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Starting Member
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Last Login: 10/27/2009 4:36:16 PM
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| actually the deff is even difrent amoung what those of you would like to call real farmers. If some dork called me a hobby farmer in the way a fellow farmer like myself thinks of it, I'd knock him over... .in other words.. how would any of you folks like to be called Halff ***? BUT here is were this get's intresting REtireing to farming.... AND retireing to what kind of farming. those no kill things are cruelty unnoticed if we looked at cruelty to animals in all kinds of farming and animals business, we'd have a meuch diffrant deff...but to most people animal cruelty is limeted to anyone who look or is labled as a Mike Vick... letting a chicken live to the age of 30 or have'n a dairy cow propped up so that some hippy can feel like he's done' something good is just as cruel or worse than to let them die when they were ment to. and it's these programs that some people here have retired to... they just don't understand becouse they have spent 40 years working in an unrealted business...dreaming of what they thought farming was. make sence??
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Senior Member
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Yes it makes sense to some degree. I can see say a small hobby farmer having sheep and using the wool off it to spin yarn and make products that sell...for sure that is a no-kill agricultural use, and if they surpassed the 1000 dollar threshold, then yes they would indeed be a farm. Even if people had 10 Yak and sold the manure as a compost and surpassed the 1000 dollar amount, then yes it would mean they too were a farm. But to have a dozen pigs and raise them for themselves...while noble...nope they are homesteaders by definition.
As for your example WOS...you really are what agriculture has turned into. With only 30 cows on 300 acres, there really is no way that amount of livestock can pay the farm bills and the property taxes to boot, so you have to resort to off-farm income as a means to get by in life. Heck most farmers/hobby farmers do in this day and age.
I might stay on-farm all the time (or intermittently work on one of the two other dairy farms in the family) but I rely on the cash flow of my wife's job...and of even higher importance today...her health insurance coverage to get by.
The point here is pretty simple...all of us on this forum are hobby farmers when you get right down to it. We are not that much different.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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Starting Member
Group: Banned Members
Last Login: 10/27/2009 4:36:16 PM
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| well it's deeper than that.. I mean I have a close friend who has 150 cows... and 3,400 acre of corn. but guess what.. her days are not filled with work 24 seven. they plant like hell...they harvest like hell but there day to day work isn't so full that they can't also have a full time job. when cows are just eathing they don't do so much.. not to mention with all the equipment we have today, you don't need to work so hard. now why the heck would you just sit and watch the corn grow..so they have an oil business.
I also have friends in dairy who have dump trucks and drive for the gas companies.. why the heck would you milk cows when you have a strong work ethic? I do beef becouse it's my intrst. I don't care for dairy. but if your a person who loves to farm, your probvly also into working your self to death...thats seldom the defention of retirement....however I desire to die working....literaly so when people say they are going to retire to the farm... and they tie into it... it seldom looks like what they thought it was and they become land owners
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New Member
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Last Login: Today @ 6:45:40 PM
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| Maybe I can share a different perspective. The original question was, "Do a lot of people really want to retire and farm?" For us, the answer is "YES!" We have worked very hard in traditional jobs all our adult lives and done very well financially, only to discover that it really was not very fulfilling. We are tired of the rat-race, tired of the phoney "keep-up-with-the-Jones" attitudes, tired of the traffic, and tired of eating food filled with chemicals. Plus, we watched our hard-earned 401K disappear before our eyes and our home value plummet - so even what we thought was "financial security" is not so secure after all! We long for a much simpler way of life and a totally different type of security. I was raised on a 2K acre working dairy farm and I know exactly what the lifestyle is like: good, bad and ugly, so we don't have a glorified view of what it will be like. Agreed, we are getting older and we know the physical labor required is not going be as easy as when we were young - but what else should we do, play bridge and drink gin, taking it easy so we can be rested for our doctor visits? Nope, that is not going to happen. Even if it takes us three times as long, we will still build our own chicken coop and pig pen and put up our own fences. If we can't work in the hot sun, well, we'll just get up earlier and take mid-day naps. We bought a large portion of our land from a lumber company who left it completely trashed. We have cleaned it up and believe we are making a contribution to our local community, not taking anything away from it. Admittedly, we don't need to make a huge profit because we have other resources, but that doesn't mean we are not making a contribution in our own way. We have other goals that may not be readily apparent. For example, we want our suburban grandchildren to learn where their food comes from; we want to grow our own healthy food; and mostly we want to live out the remainder of our lives in a peaceful setting where we can work hard in the clean air on our own "farm". We appreciate everyone's opinions and the advice we have received here from the full-time farmers has been extremely helpful to us. I just don't want others in situations simlar to ours to get discouraged. Diversity, even in farming, is one of the things that makes this country so great....and it is ever better when we all take a step back and look at things from many different perspectives.
