How do farmers make any money?

[ultrarunner]

Some really are in the land business and farming/ranching covers the holding costs.

 

[Hay Dude]

Some really are in the land business and farming/ranching covers the holding costs.

Also keeps the taxes down and generates income while they sit on it

 

[Dryland Farmer]

You mention meat. Think about dairy. Just take what you pay per gallon of milk. The dairy farmers just get cents of that milk you bought. I think class III milk is around $20 per hundred weight currently. When I quit in the early 2000’s it was around $8. But probably cost $13 to make that 100 weight. Imagine the uproar if your food doubled just so the farmer could get a little more. We can’t have that though.

Correct me if I'm wrong but doesn't paying so little for milk still end up costing the consumers when dairy farmers that can't make it have to be subsidized.

 

[Hay Dude]

Pretty sure this will draw some fire, but so be it. I'm a crop farmer, corn and soybeans. Used to raise hogs from feeder to market.
There is good money made farming, and has been for at least the last 10 years. Before that it was still profitable, just not as much as now. That's why land is in demand and the price stays high. Crop insurance will take a lot of the gamble out of it. Sure, if you have new equipment and more than you need, you're going to have trouble staying afloat. If someone is actually having trouble, there is a reason for that, but it won't be made public here.

Agree. I also see farms where the adults who own it get dragged down by kids who keep crying for the biggest & baddest equipment.

Don't use YouTube for a barometer of the farm economy. Those guys need views to keep their money coming in their account, and nothing draws views like a doom and gloom story.

That’s right. The You Tube guys have to keep it interesting, or who’s gonna watch? Heck some of the women got some big taters to show off, just to keep you watching, too. Some of the others make up drama to make it seem like a reality show.

Like I said, if it was as bad as you're hearing, land would be cheap, but right now every land sale is a bidding war, and it's farmers bidding against each other with stupid-high bids.
It's no different than any other business, and you have to run it like a business, and be smart about it. Period.
But livestock guys earn every penny they make. But, again, if there wasn't money in it, they wouldn't be doing it.

Won’t draw any from me. I think you’re right on it.

 

[Dryland Farmer]

But livestock guys earn every penny they make. But, again, if there wasn't money in it, they wouldn't be doing it.

Another saying that fits ''if it was easy everyone would be doing it"

 

[Hay Dude]

Another saying that fits ''if it was easy everyone would be doing it"

Or
“From the road, farming looks easy. It isn’t”

 

[Hay Dude]

The concept of Farming comes pretty easy to me, but it is still hard to execute. I believe it is what God made me to do. It feels natural and I can do it 24/7 and still enjoy it.

 

[Dryland Farmer]

The concept of Farming comes pretty easy to me, but it is still hard to execute. I believe it is what God made me to do. It feels natural and I can do it 24/7 and still enjoy it.

I feel there is no other livelihood where you can feel the Lord's Hand on you successes and failures so profoundly as in farming. When you watch approaching storm clouds and know they can bring a much needed or crop damaging hail or wind, it brings into context how small your own contribution to you successes or failures, even knowing you gave it all you had. I can tell by how you always keep your farming and the Lord together you feel the same.

 

[RayIN]

He is living the old saying " keep on farming till it is all gone"
The guy is very wealthy and farms for fun.

Farming and fun don't fit in the same sentence.

 

[quicksandfarmer]

Two hundred years ago, roughly 90% of the workforce was in agriculture. Today it's about 3%. And they produce about ten times as much food. This change was brought about by an ongoing series of technological improvements.

But each technological improvement that increases productivity also decreases the amount of labor needed, and decreases the number of people employed in farming, and ultimately, the number of farmers. Farming has been like a game of musical chairs for at least the past 100 years, with each new advance in productivity a bunch of players have to leave the game.

At the same time, the technology requires capital. If you don't have the capital, you can either leave the game, or you can borrow money. But borrowing money increases the chances that one bad year could force you to be the next player to leave the game.