household assumptions. For software engineering, list training time and costs, equipment, likely entry-level compensation, taxes, and the time needed to reach employability. For farming, list land, equipment, production, labor, transport, financing, living costs, and a downside scenario; then separate farm profit from off-farm household income.
After that, test the lifestyle rather than relying on an imagined version of either career. Build a real software project and speak with employers about the skills they require. For farming, work through a production season, confirm who will buy the output, and validate the budget with an extension adviser or qualified agricultural lender. The better choice is the one whose financial and daily-work constraints you can accept for several years, not the one with the most attractive single headline number.
Frequently Asked Questions
What does USDA mean by a “beginning farmer”?
For USDA and Natural Resources Conservation Service purposes, participation requires material and substantial involvement, including substantial day-to-day labor and management of the farm or ranch. The term therefore describes active operating responsibility, not simply owning agricultural land or investing in someone else’s farm.
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There is no defensible universal acreage target. Required scale changes with the enterprise, yield, selling price, input costs, equipment model, labor, debt, and whether the household also earns off-farm income. The cited examples range from a 5–15-acre vegetable budget to a 1,200–1,500-acre grain equipment model, illustrating why acreage alone cannot answer the question.
What is the DIRTI-5 test for farm equipment?
DIRTI-5 is a reminder to count depreciation, interest, repairs, taxes, and insurance as ownership costs. It prevents a budget from treating the purchase price as the entire cost of owning a machine.
Can leasing farmland reduce the money needed to start?
Leasing can avoid the purchase price of land, but it does not eliminate production, equipment, labor, transport, or living costs. The lease term, renewal terms, site improvements, water access, and security of tenure should be included in the business plan before you commit capital.
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