What happened to farming pride?

Now I'm retired from the military and just bought a small farm. I found me an old M that I'm putting back into service. I have 2 daughters. The little one (10) loves helping me work on Big Red. She has her own row of veggies in the garden and even has her own pig. The other daughter (16) can't stand the tractor, would rather by a Big Mac, and hates the pig and chickens. To her, farm life is below her. By-the-way, she dosn't live with me any more.

In short, Farming, to me, is a family thing, handed down from generation to the next. We must teach our kids that our food doesn't come from a Wal-Mart super center or a fast food joint.

I know this has rambled a bit (I had to get the BSE rant off my chest too) but my point is that all isn't lost. There are still lots of people out there who want to see nothing but hayfields and cattle from one horizon to the other and are willing to do a lot of work to make that a reality.

Sean

Do other readers still remember the gas shortages of the 70's, and the shock that Americans experienced when being told "sorry---only five gallons of gas per person today" (if it was even available).

I sometimes wonder how some of these city people would react if someday, going into the grocery store, saw signs saying "limit only 1 gallon of milk and 2 loaves of bread per person per week".

Right now, I'm a 18 year old high school senior looking at college. At the moment, I'm not farming when I'm done with college. Someday, I'd like to.

My great grandparents farmed, and I work on my grandparent's farm with Dad when I can. I don't mind doing it, but I'd like to make a name for myself. I hate the thought of farming grandpa's land someday and people saying I got it easy.

I'm proud of my family and farm. I hate the idea of selling out and quiting. I want to have a career of my own, but close to the farm so I can help out.

casey in SD

Perhaps you can still make a living family-farming in the midwest but not in New England, with our rocky soils, unless you're in the dairy or maybe the apple business. Land values are high and you can't get the economies of scale you need to make it pay nor do you have access to the cheap Mexican labor that you do down in Texas and Oklahoma, for example. Nobody left here but me still wants to lift glacial boulders out of small fields mostly gone back to woods. And I had to acquire a 240 loader to continue adding to those miles of "picturesque" stone walls -- purely as a hobby -- that my ancestors created by the sweat of their brows out of life or death necessity to improve the next harvest.

And so times change, the U.S. economy shifts, and our 19th century agrarian nation becomes an industrial powerhouse in the 20th century only to send its manufacturing base overseas in the 1980s and 1990s. And now we are busily transforming our nation into what our president, the former governor of our second most agricultural state (I'm guessing California is still No. 1) is pleased to call the "Ownership Society".

What is it that we actually own again?

If there was more than one boy in the family, in order for them all to farm, additional land had to be acquired. Once the land in the area was all homesteaded and claimed then the competition began. Farmers that were more profitable (maybe more progressive) began to pay more for land and new technology (tractors, combines, etc). Less efficient farmers began to see that they were making less money and could find jobs in town that paid more than farming, so they sold to the highest bidder. Now, farmers with families could get along without as much (or any) outside help, and relationsips with neighbors started to weaken. The vicious circle had now begun and a rift start to open between the smaller more conservative operator, and the larger more aggressive operator.

Add to that the government sensed that too many farmers were getting into trouble and offered them low interest loans to help them out, which also gave them a competitive edge on the “proud” farmer that refused government assistance, since they didn’t have to pay as much interest through FmHA as at the bank. The government also determined that people would rather pay for food through tax dollars rather than at the grocery store, so ASCS turned into what it is today.

That’s how I see it as what changed. Can we go back? I believe that most things move in cycles, or maybe as a pendulum. My belief is that someday we will, but not in my lifetime…

Thanks for reading my nickels worth…

Dean

Farmers are too damn independent and had to be beaten down. The Big Boys can't control millions of independent businessmen and women. They want everybody to work in a factory for just enough to keep them from staving to death. Then everybody should go home, have dog food for dinner, and sit in front of their TV.

I'd also say 'go to college'. The best thing it can do is teach you to think differently and give you an alternative perspective to look at farming. If your family has been farming for five generations, you probably know enough about farming, so take english, art, math, engineering, philosophy,....

Farming is a very satisfying way to make a living. My folks were living in town by the time us kids came along. I 'retired' at 40 to start farming. It is a lot more work than I expected, and it is taking a lot longer to understand how everything works. Seems like there is always something else that needs doing and more to learn. I can't imagine what else I would rather do.

