I just gotta know. How old are we all? Kids? Grandkids?

[oneoff]

64 plus or minus a bit; but it has been mentioned I don't look bit over 65.

The ones I aspire to emulate are those in the 80's and into the 90's who still are lucky enough to have their marbles; and have long ago figured out the different ways the world and society might can best function.

Probably will never make it....but will never give up.

[bucket]

I am 48. Came back to the farm in 93/94. Was working as a mechanical engineering Technologist, still do occasionally. Married with two kids 12 & 10, started late.

Freewheat, you are a people watcher, very astute on your observations.

[furrowtickler]

Close, 41, 3 kids 12/10/8. Married 16 years as of tomorrow. Farmed Through voc ag all the way through 25 years now. Ups and downs in life and farming but family has been here just over 100 years. Intend on being here for a while regardless of ctv and mega farms lol.

[LEP]

Freewheat, you are good. I am turning 50 in a couple of
weeks.

I have owned cattle since the 70's and while I went to
college and worked off farm I used every holiday and
weekend to come home and farm.

I worked in the ag banking sector for 10 years as well as
farmed and quit when my third child came along and I
was farming as much as most of my customers. There
wasn't much of the candle left to burn let alone burning
both ends.

This is my 23rd crop and things started to get easier
about 17 or 18 years into farming.

My motto was don't buy anything you don't need, stretch
your equipment, don't take debt on anything that won't
make you money (ie kitchen renos and fancy half tons),
and keep some powder dry so that when an opportunity
presents itself you can take advantage of it.

OK what is your guess on Cotton? I would say late 30's.

Good post.

[ALLFARMER]

Congrats Furrow on your anniversary. People
who have been married over 10 years typically
know how to fix things, rather than throw them
away.

I am 38 started farming in 1996 married 11 years.
I have 7 kids 3 boys 4 girls.

Have built the farm with allot of off farm
income....working out. Certainly not a model that
would work for everyone but started in 96 with
$400 an today the farms worth enough to retire
with. So why do I continue to work??? I guess I
like to build things.

[oneoff]

Mom and Dad had a full handfull of kids. But they made sure each had the opportunity to get university educations; and it came from a half section of farmland and 30 to 50 cows. Also kids worked baling and hauling flax straw etc. etc; had 25 cent allowances and learned to do repairs and tasks on their own.
Ended up with less than two sections of farmland each; and paid for and shared every piece of iron without any irrepairble differences. Waited till could pay in cash; or else waited some more. Maybe tyhere is a perception that such operations are "large" farmers; but do the math.
As the realization sinks in that one is not keeping up with contracting, marketing and what new generations see as being priorities 90% of the land has recently been rented out to young and "smaller" relatively young farmers and wannabees. The top ten percent who produce 80% will probably continue to do with slightly less.
Given the historical fact of financial returns (as shown by Statistics Canada, taxpayer subsidies, off farm income and and Federal Income tax returns) would the agriculture "farming industry" and society have been better off if the blue prints for four wheel drive tractor and Class 6 to 8 machinery been destroyed? But that die and many others has been cast a long time ago; and I will not waste resources refighting past battles.

My interests now lie in electronics and wireless internet communications. Now that is challenging; and fields that feww seem to be working on for the neglected rural areas.
Certainly not municipal politics which is now securely in the hands of those with solely self interests and their supporters who have basically no information outside rumours that make no logical sense. May God or rules of decency help us all.

Started farming with a half section of Land Bank Land. Otherwise would have been in different occupation. Expanded slowly and paid asking price of sellers, that others had already rejected. Thus missed being caught with debt during 24% interest period; was fortunate Mother Nature looked favorably on SE Sask except for a couple of years ago; and family members basically ponded every nail, built every bin and poured every shovel full or yard of cement.
And whether we admit it or not, Sask has recently just become a part of the rest of the world economy and its inhabitants.

[oneoff]

Mom and Dad had a full handfull of kids. But they made sure each had the opportunity to get university educations; and it came from a half section of farmland and 30 to 50 cows. Also kids worked baling and hauling flax straw etc. etc; had 25 cent allowances and learned to do repairs and tasks on their own.
Ended up with less than two sections of farmland each; and paid for and shared every piece of iron without any irrepairble differences. Waited till could pay in cash; or else waited some more. Maybe tyhere is a perception that such operations are "large" farmers; but do the math.
As the realization sinks in that one is not keeping up with contracting, marketing and what new generations see as being priorities 90% of the land has recently been rented out to young and "smaller" relatively young farmers and wannabees. The top ten percent who produce 80% will probably continue to do with slightly less.
Given the historical fact of financial returns (as shown by Statistics Canada, taxpayer subsidies, off farm income and and Federal Income tax returns) would the agriculture "farming industry" and society have been better off if the blue prints for four wheel drive tractor and Class 6 to 8 machinery been destroyed? But that die and many others has been cast a long time ago; and I will not waste resources refighting past battles.

