1 of 10 dead end jobs!!!

Then the government will probably try to "fix" things. . .

The 'right' people? just think concrete and stripmalls. . .

Well, somebody is out there (hobby farmer, custom baler out for the $$$ only ?) selling garbage for $25 and when a customer looks in the local, weekly, area paper and sees $25 a roll, a lot of them don't know what they are buying or don't have the money to pay for the product they need.

Consequently the good stuff doesn't sell. So to sell it you drop your price and loose your shirt....unless you feed it. So that's what I do.

(Custom baler clarification for those who do it: I am talking about minimum fertilization, high weed content, and an over mature crop....stalks and tops...gets the roll count up; but the nutritional value is way down....so the owner has to feed supplements like range cubes, so what did it buy him? I'm not talking about the guy who is a custom baler and does it like HE was buying it.)

Mark

I really wish I knew how to farm, but being only able to get to my land once a month I have a very slow learning process.

Get your message out. Get together with other farmers and find a way to get to Joe Schmoo public who buys everything with the walmart mentality. Tell him what quality means.

I buy fresh, I try to buy direct. And I absolutely avoid buying produce that isn't American. And I pay extra for it. I'll do so as long as I can afford to (meaning I have a job), and I can find it (meaning you guys still farm).

So don't sell out to the developers. Someday the farmers that remain will be the most important asset this country has.

I just got my "High Quality Hay Management" booklet from the local A&M University and I read how much fert it took to grow a ton of hay which has to be replaced annually if you don't want the field to peter out....which is what the field next door has been doing for the past 5 years....Down from 10 ton per acre over the season to 2.

Well pilgrims, at todays prices, the price of the fert (that's fertilizer alone; nothing else; nothing;) required to grow a ton of hay cost as much as you can get for the ton of hay on the local market. Only way I can get any kind of return it to feed it to cows and sell them having raised them on leased land @ $10 per acre per year.

You ain't gonna get there from here. Only (almost)people in ag are retired people like me that do it for the fun of it. Course we could be spending our money on fishing, or lake houses, motor homes, travel, hotrod cars, etc.

Ok you big guys, sound off about all the money you are REALLY making....I'm duckin the flak.

I was out cutting hay yesterday, thinking about my return for my effort and investment and it reminded me of a guy I hired 25 years ago to cut my hay patch.....he was going to make a living on hay. Har Har. Had a new wife and baby and all the financial responsibilityes associated with that.

He didn't even get one round completed and his rig broke down and my patch went to pot cause there was no one else to do it.

Mark

I agree with you 100%. I'm retired from a job in industry. My wife is a school teacher who will retire in a couple of years. If we didn't invest in the farm annually, we couldn't continue to farm. The Farm Bureau, our local County Agent, the Farmer's Co-Op, Progressive Farmer, my veterinarian, and all of the other sources of information available, are all out of touch with prices. I do all of the work on my farm and can't begin to do all of the things I'd like to do. I can't afford to spend one nickel on hired help. Fertilizer, herbicide, insecticide, feed, vaccinations, equipment, etc. are so high priced I can't even think about buying them.

If my cows ever go on strike, I'll simply be out of business.

The only thing that keeps me doing it is that I love it. If it ever quits being fun, I'll quit.

Tom in TN

It costs money. Every time I have to spend money (like for fertilizer)I just think....now how much would I be spending if I were a dirt track race car owner or had a big fancy bass boat. That shuts me up and I go on about what has to be done..... but I do like to see a well fertilized hay patch ruffling in the breeze. Makes you feel good.

Thanks,

Mark