M. and D.
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New Member
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Last Login: 11/15/2009 9:03:36 PM
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ah.. well want changes the whole thing for sure. I'd say that your illustration is why man people do things after they "retire" like the local woman who started a coffee shop, and now works more at that than she did for the post office.
but I think it's almost better to retire to a farming community and be a part of it 100% than to try to have 2 acres and try to live as if it's 200. what I mean is that when someone comes to our area, and they have 2 acres..and they try to fit in with the big farmers... they are more or less not taken seresouly. To me, it would be far wiser for so many people who have worked so hard there whole life to not even try to mess with animals at all. What most people want is simply the rewards and lifestyle it's self the environment that they believe to be anti rat race. In some ways I'd say it's more crazy than the city life. I mean in the city you go to the store and buy your canned goods..here you can things and how many Saturdays does that cost?
In the City you get your beef from who ever. Here in the sticks your better off to bu it rather than raise it. How many days do you spend tending to an animal when you could be relaxing?
So to me what people want and what they find are not the same... the perception is this life is easier..and in some ways it truly is..
but what some should be encouraged to do is skip the farm stuff all together and live in a farming comunity taking part in the fun stuff and not atempt to start something new when they have spent there whole life in a world that is very much a 180 of the world they want to be part off and honestly don't understand.
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New Member
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Last Login: Today @ 6:45:40 PM
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| Well WOS, you may be right but I guess we'll have to find it out for ourselves. We have no intention of trying to act like we are "real farmers" or try to fit in with those who have 200 acres; we just want to be in a position to be as self-sufficient as possible, raising some of our own produce and livestock on our 38 acre plot. On the other hand, we welcome their advice and direction and believe we have things to contribute to the community in return. We are not naive enough to think that a simplier life will be an easier life. We work 60+ hours a week in our "city" jobs now, so hard work is nothing new to us. I can tell you we are not the only ones in this situation. We have talked to lots of others who feel the way we do and have similar plans. I'll keep you posted on how it turns out for us!
M. and D.
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New Member
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Last Login: 11/15/2009 9:03:36 PM
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I was referring to people in general.. not you as in you.. 
But you get what I mean. It's like marriage, one thinks he wants it... 10 years later he's divorced.. what did you think it was?? kinda the same thing.
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Starting Member
Group: Forum Members
Last Login: 11/6/2009 4:01:20 AM
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| We are planning for a "farm" retirement, however, we have 10 - 12 years before being retired. We wish to take that time to develop and build our 20 acres into a sustainable lifestyle necessary to survive the changes we face. We were raised in small town and farm communities, spend our working lives in the "city" and also are tired of the hassles and environments we live in today. Our farm is accessible yet remote enough to have a very sustainable rural lifestyle for years to come. We will be working on sustainability and homestead issues to become as self-sufficient as we choose. This forum is titled "hobby Farms", seems so often the participants are full-time farmers and move away from the intended audience with posts and conversations that are not supportive of the hobby farm / retire-to-the farm groups. Just my personal perspective, not intended toward any one individual or group. Everyone has something to offer.
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New Member
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Last Login: 11/15/2009 9:03:36 PM
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well since you addressed it.. lol here we go again
only 2 or 3 of us are full time farmers and even we have jobs off the farm so in full time farmer land that could make us hobby farmers.
the grounding fact is that what you call something vs what another person calls something is were you stand and your point of view.
Id also say that retirement is not what it's thought to be eather. I know very few people who have totally stopped working and traveled the world in an RV, gone to Florida or whatever. Retirement as as we perceive it to be is practicably impossible unless you had a job with protected funds were not threatened.
Then let's look at the high end products in this mag. In another string they push bailers that make 1/4th of the smallest bail a production farmer makes for 4x the cost. now.. if someone is spending there "retirement" that fast how long can they be "retired" before they are BROKE ??
Or is the 65 year old man going to swing a cythe to cut his corn after 30 years of office work? not it's not impossible, but how many people who dream of such things are actually able to do them?
I'm not being mean or trying to be a kill joy.
It's a reality check. yes it's nice to day dream and have goals and ideas. but the fact of the matter is that Farming, hobby or no is a money pit, retirement is a fixed income.
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Senior Member
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Last Login: Today @ 8:55:34 AM
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My Dad is looking at retirement in the next year or two, and so he is looking to kind of do this. In a way me and him have the best arrangement as he is too old to do the heavy stuff like raising sheep, or doing all the logging that needs to be done here. Its just too physically demanding for a combat wounded veteran.
But he has this ability to grow veggies like the dickens. His mom and Dad (my grandparents) had a greenhouse and said they made more money doing that then they ever did raising broilers, potatoes, sheep or cows! There words not mine. And while I lack this trait, my dad can grow anything. So he wants to build some greenhouses and do a little truck farming. As stated in another post, I am hoping to get a compost pad so that I can get my sheep manure composted and he can use it to raise his veggies.
I hope it all works out. I think he would get a lot of enjoyment out of veggie greenhousing in his retirement years and we will be working together, and yet not really getting in each others way. That is a win-win situation in my book.
Eat lamb...because 50,000 coyotes CAN'T be wrong!
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