I was wondering.

Even though I was born and raised way out in the country, my folks were not farmers. However, from my earliest memories all I wanted to do was farm. I took every opportunity to be around tractors and anything related to farming. All my toys were farm related. When in high school I started working for a farmer and when I graduated I started farming for myself. I haven't farmed in several years now. I rent out my farm land and just raise cattle. Here's my point and my question. I have two sons and a daughter. All grown. I have four small grandchildren, the two oldest being boys, ages 10 and 7. None of my children or grandchildren have ever shown the slightest interest in farming. None ever played with farm toys. None ever cared much for being around a farming operation. My daughter and son-in-law do occasionally help with the cows if needed. The grand-boys have absolutely no interest in any of it, even though, as I said, we live in the heart of farming country. I had hoped that some one of them might develop an interest in farming but I'm starting to doubt it now. And in case anyone is wondering, no, I never pushed it on any of them. My question then is; do any of you have a similar story with you family?

Sounds familiar. We lived in town when I was little My Grand parents and Uncle had a farm. I was over there every weekend and could not get enough. My allergies really made me suffer at night too. When a teenager we moved out onto 14 acres so I had room to get my own tractors and play and use them. My kids could care less about anything I like they have their own interests. Funny thing is wife and kids don't really want me to sell off any of my tractors but yet none of them would have the first clue about how to put a battery and gas in them and get them going !

mb58,

I grew up on a farm but we were just "hired-hands" and never had enough money to buy anything. After a stint in the Navy, I have rented and farmed off and on my whole life. I've always worked a full-time off the farm job. Finally, at 58 years of age I was able to buy a farm, some old junk farm equipment, and start a cow/calf operation. My son and his family live on the same farm. Not a single one of them has the least interest in farming. They like living in the country, but they spend most of their time in town or traveling back and forth to town and the farm.

My daughter's family lives in a subdivision in Georgia. Of my 6 granddaughters and 2 grandsons, not a one of them is interested in farming. I'm 72 years old now and trying to decide what to do about quitting farming.

Tom in TN

Maybe similar: I am a truck driver. Been driving since I was 19 (40 years plus) . Guess my kids saw and heard enough through the years to decide they wanted no part of it. SMART KIDS !!!!

It's not just farming. My wife and I have done carpentry work for many years. We specialize in composite decks (Trex). We have 4 boys who couldn't care less about learning the trade. It's sad. I didn't grow up in a construction back ground, just worked it the summer I was 14. Never went back to school. 30 something years later I still love my job. Wish my kids would learn it and take over one day. I got tractors in the barn I want to work on!!

We have gone from yesteryear where kids did what their fathers and mothers did no questions ask to having other options. I was army for 20 years. Out of 7 kids only one is remotely interested any only as a part timer.

I think part of the problem is our schools. I was taught as a kid in the 60's that I didn't want to work with my hands, get dirty or manual labor by the schools. I didn't listen to well but I can recite chapter and verse the "you want to be a doctor/lawyer/engineer" talks we got from 1st grade on (1961). Farming isn't a glamorous job with a company car and a 6 figure income with weekends spent at a resort of some kind. I mean, after all, who doesn't want to be the president? The schools also tell kids to be themselves, not who someone else wants you to be.

Rick

Well, my story is a little different. I have one son and 2 grandchildren. My grandson is now 13. When he came to the farm he wanted to stay in the house and play with the computer. If we went to the barn or woods he would ask if he could go back to the house. Last school year he failed social studies and Latin. His daddy bought him a lawn mower and got him jobs around the neighborhood and made him work to pay for summer school. His mother charged him $50.00 for transportation. His daddy also had him help building a deck. Overnight there was a change in the boy. He called me to come get him so he could help me on the farm. He worked for tools I gave him and sometimes bought at Home Depot. Go Figure. Ellis

(quoted from post at 10:06:13 08/25/16) None of my children or grandchildren have ever shown the slightest interest in farming.

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I had a similar background. Spent alot of time on my uncles dairy farm and nothing else then or since has made a bigger impression on me.

Simple truth is that we won't admit that the media is brainwashing our kids. All young folks see on the internet or tv programs there days are people living glamorous lives. The entertainment media makes farmers or working class people look like idiots.

