Is it such a bad thing to want to be a farm hand?

[cross_7]

Diversify your jobs. Be leary of getting heavy in agriculture at first. Things like O&G, even mowing lawns.

My oldest son is a fireman and has a lawn/landscaping business on the side. I was shocked at what he makes on his days off.
It's pays better than the fireman job, just no benefits or insurance
He'll be retired by the time he's my age

 

[Brute 23]

Diversify your jobs. Be leary of getting heavy in agriculture at first. Things like O&G, even mowing lawns.

My oldest son is a fireman and has a lawn/landscaping business on the side. I was shocked at what he makes on his days off.
It's pays better than the fireman job, just no benefits or insurance
He'll be retired by the time he's my age

It is pretty amazing. I had 3-4 guys that helped me through out high school and it was a great business for us. I pay some one to mow my lawn and at a couple places I take care of. They make good money.

We had a couple cemetarys to mow when we were in HS. That was an odd deal... have to start a new thread on that one. :shock:

 

[denvermartinfarms]

DM, I think he was talking more about land. I had great relief and felt free once I had my land paid for. Once you are debt free it's hard to owe money. I don't think I would ever use my land as collateral again.
Unless one of my kids needs something really bad. Living free is living good.

I agree, and land is mostly what I'm talking about, it's the one thing you have to have to be in this business and it's the biggest expense, outside of land I start believing one shouldn't borrow as much.

And I certainly think having it all paid for will be a great feeling, and yes I also see how if you had what you needed free and clear, you would never have another loan if any kind, I would be the same way.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Do what you love - - AND what other people value - - then the money will follow.
Transition planning can be a really tough topic. I would not count on it turning out well unless you can discuss it and get an agreement on paper.
Sounds like you may need to work for, or get some coaching from, another more active operation.

 

[ChrisB]

Your mechanical skills are valuable on a farm, if you know how or are willing to learn how to weld and in addition get your CDL you can make pretty good money being a farm hand. There are some good farm employers out there that will provide benefits like insurance, vehicle, and bonus's if you are a hard worker and show up on time. I hear all the time that good farm workers are really hard to find and when an outfit finds someone good they do whatever they can to keep them around. A job like that would be more of a row crop operation though, so if you really want to work with cattle you might have a little harder time finding a good paying job, but they are out there. I would guess you could make as much working for a large farm as you can at the car dealership.

 

[HDRider]

Do AI, be a plumber or an electrician, a surveyor or a meat cutter. Build a business and work toward your dream.

 

[Jessica06]

Im roughly your same age and went through a some what simular thing. There is money in the city... but there is the same money in rural America. Its just a little tougher to find.

I would challenge you to find a market for services that allow you to take care of your own cattle but generate some extra income. For example in our area we have oil and gas. There are jobs like a contract gauger that make good money and are flexable. You can make the rounds checking wells and cattle at the same time.

Maybe you can contract for other ranchers in the area on a per job basis to watch there cattle or do other odds and ends. A lot of out of town farmers or small operations can't keep full time guys but are willing to pay good for some one they can get on the phone asap.

What ever you do always transition slowly. It may be a 1... 3... 5 year transitions. Right now you may have a 9-5 job and your cattle. Start building up more side work or hunting another option than the 9-5. Transition from the 9-5 to it. Then as your operation grows, you can cut back on that job, and focus more on your own. That may be a 10-15yr plan.

Diversify your jobs. Be leary of getting heavy in agriculture at first. Things like O&G, even mowing lawns require far less capital and have greater margins. At first you need those high margin jobs to stock pile cash.

My last piece of advice is to dodge debt at all costs. Its a slower path but have much less risk. There are pleanty of ways to earn money that don't require a lot of capital. As a young person look for those options. Don't ever believe the idea that debt is the only way... thats just the only way that person talking to you knows.

Agriculture is a tough game to play. Especially starting out like you are. In all honesty, you are far better off running your own business. No matter if its selling donuts, mowing lawns, ect and once its established and you get some people working for you... you can play with cattle all you want. Cattle are much more fun when your not depending on them to feed your family. :tiphat: This is exactly what I have done.

