We still practice that way of farming in my family. Grandpa, Dad, and myself own different pieces of equipment and share it to get our acres covered. Dad and I drive truck for a living, as did Grandpa, and so we all work together to get things done and to also allow each of us to keep our weekly cash flow coming in. As I'm at 30, a year newly married, and starting a family I can't be around the farm quite as much because I need the steady income. Dad at 55, many things paid for and no kids to worry about, can be around more. Grandpa at 80, still farms but otherwise retired and doing what he loves, can be around all the time. He knows that we need to work on the side.
Sometimes there's a little argument but it's not much as we all well know each other's strengths and weaknesses and depend on each other to do their part. If something breaks down we tend to laugh it off and say ..it happens! Whoever gets to town first and gets the parts is usually the one who pays for it. Doesn't matter whose it is. We don't worry about whose field gets planted first.. They will all get done, just have patience. This includes the 400 acres we custom farm.
I agree with you JD. Many of the bigger farmers will bid to rent ground for a ridiculous rate just so they have more to farm. They must not be able to stand a small or young farmer trying to throw his or her hat in the ring. Sometimes their justification for paying so much is that they have another field or two that they are getting a pretty good deal on so when you average it out they are still making money. Seems silly to pay more to make less. But hey at least Jay the neighbor didn't get his filthy hands on it.
Nobody helps young guys get started. They hope their kids take interest in it and yes, many kids do take interest. It's interesting the ones that don't have anyone to leave it to will be the ones at the coffee shop saying how there's no young guys who want to do it anymore. No young guys that want to work. That's not true. And then they go and rent out everything to an already well established farmer. Happens all the time around here.
Helping neighbors out. That is a rare thing anymore. Some neighbors refuse to accept help and that's their business. Like you say, usually only when someone is very sick or worse. The bad thing is some of these guys that help these families out during their time of need may have an ulterior motive hoping they can get their hands on the ground afterwards.
Yeah there's not much can be done about it. I probably won't ever own much ground, and probably won't ever be able to rent anymore or at least not much. But I'll keep my dignity and integrity. I don't want to farm the world.
Upload one or more videos to your post. Photo filesizes should be less than 300K and Videos, less than 2MB. Formats allowed are gif, jpg, png, ogg, mp4, mov, and avi. Be sure to use filenames without spaces or special characters, and filetypes of 3 digits lower case.
We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today. [ About Us ]
Today's Featured Article - Madison's County - by Anthony West. Philip Madison has been a good friend of mine for quite some time. He has patiently suffered my incessant chit chat on the subject of tractors for longer than I care to remember, and on many occasions he has put himself out, dropped what ever it was he was doing, to come and lend a hand cranking handles, or loading a find onto a trailer. Although he himself has never actually owned or restored a tractor, he was always enthusiastic and always around helping with other peoples projects.
... [Read Article]
Latest Ad:
1953 Ford Jubilee Tractor. Last driven 5 yrs ago. Parked ever since. As is as seen
[More Ads]
All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy
TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.
