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CNY | All of these “hard working farmer” posts lately have made me think so just wanted to share my 2 cents.
I’m 38, my Dad is 68. He retired 4 years ago. For the last 10 years he farmed he farmed only his owned ground that was paid off with his paid for equipment. Prepaid seed/fertilizer/spray in the fall for the next growing year. If you didn’t know you’d think he was born with a silver spoon in his mouth. But he worked his a** off to get there. Milked cows for 40 years, in the barn at 5 am every morning. Every other Sunday off, usually 1 vacation a year while I was growing up. My Mom had a good off farm job and that paid for family expenses. He put everything back into the farm, and lived on almost nothing for years. He could make a jacket or pair of gloves last a decade. We did everything the hard way, small bales, cut firewood, used labor instead of capital.
Our next door neighbor is the same age as my Dad. He has barns full of new JD tractors/sprayer/combine and a couple Peterbilts. Farms mostly his own owned ground. He never dairied. But for years he busted his butt. Trucking grain all over for others. He would load corn from our bin in the evening then leave the next morning at 2:30 am so he could get back and work in the fields all day. Baled & sold small squares of hay & straw. Tiled miles and miles for people with a backhoe. Now he just grows corn & beans. I don’t blame him.
My point is if you didn’t know my Dad or our neighbor you’d think they are just lazy entitled old farmers. But you didn’t see what they did to get there. I understand there are lazy spoiled farmers out there. But farmers are kind of like everyone else, some great some not so great. I know when I see some of these young YouTube cowboys I think to myself that their Dad & Grandfather must have busted their butts because there was a rock solid operation there before Junior came back. I will add that my Dad & our neighbor both grew up on farms and bought out their family members, which is a huge advantage not everyone has. But it was bought, not gifted.
I have rambled enough. Not trying to really stir things up, but sometimes there’s more to what you see than what’s right in front of you | |
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Perspective
