Upper michigan question

Gleanerk2 · Jan 19, 2016

So back in the fall the wife and I took a
trip from Pennsylvania up across the big
bridge in michigan into the upper peninsula
didnt plan nothin it was a road trip well
crossed the bridge and went north west!
Seen alot of woods swamp and we viewed some
waterfalls and snow! So didnt see any farms
in the upper peninsula maybe a 20 acer farm
from back in the day and no tractors! So
tonight I was on google maps just messing
around and in the north east part of the
upper peninsula looks like alot of farms!
Anybody been up thier or even farmed up
thier or know of someone who does what is
it like?

RBoots · Jan 19, 2016

A lot of people I know up there grow hay. A guy I worked with that was from the UP said if they planted corn it would never dry down. Don't know if that's true, just what he told me.

Ross

Spook · Jan 19, 2016

There was a news story years back that hay from the eastern up went to England for the Queen's horses. Supposed to be the best hay you can get.

Spudm · Jan 19, 2016

Say Ya to da U.P. Eh?

marloweg · Jan 19, 2016

in the eastern part of the UP there are some farms but they don't grow corn or a lot of grain crops just not a long growing season. have seen a few dairy farms but very few did see some beans one time and i was wrong did see some silage corn so they might now be growing some corn for grain

Tom OConnor · Jan 19, 2016

The farms are in the East part of the U P and are hampered with a very short growing season. Oats and hay are the primary crops. It takes a rugged individual to survive up there. Bitter cold winters and short summers. It dosen't matter which way the wind blows it is coming off the cold water of a nearby lake.

DoubleR · Jan 19, 2016

Allot of cow calf and hay between the bridge and the Soo. Know of one guy that has close to 400 cows about 10 miles south of the Soo. The Soo is short for Sault Ste Marie Mi.

rrlund · Jan 19, 2016

Had a local guy who moved up there by Pickford for a little while. He bought a small dairy farm and was gonna hunt,fish,milk a few cows and live off the land. He wasn't there very long. A neighbor helped haul his cows up there. Fred said he knew that wouldn't last long. Said when he got out of the truck,he stepped right in the water.
Pretty low and flat around there. I wouldn't say they really ditched that ground,but there are some pretty deep dead furrows to lower the water table.
Another guy who grew up right up the road from me moved up there and bought a gas station near Raber 20 years or so ago. He's still there. I guess it was a pretty tough go of it for a while. He has to make all of his money during tourist season and snowmobile season. The rest of the year he said you might go for days without a customer.

rrlund · Jan 19, 2016

The Garden Peninsula is the place to be if you want to farm. It's around to the west of the bridge. It juts down in to Lake Michigan. The lake water keeps the frost from setting in too soon. It's pretty isolated so it makes a good place to grow certified seed.

RandyB(MI) · Jan 19, 2016

Lot of farms straight south of the "Soo" towards Cedarville. Mostly dairy and hay, a little corn. Never saw any alfalfa just junk volunteer hay I call it. Looks like they just bale up whatever grows. By the looks of all the old wooden fence lines , they probably did a lot of open pasture at one time. I'm thinking that they have to keep expences as low as possible because they can't just tile / irrigate/fertilize or even get larger herds because of the simple acreage and climate limits they can't change.

JD John · Jan 19, 2016

I have heard there is a seed potato farm somewhere in the central part. There are a few dairy farms over in Mennominee(spelling) county. Had a guy tell me one time about the hay in the eastern part, he said they put the duals on the 4430 and if they don't get stuck it's time to cut hay.

Glen SW Wi · Jan 19, 2016

They are all called Yuppers. And proud of it.

K Effective · Jan 19, 2016

One of my college Ag professors has a good sized farm near Rudyard. They haul their sheep herd up there in the Spring and grow seed corn in the pastures near Sturgis. Then after the seed corn is harvested, bring the sheep back down to graze the stubble and lamb. I think the place up north used to be part of the MSU Experiment system, cattle possibly. His father was a MSU Ag professor.

There is some fruit grown along the lakeshore where protected from the frost. I remember one field that the snowmobile trail runs through that is over a mile long.

