Farm magazine articles

[Sheepwheat]

Well why don’t you show us some numbers? Your saying they have a ready made barn and corals and fences all rented. 500 baler how much for a tractor truck house and of course living expenses maybe have kids? and oh are they renting the cows too? Show the numbers.

No barn. Electric fences on leased pastures. I offer him land for no rent. I give him feed where I can until he can get more feed secure. He helps me with a bit of labor, traded a skidoo for some feed last year. Built corrals with bare hands out of free scrap lumber and salvaged spikes. Five hundred dollars was for two balers one for parts. Haybine was 1000. Tractor is a borrowed 3020. He bought a 4020 for 2000 bucks and is fixing it currently. Truck is an sgi salvage gmc half ton. House is a rented house in tiny town no one wants. He owns about twelve cows. One baby.

The key is his marketing and how he sells his beef at his own price. For most on here this key point goes flying over heads. Works for rm part time.

I believe in this young couple. I will support them to the hilt.

We need more farmers, not fewer. Especially we need more farmers who are not simply doing what everyone else is doing.

Sort of like us and our sheep, building a viable flock slowly and surely, building a business using our own funds. Using machinery and equipment that makes most people chuckle and poke fun. But importantly, marketing differently. Probably is why I believe in them. I see some of us in them... in the business model we are in on the sheep side of our farm, we have found a lot of these kinds of people. I wish them all the best, they need our support if we want rural revitalization.

[Sheepwheat]

I guess when you ask for numbers, maybe I am not sure what exactly your after? If my answers are off base for what you are looking for, ask more specifics, I’ll try to help.

[the big wheel]

No barn. Electric fences on leased pastures. I offer him land for no rent. I give him feed where I can until he can get more feed secure. He helps me with a bit of labor, traded a skidoo for some feed last year. Built corrals with bare hands out of free scrap lumber and salvaged spikes. Five hundred dollars was for two balers one for parts. Haybine was 1000. Tractor is a borrowed 3020. He bought a 4020 for 2000 bucks and is fixing it currently. Truck is an sgi salvage gmc half ton. House is a rented house in tiny town no one wants. He owns about twelve cows. One baby.

The key is his marketing and how he sells his beef at his own price. For most on here this key point goes flying over heads. Works for rm part time.

I believe in this young couple. I will support them to the hilt.

We need more farmers, not fewer. Especially we need more farmers who are not simply doing what everyone else is doing.

Sort of like us and our sheep, building a viable flock slowly and surely, building a business using our own funds. Using machinery and equipment that makes most people chuckle and poke fun. But importantly, marketing differently. Probably is why I believe in them. I see some of us in them...

Oh I see ya there’s all these pastures just waiting to be used? Your giving him all free stuff so ya I could grain farm no debt if someone gave me all the inputs free. Lmao!

As far as marketing many have tried that here and they’re right by the city also. You still need volume.
You act like this is revolutionary stuff your doing it isn’t. You had your grain farm and land paid for and now your admitting giving stuff for free. As usual there s more to your story.
The fact is to go buy land or even find all
These acres to do this rented not easy to do.
You still haven’t said where is he getting the cows and how? Building a herd? That takes time and money also. And we had a 500 dollar type baler years and years ago. When it really went to shit we could have ran a much better baler for the cost of repairs which became impossible when any of rhe main components went because you couldn’t find any parts. It’s a nice jesture what your doing maybe your doing the rev Falwell thing? Are you the reverend or rhe pool boy? Lol who knows.

[Sheepwheat]

Oh I see ya there’s all these pastures just waiting to be used? Your giving him all free stuff so ya I could grain farm no debt if someone gave me all the inputs free. Lmao!

As far as marketing many have tried that here and they’re right by the city also. You still need volume.
You act like this is revolutionary stuff your doing it isn’t. You had your grain farm and land paid for and now your admitting giving stuff for free. As usual there s more to your story.
The fact is to go buy land or even find all
These acres to do this rented not easy to do.
You still haven’t said where is he getting the cows and how? Building a herd? That takes time and money also. And we had a 500 dollar type baler years and years ago. When it really went to shit we could have ran a much better baler for the cost of repairs which became impossible when any of rhe main components went because you couldn’t find any parts. It’s a nice jesture what your doing maybe your doing the rev Falwell thing? Are you the reverend or rhe pool boy? Lol who knows.

He runs his cows on areas of land that no one currently uses. Corners, slough edges, etc. I am not the only one helping him out! There are thousands of acres of wasted land no one uses! I am giving him feed. Maybe you missed the part where he provides me with a bit of labor in return?

When you sell a product for several times more than most do because you market it well, kissing commodity agriculture goodbye, you therefore need several times less product to be viable.

He started with five cows. He is slowly building his herd. Not that hard to do if you do it slow. His balers will be just fine. We can weld, we have a salvage place fairly close that has absolutely every part one could want for two lifetimes. If you knew what we and he sell our meat for, maybe you would find it more understandable. And along with that, I can absolutely guarantee and assure you that what my wife and I do with our lamb, is not being done by anyone else.

And yeah, thanks, I am enjoying helping him out. It is rewarding to see him plan for his future as a farmer. You ought to try it sometime, helping someone out that is. When the focus becomes less on oneself, and more on others, life gets awful fun and rewarding.

