Was going through boxes from my dad's last night and found my great grandpa's papers. There was a receipt from 1904 where he sold 4 bales of cotton for $104. Figuring 500 pound bales that about 19 cents a pound. Ran it through an inflation calculator and that would be more than three times the current price of cotton if prices had just kept pace with inflation. Would imagine that all the input costs have went up more than regular inflation though. Seems farming has gotten even harder over the years.

Also found a receipt from 1887 for a Winchester rifle, unfortunately the rifle wasn't included in the box

Quite a reduction in the number of families/operations in agriculture.

Pretty sad, actually.


Neat find with the receipt! How much was it for? Did it say what model?

receipt just said "winchester rifle", no indication of which model. I'll pull it again and check the amount

it is sad. if you are not the head guy exporter of some thing ag. you are the one on the bottom . it looks to me the guy that dose all the work gets the least .it just pisses me off what happens to the farmer rant over

My father paid for 100 dollar an acre land with cattle under 20 dollars, and hogs under a dime.

And today, a farmer can easily farm many more times the amount of land. My grandfather farmed 160 acres of land. My brother runs that farm today and farms more than 10 times as much land. And he does it from an air conditioned tractor with a stereo in it.
Not ragging on anyone, but times have changed, and will continue to do so.

My dad told me of the family losing the milk cow during the depression.

Dad was one of eight siblings, my grandfather worked as a carpenter and tenant farmed, dug graves by hand, cut firewood to sell, literally would do anything to make money to feed his family. They never went hungry, but things were kinda tight.

They lived off of a garden, chickens, a couple of pigs and a milk cow. You had to have a milk cow back then. Anyway, something happened to the milk cow and she died. They had no money, the bank loaned Grandpa $20.00 to buy a fresh cow.

They were able to find a fresh cow, and she only cost $15.00! Dad remembered Grandpa and Grandma talking and worrying what to do with that $5.00 that wasn't spent. They finally decided to buy flour and salt.

I own the 80 acre farm Grandpa bought in 1938. Not sure of the price per acre, but I saw the note he signed to borrow $300.00 for the purchase. That wouldn't buy a garden spot today.

Coming from a ranching family, and being especially close to my grandfather, and working the ranch with him, I know the profit in ranching has deflated to almost nothing.

He took an early retirement from an oil company to go operate the family ranch after his dad passed away.

My grandfather made good money ranching. There was good profit in it.

Not anymore. The cost of everything has escalated to the ridiculous level, while the profit margin, if any, has made ranching not even really worth the effort.

The price of most crops right now is below what it was when I was in high school in the mid '90's. And that's before accounting for inflation. Dairy farms in my area are going out of business left and right, and I'm in the #1 ag county in VA. I grew up on a farm; I didn't go back because it wasn't for me. But I understand the system and the economies of scale involved, and I feel sorry for the family farmers.

No such thing as a “family farm” anymore. It’s a family business, and a tough one at that, or it’s toast.

Yep.I have friend in eastern Colorado that farms 12,000 + acreas. Him, his two sons and some times a day worker. Most of it is leasded land.