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The average duration of a new farm in America, from founding to closure / sale, is five years.
The big majority of farms around me belong to either people with full time jobs in the city, many at car factories, or people with retirement / disability incomes.
This includes me.
The big majority of farms around me belong to either people with full time jobs in the city, many at car factories, or people with retirement / disability incomes.
This includes me.
2. Farming, as a business, is heavily involved with and directed by government. If you plant this, this, or this, the government will underwrite your risk. Any other crop you're on your own.
Mostly you can't just raise stuff and sell it. Eggs across the threshold but not to store
Mostly you can't just raise stuff and sell it. Eggs across the threshold but not to store
3. In Missouri, there are a bunch of things that are farm tax exempt. Cashier at Orscheln's says, "You farm tax exempt?" and all gotta do is say yes, sign the receipt, no sales tax.
I'd rather pay the tax than sign the receipt. So we're officially not a farm.
I'd rather pay the tax than sign the receipt. So we're officially not a farm.
4. Most of these guys have got a day job, about a 125 horsepower John Deere tractor or two, a disc mower that will cut a ten foot swath of hay at ten miles an hour over the land, a big baler that makes bales a human can't even move with her bare hands, thousand, twelve hundred lb
5. A big diesel 4wd pickup, dually, or flatbed truck, a big weird-looking trailer, a big spike on the front loader of a John Deere tractor, and ten to forty cows.
They handle a lot of money. Not much of it sticks to them. Work all night at Ford's. (Always the possessive form.)
They handle a lot of money. Not much of it sticks to them. Work all night at Ford's. (Always the possessive form.)
6. These guys (and a few gals following this same model) are basically farming for the same reason people fish or hunt. It's an atavistic urge to act like you were born on and made of Earth.
They do it the only way anyone tells them is possible.
They lose their asses.
Five years.
They do it the only way anyone tells them is possible.
They lose their asses.
Five years.
7. And the reason is that the government opens all the gates and puts up road signs to farm that way. Then underwrites the annual direct risk.
But they don't underwrite the risk that over the long haul you'll spend more than you take in. And you will. Fatal in about 5 years.
But they don't underwrite the risk that over the long haul you'll spend more than you take in. And you will. Fatal in about 5 years.
8. Now. I spend more than I take in, too. Tomorrow we're going to spend $135.00 to have three donkeys' feet trimmed and cared for. Money well spent. But I don't get money out of the donkey enterprise.
$135.00 will mow a few - dozen, 20 - acres with a John Deere tractor, in fuel.
$135.00 will mow a few - dozen, 20 - acres with a John Deere tractor, in fuel.
9. These John Deere tractors are thirty, forty, fifty grand a whack. Twenty grand used. The mowers are eight or ten grand. The balers are fifteen or twenty. Everybody's got one, coz everybody's got a day job and they all have to bale on Saturday or Sunday.
10. By what empirical measure is the modern way better than my way?
A minimum of 25% of the food produced under this system will be wasted, year in and year out.
2 billion people on Earth are overweight or obese, and 875,000 are underfed or starving, and - 5 years.
A minimum of 25% of the food produced under this system will be wasted, year in and year out.
2 billion people on Earth are overweight or obese, and 875,000 are underfed or starving, and - 5 years.
11. I am losing less money than they are. I am losing a small enough amount that I've been able to afford it for almost 40 years.
I've got well over fifty grand in tractors and implements, but I've got thirty years in acquiring it. No loans, no interest.
But that's tiny stuff.
I've got well over fifty grand in tractors and implements, but I've got thirty years in acquiring it. No loans, no interest.
But that's tiny stuff.
12. These guys are going down to the John Deere dealer and signing notes for 125 large or more to get started in business. Mowing hay on Thursday, baling on Saturday or Sunday, if it rains on it tough shit, big bales are shit hay anyway but cattle would rather eat than starve.
12. And the reason you've gotta have all the big stuff is so you can hay all your land on five weekends of the summer, or fewer.
What if you had half the land to hay, and sold the other half and got a neighbor? You could do it cheaper. Wouldn't need that big equipment. Fifty G
What if you had half the land to hay, and sold the other half and got a neighbor? You could do it cheaper. Wouldn't need that big equipment. Fifty G
13. What if you did all the parts you could with a couple donkeys? We've already established that almost nobody is breaking even. Why not view every challenge with, how can I accomplish this with the least possible bought energy?
Donkeys are cheap.
Donkeys are cheap.
14. The other problem with a modern farm is the whole enterprise is designed to provide commodities in exchange for money, and then exchange money for inputs to produce commodities for money, and exchange money for commodities to eat and use, and -
15. In almost all events where what you produce and consume takes a journey through being money, through market value, the littlest guy in the transaction gets beat. Sell corn, pay taxes, buy corn flakes, pay taxes... It's an uphill climb.
16. Anyway... Just blathering. Later.
