Hay Farmers getting out of farming

[3 Horse Ranch]

Farmers don't ever get a break. And they get whacked every which way every time Mother Nature has a tantrum.

I knew a Baptist pastor who used to farm a section in Idaho. One year he was having a tough go financially and decided to not buy crop insurance. As a result, he lost his farm when hail destroyed his crop and decided to go to seminary. He was the son of a Baptist pastor; he joked that people from his home church said that he had looked at the clouds and saw the letters P.C. and thought it meant "plant corn" instead of preach Christ.

 

[hosspuller]

I have about 15 acres of grass and can't find anybody reliable to cut and bale it, not even when I tell them they can take the hay for free. I literally can't give it away.

The usual issue is location. Having to transport equipment to a far field is losing proposition. Compound that with weather, getting the bales made and stored. Lastly, is the grass worth the effort? Weeds and usual field grass isn't worth much nutrition wise.

I bought the equipment to hay about ten acres. It feeds my horses.

 

[Hay Dude]

Our kids are being indoctrinated away from being a country hick. Farming use to be a matter of pride: the homestead on the frontier. Living close to the land. Living in the city hollows out the human soul.

Farmers have gotten a bad rap lately. I just read a thread here last week and some joke said he thought “all farmers were in the bag (drunk) by 5pm”. With people thinking that about us AND low pay/high expenses, its no wonder we cant get youth on board.

 

[HayFarmer]

And grass hay farmers dont get gov assistance anyway. I never took a dime of crop assistance. My state allows me a sales tax break on farm machinery and to register a truck at a farm vehicle, about a 50% break in vehicle registration.

My only "government assistance" is the same as yours, minus the vehicle registration discount. However, I hope to bake for another 20 years I'll be 72. Just bought a $20,000 money, in October.

 

[Hay Dude]

My only "government assistance" is the same as yours, minus the vehicle registration discount. However, I hope to bake for another 20 years I'll be 72. Just bought a $20,000 money, in October.

So thats how you are supplementing farm income??? BAKING!

 

[Hay Dude]

Our kids are being indoctrinated away from being a country hick. Farming use to be a matter of pride: the homestead on the frontier. Living close to the land. Living in the city hollows out the human soul.

Now thats called “_____ trash”, “hick”, “deplorable”, “redneck” and worse….
Its really sad to see.

 

[JDZ735M]

My only "government assistance" is the same as yours, minus the vehicle registration discount. However, I hope to bake for another 20 years I'll be 72. Just bought a $20,000 money, in October.

Maybe you hit 'post reply' too soon but I can't understand your point at all.

 

[MinnesotaEric]

Anyone seeing this at an increasing rate?
CL ads everywhere around here with farmers selling out/retiring, etc.
Seems like this sunami of high input prices (fuel, fertilizer, et al) may be the final nail?
Talked to a buddy last week running 1600 acres of hay in a neighboring state and he said “I’m done”
He has already sold his Magnums and self propelleds

Haying is a big deal up in my neck of the woods. I have not seen a slowdown. What I have seen is that hay prices have gone way, way up. But my local cattlemen try to do as much haying as they can for themselves and the hay that is sold tends to go to those folks with pasture pets.

 

[sea2summit]

And grass hay farmers dont get gov assistance anyway. I never took a dime of crop assistance. My state allows me a sales tax break on farm machinery and to register a truck at a farm vehicle, about a 50% break in vehicle registration.

CRP would be the only thing you might get…

 

[sea2summit]

Really? Government has no role in tending to the security of the nation? I am for a free market but I am not a mindless ideologue who will stand by and allow the farming industry get decimated by one thing or another. The younger generation is drifting away from the tough life on the farm. Shall we watch that happen? Or should we launch an initiative to stem that tide? There are initiatives to save the environment. How about one to save the farming industry as a matter of national security?

Explain please exactly how you jump from crop subsidies to national security? Take them away, reduce regulations to a common sense level, and let free market take over and you’ll save the farmer.

 

[sea2summit]

When harvest bountiful it generally means everyone has a good crop which depresses price...

And yet the farmer would still make more in a free market…

 

[txdon]

Once the Hay is gone, we can all now eat the VEGAN fake meat slime that Billy Gates is pushing and people didn't want at McDs.