In western Ks , every time someone dies or retires from farming, that is one less farmer in the county , the bigger farmers take over, same thing goes for someone that has a blacksmith or welding shop or machinery repair, I work in the school, very few young people have any interest in farming, 13 boys in welding class only one knew what a 3 point is, one thought the 4020 was the first John Deere tractor.

Not my family but the guy I work for. Has two girls and one boy. They are in their middle twenties now. Were born and raised here on the small ranch. They have no idea that they lived on a ranch and the parents couldn't force them to work or help out. Kids spent all their time in the house eating and sleeping. As such, they don't have any life skills to speak of.

Whatever our kids may eventually become interested in, a dangerous majority are seriously "sidetracked" from reality by this computer/electronic age we currently live in. Too bad I guess, but I think in time this situation will change. Eventually there will be a serious food shortage here on earth...even in our country, and agriculture and food processing will become much more lucrative......and profitable. The "transition time" may be horrible to witness and costly to our civilization, but it will happen......Sort of a food shortage fired Armageddon . Food shortages in certain areas are one thing, food shortages everywhere will be something else....a crisis like our world has never seen.....at least in times we can recall. We presently have a terrible trait in our world, we spend a lot of time and money fixing things that don't need fixing......and neglecting serious situations and issues that are in dire need of fixing. We seem to have to learn so many things "the hard way".

Kind of the opposite here. I always wanted to farm, but haven't had the nerve/knowledge to get into it. In high school we were taken to a local tech school for a day to discuss what we wanted to do after school. I said farm and was told i couldn't pick farming, so I chose heavy equipment operator and i was told i couldnt pick that either. I picked a third thing i cant remember but was pushed toward engineering and other desk jobs. I couldn't stand sitting behind a desk in school i dont know what made them think i would like it for 40 hours a week. My senior year of high school dad was pretty sick and my mom came outside and told me that if I went to college and got a degree in something to fall back on I could take up farming. That is similar to telling me that once I play NBA basketball I could farm. Tried a year and a half of school and went to work giving up on farming. I sure do regret not talking to grandpa after high school and trying to work out something with him. In all irony the idea of having a career to fall back on was absolutely worthless by that time. With the way technology has changed everything in the last 20 years any education I would have received in college would have been irrelevant in less than 10 years. I have friends with degrees that didn't use them right away and they are useless now with the way everything has changed.

"farmers lives matter"

I'm in high school and live right in the middle of lots of smaller farms. Absolutely love anything farming. Family has 50 acres about 8 of which is practible already tillable but the don't want me to "ruin" it with plowing and planting, Lol. So my tractors just plow white stuff in the winter and mow in the summer.

Great insight and foresight.

I grew up on a farm, there were registered Angus herd, registered Appaloosa horses, sheep, goats, chickens, and always had soybeans or corn planted. My Grandfather also combined clover and Bahia grass to sell. Also had a 30 acre pond that was used to raise catfish for market. I was always good with tearing things apart so from the time I was a teenager, I was the mechanic. I had to keep the equipment running, wanted to stay and farm, but daddy had other plans and I went to college and got an engineering degree. Now my grandfather had an agricultural degree as does my dad. Dad went back and got an education degree and was a teacher and principal for 35 years. But it got where my grandfather couldn't do it all so the cows were sold, horses sold and a hurricane took out the chicken houses and they were never rebuilt. I now work 4 days a week at my job and use the other three to play farming. Only have 9 cows and about 30 chickens and bale hay mostly. I do plant a pretty good size garden with my dad now that he is retired. My oldest son is Autistic so he rarely gets outside except to go swimming. My oldest daughter has informed me that she is an artist and is not interested in what I do outside. But my youngest two especially my baby boy is usually right with me while I am doing things outside, also my nephew that does not have a dad around. So there is some hope that one of them will pick up some of the what I am trying to teach them and keep up what is left of the farm.

My oldest cousin inherited all of my grandfathers land and he does nothing with it. Rents out the fields to BTO's and uses the lake to ride jet skis around in. But life on the farm is quickly dying away in my part of the country.

That sounds somewhat familiar here too. I'd venture I am about 5-10 years behind you in the farm family progression. Very interesting responses from a wide variety of backgrounds. I was just reading them but I'd like to offer my experience as well.

