How many generations are you removed from agriculture?

In other words, how far down the family tree do you have to go to find a farmer, rancher, trapper, etc. who made their living from the land?

I am two generations removed.
My fraternal grandparents were crop farmers and latter, dairy farmers.

I attribute many of my values and ethics to my early exposure to that life style and the influence of my parents / grandparents. I am curious about the values, ethics, and lifestyles among hunters and outdoorsmen and wondering if there might be a correlation.

two

Hmm - my father use to make his living as a tree farmer than moved on - dunno if that counts. Otherwise simply my Grandparents were tree farmers and involved in the evergreen business.

Learned a lot about how to treat people from them and the value of family combined with hard work.

I harnessed hitched and drove draft horses for a farmer I worked for while I was in high school.

My maternal grandfather never lived in a house with indoor plumbing or electricity. At one time he owned 26 draft horses.

Two generations. His values are a part of me.

Two, but the origional family farms are still owned by the family.

Doc

Maternal grandparents farmed

My Dad, brothers and I made our living farming until the late 70's.
When Grandpa passed on, Dad and Uncle sold the farm.Changes in zoning changes, available farm labor and taxes made small family farms harder to hold onto back then.. Jim

Three generations for me

Both sets of my great-grandparents were farmers. My grandparents transition into industrial jobs in the years following WWII

HBB

Made a living, or supplamented thier income? My dad still ranches as does my brother. IMO there are very few opperations that can soley make it by farming or ranching. Especially if the land wasn't inherited.

Two. Sure adds a different perspective when you know how to do things for yourself. Father raised his own dairy cows until he could drive and then headed to the city that did not include slopping hogs or dragging a cotton sack.

stumpy

depends.........does it have to be direct or can i branch over to uncles? if direct 2, my maternal grandfather raised wheat and cattle till he retired from wheat in 2000(he quite with cattle in the mid 80's). one of my maternal uncles still this does here. another uncle(this one is one of my dads brothers) had an orchard in the Yakama Valley. hell now that i think about it my half brother was running his grandparents farm till just a few years ago mainly doing barley and cattle. i still help out one of my paternal grandfather's brothers during branding season. one of my other great uncles is raising horses.......

One.

I have farmed deer and operated a hunt preserve for 10 years.

My Father was a dairy farmer..........

My Grandfather was a dairy farmer/ Livestock dealer..........

Two for me, My Mother's family operated a large farm in Ireland.

My grandparents on each side were farmers. I have several uncles and cousins who farm the same land. I've spent a lot of time on each one and worked for one uncle from the time I was 12 to 16.

I'm one generation outta the cotton fields of the boothill of Missouri.

My grandfather on my dad's side was killed by a 12 guage back in the mid 20's,... details are sketchy,... but he left a woman with 5 sons. My dad was the baby of the family.

All the boys pitched in by pickin' cotton. They lived in a series of abandoned houses for a spell until my grandmother married Mr Bivins,... who, during his younger days had been a hand on the King Ranch.

My dad used to tell me how they kept the house heated during the winter.

The boys would wait alongside the railroad tracks,... then when a train came by they'd all jump on it,.. work their way back to a coal car and throw coal off the side. After a bit they'd jump off then walk back,... pickin' up the coal along the way.

He'd tell me how the boys didn't particularly like Mr Bivins. Apparently, he was a hard ass.

He said that Mr Bivins had an old Dodge,...but when he was headin' into town to get his buzz on he'd ride his horse.

The horse knew the way back. The Dodge didn't.

One night the boys were sittin' on the porch. Mr Bivins had ridden into town to have a few drinks. After a while here he comes along on the horse,... got it gallopin'.

Dad said that there was a little bridge across a creek that led onto their property. A recent flood had left it covered with buckshot mud.

Mr Bivins,.... drunk,.. rounded the bend on the gallopin' horse and headed across the bridge.

The horse hit the mud and all four feet shot out from under him. During the ensuing "ker-plop",.. Mr Bivins caught the saddle pommel right in the belly.

All the boys ran out to check on him.

He was layin' there with the wind knocked out of him makin' these "quack quack" noises.

My dad,.. a little shaver, looks up at my Uncle Harvey, who was the oldest of the bunch at about 15 or so and asks, "Is he gonna die?"

Uncle Harvey says, "Hell,... I don't know,..... and I don't care".

I thought we were rid of you...

My late father grew up on a farm in Illinois and went off to college, WWII, then law school. In later life he bought a farm and went broke, farming melons. I bought off a small piece of one of his farms and am now following in his footsteps.

