what was it like when you started farming

My dad always said you will be hard pressed to go out on your own and start farming anything more than just small scale hobby farm! When I left the farm to get a job! But farming has always been in me since a kid and I'm slowly getting back into it! Rent all my ground and own all my equipment I have and hire everything else I need done and so far debt free except my pickup! Everybody that knows me says I'm dumb for renting all my farm ground you need to own some of it yea someday I like to own a farm but not till I save up most of the money to buy one! So far I feel good how things are going for me! Do you guys thing it is alot harder these days to go out and start farming on the side and work a job till you grow big enough to farm full time than it was in the past! I know land is significantly higher than in the past and equipment is alot higher! But like my job wages are higher than it was 20 30 40 years ago! What do you think?

If that is what you want to do. Go for it.
Life is too short not to do what you enjoy.
My 2 cent comment.

It sounds to me like whatever you are doing is working for you. I started in Jan. 1973. Things went pretty good until about July 1974. Nixon took us off the gold standard and the prices of everything went up except milk. It dropped over $2, and back then that was a lot. About the time I got going good again, I got pneumonia 4 times in 6 months. That was the straw that broke the camels back.

My son started a year and a half ago. We rebuilt a section of the barn that had caved in. He buys TMR from one of the local bigger farmers. We rent or farm land to other local farmers. He milks about 40-45 cows most of the time. He is debt free also, except for what he owes me. He was lucky enough to get himself established while the price of milk was good. The fact that he's on solid ground and owes no one is going a long way towards insuring he stays solvent now that the prices have dropped.

You are smart staying debt free and doing things as you can afford it. I would suggest you be very cautious and do a lot of pencil pushing before you move forward with anybody's money but your own. Took my son 16 years from high school to get were he is by working other jobs. Stick with it and you will do okay.

I would do like you are doing and save for a farm.I have done the same I own 20 acres rent the rest would like to buy but don't have the financel income to buy.The experance I have is the banks want all my paid for assets so I say no rent all you can and pile up cash and buy a farm.

A lot of the guys farming will never own theirs so? Then like me if you get it paid for you'll just be renting via taxes. My dad told me I bought the poorest GD farm in the north country. I paid mine off before he did. So if you think you can make it work go for it but don't kill yourself trying.

You got to do what you want to do in life.
It is sure tougher to start farming today than in the past but there are opportunities out there if one keeps both eyes open and is not afraid to work hard.

My dad rented (dairy farm) his whole life and got nowhere with it, all he owned in the end was 25 cows and some forks and shovels and a wheelbarrow, he never even got to own a car or tractor.

I wasn't gonna be a slave to a landlord, i wanted to farm my own ground. To get that i even emigrated.
I had only 25 grand in cash but lots of pizz and vinegar . I started with a loan on half a section and went from there(full time job on the side the first 10 years).
Took me 30+ years but today i own a 1800 acre ranch ,All of it paid for incl all livestock and machinery.
There was many a time i thought i wasn't gonna make it and i made many changes along the way but it has paid off in the long run.
Back then people said already "it can't be done" but "Giving up" was not in my vocabulary.

Good luck too ye.

It was hard when I start since I am older than dirt, and had to wait until they brought the first load in. Haha. Do what works the best for you. Don't get in to deep with debt. My Dad started farming in mid 40's Still have all his records. Wheat $3.50 bu, new tractor $3500. Mid 70's Wheat $3.50 bu, new tractor $48,000. It can be done, but do the numbers. Would liked to have had a new $400k combine. but paid $3K each year for custom cutter after mine froze up.

As far as owning land- no question- today it's almost the "impossible dream". Right here that's a relatively recent (15 years) phenomena.
If you can take care of machinery, there are always bargains out there.

The only way to do it when I started was to milk cows for a regular income. I did it for 33 years. They paid for a lot of land and equipment. As far as I can see that's the only way to do it today if you wanted to pay for things and still make a living,but I don't know how many people really want to be that devoted to farming vs how many just want to play with big toys.

I am maybe close to your age - I am 40. I started by working a job to make enough money to buy the farm. I grew up farming but realized in high school that I would never farm it because of infighting with step siblings. I'm better off because I didn't continue the family farm. I hated living in town but had that end goal. I both own and rent ground and farm about 1000 acres together with a business partner. I work myself to death but I love every minute. I don't have anything fancy or new, but I have borrowed to get a new planter in the last year since I know better profits will come from more precision. I will buy out my partner completely in 13 years so I have to be the one to think longer term.