Good advice.

 

[rjbovine]

I'm sure the large farm operations would hire a cert mech to work on their equipment . Maybe some schooling to work on all the electronics and GPS systems . Where I see and have problem myself is get enough land to expand . Pasture land his hard to come by, to rent and very expense to buy. Also keep in mind if you can find enough pasture to rent to expand try to get a long term lease . If you could work a deal with the farmer that would hire you. He might have areas that could be pastured . Work that situation into your salary .Best of luck rj :nod:

 

[rRandel]

wow thank you guys for taking the time to read and reply, I really enjoyed reading threw all of the respones and i will take all of them into consideration. One thing im going to check into is how farm hands get paid is it by the hour or salary? As a tech you only get paid by the billable hours so some weeks you have 25 hours and some you could have 50 all in a 45 hour work week, so my pay check does flex ALOT. Right now i already do alot of side jobs working on a few neighbors and people i know cars and trucks and ATV/UTVs all that money i have always put into a different acount thats why i have a few nice things that are paid for. Im thinking that i would still work on all these same things even if i went and worked for a farmer and more than likely work on his stuff too. So maybe my next question is and im not jumping in wildly and quiting my job but how does a guy see whats out there for farm hand jobs? Im not real wild about relocating because of my cattle now and i just bought my own place in the country.

 

[Jake]

wow thank you guys for taking the time to read and reply, I really enjoyed reading threw all of the respones and i will take all of them into consideration. One thing im going to check into is how farm hands get paid is it by the hour or salary? As a tech you only get paid by the billable hours so some weeks you have 25 hours and some you could have 50 all in a 45 hour work week, so my pay check does flex ALOT. Right now i already do alot of side jobs working on a few neighbors and people i know cars and trucks and ATV/UTVs all that money i have always put into a different acount thats why i have a few nice things that are paid for. Im thinking that i would still work on all these same things even if i went and worked for a farmer and more than likely work on his stuff too. So maybe my next question is and im not jumping in wildly and quiting my job but how does a guy see whats out there for farm hand jobs? Im not real wild about relocating because of my cattle now and i just bought my own place in the country.

You would probably be better served to find a part time gig helping a local guy work cattle, feed, or do those type of things in your free time. Take the little extra money as there aren't very many on farm jobs that pay very well at all. You can keep your day job and still get some experience from somebody else.

 

[LazyP]

Reading the opening post, I had to look and see that it wasn't me posting it as it looks like my early life.
I worked like a rented mule growing up and I enjoyed it all. My old man rewarded us for doing good and scolded us when we brain farted. He taught a lot of good lessons. Biggest was we had choices. Stay on the ranch and scratch out a piss poor living or learn something and do something else, make some coin and then decide where to go from there. I joined USAF, learned to work on Jet Engines and now 27 years later, I run a jet engine maintenance facility in Dallas. I also bought my own place, much smaller than what I grew up on. I still have the desire to feel the way I did growing up. I also have an 8 year old daughter who I want to instill values in. These same values I learned. Im building fence and working pens right now and trying to get this place in shape to meet my expectations. I try to avoid the mistakes my Dad made and he is 100% behind me in my decisions. I talk to him often and he tries to help even though he is 200 miles away. Some things he is hard headed about and just to avoid a long drawn out ordeal, I agree with him and we move on, but then I do it my way. Dad had 3000 acres with no payment but taxes, selective cutting of timber and some oil pipelines to help the bottom line. I don't have such and Im fine keeping my day job and being on my place. I love it enough to drive 75 miles each way to work 5 days a week. Wouldn't trade it for anything.
I think the farm stays with you no matter how far away you get or how long you are gone.
Best of luck,
LazyP

 

[HDRider]