I spent my first 18 years on a dairy farm in PA. Rural but not isolated. (At the time I thought it was, but I've found out what "rural" living is like later in life.) I was always near the top of the class however and was guided into a college degree. This was the best path for me (my brother was the opposite; college and he didn't agree). The thing I hated as a kid was that we never had money for anything; that and I spent my day cleaning up cow manure. So, once I had a drivers license I would on at a plant nursery, baled hay for my uncle, worked for a dairy repair service company. If it paid, I was willing to do it. Time came to choose a college degree, I chose a technical school and selected electronics engineering over diesel tech and repair because everyone was using computers!

Fast forward 15 years:
My parents are still farming and I have a well paying and enjoyable engineering job off of the farm. I still help out on nights and weekends during hay and corn season. My little kids can't wait to visit the farm. I've told my wife that if there was ever a kid that needed a farm it was my little boy. He cannot sit still! (there is no such thing as playing on the computer at the farm; that thought quickly gets disposed of) I hope this continues because the future of the family (plural) farms is unknown and who knows what opportunities might be available for my kids that I was a generation too early for.

Why do I say the future? There are several family farms within our extended family. But, the downsizing has begun as people are getting older. Not many of the cousins are taking over because with the parents still farming, there is no money for the kids so they work elsewhere. But as my one uncle said, once you sell the farm, you don't get a chance to get it back. Its gone. I would like to take over all of the farms because I have seen what the alternatives are and I'm about tired of seeing housing developments. But my wife says she's not cut out to be a farmer and with young kids, now isn't the time to rock the financial boat. I think this is the struggle that most are faced with.

It feels like trying to jump onto a merry-go round that is going 50MPH and your standing still. Timing the jump is the hardest part.

Here is my story or view. I'll be 45 next week, only son with 3 older sisters. Grew up on a small farm in Minnesota until I was 11. I honestly don't remember the first time I was on a tractor. Dad said he would take me to the field to plow when I was a couple years old. I slept in a box he made in the cab of an International 650 while he plowed at night. He also had a repair shop, worked on just about everything. I was his shadow in the shop or I was playing in the sandbox with my tractors "farming".

We moved to Montana when I was in 6th grade. We started literally from scratch. Built the house, cleared the land. Raised a few critters to eat and farmed as time would allow since Dad had to work in town to pay the bills. But we always farmed some way, grew oats and made hay. I learned a lot about everything that could be done or built with your hands and back.

I turned 18 and couldn't wait to leave. I wanted nothing to do with tractors, dirt, grease or swinging a hammer. Burnt out on it I guess and the world was bigger than a 700 person town in Montana. I was smart enough, went to college and moved away when I was 20. 1600 miles away. Got a Masters Degree in Biology and have worked a desk job in an environmental firm as a project manager for 17 years. Didn't go back to Montana until 2011 when my Mom passed away. Saw my parents on a regular basis but either they traveled to us or we all met up in Minnesota at the lake cabin.

In 2010-11, I went to Afghanistan as part of an agriculture development team. The National Guard picked me out because I know about water wells and drilling. In the process over there, we worked with whom we call county Ag extension agents here working to improve their farming abilities and technology. Those people still harvest with hand sickles. I built 15 scythes from scratch and showed them videos of how it works to stand up and harvest. That experience and going back to Montana started the bug again, I'd like to farm a little somehow again.

I have a great job working for a great employer but I'm tired of the rat race. Money isn't everything and no matter how much you make, you need more. I'm tired of it. Why we want/need to make things so complicated is beyond me but I went down that road because I thought it was better. Its not. It is so peaceful on a tractor just raking hay. A person doesn't need so much and can live on much less. I believe it can be more fulfilling by backing off and doing more things the simple way.

My Dad couldn't be more excited to see me taking an interest in farming. We have also collected a few old Farmalls and got them running again. He has helped with that. He lives with the 2nd wife about an 1/8 mile off the Montana farm in her house but he jumps in the truck and messes around at the farm everyday. He has told me, if I want it, I can have it. Just move in the house and its yours.

I'm not to the point where I can do that just yet, my son is a senior in high school so have to get him on his way first. Dad is 76 and his time is limited. His health has been betraying him lately, dealt with prostrate cancer last year and two weeks ago was diagnosed with stomach cancer. I hope we've caught it early enough but you never know.