My interests now lie in electronics and wireless internet communications. Now that is challenging; and fields that feww seem to be working on for the neglected rural areas.
Certainly not municipal politics which is now securely in the hands of those with solely self interests and their supporters who have basically no information outside rumours that make no logical sense. May God or rules of decency help us all.

Started farming with a half section of Land Bank Land. Otherwise would have been in different occupation. Expanded slowly and paid asking price of sellers, that others had already rejected. Thus missed being caught with debt during 24% interest period; was fortunate Mother Nature looked favorably on SE Sask except for a couple of years ago; and family members basically ponded every nail, built every bin and poured every shovel full or yard of cement.
And whether we admit it or not, Sask has recently just become a part of the rest of the world economy and its inhabitants.

[oneoff]

Calling sumdum guy. I've ageed with you more often than not.

And I bet we can count on pars checking in soon.

[carebear300]

I am 60 years old. I have remained single all my life. Started farming in 1973 and have had my ups and downs but really enjoyed the challenges. I am slowing down now, since I am not able to hire reliable help anymore. Sort of hard to do but it has to be done before this beloved hunk of dirt kills me off and the government walks off with the fruits of my labores. No regret!!!!!!!

[Choice2U]

Choice2U is 51 and farms a little under 1,000 acres by himself. Worked in the industry most of life and went full-time farming in 2008. Bought old equipment that has been somewhat updated and most of the land then. I still live off my wife. I read Cotton's comments all the time on interest rates...my first truck loan was at 22% so my farm is still at risk and robbing Peter to pay Paul is a full time job.

[cottonpicken]

chronologically:37
physically:55
emotionally:14
mentally:64

At least thats what my psychiatrist told me.

[parsley]

Parsley is 69 and married to the same man for
nearly 45 years. Tho he studied engineering and
I education, we actually mutually chose farming.
The farm has been good to us. Raised a son and
daughter, both professionals, and have 5
grandchildren. Travelled a lot. Read a lot. Spend
time with very interesting people. Never been in
jail. Lots of skills. Appreciate work. I live every
day packed full of life. At age four, I lay on the
couch coughing up blood, desperately sick with
tuberculosis, told not to cry as I needed to save
my energy to live. I survived. My sister died. So
I don't skip a beat. Ride bike. Drive like a fool.
Cook like a chef. And just took up accoustic
guitar much to the chagrin of my three whining
fingers. Sigh.
A couple of offsides:
1. Bucket looks 35 in real life.
2. I had a scarey bout of hypertension. Turns out
I cannot tolerate caffeine. No coffee= normal bp
Never believed 14 cups coffee/ day could cause
havoc. #dumbSwede
Pars

[malleefarmer]

47 yrs 5 kids
wheat canola on 6500 acres sheep 5000
ewes and lambs on the rest
9800 acre 1300 rented
considered average size farm in our low
rainfall enviornment maybe a tad above
with rented farm.
one workman
ps wife has 60 horses breed kids ponies
and show ponies
farming since 1980 added 2 farms myself
had a good start also but had to buy
brother out along the way no interst in
farming

[ado089]

29, always involved with the farm.
Started out with a few cattle as a
teenager, luckily sold them off through
university and got rid of the last of
them just before BSE. Worked on the
farm when I could through that time but usually had summer jobs away from home
and later on they were in Alberta. When
I finished my degree in Ag at the U of S
I got more or less kicked off the farm
for 5 years to, in dads words, make sure
farming was what I really wanted to do.
Went to Calgary and worked in retail and
grain buying and returned 4 years later,
worked for another year in S'toon. I
took every dollar I'd saved in my life
and made a down payment on 7 quarters of
hilly, rocky land 60 miles from home and
used the line of credit that came with
the mortgage to rent another 1,000ac and
lease a sprayer in 2010. 3 years and
100" of rain later I'm trying to move my
farm closer to home and expand at the
same time. My off farm passion has
shifted from agronomy and retail to
precision farming and variable rate
consulting. I've been shacked up for 4
years but have managed to avoid biting
the bullet by convincing the old lady
that we need to travel the world and get
the farm stable before moving forward
with kids and marriage. I've been to
close to 20 countries on 4 continents
and learned something about farming in
all of them. I try to hunt and fish if
there's any time left in-between. Still
living in S'toon but hate every minute
of it, but as long as the other half has
a decent career in the big city I don't
see that changing anytime soon.

I see automation and information
technology leading back to smaller
unmanned machinery and more intensive
management but fear that we are well on
our way back to being tenant farmers for
big land owners and foreign interests.
With that I have a feeling that farm
sizes are close to peaking do to logistical concerns and the risks
associated with being an owner operator
and effective allocation of capital. I
wouldn't be surprised to see several individually managed farm units operated
by larger umbrella farming corporations
in the future.

[rhoff]

30 years old. Married for almost ten years we
have a two year old and another coming in April.