Anyone here stills farm or grew up on a farm?

W.Brehm · Feb 21, 2012

Does anyone here on the IH section of this forum currently farm or grew up on a farm? My parents bought a 80 acre farm 1 mile east of LaMotte, Iowa in Jackson County after they got married. Along with my dad working at the Dubuque Packing Co. he raised some beef cows and some feeder pigs. He farmed with a 1953 Stage II Super M, and a 1955 Farmall 400. Once the Dubuque Packing Co. closed in the early 80's, my parents place the farm up for sale and he looked for work. After being off work for a few months he was hired by FDL Foods (formly Dubuque Packing Co.). Our farm was sold in late 1983, and by February 1984 we've moved to town. I enclosed a photo of our farm from 1973.

caterpillar guy · Feb 21, 2012

Yup still farming with dad and a brother. About 500 acres and 11 IH tractors from an H to Steiger Cougar

Super-H-Mike · Feb 21, 2012

Yes sir ! I live on my families farm, all the way back to my great grandfather. We don t farm full time anymore, but still have horses,chickens,geese,ducks,turkeys,rabbits,cows and dogs and cats, so it is still a bustling farmyard ! I use my Farmalls for the chores and small time farming I still do. I grow some corn,hay, and have to grind feed and haul manure,etc. Many farms around here were sold in the 80s as well. There are only very large farms and very small hobby guys doing it anymore. Sad to think at one time my father was able to make a comfortable living and raise 5 kids while mom stayed home, all on 200 acres.

Ron-MO · Feb 21, 2012

I live on a farm which has been in my family for over 100 years now, however I certainly cannot make a living at it. Wife says it is a "bottomless money pit"

, and in many ways she is correct, as my expenses outweigh the income by far. But I look at it as part of the price I pay for living in a remote area. I lived in a small town for approx. 25 years, then when I had the opportunity to move back to the 110 acre farm I built a house and moved. No way would I go back to living in even a small town with close neighbors, but I did go from driving 5 minutes to work to nearly an hour with my closest neighbor now nearly a mile away.

farmerweber in PA · Feb 21, 2012

Yep,we still do.We farm about 100 acres in western PA.Mostly hay but also some corn and small grains.Family operation.We do a couple acres of pumpkins and sweet corn to along with raising beef cows.

John M · Feb 21, 2012

Farmed around 800 acres of some type of crop each
year until the mid to late 80s, then we put all of
it in hay, and I farmed that myself until 97. We had
chickens until Dad retired from farming, a cow and
pig each year that went in the freezer, and eggs out
the wazoo! Most of our land was rented. Just 16 acres left, that I live on, closet thing to farming
now is the flowers my wife plants, and I do bush-hog
the field a couple of times a year.

wolfman · Feb 21, 2012

Still do about 10,000 square bales with a 1970 Int
826 and a RC 574 and a 664 and a 656 and...I'm the
last on the family farm, kids have "better jobs" and
grandkids are too far away to take a real interest.
SW Pa.

IAtractorKid · Feb 21, 2012

I just moved off mom and dads farm a couple years ago but still live close enough I help as much as possible...they have just under 25 acres and raise purebred angus cattle. We dont have any of our own hay ground so do custom farming to get our hay. We maintain the ground and take 1/2 the hay for cutting and baling it and then buy the other half from the owner. Dad and I usually do about 100 tons of hay a year with a 1981 John Deere 2840, 1961 John Deere 1010 and a 1942 Ferguson TO-30 tractor.

MN Mike · Feb 21, 2012

I'm small time farming. I still call it a hobby but the family rolls their eyes. 10-20 hogs, 300 chickens, and about 5-7 acres of corn. Farmall 340 w/loader & 3 point plus an Allis WD45 do all the work.

wijim · Feb 21, 2012

Wife and I both grew up on farms.Now we live on our own little piece of ground,we are farming about 38ac with a couple of beef cows. Two miles from where she grewup and five miles from where I grewup. We have her grampas 350U and my dads 70D and JD A to do the farming with.Jim

Icuby · Feb 21, 2012

I am on the same farm that we/I moved to with my parents,sister,brother back in Aug.,1949. I was about to turn 9 yrs at that time. I bought the farm in late Dec,2007,dont farm,rent it to neighbor,127A. This is Home.

Bruce from Can. · Feb 21, 2012

Yes, I grew up on a farm, youngest of five kids.Mom and Dad married after WW2 was done with them in 45, I came along in 60. Dad ran a mixed farm, shipped cream,eggs and a few hogs. Swithched to cow calf in 70. Older kids all went to collage/university,I went to work. Started to rent a farm and milk cows in 81 . We now have two farms and milk around 50 cows. Hope my pics work. Bruce

Haas · Feb 21, 2012

I grew up on a farm in south central Missouri in the 1940s and 1950s. The main farm was around 400 acres with 80 acres a couple miles away. We had IH tractors and raised crops, and hay and silage for the cattle. Early on there were sheep, pigs, chickens and dairy cows. By 1950, it was only chickens and beef cattle and I barely remember any draft horses. My dad got rid of the horses after WW II as soon as he could get rubber tired tractors. The earliest tractor I remember was a McCormick 15-30, but the first tractor on that farm was a Titan 10-20. Most of the crops were used on the farm for livestock feed. The main exception to that was wheat which was sold because of the price support situation back then. I went to the local university and got an engineering degree and then worked for a major chemical company until I retired 12 years ago. Now I have 42 acres and raise some hay, pumpkins, a garden and a little corn so I can have ear corn for feeding my equipment at tractor shows. Part of the property is rented out for pasture to a neighbor who keeps around 10 cows with calves there. My stable has one dog, and a contingent of vintage IH tractors and implements, some of which get used on the farm, but the main farm tractor is a more modern Kubota.

