12:14:54pm, Saturday, May 18, 2024
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family farm
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Im just curious how many of you pullers out there are still on the family farm. And of those how many are still milking. I grew up on a dairy farm and it was a great life. We had to quit about 15 years ago when my dad was badly hurt in a farming accident and I was not old enough to take the farm over. We still cash crop and raise beef but its not the same. It pains me to see the slow death of the family farm around me (central Minnesota). At the time we got out there were around 25 small dairies within 10 square miles of us now there are 3. And next fall there will be one less I was told yesterday. Im just venting a little bit not trying to start a war but in not to many more years here it seems to me we aren't going to have any small farmers left its all going to be large scale factory farms. And im just as guilty as the rest but honestly who would want to bust their a$$ 7 days a week to maybe break even. On a farm of less than 100 milking cows anyways. If im wrong please correct me just looking for other peoples views on the matter too. |
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Re: family farm
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Registered: 01/19/2010 Posts: 260 |
I know what your talking about. In our township in Stearns county Minnesota we have 6 farms that milk. Only 2 are less than 100 cows. Times have changed a lot. But if you want to by 20 acres of crop land good luck. 1000 acres is considered small. |
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Re: family farm
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Registered: 03/13/2009 Posts: 220 |
My son has a 16 year old girl friend that lives on a 100 acre dairy farm that her and her mother runs. Her mom and dad got divorced a while back and her mother got the farm. They milk about 35 cows and seem to do very well. They have nice equipment and good cows. Alot of the cows milk over 100 lbs. They hire the planting and harvesting but do all their own ground preperation and round baling and wraping. A lot of times the girl milks all the cows herself while her mom is baling, working ground or hauling manure. They are both some real workers. Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 03/12/2014 01:06PM by J&R Machine. |
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Re: family farm
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Anonymous User
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We farm, but sold the cows in 2005. I miss those pain in the asses every day. But life moves on I guess |
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Re: family farm
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teat puller
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I am a dairy farmer in Wisconsin, in a ten mile radius there are maybe 6 dairy farms. I was talking to my wife (who was born a city girl) the other day about how when I was a little lad, on a warm spring night there was at least 4 or 5 tractors working in a field just in eye site. Now us and one other farm run all that land, many guys retired and others just got sick of the 7 days a week work. We are no factory farm have only a 160 cows and all of young stock here. I run the farm with help from my dad, and one hired man. All field work is done by us, and also do some custom work. The hours are long but very rewarding! I have two kids under 4 and another on the way, and I could not think of a better way to raise them. |
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Re: family farm
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Supertiquer
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Johnny, I have 2 questions. How old were you when your dad was hurt and is his soul still with us? |
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Re: family farm
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I had just turned 11 a few months before. And yes he is still with us. He fell down the silo chute from the very top after a door latch failed. About 45 feet we figured to the cement floor. He was bed ridden for 9 months with a shattered ankle on the right and shattered tibia and fibula (spelling?) on the left. He is able to walk again albeit with a bit of a limp. Looking back on it now I maybe could have tried to make a go of it but the sale of the dairy cows did help pay the medical bills. I wish I had filmed it now but he knocked that old silo down 10 years to the day after it happened. I still help out around the farm when I can and hopefully will be able to much more often now that im moving back closer to home. We have some beefers and do some cash cropping. And the occasional custom tillage. Im not saying any dairy going today is a factory. But there are more and more popping up as the smaller ones either sell out or just retire with no one to take over. I think about my grandpa being able to support a wife and 4 kids on a farm only milking at the most 46 in our old tie stall barn and it just feels like something is wrong with what it would take to do that today. Times are changing and always will just not always for the best. |
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Re: family farm
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Define family farm and factory farm. |
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Re: family farm
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ta da
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A family farm Is with out Mexicans. It's called do it your self or with your family. If you need more help then friends. Other wise you are a coop. It's sad but true and there are a lot of young people that cant even start because of this! |
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Re: family farm
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Some amish are factory farms. Think about it, the produce and sell a product direct to the consumer. Just because a farm has hired help doesn't mean it's a factory farm. Robots are the wave of the future! Pricey but with a good milk average it can be done. Too many farmers take out a high salary for their pay and like the shiney new toys in the field which is nice but spend some money on the cows if you're milking. Then some complain they can't make a go of dairying due to prices but have no problem spending a quarter million on pullers... |
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Re: family farm
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Registered: 01/27/2009 Posts: 48 |
So the bigger farms that are family owned but have some outside help are bad people because they run a better business then some others. its survival of the fittest folks I know of multiple 1000 plus dairy farms in our area that are all family farms with many generations all working together. |
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Re: family farm
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Anonymous User
