Logan52
Well-known member
I know this is a buzzword to many, it has been to me as well, but sometimes I do wonder if the changes to farming in my area are sustainable.
I bought the farm I live on in 1972. Most of my income came from the tobacco base and running a few cows. I was surrounded on all sides by full time farmers. Everyone grew tobacco but that only used a small portion of the farm. Some had 50 cow or fewer dairies, some raised feeder pigs, and most had a herd of beef cows. Very little overstocking of the land and very little grain farming. I could live modestly and make payments on the farm. The creeks ran clean and were full of fish. There were no deer or turkeys but plenty of rabbits, squirrels and quail. The woods were tall and open underneath, almost like a cathedral. I lived on a state road but there was little traffic. What traffic there was often stopped when they saw me sitting in the yard; this was pre-airconditioning.
Now most of the land has been cut up in 20 acre or so tracts with a nice new house on it. Traffic at eight in the morning and five in the afternoon makes the state and county roads dangerous, they were not built for this volume.
Rabbits and quail have disappeared, but we have deer, turkeys and coyotes in abundance.
The big time farmers that remain abuse the land with grain on land too steep to be kept in continuous crops.
Younger cattlemen deal in stocker operations for the most part, got to have that truck load lot size. Price pressures force keepers of cows to run too many head for the farm due to low profit margins. I have never seen as many poor and sickly cattle in my area.
I'll hush. I was looking at pictures my daughter took several years ago. I was struck by how beautiful everything was.
Those same pictures could not be taken today.
I bought the farm I live on in 1972. Most of my income came from the tobacco base and running a few cows. I was surrounded on all sides by full time farmers. Everyone grew tobacco but that only used a small portion of the farm. Some had 50 cow or fewer dairies, some raised feeder pigs, and most had a herd of beef cows. Very little overstocking of the land and very little grain farming. I could live modestly and make payments on the farm. The creeks ran clean and were full of fish. There were no deer or turkeys but plenty of rabbits, squirrels and quail. The woods were tall and open underneath, almost like a cathedral. I lived on a state road but there was little traffic. What traffic there was often stopped when they saw me sitting in the yard; this was pre-airconditioning.
Now most of the land has been cut up in 20 acre or so tracts with a nice new house on it. Traffic at eight in the morning and five in the afternoon makes the state and county roads dangerous, they were not built for this volume.
Rabbits and quail have disappeared, but we have deer, turkeys and coyotes in abundance.
The big time farmers that remain abuse the land with grain on land too steep to be kept in continuous crops.
Younger cattlemen deal in stocker operations for the most part, got to have that truck load lot size. Price pressures force keepers of cows to run too many head for the farm due to low profit margins. I have never seen as many poor and sickly cattle in my area.
I'll hush. I was looking at pictures my daughter took several years ago. I was struck by how beautiful everything was.
Those same pictures could not be taken today.