F-Dean · Feb 21, 2012

Grew up on a farm in SE Nebraska and now I am farming the government (CRP).

47M · Feb 21, 2012

I grew up on a farm in NW Iowa. My parents owned 160 acres and rented another 320 acres. Small potatoes by today's standards but we had to work our rear ends off to get the work done.

One of the biggest regrets I have is that I spent most of my time as a kid wanting to be anywhere else but on the farm. My Dad was one of those guys who could make anything, do anything or fix anything with just basic tools. He didn't have a fancy workshop full of expensive power tools either.

I should have paid more attention and taken the time to try to learn at least a fraction of what he knew. Some people say I'm pretty handy, but I couldn't hold a candle to my Dad. He passed away 4 years ago, and I still catch myself thinking that I should ask him how to do whatever it is I'm having a problem with at the time.

formerly ny bill · Feb 21, 2012

full time dairy farmer. my wife and i bought this place in 1980 and milked 55 cows. started with a jd3010, D14 allis, and a farmall M. we have added onto things and now milk 120 and grow the forages and some of the corn (when the flood doesn't take it away) for them.
we currently have tractors from regulars to a 5288, plus a few off breeds. most of the real farming is done with 56-86 series ih's.

RedRoundhead · Feb 21, 2012

I still have a very small farm. I work full time,
and farm on the side.

We sold our family farm in 1994. Only 45 - 50
dairy cows, and about 20 head young stock. About
120 acres. Good soil, decent yields. We had an
886, 504 utility with a loader, a Farmall M, a IH
203 combine with a "Robot" header control, a IH
275 Haybine, a IH 56 planter, a 46 baler, and a
Fox pull type chopper. Along with a bunch of other
smaller stuff. We had an IH truck, but I don't
remember what model. It was banana yellow. We
milked with the Surge buckets,and then put in a
Bou-matic pipeline in the late 70's. Much nicer.

We baled and stacked in our barn about 14,000+ hay
bales a year. I spent most of my life in the
haymow,as my brother and Mom had hay allergies
real bad, so they got to stay on the wagon
unloading onto the elevator. It kept me thin!

We picked stones by hand, replaced cedar fence
posts by hand. To me it is amazing how corn has
become the staple cow food. I grew up when we
still were green chopping alfalfa every morning in
summer, and feeding a little corn silage/ground
soybean/mineral ration at the night milking. The
cows were let out to pasture between each milking
when the weather was good. When you called the
cows into the barn, they always went back to their
same stanchions, each time. You did not even have
to lock them in; they would wait until they were
done being milked, then leave the barn. It was
real nice. Too bad it was not profitable; I could
have taken it over. But the late 80's were hard
on alot of farmers, us included. It is a bunch of
new houses now, and the "big" farmers rent what is
left.

Sometimes I miss the old farm; I don't miss being
dirt-a$$ poor, though.

Harold Hubbard · Feb 21, 2012

Still on the farm I grew up on.

Cut about eighty acres of hay to sell. pasture some cattle for my neighbors, make some maple syrup in the spring, plow snow and do mowing.

There are three farms in this corner of the town that are still held by descendants of the original settlers. I am the first son in over a hundred years to inherit this place from his father. My father had it from his stepmother, she got it from her mother, who got it from her husband.

CNKS · Feb 21, 2012

There are about 4 types of people on this forum, 1)those who grew up on a farm and are still farming, 2)those who did not grow up on a farm but began farming either full time or part time later in life, 3)those like myself who grew up on a farm, but did not farm and later began collecting tractors, and 4)those who got a small acreage and needed a tractor. I imagine 1,2,and 3 account for most of us.

DeltaRed · Feb 21, 2012

I farm(all furrow irrigated) fulltime,do custom
work,and work a little off the farm.This year
we're farming over 200 acres,every year its
changes due to leased ground.I use IH tractors and
mostly IH equipment.(F-12;SC;SH;M;SM;706;826;1256
and one lonely Oliver 60)I was raised in eastern
Ks.(ElDorado),Dad worked full time for 'Cities
Service Oil Co.',farmed(wheat/milo) part time.Dad
used an 8n Ford /related equipment,and for a while
had an IH #123sp combine.Both Mom and Dad grew up
on KS. farms,so we always had close ties to the
farm.

