The Life of a Custom Mowing contractor

[sixdogs]

My first choice would be soil testing and then commercial fertilizers, or manure.

Ground around here is almost always rented with a written fertility clause. A soil test at the beginning of the lease, copies of what and when fertilizer is applied and a reckoning soil test when the person no longer rents the land. Also, rents are written that weeds must be controlled because that can be an expensive problem.

With $260+ bushel corn ground here, it wouldn't take long to deplete $1,000 an acre in lost nutrition.

You can get a sample lease on line from your state ag or fed'l ag dept.

 

[Hay Dude]

I don’t know how farming pencils out anymore. I mean it kinda does for me, but not by much. The rent prices for land are insane. I’m not paying anything right now for hay. Nobody asks for much except a little help when they need it, which I’m happy to give.


Farmers around MY area seem to come from 3 different camps (the family farm is barely hanging on).

1. Operations where sons inherited a crap ton of money from Dads family farm and spun the money into a large scale operation of Fendt & Krone equipment I could only dream of.

or

2. Operations that get by on older equipment, some stuff thats like 40+ years old and seem to hang in there.

or

3. Operations where you farm 30-40 hours per week and work at something else another 20-30 hours per week.

I’m a #3

 

[Hay Dude]

Ground around here is almost always rented with a written fertility clause. A soil test at the beginning of the lease, copies of what and when fertilizer is applied and a reckoning soil test when the person no longer rents the land. Also, rents are written that weeds must be controlled because that can be an expensive problem.

With $260+ bushel corn ground here, it wouldn't take long to deplete $1,000 an acre in lost nutrition.

You can get a sample lease on line from your state ag or fed'l ag dept.

Corn is rough on soil.

 

[LouNY]

I don’t know how farming pencils out anymore. I mean it kinda does for me, but not by much. The rent prices for land are insane. I’m not paying anything right now for hay. Nobody asks for much except a little help when they need it, which I’m happy to give.


Farmers around MY area seem to come from 3 different camps (the family farm is barely hanging on).

1. Operations where sons inherited a crap ton of money from Dads family farm and spun the money into a large scale operation of Fendt & Krone equipment I could only dream of.

or

2. Operations that get by on older equipment, some stuff thats like 40+ years old and seem to hang in there.

or

3. Operations where you farm 30-40 hours per week and work at something else another 20-30 hours per week.

I’m a #3

About the same up here, unfortunately.

 

[Hay Dude]

I’m not kidding when I tell you there’s a guy down here that farms a decent amount of ground with 60’s vintage Internationals with metal seats, no AC, no 4wd, nothing. Now he’s pushing 70+ and prolly figures no sense in “upgrades”, but man o man, that’s hell on the human body….

 

[dodge man]

My in laws farm, pretty much just my brother in law, my father in law is about 85. Mostly rented ground for corn, soybeans and some winter wheat. A few cattle also. They used to raise feeder pigs but that market went belly up. It is a tough business but they seem to get by.

 

[Molalla1]

I manage a 210 acre property.

I catch hunter on the property and I told him he had to go he was trespassing.

He said, "If the property is not posted, then anyone can hunt it."

I replied, "No one can enter another person's property without their permission, trespassing signs or not."

Where has the respect for property owner rights gone?

The respect for my property comes from my son, 6'5" around 250 lbs of bad a$$ . . .

 

[Hay Dude]

Moving along now. I’m about 3/4 done.

Above: The gate you see in the will become usable again. This, along with the new found visibility, will be a big help to me in moving big square bales across the street.

Above:
The owner asked me to leave a few decent trees if possible. I have found a cedar and a dogwood (much further down) that are still halfway straight. I de-vined them and trimmed them up best as I possibly could.

Below: Looking back the opposite direction

Below: The Stihl “bluetooth” helmet is a Godsend. It’s protective and being able to listen to enjoyable podcasts & talkshows helps you forget the stickers and vines.

 

[EddieWalker]

That's a lot of work, but what is catching my eye is all the wire on those power poles!!!! OMG, they have set some sort of record for the most wire possible on a power pole.

 

[Hay Dude]

That's a lot of work, but what is catching my eye is all the wire on those power poles!!!! OMG, they have set some sort of record for the most wire possible on a power pole.

And 1/2 of it don’t work!