Reading the opening post, I had to look and see that it wasn't me posting it as it looks like my early life.
I worked like a rented mule growing up and I enjoyed it all. My old man rewarded us for doing good and scolded us when we brain farted. He taught a lot of good lessons. Biggest was we had choices. Stay on the ranch and scratch out a be nice poor living or learn something and do something else, make some coin and then decide where to go from there. I joined USAF, learned to work on Jet Engines and now 27 years later, I run a jet engine maintenance facility in Dallas. I also bought my own place, much smaller than what I grew up on. I still have the desire to feel the way I did growing up. I also have an 8 year old daughter who I want to instill values in. These same values I learned. Im building fence and working pens right now and trying to get this place in shape to meet my expectations. I try to avoid the mistakes my Dad made and he is 100% behind me in my decisions. I talk to him often and he tries to help even though he is 200 miles away. Some things he is hard headed about and just to avoid a long drawn out ordeal, I agree with him and we move on, but then I do it my way. Dad had 3000 acres with no payment but taxes, selective cutting of timber and some oil pipelines to help the bottom line. I don't have such and Im fine keeping my day job and being on my place. I love it enough to drive 75 miles each way to work 5 days a week. Wouldn't trade it for anything.
I think the farm stays with you no matter how far away you get or how long you are gone.
Best of luck,
LazyP

Yep :cowboy:

 

[Suzie Q]

If you take out a loan it should be for a good debt not for a bad debt.

With a bad debt if the worst comes to the worst, lets say with a car, which is a bad debt. The car goes down in price immediately on driving it off the lot. The car gets written off. The Insurance doesn't pay out the loan so you are left paying the loan with no car.

A Good debt is something like a house, so hopefully you have it long enough that the house is worth more than you paid for it before the worst of the worst happens. In which time you are able to sell the house, pay back the debt and still have some money left over in your pocket.

The best type of income to have is income that you don't have to get out of bed for. So let's say a landlord which I am. So the tenants pay for me to play with cows every day. I pay down the principal of the loans with the rent money so the houses are worth a lot more than the loans and if the worst comes to the worst then at least I won't end up on the street.

In the mean time I am loving my lifestyle and just arrived home from a long weekend on the Beach. Only a weekend as I can set it up so as horses and cattle are fed for that long without any grass at the moment. I have come home to happy horses, happy cattle and happy land as they received 36mm while we were away. I am renewed in hoping that we will be able to make some more hay soon.

 

[Brute 23]

If you take out a loan it should be for a good debt not for a bad debt.

With a bad debt if the worst comes to the worst, lets say with a car, which is a bad debt. The car goes down in price immediately on driving it off the lot. The car gets written off. The Insurance doesn't pay out the loan so you are left paying the loan with no car.

A Good debt is something like a house, so hopefully you have it long enough that the house is worth more than you paid for it before the worst of the worst happens. In which time you are able to sell the house, pay back the debt and still have some money left over in your pocket.

The best type of income to have is income that you don't have to get out of bed for. So let's say a landlord which I am. So the tenants pay for me to play with cows every day. I pay down the principal of the loans with the rent money so the houses are worth a lot more than the loans and if the worst comes to the worst then at least I won't end up on the street.

In the mean time I am loving my lifestyle and just arrived home from a long weekend on the Beach. Only a weekend as I can set it up so as horses and cattle are fed for that long without any grass at the moment. I have come home to happy horses, happy cattle and happy land as they received 36mm while we were away. I am renewed in hoping that we will be able to make some more hay soon.

I don't quite get you logic on good debt and bad debt.

Even as bad as it is to get a loan on a car, at least with a car, even in the worst cases you have a pile of scrap metal sell. :???: Cattle die over night and you have nothing but a buzzard buffet.

Plus your tenants pay for you to assume the risk of the loan, the risk of owning a home, and for maintenance. Its very debatable who is getting the better end of that deal. ;-)

 

[Jogeephus]

I tend to agree most with the people who say to play it safe and get the education and work into cattle as a side job because there is a lot more to being a profitable cattle operation than owning a horse and a hat.

That said, I still believe hard work can pay off and good, honest, hard-working people are sometimes rewarded in ways that defy common logic.