AJB-830 · Feb 21, 2012

I guess I am also in group 3. I hobby farm my dad's 80 dairy farm that my grandfather purchased in 1911. I have a collection of IH tractors starting with the 1939 F20 my father bought new, W30, H, MD, 300 Utility, 350, 400, 450-D and 650-D. But also have couple of JDs. Basicly plant 20 acres of wheat, oats, corn, and hay. I worked 35 years as an electrical engineer at AT&T but never really left the farm. Al

IH fan · Feb 21, 2012

(quoted from post at 10:24:38 02/21/12) Does My parents bought a 80 acre farm 1 mile east of LaMotte, Iowa in Jackson County after they got married.

I grew up probably not that far from you in NE Iowa. Dad dropped out of college to run my grandmothers farm during the depression (1934). Later his brother joined him and when Dad and Mom got married they started renting on their own near Earlville. In '56 they bought a small 100 acres about 20 miles NW of there and Dad went to work off the farm. I was a freshman in HS and pretty much ran the farm with Dad working, but taking off work to plant corn, bale hay, etc.
Before we moved, Dad had had a JD B, A, 60 and a Farmall Cub, and C (not all at once). After moving Dad traded the 60 and 227 picker (didn't sell on the auction) for a Farmall Super C and most of the equipment to run the 100 acres. In the fall of '58, carpenter work was slow so Dad bought another JD 60 and 227 picker and did custom corn picking. Then because he had the bigger tractor, we rented more land and I even rented 50 acres myself from the local banker. We were trying to decide whether to expand when I graduated HS, but due to a little thing called the "draft", I decided I needed to get my service over first... got married while in the AF and never got back to the farm. Dad died in '84, but Mom stayed on the farm until the mid-late '90s. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it!

Paul from MI · Feb 21, 2012

Raised on a poultry farm in Ohio. I have lived on the same 12 acres and farmed it myself with worn out junk since 1973, and loved every minute of it. I couldn't imagine not farming my few acres. What the heck would I do?

SGTK · Feb 21, 2012

47M
I tried to switch to the modern view so I could quote you, but I couldn't figure it out. Your reply hit me like a ton of bricks. I grew up on a farm and spent my youth trying to get away. Now I find I have worked a good part of my adult life trying to get back to it. Here I am, close to fifty, working in town and on the farm, always looking to buy more ground. I'm afraid I will run out of life before I ever get to the point my father was.

I miss my father. I didn't realize just how wise he was till after he died. I wish I could remember everything he told me.

I do remember he said, "You buy your first 40 and you work your butt off on midnights at FEDDERS (factory) to pay for it. Then you mortgage the first 40 to buy the second one and farm and work midnights at FEDDERS to pay for it. He didn't tell me to do this, but this is what I have become.

I bet you and I are closer to becoming like our fathers than we realize.

Thanks
Paul

DeltaRed · Feb 21, 2012

I'm somewhere between group 1 and group 2.

Fawteen · Feb 22, 2012

I'm a Type 3-4.

Grew up on 120 acres of cash crop, hay and beef critter in central Michigan in the 50's and 60's. Super W6 and a JD-B.

Joined the Navy in '69, retired in '90 and wound up in central coastal Maine with 4 acres, chickens, layers, and a few sheep. Wouldn't call it "farming" but it sure ain't city life!

Two tractors, a modern JD compact for most of the work and a 1938 F-14 for a little work and a lot of fun.

The Dukester · Feb 22, 2012

I didn't actually live on a farm until I went to work and live with my uncle on the "family farm" my Dad and uncle were raised on. I worked on many farms in the area prior to the steady job with my uncle which I took the summer before I started high school. The "family farm" was 160 acres and then uncle rented 80 on one farm and 120 acres on another in addition and did a lot of custom silo filling. We milked 18 to 28 cows, fattened around 200 hogs yearly and always had 2-300 chickens. The first tractor on the farm was uncle's '41 Farmall H, but later on he got a nearly new '48 McCormick-Deering W-6 and the '41 H got traded for a new '50 H. I worked full time there 4 years and 2 months and part-time a year and a half after that until I joined the Air Force in 1954. I helped uncle many times after that when I came home on leave or vacation. I was reporter and vice-president of my high school FFA chapter. I farmed part-time 5 years on my own with rented land and a nearly worn out '53 Super M and '45 H in the early 1980's until I literally went broke doing that.

oldtanker · Feb 22, 2012

I'm an army brat. Dad retired when I was 16 and we moved onto the farm, 200 acres. Dad started milking cows and I got married at 19 and had a kid. Well the farm at the time wasn't big enough to support us and I joined the Army in 74, retired in 96. Spent from 96-this year renting out the crop land but the wife and I decided to start raising grass fed beef, free range chickens and pasture pork. We'll see how it goes, still learning a lot.

Rick

Hill-Billy Rock-Star · Feb 22, 2012

Great Grand Father Started The farm in 1919 in Canton, Mi. Started out with 40 acres and 20 head of Holsten cows. My Great Uncle seen the city coming in 1963 and bought 400 acres in Webberville, Mi. Moved the operation up there. Now the family farm milks about 850 head and around 1400 head total. Works about 10,000 acres of dirt. Mostly corn and hay for feed. It"s like my Great Uncle say"s if your not growing every year your going under.

Anyone here stills farm or grew up on a farm?

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