I'm not sure where this will all go, the stars and moon have to line up to make this happen. I know I won't be able to make a living farming in Montana but I have other ways to make money to pay the bills. But I want to work at something that I really want to do, not something that I'm doing for a paycheck. I'm not afraid of work, that is one thing that Dad instilled in me no matter how much I thought I hated it at the time. But the desire is there in me to farm. Just need to make a dream a reality.

I think a lot of people with old cars, trucks, tractors and farms have family members with little or no interest in this stuff....enjoy it as long as you can, then sell it.

Knew an older church couple back in the late forties and early fifties that used to spend a lot of time in Afghanistan drilling water wells and trying to teach the people how to farm. They would come by once a year and stop at the community church and show home movies about their trip. Don't know whatever happened to them.

I did when I was milking cows. After I sold them and went to the beef cattle,the older boy decided he missed it and wanted to try some day. He has two cows here,but he's so busy with work,he can't do much here unless I make an appointment with him about a month in advance. I don't feel so much like I'm working for nothing as I did when I was milking and nobody wanted it. I feel more like I'm doing this for me.

This whole thread makes me sad.

I can not remember the first time I was on a tractor. I was more than likely a small baby. I can remember following my Grand father to milk the cows when the milk bucket was waist high on me. I knew from a young age that farming was what I wanted to do. I also am practical enough to know that you have to make a living for your family too. So just farming in the mid 1980s was not enough to provide for my family. I took a town job. I worked at dealerships for the next 25 years and still farmed as much as most full time farmers did. Sleep was a luxury to me for years. Many nights I would come in and shower. Put my work cloths on and drive to work. Sleep in my car until the shop foreman would wake me up when he opened the store. That nap was many times an hour or two. I did not want to wake my wife by coming to bed at 4-5 AM. We made it work. You have to have the fire in your belly to never give up.

As for the kids and Grand Kids. They all have an interest in farming. I think what helped is we never treated the kids as hired hands. They had chores but working extra during harvest or planting earned them money. Now that might have been a "credit" on feed for animals they personally owned but they still got some thing that they could call their own. I think that is the key. You would hate any job you did if you never got anything to call your own. Many farm kids are ruined by their parents because the kids are treated as slave labor. We try an "help" the younger kids/grand kids to thing that are their own and related to farming. Grand Daughters are now selling shelled corn and sweet corn. Younger Grand sons sold sweet corn this too. My youngest son is taking care of two hog finishing barns that the family built. He gets a steady pay check by doing all of the daily chores required by the hogs. My older sons are involved more with the farming as I have stepped back. They are growing a custom farming business. My oldest is still working a HIGH paying town job but farms his wife's families farms that they bought 15 years ago. I did not see how those two could ever pay off the debt they had by buying those farms but they have made it work.

To those that are thinking for farming. IF you think your going to try making a living off farming then you had better be well prepared to working double the hours you ever would in town. Making less per hour than the kids at McDonalds do. Your wife/husband had better like the life style too or your done before you start. The rewards will not be money the majority of the time. It will be raising a family in a wholesome environment and the joy of working with the land/animals.

we are setting up a trust for 99 years that our land has to be farmed only no trailers an d no gov crap programs -----family has 1st rt to farm or rent out at a discount then we have divided the income in a % to grow the trust and double the size in 20 years then double again in 20 years therefore supporting many many families as they will be able to rent cheaper than any where-----going to meet with the Mennonite community to see if they want to be the trustee manager due to them being one of the oldest orgs anywhere

Yup. I'm still young but the older I get the more I see it declining. There are some family farms around here pooling resources and making a go of it. The depressing part for me is knowing in the next 10 years, I could have 3 uncles selling out and there isn't much I'm going to be able to do about it. Was talking with another uncle this past weekend about startup costs. He figures you need $2mil around here to get the basics for 200 acres. Then, you need to buy seed and the rest.

I know this past winter my parents lost a few cows and had a bad string of bull calves. My dad said "why do I keep doing this?" I said because it beats driving a fork lift at a factory. He'd be 1000% miserable doing an off the farm job; if anyone would hire him.