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I am lucky enough to be able to work on the farm again full time. I have always helped my dad and as of just over a year agoe I was able to return to the farm full time. I just hope I am able to stay on the farm for the rest of my working life. |
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Re: family farm
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Registered: 01/27/2012 Posts: 28 |
When I was grade school age (1950's). A trip down my 12 mile long country road you would see a full time farm family every quarter mile. That number would be closer to two now. Homes are empty or torn down with no trace of a family working together to survive. A few new homes, on a acre or two, that are seen now, belong to full time town job workers that just want to feel a kinship to the country life of their ancestors. Progress has brought us a multitude of conveniences that make our lives easier, safer and healthier. I feel sorry for the young people today that will miss seeing a close friend every quarter mile on their way home! Just have to mark it all up as (evolution). |
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Re: family farm
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Anonymous User
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Here in upstate N.Y. where I live, there used to be 22 family farms, by my count, when I was groing up, today there are 5, kind of sad to me, too.this is only including the small town I live in. |
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Re: family farm
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milk money
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We pull a light prostock/mod turbo, milk around 150 cows, plus youongstock, 3 of us do all the work, father and two sons, no hired labor, farm couple hundred acres, have to buy all our grain, no land available around us, surrounded by 4-5 large grain farmers 2,000 ac plus. like everyone else on here used to be dairy farms everywhere, now only 3 in our township, prob used to be 30-40. yes I agree factory farms 500ish plus cows will be all thats left in the future, smaller farms can still make a go of it, but just have to be very efficent, just like all farming and business... our farm supports two family's of 4, and my parents, wives do have off the farm jobs that help, but it could support all three if it had to be, ya its long hrs and not much time off, but make a decent living doing it, and cant put a price on kids growing up around the farm life, learn responsibilities and a good work ethic.. noone wants to work that much and sometimes getting very little pay when prices are down, thats why the small farms are dwindeling, to have alot hired labor you need alot of cows and just manage people.. |
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to ta da
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Registered: 04/06/2008 Posts: 974 |
thank you for spelling that out so perfectly. We milk 50 cows on the same farm my great great great grandparents settled in 1874. my grandpa was born on a different farm in which his father lost in the great depression. his dad then began working for his relatives on this farm for cash and ended up buying the farm. we also have 150 head of beef cattle and raise all our own feed with only some corn chopping being the only custom work done due to dad and I just not being able to get it all done by ourselves. I wish I could dry the whole herd off in the summer so I could make it to more pulls! |
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Re: to ta da
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Registered: 01/27/2009 Posts: 48 |
So What's wrong with a family farm that uses some out side help. There bad people because there farms grew with there family and needed to get big to support more then one family member. In my area the are multiple 1000 plus cow farms that are family farms with multiple family members all working together. It's survival of the fittest folks don't hate the player hate the game get big and you survive. |
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To ta da
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Walkin Tall
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So your telling me that because I milk 1250 cows I do not have a family farm because I am "too big"? I guess it doesn't count that I am the 5th generation in my family to farm on the very spot we still are today that was started 135 years ago! 98 percent of farms in the US are family owned. Look up the definition of a co-op in the dictionary, it doesn't say anything about a farm with outside employees being a co-op. |
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Re: To ta da
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relax
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They said you weren't a family farm. Nobody sad anybody was bad, evil, or the devil for not being so. Just a discussion on what opinions of a family farm is. I take no offense. |
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Re: family farm
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Registered: 12/19/2008 Posts: 90 |
I grew up in one of two of the biggest milk producing counties in Missouri. Used to be a dairy farm every mile or two. Now just a handful left in both counties. Most everyone went out from 1980-1990. Seems like most of us milked around 100 head. I hate that it happened, the farm was an awesome place to grow up, hated milking but loved running the equipment. I just hope people don't forget where there food comes from one of these days, they don't grow it in the store. |
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Re: family farm
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I guess that's what concerns me most. I much like many of you knew how a calf got brought into this world before I was probably 5. And milk fresh out of the bulk tank at 36 degrees taste better than anything else in the world! But most of today's kids will not ever know that. |
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Re: family farm
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Anonymous User
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I used to have a 1700 dollar a week job. Quit and went back to farming. Money ain't all its cracked up to be and farming is more than you can see from the outside. |
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Re: family farm
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I run the family farm and my dads semi retired. we are doing around400 acres plus milk around 40 cows. I do the milking myself 7 days a week twice a day unless I have a pull to go to! id love to milk 100 cows but around here you cant hire anyone that's trustworthy enough to do it without u being around! I worked on 350 cows farm before and the other hire people were there for a check didn't care about the cattle! god bless you big dairys if you can trust your outside help |
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Re: family farm
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WHINERS