Can't really say how far removed I am. One of my great-grandfathers on my dad's side was an immigrant, and worked as a hired hand for some homesteaders. His wife was also an immigrant. However, farming/ranching was not his life's work. That's all I know about any of my great-grandparents. None of my grandparents were farmers.

Not a farmer, but I have worked in agriculture since about age 6. First memories are of hauling shocks of wheat to a stationary thrashing machine and cutting tobacco (early 50's. I did row crop work to get through college and have been with extension and agricultural research service since. 1Minute

None-
I own a farm in eastern Colorado.

It's about 15 miles from where I grew up, and where my father and grandfathers both farmed.

Farming is not my primary means of earning a living, however- my occupation as a petroleum geologist takes care of that.

My father grew up on a farm, and his brother still operates it. My mother grew up on the edge of small-town Saskatchewan and had a cow and chickens in the back.

for a story of living off the land. my mom is one of 7 kids, 2 girls, 5 boys. wasnt much of an age range between them. my aunt who is the oldest was in college while my mom was in high school. the baby of the family is only about a year younger than my mom. anyways at one time money was very short and grandpa decided they needed some meat so he grabbed a couple of the boys and went out to the fields to see if he could scare up a deer or something to poach and feed the family. they got to the top of a hill and some antelope were running through the coulee below them. grandpa grabs his rifle, i guess he lead the goat a lil to far and wound up slitting its throat more than anything. when he and the boys got down to the downed antelope he saw what happened and without missing a beat turned to the boys and said something along the lines of "And thats how yah dont waste any of the meat!" i sure do miss the man....

I spent about 18 hours on the Ford 2000 this weekend, plowing and then discing a food plot for deer - does that make me a farmer?

To be honest - these days unless you are born into a farm - I fail to see how someone could become a farmer on their own. Land costs are outrageous - would have to buy an existing farm and I would think the learning curve would be steep.

One.

Raised sheep (ugh) and beef cattle. Ran about 200 ewes and 25 head of cattle. My father worked as a millwright in a lumber mill and later as a maint. mechanic in a cannery. My brother and I had little free time, but I played football and was on the track team in high school. My brother compted as a wrestler in high school. We both worked in hay harvest and harvested row crops, I trapped and did stuff like peeling chittum bark. Our parents have long since passed on. My brother and I are both retired. We both agree that our experience on the ranch was valuable. We both graduated from college and were the first in our family to do so.

How many generations since Cain and Able?

One Generation. My mom and Dad farmed 365 acres in East Central Nebraska, just west of Columbus. We cropped corn, soybeans, milo and alfalfa for the cattle. We raised chickens for eggs and meat, cattle and pigs. Also had a large garden for fresh and canned food. We smoked meat and made sausge and hams and bacon as well as cheese. Grew potatoes and sweet corn for our own use and to sell.
I was born in the farm house attended by a mid wife. My dad passed on in '56 and we tried to keep it going but had to sell in '59. I miss those days as they were the best of my life.

Depends, my mom's father raised corn, t'bakkey and hogs.
Dad's side were coalminers, soldiers and sailors and the odd Marine.

Full living or partial we had a small farm and my dad made his living in the Timber industry. We grew working on a farm haying, picking crops ect. We raised and ate a lot of our meat. I think it definatly makes a difference vs my kids who grow up in town. But you have to have a job......

Gimme a break, man,.. I have partied my ass weary during the past few days,... and they's no end in sight, actually,...

Not sure whether it is Bristoe or me that is one in the wrong thread. One generation, my Dad raised turkeys and hay on a 100 acre farm.

ain't me,...

Zero.

I picked potatoes, hauled hay, changed the water, and fed and milked cows. And while my kids were growing up, I made sure they spent time on a farm during the summer.

2

Many, have to back before the Civil War. My ancestors since then (thanks to whoever posted that ancestry.com link back in June!) were preachers, glass workers, pub keepers, pipefitters, and coal diggers.

One

0

Zero.

Although we left the farm in the late forties/early fifties I didn't get totally away from it until '54, just before entering High School, (ninth grade).

My Parents farmed.........

2 on my mom's side, 3 on my dad's. My alomst 85 year grandfather on my mom's side still makes his living with a few cows and crops. My great-grandfather on my dad's side farmed until he was nearly 90, then he hung it up and relaxed until he passed at 98. They don't make 'em like those 2 anymore.