I too am someone who remembers riding on the seat between my Dads legs on the tractor. From my earliest memories I wanted to farm, never thought about doing anything else. My Dad was 48 when I was born, being the youngest of 5 boys, no girls. Through some good times and bad my Dad decided to sell the farm when I was 16. He was ready to retire, I asked him to hold the farm until I graduated from school. His quick and short response was "Farm? The hell you will!" I was OK with that, he left no room for me to question his choice for me. He told me to work for someone else and let them have the headaches. Not sure what to do I got a job at a Case dealership. Shop gopher, setting up machinery, serviced out a lot of new 70 series tractors and delivered them. Probably the best job I ever had, The dealership is still on of only a few Independently owned CNH dealers in North Dakota. They are now in the third generation of ownership. Worked there 3 years. Moved to Washington state.
I worked for 9 years in a steel foundry, talk about heavy industry! Learned to make sand molds, melt and pour everything from brass to stainless steel. Hated about 8 1/2 years of it. Went to work for a large builder of commercial passenger planes in 1988, been farming airplanes ever since.
Still miss the farm every day. Have had opportunities along the way, owned a couple of acres that had corn taller than me on it when I bought it, built a house, had a 1957 Farmal 230, We played farmer with that and had a great time. Sold it all in 2006 right before the real estate bust. Now have a nice home in town, no room for a tractor. When I'm on YT the wife says "Riding the tractor again?" Yes I am. Maybe when I retire I can get some property and be a "Gentleman Farmer"
After all that I salute all of you that are farming and putting it on my table. THANK YOU! Wish I was there with you!

I began driving the 8N when I was about ten, because that's Dad quit his welding job and took the plunge into the dairy business. I was a senior in high school when Dad sold out of the dairy business. It was long understood that I was going to college, I was the last kid and there was no room in the budget for a hired hand. We were making a living, but making no real headway other than paying off the note on the 220 acres. The land itself, a thin layer of sandy topsoil over a red clay base, wasn't good for much more than pasturing dairy cattle or growing pine trees, so farming was pretty much out of the question. Unbeknownst to us, the land's real value lay far below the surface.

Even though I had no interest in farming I kept a deep love for the land and for rural living. I now live on 15 acres, half of which is in pines and red oaks. Otherwise, I don't grow so much as tomato.

At 75 it's all I can do to keep the place up, so my advice to those of you who have expressed a desire to jump into farming late in life: don't underestimate how age is going to affect your ability to handle the demands of your task, even if it is a labor of love. I'm actually fairly healthy, but my body simply can no longer meet the demands of all I need to do, even on my small place.

a few months ago I read a article saying that by 2050 the population will be three times what the earth can support..glad ill soon be gone.

I am the youngest of 5 kids , my Dad was a only son , and was kind of cornered into taking over from his dad.While my Dad would rather have been a house builder , he did ok with the farm , but never wanted any of us to farm. We were all expected to go to post secondary school , collage , or University, or take a trade , but not farm . All 4 of my sibs did as Mom and Dad wished , I wanted to farm . Wouldn't go to University, when the time came , I took a job at 18 , and got a second job as well. By the time I was 20 , I had saved enough money to by some milk quota , rented a farm , and against his will , my Dad came through , and lent me $10,000.00. Around the same as the others got to go to school with. This was way back in 1981 , My wife and I now milk just around 65 cows , and own 276 acres of good land . We have 3 boys , the oldest farms with me , while the youngest lives home with us ,but takes no part in the farm . Our second boy won't help on the farm and lives in town . Either you want to farm , or you don't . I did and still do . Love the dairy , all I wanted to do since I was 13 years old. My son and I are looking to the future , and thinking of building a new barn in about 5 years, with stable for 120 cows , and a robotic milking system . The future is not mine , it will be for him to build , I am going to start to just ride along . I will be 56 on my next birthday, my son will be 30. Bruce

My only grandson hates anything to do with farming with a passion. (much to his fathers consternation) My oldest granddaughter discovered early on she didn't want anything to do with farming either. She's just started college to be a small animal vet tech. Jeff oldest daughter has farming in her blood. She will be going the BOCES next year to earn a nursing degree as a backup, but I think she's going to go into partnership with her father. His younger daughter is showing interest also, but we'll see in a few years. The two urban granddaughters like being on the farm, but I doubt they will get into farming. Like Bruce said, you've either got it in you or you don't.

There will never be a food shortage as long as capitalism exists, there is currently more US arable land not in production than in production, technology has made 250 bushel corn the norm in many places and we will not be going backward unless the whole economic system collapses.