So, the less hay produced, the more fake meat we'll end up seeing and eating.

WI is loosing 4 dairy farms per DAY. The trend has been going on since 2019. At this rate, no more dairy milk nor cheese to be had going into 2023.

No reduction in hay in central Texas and I have two relatives who do hay and cows full time. They probably make several thousand round bales a year. What once used to be my grandparents corn and cotton field are now good producing hay fields.

bmaverick, do not worry when the beef stops you will never have to eat fake vegan meat, I have plenty of recipes for burgers made with either black beans or beets as their base.

 

[tjandrews]

My brother and I put up about 2000-2500 small squares a year, but weather last year kept yield to more like 1500. First dry, so the hay didn't grow, then damp/wet so that you couldn't bale it. We sell it retail by the bale out of our barn through the winter, and usually sell out. We bale with horses in mind, but have sold it to be fed to cows and goats, and even a bale to feed to rabbits.
We live in Central NY, near Syracuse. Most of the farms are dairy, but put up some hay on the side to sell to horse owners. Doesn't matter, plenty of business for everybody - if your hay is any good. There are a lot of horses around, riding stables and private owners, enough that there's been a movement to nickname the area "Equine Alley."

 

[bmaverick]

I know. My issue is not with the political system which is fundamentally sound. My issue is with the people we put into office. Are they Americans or what? Don't they care about national well-being? When it comes to farming for food as a matter of national concern, China is buying up American food production capability. While we let our farmers twist in the wind, China is gobbling up farms wherever they can buy them all over the world. And if we let them, they would buy up all our failing farms and run them with Chinese farmers.

And with Chinese TRACTORS. Been noticing the machines keep creeping over here now.

 

[bmaverick]

No reduction in hay in central Texas and I have two relatives who do hay and cows full time. They probably make several thousand round bales a year. What once used to be my grandparents corn and cotton field are now good producing hay fields.

bmaverick, do not worry when the beef stops you will never have to eat fake vegan meat, I have plenty of recipes for burgers made with either black beans or beets as their base.

Oh no, not another black bean recipe.

I already tried the black bean brownies that taste better than store bought normal brownies.

I'll keep with the Latinos and raise meat goats. Never need to go meatless.

 

[sree251]

Farmers have gotten a bad rap lately. I just read a thread here last week and some joke said he thought “all farmers were in the bag (drunk) by 5pm”. With people thinking that about us AND low pay/high expenses, its no wonder we cant get youth on board.

You know what? I never understood why there are even farmers. It's a tough life working the land. Farmers don't ever make a killing, the kind they make on Wall Street. The best thing going for them is to cut their risks by selling to a commodities trader. It is sad when we don't even protect our own farmers.

 

[sree251]

Now thats called “_____ trash”, “hick”, “deplorable”, “redneck” and worse….
Its really sad to see.

Very sad. The debasement of traditional values does the country no good. In disrespecting our farming culture, we are cutting off the hand that feeds us.

 

[kenmac]

I just priced fertilizer and the 21-7-14 I use on my coastal bermuda hay pasture is about $1000 per ton. Twice what it was last year. Last year's historic freeze we had in February did severe damage to my hay pasture. To top it off we have a severe drought going on. I might be out of the hay and cow business.

priced triple 17 at that same price. It ain't gonna happen. Beef cattle prices aren't up enough to support those fertilizer prices. Most likely the end of these cows, and there will be no more

 

[spruce Deere]

I have one neighbor who sold all his cattle, 20 odd head i believe.... Kept the damn horses though, four of five I believe.

The price of beef was tanked to boot but all the pastures were gone due to the lack of rain and the lack of moisture also all but killed the hay production. Very light first cutting, second cutting.... Why burn the fuel...oh ya, the damn horses

The other neighbor, my ol' man, makes hay for the first mentioned neighbor and a few other rancher types. Hey made hay the same as usual, just less of it for everyone. The old' man turned 70 and is o.k slowing down a bit anyway and is starting to lease out some of his hay ground to the other neighbor.... Just some of it.

Lot of "boomers" shifting gears maybe?

 

[sree251]

And yet the farmer would still make more in a free market…

The farmer doesn't want to make more. He just want to get what he worked hard for: a good harvest and a decent price for his labor. No farmer ever worked his farm out of greed. Greed is what the free market is about.