farmerjan
Well-known member
hurleyjd; I agree that the "bigger is better" whole BS is not the best answer. But remember that even the land grant colleges were pushing that. I prefer the smaller farms, with more people actually working , and then more support businesses are also employing people. I would like to see something that would support the small family farms. BUT there is a lack of workers for that concept anymore, because of all the technology and electronic gadgets that have totally invaded and permeated those younger workers lives. There are fewer and fewer of the younger generations that want to HAVE to work 7 days a week as most small dairies do. They also don't want to work that hard without making a DECENT paycheck. $20,000 a year does not cut it for a young person coming up. One of the reasons the robots have caught on is at least they don't have to be there every day twice a day at 4 and 4 or something like that. Robots do take management, but you can usually leave to go to a kids ball game, or school program, or stay out later and not have to get up and go to work on 4 hours sleep. I don't think that the "green deal" would help the small farm as much as hurt the general economy with the no oil and gas, do away with coal, no airplanes, no cars except electric.... too extreme too fast. I would like to see us get away from some of the polluting, but short of a total nuclear disaster, it can't be done in such a short time without realizing that there has to be other alternatives for all the displaced workers. Besides, for someone who is so concerned about money and all that, where did she get off wanting a RAISE only a couple of months into the job.....Raises come with on job performance and she sure didn't have any of that yet......
Here we are seeing the small 50-100 cow dairies sell out as the farmer gets older and the farm cannot support 2 "paychecks"; the younger generation that even wants to stay can't manage it financially. And most don't want to stay because they have seen the 24/7 that their fathers/families have had to put in. I get it.... I always wanted my own small dairy, and today I am glad that it never managed to happen because it would have been a dead issue by now.
It is all we can do to keep the beef cattle going with the overhead here, and low prices in return. We have cut back a bit, lost a couple of rented places, and are not looking for more because the work and time cannot be justified with the prices of feeders. Most places are older, run down farms, and require alot of time and work, to just get the fences back in shape. The ones that have good fences and water and all, want more than you can justify paying for. We are beginning to question if it is worth all the time spent on the cows, feeding, haying, calving, moving to rented pastures, gathering them back up, weaning, selling, preg checks, not to mention any doctoring or problems that crop up.
So yeah, something to make it economical for the smaller farmer would be nice, but I just don't see it with any of the little I've heard or seen about the green deal. I don't want a hand out, I want fair prices for my animals. If the butcher inbetween us and the plate on your table, can get $15-20 / hour, then we ought to be able to get at least $5-10 / hr.....
Whichever poster said that when things went up, and we were getting good prices, but then when our prices dropped and they didn't in the store, hit it..... Milk is bringing 17.50 maybe now..... but it was bringing 17.50 in 1989 when I was working on a dairy milking, and I was doing okay on alot less wages. Because everything cost less overall..... today things are 2-3x as much and they still want dairies to make it on the same income. I cannot see where any amount of "green deal" will make it more equitable.
Places that are planting trees to help with improving their climate and such are a good thing. But if they don't do something about the increases in population everywhere, all the healthy climate won't mean diddly s@#t if there isn't enough food to go around. And all those trees will take away from some of the ground that could produce food. Sure, slash and burn and plant and use up the soil is NOT THE ANSWER, but if all the ones behind the green deal would implement it somewhere and show that it is doable, they would have enough support to change the world. Just don't talk about it; implement it somewhere and SHOW THAT IT CAN WORK....
Here we are seeing the small 50-100 cow dairies sell out as the farmer gets older and the farm cannot support 2 "paychecks"; the younger generation that even wants to stay can't manage it financially. And most don't want to stay because they have seen the 24/7 that their fathers/families have had to put in. I get it.... I always wanted my own small dairy, and today I am glad that it never managed to happen because it would have been a dead issue by now.
It is all we can do to keep the beef cattle going with the overhead here, and low prices in return. We have cut back a bit, lost a couple of rented places, and are not looking for more because the work and time cannot be justified with the prices of feeders. Most places are older, run down farms, and require alot of time and work, to just get the fences back in shape. The ones that have good fences and water and all, want more than you can justify paying for. We are beginning to question if it is worth all the time spent on the cows, feeding, haying, calving, moving to rented pastures, gathering them back up, weaning, selling, preg checks, not to mention any doctoring or problems that crop up.
So yeah, something to make it economical for the smaller farmer would be nice, but I just don't see it with any of the little I've heard or seen about the green deal. I don't want a hand out, I want fair prices for my animals. If the butcher inbetween us and the plate on your table, can get $15-20 / hour, then we ought to be able to get at least $5-10 / hr.....
Whichever poster said that when things went up, and we were getting good prices, but then when our prices dropped and they didn't in the store, hit it..... Milk is bringing 17.50 maybe now..... but it was bringing 17.50 in 1989 when I was working on a dairy milking, and I was doing okay on alot less wages. Because everything cost less overall..... today things are 2-3x as much and they still want dairies to make it on the same income. I cannot see where any amount of "green deal" will make it more equitable.
Places that are planting trees to help with improving their climate and such are a good thing. But if they don't do something about the increases in population everywhere, all the healthy climate won't mean diddly s@#t if there isn't enough food to go around. And all those trees will take away from some of the ground that could produce food. Sure, slash and burn and plant and use up the soil is NOT THE ANSWER, but if all the ones behind the green deal would implement it somewhere and show that it is doable, they would have enough support to change the world. Just don't talk about it; implement it somewhere and SHOW THAT IT CAN WORK....