Hay Farmers getting out of farming

[Snobdds]

I know... put 30 lines of what you own in your signature line; that'll show him.

They should charge by the line for all the humble bragging...

 

[Steppenwolfe]

They should charge by the line for all the humble bragging...

And 682 posts in 26 days... Now that is something to brag about!

 

[ultrarunner]

If you don't have a street light, you are not a small town, Chris. You are off the grid.

What are you farming?

I’m in the city of Oakland and no street lights for the 200 or so homes in my neighborhood laid out in 1948 with zoning for horses…

 

[ultrarunner]

Farming and ranching will always attract those that did not go to college or a trade school.

Napa Vineyards would be the opposite… lots of UC Davis viticulture degrees in wine country.

 

[ultrarunner]

Dairy Farming runs deep in my family and the family farm mom born and raised passed down through generations and now no more farming…

Problem with Dairy is it is a 7day a week year round commitment and many simply say too much… my cousin got a job driving a city bus.. good pension, vacation and he still gets to live on the farm and sells a little timber and some land too with hay leased for little to neighbor that had son growing the business.

The old folks would turn over but they are long gone…

 

[Snobdds]

Napa Vineyards would be the opposite… lots of UC Davis viticulture degrees in wine country.

Cannabis too...

 

[deserteagle71]

Dairy Farming runs deep in my family and the family farm mom born and raised passed down through generations and now no more farming…

Problem with Dairy is it is a 7day a week year round commitment and many simply say too much… my cousin got a job driving a city bus.. good pension, vacation and he still gets to live on the farm and sells a little timber and some land too with hay leased for little to neighbor that had son growing the business.

The old folks would turn over but they are long gone…

I hear you! Grew up on a dairy farm; when I got drafted I was amazed that even in the Navy I got days off...and they didn't roust me out of bed until 5:30 in the morning! That spoiled me - no way could I live as a dairy farmer.

 

[sree251]

Too many folk think that farmers/ranchers just sit around all day and somehow, magically, the seeds get planted/weeded etc, cows get fed/watered and doctored up all by themselves so all we have to do is ride around in our tractor to the bank and get paid. Go to a row cropper or cattle farm/ranch people are working long hours 7 days a week. Funny thing about farming, weekends are just like weekdays, animals still need feeding. Crops still need tending.

I hear you but MossRoad has those figures on farm incomes. You don't think his info is legit?

 

[ultrarunner]

Had a cousin that was a big draw for local organic vegetables and had set up in hot houses...

Had a good run for about 25 years but with organic everywhere the margins squeezed and shut it down... they also now enjoy weekends without farmers markets... etc.

The flip side is during the Depression when city folks were in food lines the farm family always had food and a roof over their head... "Subsistence Farming"

 

[MossRoad]

I always wondered how they did ditches in the flat lands. Do you have to use pump houses to move the water or is there enough pitch in the land to move the water by gravity?

This area of Indiana and Illinois used to be the largest wetland marsh in the United States. In the mid 1800's the Grand Kankakee Marsh was drained, and the Kankakee River was straightened. There's not much of a drop in elevation from the middle of northern Indiana to well into Illinois. There are no pump houses or dams. The water just very slowly moves to the southwest. It's a very interesting history.

A Look Back: Kankakee Marsh was largest inland wetlands in U.S.

For thousands of years, the Kankakee River meandered from the area that would in time become South Bend across the northwest corner of Indiana and into Illinois. This lazy river nurtured the largest inland wetlands in the United States — the Grand Kankakee Marsh. Before European settlement...

www.southbendtribune.com