I grew up on a farm that my great grandfather started in the 1890s after immigrating from Germany. It’s in west central Ks. My grandfather took it from him. He had three sons. Each of them got two quarters of land (320 acres) in the 1950s. My dad went to WWII, came back and started farming his 320 acres. Next brother went to college and did not farm. Dad leased his land. Third brother made a half assed attempt at farming and eventually sold (had to) his land to my brother and my mom, after my dad died.
Before dad died, he and had grown the size of the farm to about 1800 acres and he leased 3-400 more acres. One of my brothers graduated from college and came home and partnered with dad till dad died in 1992. Dad and brother had 12-1500 acres of wheat, milo and silage. And they fed 6-800 steers. And they sold seed as an additional source of income.
My brother is now 65 and is ramping down a bit, and has dropped some leased land.
I do not know the specifics of his financials. He’s made a decent living, raised good kids, and been his own boss for close to 50 years.
He has had great years and has lost money some years.
Like the old small general store, the one man shoe store, etc, the small family farm is history and never coming back. Scale and efficiency are farming today, just like other businesses.
Looks like there will not be a fifth generation running this farm as none of the relatives have the desire or ability to run it.
That’s sad to me, but time moves on. 130-140 years of this farm is a great run.
