Hay Farmers getting out of farming

[3 Horse Ranch]

Farmers don't ever get a break. And they get whacked every which way every time Mother Nature has a tantrum.

I knew a Baptist pastor who used to farm a section in Idaho. One year he was having a tough go financially and decided to not buy crop insurance. As a result, he lost his farm when hail destroyed his crop and decided to go to seminary. He was the son of a Baptist pastor; he joked that people from his home church said that he had looked at the clouds and saw the letters P.C. and thought it meant "plant corn" instead of preach Christ.

 

[hosspuller]

I have about 15 acres of grass and can't find anybody reliable to cut and bale it, not even when I tell them they can take the hay for free. I literally can't give it away.

The usual issue is location. Having to transport equipment to a far field is losing proposition. Compound that with weather, getting the bales made and stored. Lastly, is the grass worth the effort? Weeds and usual field grass isn't worth much nutrition wise.

I bought the equipment to hay about ten acres. It feeds my horses.

 

[Hay Dude]

Our kids are being indoctrinated away from being a country hick. Farming use to be a matter of pride: the homestead on the frontier. Living close to the land. Living in the city hollows out the human soul.

Farmers have gotten a bad rap lately. I just read a thread here last week and some joke said he thought “all farmers were in the bag (drunk) by 5pm”. With people thinking that about us AND low pay/high expenses, its no wonder we cant get youth on board.

 

[HayFarmer]

And grass hay farmers dont get gov assistance anyway. I never took a dime of crop assistance. My state allows me a sales tax break on farm machinery and to register a truck at a farm vehicle, about a 50% break in vehicle registration.

My only "government assistance" is the same as yours, minus the vehicle registration discount. However, I hope to bake for another 20 years I'll be 72. Just bought a $20,000 money, in October.

 

[Hay Dude]

My only "government assistance" is the same as yours, minus the vehicle registration discount. However, I hope to bake for another 20 years I'll be 72. Just bought a $20,000 money, in October.

So thats how you are supplementing farm income??? BAKING!

 

[Hay Dude]

Our kids are being indoctrinated away from being a country hick. Farming use to be a matter of pride: the homestead on the frontier. Living close to the land. Living in the city hollows out the human soul.

Now thats called “_____ trash”, “hick”, “deplorable”, “redneck” and worse….
Its really sad to see.

 

[JDZ735M]

My only "government assistance" is the same as yours, minus the vehicle registration discount. However, I hope to bake for another 20 years I'll be 72. Just bought a $20,000 money, in October.

Maybe you hit 'post reply' too soon but I can't understand your point at all.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Anyone seeing this at an increasing rate?
CL ads everywhere around here with farmers selling out/retiring, etc.
Seems like this sunami of high input prices (fuel, fertilizer, et al) may be the final nail?
Talked to a buddy last week running 1600 acres of hay in a neighboring state and he said “I’m done”
He has already sold his Magnums and self propelleds

Haying is a big deal up in my neck of the woods. I have not seen a slowdown. What I have seen is that hay prices have gone way, way up. But my local cattlemen try to do as much haying as they can for themselves and the hay that is sold tends to go to those folks with pasture pets.

 

[sea2summit]

And grass hay farmers dont get gov assistance anyway. I never took a dime of crop assistance. My state allows me a sales tax break on farm machinery and to register a truck at a farm vehicle, about a 50% break in vehicle registration.

CRP would be the only thing you might get…

 

[sea2summit]

Really? Government has no role in tending to the security of the nation? I am for a free market but I am not a mindless ideologue who will stand by and allow the farming industry get decimated by one thing or another. The younger generation is drifting away from the tough life on the farm. Shall we watch that happen? Or should we launch an initiative to stem that tide? There are initiatives to save the environment. How about one to save the farming industry as a matter of national security?

Explain please exactly how you jump from crop subsidies to national security? Take them away, reduce regulations to a common sense level, and let free market take over and you’ll save the farmer.