Several years ago another poster asked this same type question and said they would move anywhere just to fulfill their dream of working on a cattle ranch. At the time I knew of someone needing help and since the poster was not far from me we struck up some conversations via pm's. Unfortunately the arrangement didn't seem to suit the person and their willingness seemed to fade when they learned our area views horses as more of a recreational item rather than a tool since we have such a heavy carrying capacity. Anyhow, his ideas and his willingness to do anything to fulfill his dream had some severe constraints when the reality of what the job actually entailed. This is unfortunate because when the owner died he left everything to the fella that took the job and helped him his last years on the farm. Lock stock and barrel.

In the last four years I have seen this happen twice. I find it interesting that some people value their cattle and their land more than they do their family and apparently a few would rather see their cattle taken good care of in the future than to be hauled off to the stockyard before the first shovel hits their coffin. I guess in a way, when someone does something like this it is their way of extending their lives into the future.

 

[Nesikep]

I'm a long way from that point, but I would be one of those people... if in my older years I had good help from someone and they had the same values I did, heck, why not give it to them.

 

[Suzie Q]

Brute 23 it is general but it is a 'wealth rule'.

With the car you are better off buying a cheap car that will get you from A to B to make the money to save to buy a car that you can afford, rather than buy a car that is not cheap and you could lose and not pay back the loan even after insurance has paid out and you have sold it for scrap metal.

With the house it doesn't have to be a rental house, it can by your own house, but hopefully with statistically in Australia property double approximately every 7 years, you can still sell the house and have some money left over with paying out the loan. For us Australia is one of the places in the World where you are better off owning someone else's house rather than your own. We can negatively gear it in our tax and the Government helps you to buy it.

Cattle - we did not borrow to get cattle. We went to the sales and bought the old cows that where down on their luck, very poor and nobody else wanted and 1 or 2 at a time when we could afford to buy them and not borrow. We brought them back here and wormed them and vaccinated them and sent them down the paddock to eat to their hearts content.

We bought a good bull and that is how we started. So we now have a herd of 50 and don't owe anything on them. When they calve in May we will have 70. However at the moment where we are in Australia they are not worth much, so I wouldn't want to have a loan on cattle at the moment.

We also have no children so could leave our place to anyone who wanted to continue to look after them after us.

 

[DLD]

I know it requires some facilities and equipment, but I know a young guy that has his own repair shop and also farms and runs some cows. He also does some custom farm work and hauling. He's a hard worker and I know he meets himself coming and going, but he's doing very well for himself. It's going to take some time to get everything like you want it that way, but it's an option worth considering.

I understand wanting a job to get more experience with farming and cattle, but if you're a skilled mechanic and can rely on that to pay the bills, I'd have a really hard time turning my back on it. The more you're out in the community, getting involved and getting to know people, the more opportunities will come your way. You'll find ways to get that experience.

I can't argue with anybody that doesn't want to have debt. I've made my mistakes there, too, but it's nearly impossible for a young person to get into farming and/or cattle without borrowing some money along the way. I realize that land prices aren't as volatile here as they are in some other places, but I've never regretted any land I've been able to buy (and I've borrowed money to buy every inch of it). Land is one thing they're not making any more of - it will pretty much always at least maintain it's value, for us it has always increased. Just don't get yourself in to some overwhelmingly big payment. I'd say pretty much the same thing for buying cows. If your goal is to run a hundred cows, I wouldn't go down and borrow $300K to buy 100 two year old pairs next week. But I wouldn't be afraid to borrow $15K to buy ten or so breds - get them paid off, then go do it again. You'll get there in time. The key is to make your living doing something else 'til you get those cows paid for, then let 'em make money for you. My biggest regret about buying land and cattle is that I didn't start sooner.

My parents wanted me to do something else, too. I'm glad they pushed me to get the education, and I'm doing the same for my kids. My 20 year old son is in college and just bought his first farm - I couldn't be prouder of him. Just keep going the direction you're headed, you'll get there in time.