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Complain all ya,ll want , you chose to do your profession - 40 hrs a week and 1200 in a guys pockets pretty nice too ! Don't have to deal with - kno it all family members either |
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Re: family farm
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Posts: 105 |
Yeah right, you make it sound like $1200 per week jobs grow on trees, that's $30+/hr, where are those jobs I'd like to sign up? |
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Re: family farm
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Reality
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In the real world, in order to put 1200 a week into your pocket, you have to make 1800-2000 a week. Working stiffs have to pay, so others can play. Even at 50.00 an hour you will not live large. I know people that make huge salaries, and the thought of spending 300,000.00 on a toy is fantasy land. |
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Re: family farm
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Registered: 04/06/2008 Posts: 263 |
Really?!? Cuz cabins, boats, 4-wheelers, snowmobiles, old muscle cars and several week long family vacations that all poor deprived non farm people are entitled to don't cost much do they... |
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Re: family farm
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So my family and I milk 650 cows and a custom harvesting operation with 9 family members employed here and 6 other employees and we are not a family farm because of this the number of cows we milk. Please explain to me your prejudice above? What is the difference whether we all stay and work together with this number of cows or wether you and your dad milk 50-100 do the math. When we built our farm from 85-600+ (1100plus total) our smaller neighbors all complained but they are all gone because there sons didn't want to farm that way anymore ,sorry it has nothing to do the size of farms,it's just economic business it is how we choose to make a living for multiple families. My family has more family time now than it ever did before for vacations ,soccer games,baseball games and of course tractor pulling. And by the way we consider all of our trusted long time employees to be part of our extended family. So it really doesn't matter how many cows you milk. YOU MIGHT BE A REDNECK IF???? !!!!! LOL |
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Re: family farm
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Registered: 01/19/2010 Posts: 260 |
no disrespect to the bigger farms, just that times are changing. economics economics. if you don't grow you die in business no matter what you are doing. there is no better place to raise a family big or small. I think that is the problem with our country, both parents work out of the home and are not home with the kids. Morals, work ethic spending habits and common sense has changed a ton in our society. I believe the disappearance of the family farm is a contributor to this problem. 
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Re: family farm
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Anonymous User
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although I can't agree on tractors with you, Farmalls forever, I agree fully with the rest of your statement, growing up on a farm gives young people a lot of good qualities that are seriously lacking in today's society,it seams a lot of people in our country are out looking for a free ride, we all know that doesn't happen on a farm, I could be completely wrong, but to me, it seams this country was in better shape years ago when our leaders were closer to having farm backgrounds, than the lawyers and business people that are running it today. |
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Re: family farm
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Kevin L A
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Steve u are so right. I was raised on a dairy farm with 3 other brother and dad worked out doing carpenter work so we ended up doing
most of the barn chores with mom. At the time we thought it was the worst thing working like that couldnt play sports because there was work at home to do. Than u had the nieghbors kids that seemed to get everything and didnt have to do anything but they didnt live on a farm either. Now one of my brothers and i are partners with 2 dairy farms and cash crop an extra 500 acres over what the farms require to operate i am married with 3 children brother isnt married no children we are in our mid 40 s and we are at 80% owership of everything. One of the nieghbors goes to the mail box ever month for his disability check because his back hurts. The other nieghbor was given 120 acres with a house and 2 sheds . The house he had there wasnt good enough so he built another big house next to the old one and b-tches about the taxes he has to pay on the new one and now he is swimming in debt. This one does have a job but spends alot more than he makes. Now i look back and wouldnt of wanted any different. We learnt that hard work does pay off in the long run and hope to raise my children the same way i was. |
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Re: family farm
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Anonymous User
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Thanks, Kevin, I don't think anybody ever agreed with me before,sounds like we're close in age, I left the farm, still miss it some,but it is still in the family, and I help them out every once in a while,when I can, I'm self employed so I still know the meaning of long hours, I know exactly what you mean about the people going to the mailbox for the disability check every month,see that more and more, makes me wonder why I work everyday, sore back and most everthing else too,guess it's pride or stupidity, not sure, maybe both. |
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Re: family farm
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agreed
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how right you are, i graduated from a very small class, having grown up on a dairy farm i did not get to do alot of the "fun" things my friends did now looking back i am glad, they are all pretty much losers with crap jobs or no jobs & I went on to make something of myself & i credit it all to my work ethics i learned growing up on a dairy farm. Now i have a great job that allows me to work with farmers on an everyday basis, help out on the family farm in the spare time & go pulling the rest of the time! |
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Re: family farm
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family around here
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Around my area ne Ohio there are quit a few pulllers that are family farmers I think this is great especially when they are at the top of there class . Its great to see someone who works there buts off to have a little fun on the track makes you appreciate them even more |
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