If things aren't working, it is crazy to keep doing what you always have been doing and expect a different result. Keep an open mind and don't give up.

Don't brand all kids this way. I'm 15, and quite enjoy farm work. Even picking rocks and pulling calves doesn't really bother me (well, being knocked into the side of a barn by a less-than-happy cow didn't thrill me in the least). If I was one of the kids you described, I certainly wouldn't be restoring tractors. I see where you're getting at, though. A lot of city kids don't know anything about farming, or even farms in general. Here's a true story I heard: A few school classes were given tours of a farm. One of the kids commented "Wow, that's a really big pig!" Guess what, it was a cow. Yeah, it's sad to see what's happening to farming, and the world in general. I wouldn't be surprised if the human race eventually starts regressing.

Oh, and for the rest of you too: Don't lynch me! I come in peace, despite the green paint splatters on my coveralls! :-)

Don't brand all kids this way. I'm 15, and quite enjoy farm work. Even picking rocks and pulling calves doesn't really bother me (well, being knocked into the side of a barn by a less-than-happy cow didn't thrill me in the least). If I was one of the kids you described, I certainly wouldn't be restoring tractors. I see where you're getting at, though. A lot of city kids don't know anything about farming, or even farms in general. Here's a true story I heard: A few school classes were given tours of a farm. One of the kids commented "Wow, that's a really big pig!" Guess what, it was a cow. Yeah, it's sad to see what's happening to farming, and the world in general. I wouldn't be surprised if the human race eventually starts regressing.

Oh, and for the rest of you too: Don't lynch me! I come in peace, despite the green paint splatters on the coveralls! :-)

I farmed all my life, was successful, raised two boys that now have engineering degrees, and are pursuing that admirable profession. They are doing so because they are intelligent enough to see the handwriting on the wall, not because they are lazy. I'm glad the farm was able to provide them with that start. I wish that it could have done so for generations, but I suppose the indians would have preferred to still have the land with the buffalo on it too. Things change, and our values as a society point to where we are going. That's saddest of all.

Think you did it better than I would have.

At 49, after a 25 year career as an engineer with several companies including GM (they hired me twice), I decided to go to law school to become a patent attorney. Excelled in law school, passed both BAR and Patent BAR on first try (only 40% do) and became one of only about 5,000 patent attorneys in the US. Now have 5 degrees, 4 professional licenses, 25+ years of excellent and diverse business experience but after a 3-year job search could only find an entry level job in customer service answering phone to which I must commute 65 miles each way. I currently make about 1/2 what I made about 12 years ago.

Cannot get job as patent attorney due to no experience even though other graduates without experience, Patent BAR, or the law school credentials that I earned routinely get 6-figure jobs. Cannot get other jobs for which I am qualified, e.g., mechanic, because too much education. Cannot even get any job with new Lowes store in home town.

Trust me, if you are a 45+ year-old male Caucasian nearly all of the doors are closed. It does not matter what is on your resume.

Dean, AS, AAS, BSEE, MBA, JD, Esq.

Been there. Done that.

Dean

Dean

Tims$.02

If farming were an even mildly profitable enterprise, believe me, there would be plenty of people out there doing it.

Another 200 farmers went belly up in Nebraska in 2004 and things are headin' totally in the wrong direction.

Allan

It seems to me that when you buy your seed, pesticide/ herbicides, fertilizers and machinery (and everything else you need) from some corporation, then are virtually forced to sell your products as a commodity to a corporation as a regular guy you don't stand a hope in hell of getting ahead.

Add to that the government's nose poked well up your rear end and any hope you might have had is gone.

Until the government stops picking on people and starts cracking down on corporations (and that's unlikely since they're in bed together) no individual, farmers included has a chance. Though I'm Canadian, the situation is identical, you folks in America need to find yourselves another Teddy Roosevelt.

Thanks

What I'm sayin' is it's been bread into me. When I was in school, there were clicks but the farmers were cool, they even drove there machines to school on FFA day.

I live in southern Michigan, 36 years old, been married once.

I work for the worlds largest pharmacutical manufacture, no college, no major degree, just a skilled trade.

If it were not for having that job, I would not have my small farm. When I punch out, all I want to is get back home so I can work.

Take the good with the bad. If it were not for 40
+ hours a week, I'd never afford to beable to play on the farm.