Judging by your tone, I am guessing you feel that this is not doable. And that we need fewer, bigger farmers to revitalize agriculture?

Regarding the Falwell comments? I’m not a crude person generally so I’m not sure how to respond?

[the big wheel]

He runs his cows on areas of land that no one currently uses. Corners, slough edges, etc. I am not the only one helping him out! There are thousands of acres of wasted land no one uses! I am giving him feed. Maybe you missed the part where he provides me with a bit of labor in return?

When you sell a product for several times more than most do because you market it well, kissing commodity agriculture goodbye, you therefore need several times less product to be viable.

He started with five cows. He is slowly building his herd. Not that hard to do if you do it slow. His balers will be just fine. We can weld, we have a salvage place fairly close that has absolutely every part one could want for two lifetimes. If you knew what we and he sell our meat for, maybe you would find it more understandable. And along with that, I can absolutely guarantee and assure you that what my wife and I do with our lamb, is not being done by anyone else.

And yeah, thanks, I am enjoying helping him out. It is rewarding to see him plan for his future as a farmer. You ought to try it sometime, helping someone out that is. When the focus becomes less on oneself, and more on others, life gets awful fun and rewarding.

Judging by your tone, I am guessing you feel that this is not doable. And that we need fewer, bigger farmers to revitalize agriculture?

Regarding the Falwell comments? I’m not a crude person generally so I’m not sure how to respond?

Not saying it’s not doable just as usual showing your not telling the whole story.
It went from anyone can do this to you having to provide all this free stuff and the guys just at the 5 cow level which is fine nothing wrong with that but really you’re saying the rest of us are the idiots and what I m saying is your thinking your scenerio is available everywhere well it’s not. You better hope more guys don’t do this because you won’t be setting any price. You ll be glad just to get rid of it. Your not understanding how the big picture and reality work. By good luck it might work for you as long as too many other don’t try it.

[ajl]

Those magazines are simply propaganda pieces for the advertisers and that stands to reason. I used to like farm magazines from year ago when they profiled innovative ideas from farmers. Today there is not much of that since the better ones are incorporated into the production methods in use today. Not much adverts in stories that you propose but it would be nice if more of them are told some how. I agree that it would be nice to fill up rural areas rather than depopulate but that is likely a pipe dream. One of the biggest drivers of depopulation is artificially low interest rates. This drives constant farm expansion and the old people to hoard their assets meaning no opportunity in rural areas. The other factor has been the phenomenal growth in government. Far too easy to move to the city and get a government job. The later is no longer the case especially for white guys so we may see some innovation in the future as a result of that. Artificially low rates are back due to covid and are here to stay unfortunately.

I have run a $500 baler but this summer ran a 15 year old baler with net wrap. Both were Deere. Leaps and bounds.

[Grahamp]

I really don’t think there is a bias against these kinds of stories Sheepwheat. There just isn’t very many of them. If we raise the bar to someone is making a living doing it (fine if they have help) there just isn’t that many. I know of 3-4 families who tried to use the Joel Salatin model and after a few years gave up because it is very hard or they couldn’t make a living. Although I am as conventional as they come I have tremendous respect for the management and execution of a guy like Joel Salatin. It takes 3 times the skill to do what he does compared to what I do. And my bookshelf has several of his books and if I see a new article or story on him I am very intrigued. But the fact of the matter is very few people have the skill to replicate what he does and I am not that interested in a story about someone who works at the mine or for the RM and sells a few halves of beef. Not because I am arrogant or think I am better than them but in order to hold my interest they need to be able make a living doing what they are doing.

[furrowtickler]

Quite a few super farms promoted in the past in those articles are done within 2 years ......

[WiltonRanch]

Quite a few super farms promoted in the past in those articles are done within 2 years ......

Same as OYF. Death sentence for the farm

[AlbertaFarmer5]

As other posters have pointed out, the farmer buying a $500 baler and used nails/fencing material is not the target demographic for any advertiser. And every magazine is dependent on advertising revenue.

And I fall in that category too. Even though I am no longer small, I still run this operation about the same as the neighbor that Sheepwheat describes. On the cattle end, still using a 30 year old baler, and a discbine that has more weight in welding rod than factory metal( although both did get an upgrade finally this year, but still in use). But not doing this on a small scale. Last year was 1500 bales, a few years ago when we were salvaging hailed crops, it was 3000 bales. Lumber, fencing material, posts etc, is all salvaged from land we buy. Main chore tractor is over 50 years old. No advertiser is wasting their efforts targeting me.

Grain equipment is somewhat newer, and on a much bigger scale, but nearly free since the real grain farmers wouldn't touch it. Growing grain in a very very high risk area, the risk/reward for additional inputs is questionable, when snow, frost, hail, floods are almost certain, so I also have one of the lowest input costs per bushel. The only advertiser who is interested in my business is Ritchie Bros and other auctions.

But according to our accountants, our profits are in a league of their own. The attitude that was developed out of necessity, still serves us well now that we are better established, so why change it now. Frees up capital to buy land.

None of that is interesting to the average reader though. Nothing shiny, doesn't look impressive from the road. I've got part time quarter section farmer neighbors with more money invested ( and I use the term loosely)in equipment than I have.