News: farmers killing themselves in staggering numbers

[ovrszd]

This past year was really bad here. High input costs. Low cooddity prices. Crop failure due to drought. No row crop farmer here covered their input costs.

In a month they will pick themselves up. Bring their equipment out of the machine shed. Make needed repairs. Plant a crop. Mortgaged to the maximum. No minimum wage. No employer health care. They are eternal optimists. Strongest segment of society in my State.

 

[ruffdog]

Article today in the paper about the drop in small dairy farms...Rock Co, WI dairy farms in 1975=620.....2019=76 Walworth Co, WI 1975=499.....2019=61

 

[300UGUY]

The number of farmers is getting very small. The size of farms keeps going up. I don’t see that stopping. Vertical integration has taken over the chicken, egg, hog, and now dairy industries. Row crop operations aren’t getting any smaller either. My county had the most dairy farms in the state in the 70’s. I think it’s down to 2. One organic with 25 cows? And one with 4,000 cows. You could put all the farmers in the county in a pretty small room. I doubt it’s a dozen. The old days when you could start farming with a little money and hard work are gone. Now you need education, and a pretty big wallet. The small guys are going to continue to be pushed out.

 

[JamesHW]

We know a young couple who started a small organic market garden growing a great variety of produce on 5 rented acres near to us (exact same soil type as us) and built a following resulting in something like 100 CSA’s that had the effect of locking in their income going forward. They also participate in a couple of well attended farmers markets on the nearby affluent community where they do very well. A couple of years ago they managed to purchase their own place farther north while continuing to provide for their existing customers and they continue to do well. Their not getting rich and work very hard but undeniably are succeeding with their goals.

 

[atsah]

Little profit isn't the only thing that is making farms go away, it's also the fact that the younger generation has no interest in farming. They would rather do something in one of the less manual labor sectors and make more steady money in doing so.

Farming is not for your average I pad, texting, facebook, video gaming twitter types, and we have more of them than we need nowadays..

 

[Citydude]

Check out the "Millennial Farmer" on you tube. He and his father have a large farm in Minnesota. He's pretty entertaining.

 

[ovrszd]

The chances of a young man/woman not raised on a farm getting into farming is extremely small and rare. Thus we have family farms and they get bigger with each added generation.

 

[atsah]

Not here, the older guys running the farms are running them with hired help because there sons are off doing other things.

 

[ovrszd]

Not here, the older guys running the farms are running them with hired help because there sons are off doing other things.

And that's exactly how family farms get bigger.

 

[ArlyA]

Quite true and this is nothing new. About 1/2 of my family operate farms and that's where I came from and no shock, they are not getting smaller... Do note, all industries get smaller in time, that is, have fewer people working in them. How many desktop computer manufacturers where there in 1990?

The chances of a young man/woman not raised on a farm getting into farming is extremely small and rare. Thus we have family farms and they get bigger with each added generation.