Home Forums Miscellaneous Topics Rural Living The next generation.

Little bit of exception around here. My father didn't grow up on a farm or didn't have any family that knew anything about ag. When he got married in the early eighties, my mother and him bought a small farm, where an old fella milked a half dozen cows. He bought a cow and a calf, and farmed whenever he could. He was always doing more,trying make more money with the farm. He started renting ag abaggers for storing silage to local farmers and that grew into a twine wrap supply business. Eventually adding cattle handling equipment, wagons, corn seed, etc.

Growing up we always helped on the farm, but it wasn't ever big enough to be the main source of income for anyone. So my parents wanted us to focus another career But as he grew our farm and our business, it made enough room for my brother and i. About five years ago my brother and I took a big step and bought a 200 acres of farm ground 5 Miles from my parents. We still rent the majority of our ground, but the land owners have been pretty good, and we've been with some for over 20 years. We focus on growing our feedlot and or cow herd. We try and make an extra buck wherever we can, selling hay, hauling cattle, little ag related excavation projects, etc our place may not be the greatest, but the three of us are getting by.

My people have been on the home place since 1862 and over the years generations have added acreage as I have recently. It appears I am the last of the line as I have no kids.

I am the only generation to work off the farm. Due to poor milk prices I turned to logging to subsidize the dairy operation and it was becoming more difficult to find good help, so I sold the cows, invested in beef, quit buying more ag equipment and hired more and more custom work. The balance sheet is looking good for now.

Whenever land comes up for sale here locally, the buyer is usually a Mennonite. The last 2 farms that have sold close to me, each went for $12,000 an acre. One of them was an especially good farm, mostly all tillable, the other one was divided up between 4 families, with several of them having sold land for big bucks back in Pennsylvania. The standard practice is for them to build a house and barn whenever they buy a tract of land, unless it has a house on it that is to their liking.

The Mennonites here usually make a living in one of three ways........they work in some form of construction, they farm, growing mostly tobacco, or they grow produce. The produce market is very big here, with one of the largest produce auctions in the country located here. There must be some good money in it, because the majority of the Mennonites grow and sell produce. But, I've never understood how that could pay for $12,000 acre land.

I do know that their farms are usually mortgaged to the hilt, unless they were lucky enough to sell land back in PA before they moved here. Some of them never pay the land off, instead just passing the debt off on down the line. For the most part, they must be a good risk for lenders, because it is very unusual to hear of one being forced to sell out. I have heard many stories about how they often go several years without making a farm payment.

Most of the successful farmers that I know either started out with their family in farming and grew bigger that way, or else they started out small, working other jobs, and grew bigger over the years. Also, tobacco has been the key to most of the really successful farmers in this area, as it has always been the one money crop they could depend on.

You are a smart and enterprising guy, Ben!

Keep up the good work!

As long as you enjoy that, you are ahead of the game.

Same here It's ruining agriculture

That all begs the question of who you are going to leave your land/estate to?

Wife and I talked about this some the other day.

She has no kids. I have two. Neither of which would know what to do with it but cash out, then squander the proceeds.

I'm seriously just considering leaving each of my kids a set amount of money, and a somewhat smaller amount to my grand kids...

Then perhaps leaving the bulk of our estate to further the values of what we find important. Perhaps an agriculture scholarship fund. Or an Ag Farm for FFA & 4H kids.

Not real sure yet.

This topic can seriously depress me.
My families farm was sold when I was 3.
My father got killed, and his step brother (who should have had no interest),
talked his mom into selling. Mom was literally left a single parent and homeless.
Enough of that.


It breaks my heart every time I see a family farm sold, and planted with fancy houses.
Have grew up on and around farms, I understand this issue. We are losing dairy producers
around here constantly. Our support business would also fail if not for the stupid hobby horse business.


I always tell my family,
If I won the Powerball, I would buy a farm
and raise hogs, cattle, and chickens.
"With enough money, I could afford to live like the poor people around here used to".

Our area is probably like most in that you can't buy land and pay for it with ag, too many recreational buyers bidding up prices. Inflation also hasn't really kept up with commodity prices, I was cleaning out some stuff a couple months ago and found receipts where my great grandfather sold his cotton off the same place back in the 20s. Ran the numbers through an inflation calculator and it was something like 10 times the price of cotton now days.

I don't think either boy will be able to make a living off the place, and really no one in the family hasn't had outside work for probably 40 years, but it turns a little bit of profit most years so should be ok as long as they don't start thinking what else they could buy with the money or figure out they could earn a higher return with a savings account.

I would live in a tool shed wearing a burlap sack for a shirt if it meant staying on the farm.


We would maybe have nicer things if we had town jobs......hard to say.



The way we figure it....if managing a farm properly is a full time job.......best be on the land full time.

Them kids look like they already have nice things Jim, like changing the oil with Dad.

Keep up the great work there on the farm.

We need more like you and that NZ gal around this country.

Geno