My brother, sister, and I are the first, and we worked at it until we found what we thought were better jobs.
We may have been wrong

Although my Great-Grandfather and Grandfather (paternal) both lived in NYC, my Great-Grandfather owned and operated a farm in Englishtown, NJ. My dad and my uncles lived and worked on the farm during their high-school years.

Dad is a Sheep Rancher. Les

One. Dad grew up on the farm. Used to visit Grandma and Pop about once a month. Mom would get mad if we kids weren't ready when it was time to leave, because of wandering up though the pastures or playing in the barn, usually with odoriferous things clinging to our shoes.

one, but I filled many a haymows with hay bails, cleaned plenty a calf pens in my younger days, spend many hours driving tractor

My mom and dad both grew up on the farm and I worked summers in the barley and wheat fields near Corvallis, Montana. I made my living in jewelry, but my heart never left the Montana rangeland.

Steve

None, made a living farming and ranching for fifty years. Retired last year. Boys wanted the place and I gave it to them. Both have other jobs but still run the place.

BCR

2 - Grandparents ran a dairy herd and farmed as well.

one, but I run a Co-op feed store, fertilizer plant, Grain elevator..etc.... Its a lot better havin peolpe take my advice and use their money to see how well it works!! I always dream about ranchin and hayin but aint no friggin way I would be a Dirt Farmer...

2

My parents farmed and I worked on a farm until I graduated from highschool. Found lots of other things to do to make a living that were a lot easier. But never as rewarding. TM

None, I still run three farms. Farmers on both sides of the family; dairy, crops, orchards. Have a cousin with 44 acres under glass, growing hot house tomatoes and peppers. I'm the only sibling that still produces a crop, the others were the smart ones.

Tracing the family tree back, we ran out at a farmer / ancestor in 16 thirty something or other. FWIW, Dutch.

Grew up on a working cattle ranch in S.W. Montana.

Wayne

One on both sides, though my maternal grandfather was a irrigation superintendent so I am not sure you would count that. My first job at 13 was as a field weeder at a organic farm so that may count.

Hit em' Hard

I also rode fence and did cattle punching for a bit when I was 16 or so.

2. My maternal grandfather was a commercial fisherman and a trapper. I had a trapline instead of a paper route!

One or less, depending on how you count them. I lived in a small SD town most of the year and spent my summers on my Aunt/Uncle's farm/ranch in ND. If anyone here has ever seen 'The Ideal Farm' right off the highway between Beulah and Glen Ullin, that was it. My dad grew up on a farm not 30 miles from that one. They were a classic German farm family with 13 brothers and sisters. I even married a farm girl, although it's funny how we both went to college to be engineers and never considered farming as a career choice. My hat's off to those who have though.

Now my boys spend a month or so each summer on the inlaws' farm in SD and absolutely love it. As far as they're concerned, the farm is THE premier vacation spot. I wonder how long that will last...

SD

Zero, sorta.
Grew on the family farm/ranch(22 years).
Dry land wheat, irrigated alfalfa, corn and wheat and a bunch of cattle. My dad and brother are runnin' things right now. I've been officially out of the scene for about 7 years and only make it back for the big fall round-up.
However I do still run a little bunch of yearling steers that my dad and brother keep an eye on. Nice guys.......

Two generations for me.
Mom's parents were farmers in Oklahoma and Dad's parents were ranchers in the panhandle of Oklahoma.
Mom and Dad could not get far enough and fast enough away. They were dust bowl and depression babies.
Jim

Three generations, unfortunately. My dad's grandparent's settled in a beautiful, bountiful valley south of Youngstown, Ohio. They were the last full time farmers of our clan. There are still a couple small parcles of land owned by distant relatives out there. We used to squirrel hunt on the old homestead. I remember my dad speaking of his uncle messing around with grafting different apple trees. I was bow hunting out there one year and stumbled into a very old overgrown orchard hidden out in the middle of a non descript grown over field. I got to looking at the old, ragged apple trees and noticed that several of the trees definitely had two different kinds of apples growing on them. This had to be one of my great uncle's "projects." I haven't been back on the homestead in many years now, (I'm relocated to Minnesota for the last 17 years) and always wonder about what ever became of those ratty old beat up apple trees.

I never did a lot of farming, Just put some hay up when I was a kid. A lot of hay. I grew up on a ranch though, hay was just a small part of the big picture. The hay was just for our cattle. Plus we always bought 3 or 4 times more than we could grow.

