New Tractor Sales Are Declining

[2manyrocks]

If you live on a farm, so much for doing what you want when you want in retirement. The farm sort of dictates what you do and when you do it.

 

[Sid Post]

If you live on a farm, so much for doing what you want when you want in retirement. The farm sort of dictates what you do and when you do it.

That depends on whether you have livestock or pets that you need to tend to regularly.

Farm crops let you have time off once they are planted though you may need to spray them before harvest. As a sole livestock operator, you may get some time off as well with cattle if the weather and grass are good and it's not calving season.

With steers on Winter wheat pasture, you can get lucky if the water doesn't freeze over in the fall or winter months and get some time off then as well.

It is really all about timing with the slow season and weather. The only thing that ever really tied me down to the farmstead was dairy cattle. Didn't matter if it was Christmas morning or New Year's Eve or someone getting married, milking the cows was never optional or discretionary! I considered getting some dairy goats to do goat cheese and goat milk for people that can't drink cows milk but, in semi-retirement that was a hard NO!

 

[TN8Man]

Retire? Who wants to do that?

Retire from the corporate machine, collect the pension while making more money on your own terms.

 

[Yander]

My FIL farmed full-time his entire life after he got out of the military. He worked at a factory and farmed for a few years.
Retirement was not in his vocabulary as it isn't in most farmers. He very sadly died of the way he was treated for covid October 2020. He had just sold all his equipment in April of that year. He was looking forward to helping his friend with his fields that harvest season.

Farmers just slow down and farm less or help their farmer buddies or their kids. My wife's hairdresser said that her dad is farming in his 80s and that his son lifts him up onto the big tractors with a tractor bucket.

It isn't just a job for a farmer it's their life and their culture.

That's been my experience around the farmers I know anyway.

 

[Hay Dude]

When I suggest not retiring, I mean from your career, I mean don’t stop working. Once you retire from your 9-5, find some work you really like. I ”retired” from construction in my late 40’s to pursue farming, which I always did as a side gig. Now I farm, but do construction as a side gig.
Keep working as it is exercise, great for the mental, spiritual and physical health.

 

[Sid Post]

My FIL farmed full-time his entire life after he got out of the military. He worked at a factory and farmed for a few years.
Retirement was not in his vocabulary as it isn't in most farmers. He very sadly died of the way he was treated for covid October 2020. He had just sold all his equipment in April of that year. He was looking forward to helping his friend with his fields that harvest season.

Farmers just slow down and farm less or help their farmer buddies or their kids. My wife's hairdresser said that her dad is farming in his 80s and that his son lifts him up onto the big tractors with a tractor bucket.

It isn't just a job for a farmer it's their life and their culture.

That's been my experience around the farmers I know anyway.

My FIL farmed full-time his entire life after he got out of the military. He worked at a factory and farmed for a few years.
Retirement was not in his vocabulary as it isn't in most farmers. He very sadly died of the way he was treated for covid October 2020. He had just sold all his equipment in April of that year. He was looking forward to helping his friend with his fields that harvest season.

Farmers just slow down and farm less or help their farmer buddies or their kids. My wife's hairdresser said that her dad is farming in his 80s and that his son lifts him up onto the big tractors with a tractor bucket.

It isn't just a job for a farmer it's their life and their culture.

That's been my experience around the farmers I know anyway.

ABSOLUTELY!

My father fit this general profile. While he worked for the airline, he farmed our family lands since the Oklahoma land runs and rented additional land as well. When he retired from the airline, he farmed full-time and did other odd jobs until he finally retired. During his working life, he always talked about retirement plans traveling the USA in a motorhome and on a Harley motorcycle.

In classic farmer style, 2 months after he finally 'really' retired, my father was working on the tractor he was restoring when he was diagnosed with Leukemia. My Grandfather on my Dad's side was similar but, he went to South Texas during the cold Oklahoma winters while his adult son fed cattle and chopped ice. He enjoyed some time in South Texas when he "got the flu" and refused to go to the doctor. Two weeks later he could not protest enough and Grandma took him to the doctor where he was diagnosed with Stage 4 Lung cancer that had metastasized to all the major abdominal organs and died never leaving the hospital again.

Retirement for my Grandpa and Father really was mainly about farming they wanted to instead of how they had to in their younger years. My Dad talked about buying a Harley Davidson motorcycle and going places but, what he really did was restore his childhood Allis tractor, a John Deere 730LP that replaced it, and was working on a third John Deere when become too sick to continue. Grandpa was a bit better with the travel trailer to South Texas during the Winter months when the only thing to do really was feed cattle and chop ice which either of his two Adult sons could easily do any day of the week and, heck even as a Teenager I did when my Dad was otherwise engaged with something.

Even in retirement, the farmer lifestyle never leaves. Heck, I spent my working life in a cube farm in the city and what did I do when I retired early? I moved to the country where I bought an older farmhouse so I could fix broken barb wire fencing and run a Bush Hog/Rotary Cutter in a pasture and raise livestock!

Some people want to see art in museums, I want to see a cow nursing a newborn calf in my pasture! I may even get a horse to ride some while checking them when they are back in the trees out of the wind or midday sun!

 

[Sid Post]

When I suggest not retiring, I mean from your career, I mean don’t stop working. Once you retire from your 9-5, find some work you really like. I ”retired” from construction in my late 40’s to pursue farming, which I always did as a side gig. Now I farm, but do construction as a side gig.
Keep working as it is exercise, great for the mental, spiritual and physical health.

Generally, based on anecdotal observations by myself, retirees who stay active "working" at something seem to be happier and more fulfilled in retirement. Mental health for retirees and seniors in general, who stay at home or are trapped in a nursing home 'warehouse', suffers greatly in many cases. I don't care if you are active in the Church or some volunteer activity, or you are out and about selling cookies or baked bread or feeding livestock, interacting with other people or animals on a regular basis is generally good for mental health for anyone but, especially seniors so they don't become 'shut ins' with the overall decline that follows in most cases.

Low physical activity levels exacerbate all sorts of health issues. Those who work at almost anything have better overall health whether it is a big garden, flowers, a KOI pond, or 20 cows with calves on the back pasture!

 

[CloverKnollFarms]

I’d like to die on a tractor or running a chainsaw… not at their hands, but still.

 

[Williy]

HeyDude, Sorry about your MIL hate t;o hear that
people suffer so. Just lost my wife on the 6th but
it was quick she just collapsed

willy

 

[Yander]

@Hay Dude and @Williy sorry to hear of both your losses. Never easy to lose someone that close. My mom died with dementia in 2020 and it was both sad and happy times because she was in such pain from her back and she wasn't mom any more. It's very hard to watch. She went home.