RE : Ending My Marriage

The topic has rolled fairly far onto page 2 but I wanted to express my thoughts since I was not here yesterday. Develop other interests. Sounds simple enough but I've seen many times where even an understood split leads to festering of emotions and more than rarely violence. For some farming is so deep into the blood there is not a day that goes by without thinking about it. Give yourself a day off from thinking about it just like you might about cutting the lawn one day as opposed to another. Be open to a partnership that might get your own interests off the ground sooner. Now that you have experience in dealing with others on a business level let those instincts govern such decisions and don't be afraid to ask for an outside opinion. Outsiders (ones who you know and trust) can see the landscape clearly and with less of a bias. Be emotionally OK with the notion that your last opportunity might be your only opportunity. I don't know your circumstances so anything is possible for you but for many their best chance for farming is often to join the family business. What the future holds is anybody's guess but for the present the cost of entry is prohibitive in most cases. Back during the 1980's and 1990's guys could shave off some of the cost by going into the hill country around here and buy a farm that might just produce medium quality forage but at the same time not require an extensive lineup of equipment. That opportunity has been pretty well lost to the Amish and Mennonites buying anything that they can get a bale of hay off of. I think that at some point things will readjust to the economic realities of farming to allow more newcomers but it is hard to say how soon that might be. There have been concrete examples from the past such as after WWI and during the 1980's where land prices reset to be more in step with productivity and profitability. Just a few thoughts. Best of luck, Brown Swiss.

Might not be the perfect example of bringing fresh blood into farming, but Scotland is attempting to do just that. The government is releasing public land to be used for agriculture across the country in the hopes of encouraging people to take up farming. Land use will allotted to new farmers, not ones who already have landholdings. With the average Scots farmer being 58 yrs old, the government is trying to keep the medium size farms viable for the future rather than be engulfed with giant corporate holdings.

I have some distant Scottish ancestors on my mother's side. Maybe I could use that angle to work into a more favorable position? LOL. Seriously, here in the US I don't see such a program happening and I don't know that the taxpayer should be on the hook for such a program. It's a tough world for some including myself as we seem to be better suited for the old economy which is fading away as we speak. I think that there will be an adjustment at some point. The common thread in my example about post WWI and the 1980's was that prior to those periods there was a large run up in commodity prices. Some might scoff and say today is different and it is in a lot of respects. But don't understate the current which is quite a few young people who could go into a favorable farming situation flat out do not want to do so. This will work to put land onto the market at a rate that the BTO"s can't take advantage of unless they can buy the local bank. Agri-creditors have gotten a lot more skittish in the last year and guys don't want to be fired because they rolled the dice on a few large operators. My opinion for what it is worth.

Thanks for the reply, first I am in hill country! LOL I am close to the Wisconsin and Mississippi Rivers, just south of Prairie du Chien WI and it is hilly here. And actually it takes more dollars per acre to farm these hills then it does nice flat land!

I have to quote JD Seller here, "there is negative cash flow on the majority of the dairies". So going into a partnership is still out of the question, my brother and I talked about it but we have different ideas so not seeing it as a possibility.

And second to last I have no idea how the world will turn in the years to come but, we have so many investors around anymore that it doesn't matter what the commodity prices are anymore. My brother was trying to buy his own dairy farm and FSA told him to find an investor. So many bigger dairies and crop farms around here are investor owned.

Now last I was hired at a Sand Mine in Ia, I worked there back in 2011 so nothing new to me. So the plan is to find a small farm to move to and live happily ever after! LOL

Got a job over with Pattison's??? They are not too bad of a place to work. Friend's brother worked for them for close to 30 years. He seemed to live a pretty good life.


I can tell you chasing a cow around twice each day to lose money is not a fun way to live. Having a steady,dependable income when you have a young family is not all bad. I can tell you I would NOT be where I am today if I would have keep farming only. There would not have been much left after family expenses to grow anything much. I slowly built a nest egg and was then able to take advantage of bargains when they came along.

You can do it today as well. The BIG and BIG money are running around like it is all fun and games. They did the same thing in the 1970 and the 1920s. The 1980s and 1930s took the fun out of it for them. Look up record high land prices and until the 1970s the 1920s held the records. So build that nest egg and wait. Your age is on your side.

Yep with Pattison! I worked there back in 2011 and they didn't want me to leave but working the mine and milking cows was way too much, I started popping NoDoz to stay awake driving.

Thanks for positive attitude from all on this site!

We just went through the farm transition in my family and as with all the other stories, it did not go super smooth. There's four of us and my two sisters always knew they would never get any of the farm and they were never interested so that part worked out, but my brother on the other hand.....well he was less than impressed with how it worked out. It was always thought that he and I would be partners and own the farm together as we both grew up working the place with dad and pap. The difference was I have made all my life plans around owning the farm and farming it. I purchased cows, sheep and equipment on my own, he did not. I have a job that's conducive to farming, he does not. I made the farm a priority in my life, he only worked it when it was convenient for him. He was given ample opportunity to take on a role there and had years to do it but he did not. So, when time came to make the transition plan he wa not involved and has very upset when he found out he wouldn't be getting any land, which in the end, was the only thing he really cared about. I am very blessed to have a father who understood this and now I am fixing the house up for my family to live in and am in the process of,planning my future there which has always been my dream. He took my sweat and my actions into consideration and now he and I are 50/50 partners on the business side of the farm and the main farm is in my name. I am so blessed and thank the lord everyday for the way things turned out. Still, it is unfortunate that my relationship with my brother has been changed forever but I'm hoping that he will come around.

First I wish you luck and sounds like you have a good plan.The person I wouldn't want to be in the situation is your brother I assume he's going to have to take over your
share of the work along with your part of the herd that won't be easy.And if your mother decides after your dad is gone she wants to travel,marry again or who knows your brother will be left high and dry unless he has some sort of binding trust or written agreement.Parents can be great or they can screw you over big time I've seen it go both ways.

Cant give you much advise,,but can wish the best of luck to you and your family,,coming from NJ

I worry about him taking on the work load also, he is bigger then me by almost 150 pounds. I think he has been more of a people person so more are willing to help out. I want to see him succeed so I am only charging him cull cow price for the cows then throwing in the calves, the steers and my dairy equipment that I accumulated over the years. I will still be living on the farm for several months so I will give him a hand when ever I can. Dairy farming is not good right now and not sure if it will be for a long while, but I can help him to make a go of it, if I get anything of the farm later on and he wants to buy it I plan to let it go cheap to him. Would he do it for me? I have no idea but this is what I want to do for him!

brown swiss i'm not a dairy farmer, but what I do know of it your brother should be in pretty good shape in 6 months! with the long hours and all the work that has to be done each day, and that work load nearly doubles in summer getting all the crops in to feed those cows for another year, and getting the crops off. guys like yourself and bruce and all dairy farmers have to love what they doing especialy in todays market. you definatly can't be in it just for the money, reading the posts from yourself, jdseller, and bruce up in Canada, you would have more money in your pocket working at minimum wage for the hours you guys put in.