This question makes me think of a part in the movie, "The Missouri Breaks," where Jack Nicolson is gonna' whip that guy for calling him a farmer. I'm not a farmer by nature, I'm a rancher. Ranchers can fix anything with duct tape and baling wire--A farmer has a nice mechanic shop. We can drive a pickup faster through the sage brush than a farmer, especially if we know a farmer who can put it back together for us.

I'm just a little rancher any more with 23 cows, and I buy all my hay.

I guess it's all still Ag though, so 0 for me.

Oh, I got a garden like Jack was getting ribbed about in that movie though, so does that make me a farmer too?

that was eloquent

This describes my dad to a tee! He will anything to stay out of a tractor if farming is involved. Loves his cows though.....

Depending on what side of the family, 1 or 2 generations. My paternal side of the family tried to capture the cattle market from the birth of the calves in the Rockies to their slaughter in the Chicago stockyards--they made it work, for about 15-20 years

Casey

Two . . . Maternal grandparents used to farm.

Three . . . Paternal great grandparents used to farm also.

2 generations. My paternal grandparents homesteaded in NoDak in 1910, my maternal grandparents had a dairy farm in Wisconsin.

My old man worked the family farm until he left for the Air Force back in '60. He used the GI bill to go to school and then computers back when vacuum tubes and paper program cards ruled the day.

Not really sure.

My grand father farmed but also worked at Champion Paper Mill in Canton, NC. Probably made more at the mill but he was always looked upon by the community as a farmer.

Skipped dad I guess. He worked on his dad's farm through high school and right after graduating he played for the Cincinnati Reds ('67-'68) and then got drafted. After his tour was up he went to Fruitland Bible College and has been a Baptist preacher ever since. I married a girl and we live on her grandparents' farm which we try to work. I work for a New Holland tractor dealership and she is a high school nurse to more or less support the farm. The farm survives but we seem to spend every penny we get to keep it running. It's a vicious cycle.

In my job at the tractor dealership I see less and less full time farmers every day. The county in which I work went from 17 working dairy farms to 2 in about 7 or 8 years. Most of the "farmers" do it for supplemental income or just for the love of it. The days of living off of the family farm seem to be rapidly disappearing. Kinda sad but ultimately true. God bless the ones that still do - they earn every penny that they get and it ain't ever enough.

We milked until about 1968 and grew some corn and hay. My brothers and I still own the farm. It's small, 48 acres but it kept us in beef, chicken and pork for years. We cash rent the ground now. kwg

Two generations. Both of my grandfaters were farmers. My dad grew up working on the farm.

One

1.5. My Dad came to town to quit the "hard life" in the fifties, and became a plumber. He wanted a better life for his kids. It worked with my brother and sister. I'm the "sorry" one. But my Dad told someone (in confidence) one time that he is proudest of me...'cause I'm "JUST LIKE HIM". (Tears)

Zero, if your definition of "agriculture" is broad enough to include forestry. My maternal great grandfather was in the Oklahoma Cherokee Strip run and homesteaded about 9 miles north of Alva, OK. and farmed the homestead. My father was a custom farmer/harvester in the TX Panhandle. I worked all my high school years plowing, disking, harrowing, drilling, and harvesting wheat and milo and working in an agriculture equipment business. My stepfather farmed and ranched for a living. The family corporation is still involved directly in farming and ranching.

RLD

My great grandparents homesteaded against the Canadian border in North Dakota. I have cousins still farming in northern Minnesota.

I am an agrologist and commercial turkey farmer, 2nd generation. Dad died just two weeks ago, so we are now the "current" generation I guess. At present I'm only a shareholder in the family farm, my bother and wife run the farm and I do outside work for an engineering company. My wife and I also "farm" a fair bit of hay land, and we do some forestry / silviculture on our bush land. ( it's mostly an elk, moose & deer hunting camp and trapline though!) In the past my wife kept leafcutter bees, did some commercial strawberry production, and a few other small ventures.

one

Bullwnkl

Two; both sets of grandparents farmed. My parents both worked on the farm until graduated from school and married, so technically, one generation out. We still plant two gardens each year, and Dad and Mom still remember milking cows, feeding chickens, chopping cotton, slaughtering hogs etc. I grew up in the suburbs, and thus have virtually no farm experiences outside of our gardening.

I gotta bale hay tomorrow...

Zero

I grew up irrigating hay and silage corn, bucking bales, and milking cows. I can hitch a team or drive a tractor. While it is no longer our primary means of support, I still own agricultural property and file a schedule F.

Dang, I feel for you. Finished all of ours the week of the 4th. Still feed an oinker or two and fatten a calf, but I wouldn't call what I do making a livin'. Brother has Cargill hog barns and has done very well for himself.

