Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire Wow American farming...

Given the value depicted there, a homesteader have a hard time breaking into the industry today.

Usually done through multiple generations of guys who were real carful with there money

Thats a small operation. We have some around this area that are twice that size, mainly doing straw.

Yup... And a couple years ago there was a challenge to have a CLAAS 980 harvest 1,000A of corn in 24 hours.. . They did it too....

Easy to do when you only work three months out of the year.

Not into agriculture, are you?

It's the truth, at least around here.

That would be three more months a year than you do, you drunken, retarded, pissweasel.

HaHaHa LOL pissweasel

Might be the dumbest sheit you ever posted here. 😁😁😁

Got to agree with the above calling this out. Almost sounds as bad as Biden's ignorant comment about farming.

Even good quality hay takes a year-round grooming of the fields to keep poisonous weeds and insects out. An infestation of blister beetles will absolutely ruin a hay farmer's reputation, hindering the ability to command top dollar for the hay for years.

Also, hay is not harvested only once a season, unless the farmer is in a particularly arid or short season region. In many areas, it is not uncommon to get a second cutting late summer. If the rains are plentiful, the hay farmer can get a third cutting in a season.

Two to three cuttings/year, plus field maintenance? That's a 24/6, year-round proposition there.

Hay production might arguably be the "easiest" and least-expensive of the agricultural endeavors a farmer might commit his land to, but it is hardly a 3 month work season.

When I was young a 1000 bales a day in the barn was considered good. I hate those JD balers. They never broke down.

How about wheat on flatland. Don’t try and tell me that’s a year round gig lol.

And in counterpoint to TXLoader’s post above, we have a 1/4 section of native grass that we cut for hay once a year. It was put back to grass about 1955 and has never been fertilized, sprayed, or over seeded. Go cut it and get to hauling hay every year.

Our grain and other hay never gets sprayed either and may get some fertilizer put down every other year or third year.

It’s not our main income stream but a sideline, but it’s certainly not a full time job. Even the cattle only get checked once a week or so once they’re on summer pasture.

You sure you don't mean Bloomberg? He's the citiot who said something about toss a few seeds on the ground, water 'em and yer a 'farmer'... That boy wouldn't know a farm if he was dropped into the manure lagoon..


Hay production around here starts in very early April, with the new seeding fields, and doesn't get done until nearly October 1st.. The farm I work part-time for takes four crops off, every 28 days, and sometimes part of a 5th when a particular field is to be plowed under and rotated into something else.. My guess is we start first crop chopping here by next week some time.

And then you haul it all winter

Haying season was one of my favorite times growing up on the dairy farm. Great sense of well being seeing the barn full of hay for the oncoming winter.

I remember being just out of third grade, 1967, and Dad was mounting a side mounted mower on an 8n Ford just prior to our first cutting of hay. He had bought a longer bar mower and needed to drill new holes in the tractor frame to mount it. He had one of those old Black and Decker 1/2 inch drills. The old power house type that if you stuck the drill bit it would either break the bit or break your arm. Well the bit stuck and broke and a shard of it hit him in the right eye. He ended up in the hospital and lost the eye. Right when he needed to be getting his hay in.

That was one of my earliest lessons in what it meant to be part of a farming family and a farming community. Within days family and neighbors started showing up with equipment and bodies. In three days they but up the entire first cutting. My uncle, who worked a full time maintenance job at the school, was there every morning and evening to milk with my mom. Dad was restricted to lifting five pounds or less for several weeks so he could only do small chores and babysit while mom did the major chores. I was the oldest and did everything I could, but at 8 years old was somewhat limited in what I could do. Older cousins and neighbors came by a few times a week to clean barn gutters and help with whatever needed attention.

Dad was able to drive tractor for the second cutting, though his loss of depth perception caused him some real challenges at first. The second cutting was a smaller repeat of the first. Not quite so many people were needed but still a good sized crew arrived to help get in the second cutting. That put us in good shape for the winter.

Dad always went out of his way to help his neighbors and family. It was part of his nature even before the loss of the eye but became even more so after the accident. I don't think I recall him ever turning down neighbor or family when asked for help.

I remember raking hay at about the same age as that kid and on a Massy Ferguson about like that too. Though my rake wasn’t that elaborate. Always drove that tractor waaaaaaaaaay too fast.

I was pulling a rake for a neighbor guy driving an 8 N Ford. It was for square bales about 55 to 60 lbs. I was about 14 at the time.

kwg