I am watching an older documentary sort of about Iowa farmers struggling to keep the family farm. It was filmed about the everyday lives of farmers including their work on the farm and home life. There is talk about depression and suicide. The small farmers are saying corporate farms are taking over. This program could be 10 plus years old. Just was interested in knowing first hand if their is any folks here that can give a “heads up” on what’s really going on in that State.
It's not just Iowa, but nation wide the small farms are going under and being bought out. It's sad! It happened to my BIL next door on their dairy farm!
My Grandpa raised five kids farming at most 220 acres; those days are over. Today if you don't have 1K acres under till it seems your days are numbered. Sad, this affects hunting access, and the overall health of rural communities.
"Anti-intellectualism has been a constant thread winding its way through our political and cultural life, nurtured by the false notion that democracy means that 'my ignorance is just as good as your knowledge.'" -Isaac Asimov
The program just ended and it was called Greener Pastures. It took 4 years to film and appears to be about 4 years old. It was a film worth watching.
Is this the program?
GREENER PASTURES / Official Film Festival Trailer video posted to YouTube on Jun 12, 2023
"Official film festival trailer for the documentary feature film, Greener Pastures. Screening worldwide in film festivals through 2023-2024.
Greener Pastures is an urgent and intimate look at American farming, told through the stories of farmers living at the intersection of climate change, globalization & a mental health crisis."
The small farmer can do well , but they have to change . They can't just milk 50 cows anymore. They need to find nitch markets. I know a guy down the road that did very well for a long time.. He sold chickens that were " pasture raised". He did pigs and beef. He got $30 lbs for those tenderloins, so there are nitches out there. You cant be out in the middle of nowhere like Jim Conrad though. His buyers were "upitty", Sabaru white collar urbanites that though highly of themselves for buying local. ( never mind it was an 80 mi. round trip) There is money to be made though. Also this neighbor sold 23 ac. for $243K and went to do something else. I am not sure why. Perhaps his customers found it was not worth it.. I dont think he worked all that much neither. He raised 4,000 chickens though, and turkeys too. He likely just got sick of dealing with liberals cause they are very conservative and couldn't stand their attitude.
But the fruits of the spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,faithfulness, Gentleness and self control. Against such things there is no law. Galations 5: 22&23
Yes, small Iowa farmers are having a tough time. Just the other day I was at the grocery store and I had to help one of 'em out. He couldn't reach the Wheaties up on the top shelf.
Small town shoe store with cobbler, mom and pop grocery stores, and many other “businesses” that used to exist are gone forever. And farming as a life style is gone as well. Farmers that were content to stay and work their 160 acres as their sole family income are long gone. Farmers that had 160 acres or more and grew that size of farm can make it, if they run it like a business and not just a life style. I can cite many examples of both, in my family those that did not grow, and lost the farm, and those that were smart enough to grow and manage as a business and have done well.
Marginal dryland farm ground in Eastern Nebraska/Western Iowa selling for $16k per acre. You tell me if they're hurting?
They aren't paying for that with corn.
Umm yea they are. Most buying are the older generation that has made huge money the past few years farming and have enough owned ground to have collateral too. Also some of the bigger growers are playing the life insurance game . Taking a huge policy out on themselves or their parents for a huge payday someday
We might have to be neighbors, but I don’t have to be neighborly. John Chisum
Small farmers are a thing of the past in north Louisiana! If you aren't working 3000 or more acres you ain't in the game!! The day of making it on 500 acres is a joke! If you think they're making a 'killing' just jump in and get you some of it!
Small town shoe store with cobbler, mom and pop grocery stores, and many other “businesses” that used to exist are gone forever. And farming as a life style is gone as well. Farmers that were content to stay and work their 160 acres as their sole family income are long gone. Farmers that had 160 acres or more and grew that size of farm can make it, if they run it like a business and not just a life style. I can cite many examples of both, in my family those that did not grow, and lost the farm, and those that were smart enough to grow and manage as a business and have done well.
This is worth repeating. Same as any other small business, it has to be ran like a business, not a lifestyle.
Small farmers are a thing of the past in north Louisiana! If you aren't working 3000 or more acres you ain't in the game!! The day of making it on 500 acres is a joke! If you think they're making a 'killing' just jump in and get you some of it!
Even if you are a big farmer you can only make it by milking the USDA system. Even at that you probably have to go broke ever so often and then your son or brother takes over and you keep going. But what the heck. If you don't mind living like that and know how to maneuver the system you can make it. Mama can drive her Suburban, the kids can go to private school, you can drive a dually and be welcome (for a while) at the ag businesses and meetings.
Check out the farm subsidy data base, you'll see how they make it. The Amish are about the only ones really making it on their own.
Patriotism (and religion) is the last refuge of a scoundrel.
In AR farming is a 1% profit margin business at best. I have a buddy that farms 5,000 acres of rice and beans. He borrows over a million dollars a year for operating costs and nets less than I do at a regular job. He is adamant that his kids will not be farmers.
My grandfather did well on 8,000 acres, but he only made cash money by selling the land. Left dad with 800 acres. Dad tried to expand, but even when land was 200$ an acre, dad could not make a living at it. "Buy retail and sell wholesale" just does not work.
I have tried it before myself and would do so again, but I just can not make the numbers work no matter how many other jobs I have. The price of land here is something out of a fantasy movie or cartoon.
Small farmers are a thing of the past in north Louisiana! If you aren't working 3000 or more acres you ain't in the game!! The day of making it on 500 acres is a joke! If you think they're making a 'killing' just jump in and get you some of it!
Even if you are a big farmer you can only make it by milking the USDA system. Even at that you probably have to go broke ever so often and then your son or brother takes over and you keep going. But what the heck. If you don't mind living like that and know how to maneuver the system you can make it. Mama can drive her Suburban, the kids can go to private school, you can drive a dually and be welcome (for a while) at the ag businesses and meetings.
Check out the farm subsidy data base, you'll see how they make it. The Amish are about the only ones really making it on their own.
Ok so I’ll challenge you. A guy i help farm is on the list last year he received $18000 from subsidies or $18 an acre cant quite see how that is milking the system. He lost more than that doing what every farmer does watching the grain market tank. Could have sold all his corn in the bins(40000 bu) at $5.25 Jan 1 this year and now its worth $4.12 do that math
500 acres. Id take that ALL day long. Most guys around here who farm 500 have most of it paid for for starters so at $4.50 corn( current fall price at elevator) at 240 bu per acre - input costs = $380 an acre profit before land taxes or payments Let say he owns 350 in the clear rents the other 150 that would be over $150000 income ,,not bad. Add that income to a part time job living pretty good
Asd far as the government programs especially CRP it is taking poor production ground out and leaving it in grass. When corn hit $4-5 a bu that ground would be farmed if not in program and it is best suited for pasture . So hastings hypothetically if you found out your employer was paying mileage to drive to work wouldn’t you want it too?
We might have to be neighbors, but I don’t have to be neighborly. John Chisum