CK

My Dad and Grandfather farmed, and I worked on the farm until I got out of school. I have worked for farmers a couple of different times since then when I quit the Highway
department. I always ended up back at the Highway Dept. surveying and have over thiry-five years with them. miles

castnblast,
So sorry to hear about your dad Prayers are with your family.
BigMamma

one I guess ... both parents grew up on the farm
My brother and me now own the land on lookout mountain that my paternal grandfather sharecropped for in the late 30's ..... thank God

My wife's parents are pretty much the same ...

my father farmed on the home place til i was 9... then we moved to illinois...

the original home place was 50 acres. over the years my grandfather added on a couple of pieces of ground... the farm we moved away from in 1967 was 220 acres....
in 1996 my step- grandmother died and, to pay her expenses of the previous few years, the family sold off the farm...

i bought the original 50..... john w

On my mother's side, most were chicken farmers. So was my mother so I guess that would be 1. My father's side were lumbermen and paper makers.

I'm still involved in agriculture.

My High School job for three year was on a farm here in Benton County Oregon.
My maternal grandfather was a farmer here as was his father and his grandfather (my great, great grandfather) who homesteaded here.

Doc

Two, Witch ment that I was the extra labor that was needed for Haying, harvest, or when someone needed cows milked for a day or two. Lot of good memorys from those days.

I am two generations removed. My mother's parents made a living through dairy farming, and my dad's parents raised crops. My father's family farm was sold off 11 years ago to the people that they had leased it to since the 70's.

My wife and I run a hay and cattle farm in Alberta and care for the land as best we can.

My father was the son of a career British Army Major. Dad spent most of his childhood on his grandfather's farm in Wales, but he was raised British upper middle class, gentlemen's finishing school and all. At the age of 18 (on his birthday actually), he hopped a boat to Canada to work as a hired man on a distant relative's ranch. I can just see him walkin into the bunkhouse in his wool trousers, "Helllooo gentlemen, I'm the new hand, which bunk is mine?" After a bit, he managed to turn into a decent cowboy and could roll a smoke on horseback with one hand while cuttin calves with the other hand. Saw him do it myself when I was just past knee sittin age.

Anyways, he eventually quit the ranch and married a small town Saskatchewan farm girl. Shortly afterward, they bought out her dad and set to farmin themselves. Bout the age of 49, just when the farm was becoming sucessful, he up and died of a heart attack. I ran the farm for a year and continued with my grade 10 as well. Just barely managed to avoid failing a both. My mom sat me down and gave me the straight goods. Quit school or quit farmin. She recommended quitin farmin. I took her advice.

I laid down a trail of dust headin outta Saskatchewan for the Rocky Mountains the day I finished school that you could see for miles. I was a game warden and Parks Canada warden for a while, lived up north near treeline for a while, did some mountain rescue and avalanche control and eventually got into avalanche safety as a manager. My wife, (daughter of second generation farmers herself), and I managed to make a few dollars on some real estate transactions along the way (Dad always said, "Buy land, they ain't makin any more of it!") so we decided to buy a farm.

Good decision (so far anyway ). My daughter does her homework and book readin down by the creek on a blanket, the other daughter walks less than 100 steps from her bed to feed her horse, and my son roams the hills with his sling shot. Wife's in the garden right now cussin all the damage the mule deer bucks did and I'm goin back out to put the broke down hay wagon back together now that it's a bit cooler.

Might even shoot a few gophers from the deck if they're still out when I get done with the wagon.

If I believe what some people tell me, not enough...
They allude to my simian characteristics, and mention a knuckle-dragging Neanderthal...I deny it, of course.

My grandfather had a farm. One of his sons ended up ranching some and then raising horses.

My wife and I have a small horse training and boarding place but it's far from a real farm. I do get to deal with many tons of manure, spraying weeds, fixing fences, managing runoff in the winter, and all of the fun stuff....just on a small scale.

My grand father homesteaded some land during the 1880s. My dad lived in the same county for 98 years and made his living from farming and cattle. I grew up on the farm untill I was drafted into the army. The GI Bill helped pay for college so I did not go back the the farm as dad expected. I own the farm my great uncle homesteaded but its rented out.

Grampa'a farm went south in the depression. My dad went into corporate dairy science after college. I moved to country, but kept my day job (attorney).

BMT

My Grandpa was a commercial fisherman til he retired in 1957...kinda like a farmer without the dirt, I guess.
Dad had a dairy for a while, but luckily he sold it before I was old enough to help.