Last summer we had a "meet and greet" at the farm for someone running for the house in Kansas. She asked me about become a farmer today and how we could get more "kids" to the trade. She reminded me that there are all kinds of grants and loans out there for upstart. I reminded her that anyone my age saw what the 80's did to people in bed with the bank and if the younger kids didn't see it then their parents did. I may be in the minority but the thought of borrowing to start out makes be sick to my stomach. All it takes is one bad grain year (or $3 corn) or one mad cow to ruin life as you know it. Farmers are the only job that spends all of their own money for all of their own equipment and relies on essentially a couple of paydays a year. I run hogs and cattle as well so that helps, but that also means I have not had a night away from the farm since leaving the city. And gladly, I may add. Growing up we looked down on renters. We were also "big" because we owned a whole section. Times have changed a lot. When families migrated to town they saw the value of keeping the land. That makes for lots of renters out there.

When I started farming there was money lying around on the ground, all you had to do was get yourself a tractor and some equipment, then drive around and bale it up! Sadly, that changed soon after I started...

You are doing fine, do not sweat it.

What you're doing is probably about the same as most of us who started with nothing. When I came out of the service, I didn't have a pot to pee in or a window to throw it out. I started helping a neighbor, and then a friend of his. The two of them got me to start into farming, and gave me the chance and machinery to do it. I bought this farm ten years later and still help the son of one of them. I own all of my machinery, have a herd of beef cows, the farm is paid for and I still rent most of the ground I farm- close to 3/4 of my operation. I worked full time for thirty years and farmed in the off time- probably as much time on the farm as I put in at work. It isn't easy, and you HAVE to be in it for the long haul. Go to auctions, and don't be afraid to leave empty handed. Pick up good used machinery, and fix up some junk if it's what you can do cheaply. Watching the pennys really does turn into dollars if you're smart and use money wisely. Keep your credit impeccable, and talk to Farm Credit for a stable cash source. They can and will help you more than any other bank- I know because they worked with me to buy this place. Just keep the faith even when it looks bleak- farming's that way....

My observation is that the price of farmland runs in long term cycles. In 1951, my dad bought his farm, the interest cost was less than to rent a house in town. He was told he'd go broke (in the expected recession.). In the mid60's, my cousin was buying land because he could pay for it with the cash flows in 4-5 yrs. In the mid 70's, partly due to inflation, people believed "If I can just pay the interest, the land will make me rich". In the early 80's, those folks went bankrupt. Today, in mid Ohio, good land is selling for $13-14 k/Acre. Cash flow for grain is about $500./Acre, so break even is 26-28 yrs. I don't know the nos. for pork or dairy. Prices are up because farming HAS BEEN good (and farmers don't know what else to do with the money).
In the past, when land prices got high, especially on credit, they soon got cheaper. Learn your craft, and be patient.

Well you will have to work for a good while to build capitol to work with. The it is a waiting game.

Now is the exactly WRONG time to be thinking about buying land. We are at or just past record HIGH land prices. The land values will drop in the future. They cycle in 10-15 year rotations. Build your base and watch for the land values to be more affordable.

Land will just about never entirely pencil out buy itself. You will have to bring other income in to make the payments. It is when you get some land paid for that you can roll then. You can have paid for land helping pay for additional land.

Guys that bought land in the late 1960s and then did not buy HIGH priced ground in the 1970s where the cash buyers in the 1980s when the high priced buyers went broke.

Livestock can be the leverage to use to get started. Just be darn careful with the prices being as volatile as they are right now. Maybe try custom feeding to use your labor and not risk so much monetarily.

I bought my first 40 acres in the 70's, did not buy any more land until the 90's, by that time it was half the price. Ups and downs affect everyone in every business, diversification has been what allowed me to build my place, always having something to sell whether livestock, hay, pecans or grain usually meant that one or the other would be profitable. I always had a steady job but for many years in my industry we did not make much money so the farm had to support itself and add to the bottom line. Both of my Sons have started on their own and have been able to pay for land as they go using proceeds from their cattle herds, pecan orchard and jobs.

I had a 30 (at least) year old Farmall B or Super A, don't remember, with a single moldboard as I recall with no coulter nor control.

First of all I didn't know that moldboards don't do well in our clay soil as they gum up immediately and just make a mess.

Second I didn't know what I was doing, hadn't enrolled in "Hard Knocks University" yet, and just made a horrible mess.

I was the laughing stock of the community but that was ok. Had to learn somewhere.

Things improved immensely over time.

Mark

Why do you use exclamation points at the end of every sentence? I have seen other posts where you have done this as well. Are you yelling at us? Are you just very excited? Just wondering what the deal was.