I think I could live up there, but would definitely be single again if I did!

farmerwithmutt · Jan 20, 2016

Years ago my sisters ex went to northern wi he was going to show them how to grow corn. He didn't notice about midway up the state the price of corn was in lbs not bushels the 100 foot long chains the way they plowed out all the time he had a rude wake up call and I forgot the corduroy roads . He finally found a way to pay for the farm he drove truck and let the locals rent his farm. It's gotta be a challenge farming up there you got to appreciate the way they do it.me I like my flat land

Kickinbull · Jan 20, 2016

I used to think the UP was the place to be. We visited a family originally from Ionia that moved to Sugar Island. He worked at prisons so he wasnt depending on farming for living. But he did have Percheron show horses. They could grows oats some years. One year they talked about it snowing on the oats in Aug. and never got harvested. The ground is wet and they do plow always in the same direction building lands to warm and dry and furrows for the water to go. Some years ago the whole of Keweenaw pennisula was promoting to get dairy farming to move up there. I spent some time looking into it. The seasons were like Alaska. 23 hr daylight in summer, none in winter.

49716 · Jan 20, 2016

I remember a buskirk from Montcalm co moved up there about 35 years ago. I looked at the farm when he quit. it was so cheap I thought about buying it just to tear the dairy barn down and bring it home.

centash · Jan 20, 2016

It isn't THAT far north...

Ben

Steamboat · Jan 20, 2016

I used to live in Munising, graduated from Northern Michigan University in 1970.
In the early 1900's when timber was king, huge white pine were clear-cut across the UP. The slash was burned, often with such heat that it actually burned a lot of the thin top soil off. Land speculators then promoted these land for farming. The unfortunate souls who did try their hand at grubbing out a living from the land soon abandoned their farms. The speculators did not tell them that the growing season is less than 90 days, and a killing frost can occur any month. The land is extremely sandy and any fertilizer will leach through the soil in a few weeks or even days. As some others have stated, the UP is known, however for very good quality of hay, albeit one cutting a year. Timber is still a major industry with pulp wood and very fine quality sugar maple veneer logs as second. However maple rotation is 125+ years. Recreation is the leader of the economy with hunting, fishing, sightseeing, and perhaps most importantly winter sports such as snowmobiling, skiing, ice fishing. Mining is still important with rich iron ore deposits, and recently sulfur coming from the Yellow dog Plains west of Marquette. The UP is one area of the US that has not , and hopefully will not, be overdeveloped like the rest of our country. The extreme climate, vast acres of swampland and remote location keep this one corner of the US much the way God made it (minus the great white pine forests).

TomH in PA · Jan 20, 2016

My BIL is from the UP. His father (1st generation Finn) logged and grew some hay. Lot's of mosquitoes in the summer and snow in the winter.

<iframe width="560" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ilSgXcEMHmI?list=PLXnQuaLIoPkiVyBx_NpSknxW-LCY-sWPF" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

Spook · Jan 20, 2016

Funny thing is, you go across the soo, and the Canadian side is much more developed. Lots more people, and more industry.

rrlund · Jan 20, 2016

Yup,Charlie. He moved back down here to a farm two miles south of me for a while.

GVSII · Jan 20, 2016

(quoted from post at 21:05:32 01/19/16) They are all called Yuppers. And proud of it.

Google "da yoopers".Some funny stuff there!

rrlund · Jan 20, 2016

That's 'cause it's farther from civilization on the Michigan side.

Blackhole49 · Jan 20, 2016

The scary part is; most of those pictures were taken last winter. Sure is a great place to ride a snowmobile though.

jacksun65 · Jan 20, 2016

Is it better to be a yooper or a Troll lol

chevytaHOE5674 · Jan 20, 2016

I live and farm in the Western UP. Short cool summers and long cold and very snowy winters make farming a challenge. Summers are really only suited for growing hay and some small grains, typically only one cutting of hay a year. I've seen heavy frost and light snow in every month of the year. In the winter 20 to 30 FEET of snowfall is typical so it makes taking care of the cattle a real challenge. But its just the way it is and we deal with it.

buickanddeere · Jan 21, 2016

Much of Michigan is low land swamps between the Great Lakes.

J.Wondergem · Jan 21, 2016

I have hauled seed potatoes out of Western UP. Iron Mountain, Bessemer, Ironwood, and even North and West of Hancock, which shocked me the most. I didn't think there'd be any farms up in the Calumet.

A lot of the potatoes seed came from around Antigo Wisconsin. They said if you could grow pine trees, you could grow potatoes.

Upper michigan question

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