|
|
|
Average Member
 
Group: Banned Members
Last Login: 11/1/2009 6:18:12 AM
Posts: 586,
Visits: 509
|
|
The cold hard fact Tiff, is that no one is making a living off full time farming.
So someone perceived to be farming full time has another job or a large off shoot of there farm that makes money, like a turf business or black soil company. the idea that the "real farmer" is farming full time is not so... because the real farmer can't make enough money to support himself.
|
|
|
|
|
Senior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 8:55:34 AM
Posts: 1,155,
Visits: 941
|
|
Okay now that is a fallacy WOS...it is called non-agricultural income and it is where we are in 2009. Its like having a stay at home wife, a few do it, but most families in 2009 have two incomes now, so the question is...are they no longer considered families because via your definition they are not?
It is the same with farms. The cost of living in this country...in all sectors...has surpassed the single income of any entity. Insert any career choice here, from being an engineer for a construction company, to being a machinist on a tugboat. You need your spouse to be making an income as well.
And so I don't know of any farmer here that does not have a wife that does not work off-farm and the reason is really simple...health insurance. In the future, farmers here are hoping to off-set the high cost of electrical consumption with windmills. If they can lease their land and have a zero electric bill, they can compete with low milk prices, or thrive when high milk prices return. Other farmers I know of, have vast gravel pits which the mine in order to make money. Some even shear sheep!
I have a whole list of potential non-traditional incomes in my farm plan. Yes gravel mining is one, wind power is another, apple trees are another, and so are maple syrup and hunting leases. If this is what it takes to keep the farm out of development, then you bet I am prepared with some ideas.
If you are not making money farming full time with beef, it is indeed time to diversify. That is where the 3 major sides comes into play. Its very seldom all three sides fail. For me it is sheep, dairy cow feed and harvesting wood (logging). Right now dairy cow feed prices are down, and its all I can do to get rid of wood. But lamb prices are still up. If I ever get my windmills here, I will drop logging and stay with wind, sheep and feed. It is okay to change WOS...its how farms stay farms.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
|
|
|
|
|
Senior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 8:55:34 AM
Posts: 1,155,
Visits: 941
|
|
You are being too hard on yourself Tiffle. Many people have the capability of doing the work, it is the marketing aspect of things that is very difficult. The other part of the triangle is the financial tracking of things. I can do the operational stuff, and do the financial tracking, but marketing...I am not so good at that. Most people do not have all three abilities...they do well at 2 but not all three. That is why I say, don't be too hard on yourself.
That is why for me, direct marketing...though it can be lucrative...will probably elude me. It would be in my best interest to use my ability to produce lambs on a large scale at very low cost, and see that low cost through my intensive fiscal tracking. In that way I can sell low cost lambs at wholesale venues instead of being in a farmers market all day, or trying to drum up sales.
Just remember it is great to eliminate the middleman, and take his cut of the money, but to do so, one must also do the work he did. That might be catching too big of a tiger by the tail.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
|
|
|
|
|
Average Member
Group: Banned Members
Last Login: 11/1/2009 6:18:12 AM
Posts: 586,
Visits: 509
|
|
no kiddddddiiiiiinnnnnggggg!
Dang it draw
But the idea sold to the new comers is false... you know the people who buy into this stuff... think that we.. YOU AND I... are just down on the farm all day every day like some kind of Norman Rockwell painting. Those days are ad dead as Caesar.
Ok maybe you & I know a few.. but what kind of life to they live?
abject, total debt poverty! yea put that into a Christmas card or try to sell that bitter reality on the cover of the Saturday Evening post.
I'm sure that life style, if told in it's true form would be a great artical for this mag. LOL... a life of hand me downs and telling the kids they can't have some of the basic things the parent would love to give them but can't like after school sports or help them pay for college. Give the wife a vacation to some place other than the local park.
No those families are not less of families..and we are no less farmers for outside jobs..
