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I gave my 5 and 7 year olds the speech the other day about how one day the place is going to be there’s so they need to take care of it. I threw in the bit that I would come back to haunt them if they sold it. The oldest told me they wouldn’t sell it but when I died they were going to turn something loose to eat all the cows.

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The younger ones say that, but when it comes down to it,most when reaching adult hood inherit the land and then sell it off, not wanting to continue with farming or ranching.You can grow 8 houses on an acre of land, but it takes 30-35 acres to run one cow/calf around here. Lot more instant money in that.

Just south of me where there were a few thousand acres tracks, I see 5000-8000 homes being put up as fast as they can build them and they sell the next day. Where I antelope hunt,those that inherited the land want 3-4 times what the person who was leasing the land for 30-40 years was paying..They can't get it, so they sell the land. An out of state buyer gets it for a tax write off, takes the land out of production and leases to anoutfitter that locks the land up


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Remember the story about the goose that laid the golden egg?

I think of that every time the young want all the money NOW!


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There would more ranches handed down if the kids could grow up, get married, and have the ranch support them.

But, sadly, the vast majority of agriculture operations won't support mom, dad, and a few kids.

That's the main reason ag operations are sold off. The kids got sent to school and got a pat on the bottom to go make their own way.... Then dad dies, and mom lives there until she passes or goes somewhere that can take care of her. Kids sell the farm.


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Barry, in your neighborhood, how large a spread does it take to make a decent living?


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Originally Posted by wabigoon
Barry, in your neighborhood, how large a spread does it take to make a decent living?



It varies widely here.

3-400 acres seem to support a family if in the right spot with the right water and other improvements.

But, like I said, it is a wide range.

I know one guy that runs 50-70 cows on 100 ac, and cuts hay off the place.

Other places here 10 cows on a 100 ac is over grazed.

When ranching out in W. Texas S. NM, we used to joke it took a section to run a cow...

Sad part is, that it wasn't much of an exaggeration for that country.


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Along with size, or acres , a lot of farmers have a job in town.


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My boys work off farm in winter both drive semi truck. One has always trucked the other worked in the oil field until Trudeau killed it. They are very committed to the farm. I trucked in off season till 3 years ago.

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My folks got their mortgage paid off five or six years ago. They were at it for over 40 years.


We have been here a long time......better than 100 years.

Still paying for it!


Very few "next generations" got the place free and clear up here. Probably because its relatively new country.


I hope my kids will think about staying here.


With our new farming and ranching practices we have been lowering expenses to the point that it will take fewer acres to support a family.


We have no town jobs....and are proud of that. Of course, not everyone had the chance to buy into an operation and build a 400 cow operation with out the gate grass.


We are truly lucky!



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Originally Posted by saskfox
My boys work off farm in winter both drive semi truck. One has always trucked the other worked in the oil field until Trudeau killed it. They are very committed to the farm. I trucked in off season till 3 years ago.



When I went on my tour of Southern Sask this fall I could not believe the farm consolidation that had taken place.


Fellow I was meeting in Golden Prairie said he was about the only family on the road to Medicine Hat.

Pretty scary.


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There are some very large acre operations and some unbelievably high cash rents being paid. I would say our farm is about average in size in our area. Fortunately we have good land. Grandpa got off the train from Iowa in a good spot in 1905. Machinery costs have doubled since 2004 according to statistics. Machinery is a huge expense and a low Canadian dollar makes it worse.

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I live on the farm that my ancestors came to in the 1840's. It was passed down through the generations, although I've had to buy part of the land in order to keep it together. I will pass it on to my son, but he has 3 daughters, so after that I suppose the family name will be gone. His oldest daughter seems to be very tied to the land, so hopefully she or one of her sisters will keep things going.......provided the future holds together for them.

We have 300 acres, and I've always worked off the farm either fulltime or part time. My ancestors were full time farmers, but things were much different then. I suppose I could have farmed very intensively, and made it work, something like raising a lot of produce or tobacco. These days, we rent the crop land out to a neighbor and run a small herd of beef cattle. It just takes too much investment for a young person to get started farming in this day and age, unless they have help in some form.

I'm just glad I never become a dairy farmer, as they are in a terrible fix now. If beef prices keep dropping, I may be too.

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The older generation has always been skeptical of the younger's chances.

Somehow they have gotten along well.


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Originally Posted by wabigoon
The older generation has always been skeptical of the younger's chances.

Somehow they have gotten along well.


Truer words have never been spoken.

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Originally Posted by wabigoon
The older generation has always been skeptical of the younger's chances.

Somehow they have gotten along well.


I am skeptical because most of the younger generation expects entitlements.They have been given everything.The big worry is that is socialism and too many politicians are buying into it. I don't see it as much in kids on farms and such,but inner cities are teaming with it.
These younger ones are the voting public today and could very well effect your way of life.

If you don't believe,go try to hire some young folks to do a job


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Originally Posted by Jim_Conrad



We have no town jobs....and are proud of that. Of course, not everyone had the chance to buy into an operation and build a 400 cow operation with out the gate grass.


We are truly lucky!





You are lucky Jim!

Figure $10k per AU to buy a ranch and then another $1500/hd for cows, add in some machinery and you'd be crowding $5 million.

Pretty sure not many young people have the collateral to go out and take on a loan like that........


My wife and mother both have well paying town jobs and good health insurance so that really helps.

Parents are debt free, my wife and I will have our house paid off this spring(took 10 years on a 30 year note), we owe a little on a tractor but that's it.



We don't have any kids, my sister(lawyer in San Francisco) doesn't have any kids, my brother and his wife(both dentists in Alaska) have a couple boys but they have never come back here to visit so I haven't met any of them.


I'm honestly not sure what's gonna happen to 'our' farm.

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Forty years ago a neighbor told me, "Let's face it, neither of us would be doing what we are if our father's had not done it before us."

It's a shame to me, neither of Ned's two boys are on the farm today. That was quite an operation, feeding close, if not a thousand head of cattle, raising a lot of hogs, and maybe a thousand acres of crops.

If you like you can look up the one son, Scott Stanzel, Scott was a press sectary for George Bush.

Not to infer that Scott is not doing very well with his trade.


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There's just no way you can go buy a ranch, stock it, and work it, and make it cash flow. No way.


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There is absolutely no way to compete with outside money.

Outside as in non-ag money.


Oil money buys land around here, outta state money(Hollywood and rich business) buys up the scenic west side of the state.

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It would be more difficult for me to stay motivated if we did not have children.


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