MY POINT is that no one can pretend that a farmer can farm and not have a real job with out live'n a very poor lifestyle so Tiff is no diff than the rest of us because that is how it really is.
|
|
|
|
|
Junior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 5:47:51 PM
Posts: 154,
Visits: 124
|
|
wallsostone
I think I actually appreciate your comments! I know the farmers who live around us and I can't measure up to that strength and determination, at least in regards to their farms.
On the other hand, I deal with hundreds of customers worldwide who just can't wait to get their products. Nothing so important as food on the table...although in the long run...maybe it is.
Life is interesting no matter what you do.
|
|
|
|
|
Average Member
Group: Banned Members
Last Login: 11/1/2009 6:18:12 AM
Posts: 586,
Visits: 509
|
|
see this is the thing about "hobby" farming
It's about your mind set. If Draw is in the ship yards and I Have to many ventures to count, BUT we don't farm full time, then I guess we are just hobby farmers.
But I'm not because it's.....well it's a state of mind... and a dash of reality.
For example IF you have 2 goats and an apple tree, you may as well have 2 dogs and an apple tree.
At the same time, if you have a billiondollar company, and farming is a write off, then you would be in the same category as the man with the goats.
BUT if you farm a lagit product, not just for the practical reasons - the warm fuzzy sales pitches... then your farming.
I'd add here, take that work ethic ect and apply it to a job. some get that ethic from other places, but farming is probably in the top 5.
Why the heck would you farm? Well for the reasons draw and I would list.
But still, if your the kind of man who will do whatever is needed in the compay, pitch in and help... if your the fellow who would work till the job is done, not till 5pm... you don't female dog you don't mind a little dust cuz you've been covered in crap plenty of times before...or even better you don't fuss if the office temp drops 2 degress below 70... then why the hell would you farm?
Your job offerers will be high and you have a skill you can apply to a gig that pays real money.
but it's the real farmer who keeps that cycle going so that his children will learn those skills and know what dirt tasted like.
|
|
|
|
|
Senior Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: Today @ 8:55:34 AM
Posts: 1,155,
Visits: 941
|
|
See I see it the opposite way WOS...
I do it for the money, and I have a legacy in regards to farming, so yeah I have motivation to do well in farming, but take someone like Sue Weaver (hey we all love her and she is fun to zero in on); she spends all day writing, she has a few acres to her name, a modest home and she could easily toss on her ipod, ride around on her riding mower and cut grass when she needed an hour to think through an issue or whatever.
But she does not do that. She chooses to write about livestock, though she is a quality writer and could write woman's romance novels if she wanted too and probably make more money. And instead of mowing she raises a few goats, sheep and donkey's even though she would probably rather soak her bones in a bubble bath at the end of the day of endless typing instead of lugging haybales and mending fences.
So why does she do all this...and you know she's not making any money off the animals directly...because SHE JUST LOVES AGRICULTURE! She loves writing about it, she loves animals and she likes to help others gain that appreciation. Come on WOS...you got to respect that don't you...even a little bit? I know I do.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
|
|
|
|
|
Average Member
Group: Banned Members
Last Login: 11/1/2009 6:18:12 AM
Posts: 586,
Visits: 509
|
|
uh.. well I wasn't meaning to imply that the category was a bad category.
However, like the guy who wants to brag about being a farmer
(not hobby farmer) when he has one goat...I no more admire him than I admire the white kid from the upper west side who goes to the Getto to hang out with his pants round his knees.
yea I want to be in it for the money...and from MY point of view....and only speaking for myself... I've never been successful at anything I did for the money.
My ventures are fun and I would rather work on them than "play"... and then I turn around and wow.... I get a check for this?
I think that comes from farming. I knew I'd never make money at that... But I still love the work, that carried over into pay'n careers. I've seen this in the lives of my friends as well.
my tax man looked over my books. I only showed very little playtime
he asked what I had done for fun, thinking that I'd doctored something. But my Fun included work stuff...stone shows and workshops about stone walls. It was fun, but it paid.
see what I mean?
|
|
|
|