Nothing but respect for farmers here, never heard of lazy ones, bit of farming in my ancestry.

Biden is working on that! That grouchy old McConnell is holding them up ....LOL

Thank you jbyrd63.
I try

I figured that 'Turtle" had something to do with it !

I don't know where in MO nate is from or exactly who he is talking about, but from the perspective of someone who grew up on a farm, and we still have 500 acres in the north part of the state, he may not be entirely wrong.

There is a huge difference between cash grain farmers and anyone who is not. Cash grain farmers are extremely busy for about two months out of the year, and have a lot of free time otherwise. I have relatives who farm thousands of acres, yet have time and money to travel the world.....and do. And one lives in a $1M home and has many millions more invested in machinery. If land comes up for sale, he buys it. He is not lazy......far from it, but is living large. Very large.

Going back in time, my dad farmed same acres as my uncle. They were both cash grain but we also had livestock. We were dusk to dawn 365 and he spent time loafing in coffee shops, traveling to Vegas and joined the country club to play golf.....and that was 40 years ago.

I know at least one professional farm management firm that markets their services to the big farmers and landowners......and have winter meetings for them at their winter vacation homes in Florida and Arizona.

As for subsidies, we get very few. We plant, we harvest, we sell what we get for what we can get for it. Crop insurance, which we pay for, is the big safety net.

It is also my belief that the better the land, the less subsidies are required. Poor marginal land needs the subsidies. Live there, and you better know how to farm the government if you want to survive. The guys who are really good at it thrive.

I have took help from the Gov. 1 time to help put a well down on my farm. And the paper work was a pain in the butt. I would rather see a family farm get money from the government to help improve the farm than spend billions a year on some lazy SOB's cell phone and housing and food stamps. The farmer is trying to better himself the SOB will always be dependent on the government.

I agree. Much better use of our tax $$.

I've helped farmers all my life. there not lazy things have changed. you don't have as many small farms like you did 50 years ago.we baled small square bales of hay and straw. cleaned gutters and calve pens with a pitchfork .there was a lot more manual labor back then. now its big round bales of hay, milking parlors with robot milkers in the bigger operations.they farm more acres and have bigger equipment. the small farmer is a dying breed.

Anybody remember a column in some of the Ag magazines back in the 60's and 70's called "The Lazy Farmer". I used to see it in the Oregon Farmer-Stockman. It was a hoot. I'll see if I can find one and put it on.

Yeah and everyone thinks those tractors just run on unicorn poop! They don’t realize all the maintenance and service that goes into owning all that equipment. A lot of hard work just to keep everything in operation!!

I think the problem here is some of you are talking family farms and some are talking about corporate farms.

That's what I said long ago in this post.

There's those guys, yes, then there are the other farmers who trade for new equipment every year or two that have AC, air ride seats, and computer that does dang near all the driving for them.

They have had AC and comfy seats for over 40 years. GPS guidance systems are new. Get to the end of the row, turn around, line her up and hit the buttton.......then go back to playing on your cell phone.

Since a sack of seed corn now costs about $250 a bag, the bigger planters even have GPS monitors on each row unit. That way when you get into point rows, it knows where everybody has been and will turn off each unit as it crosses the margin of planted rows. That way you don't waste seed corn doubling up. Also why a planter like that costs $200,000. But it will also plant 200 acres a day. Run a couple of those and you can get all your planting done in 2 to 3 weeks. Took us 2 to 3 months.

Yes if you plant several thousand acres a year of corn or beans and you pay the extra money for the auto shutoff for seed you can save thousands of dollars per year. The major implement companies finance much of the equipment today and many are done on leases etc. The overall cost may be a tad higher over time but then replacing expensive equipment that is high maintenance makes sense as 3-4 days or breakdowns during the small window can be costly. Also it is geographic to a certain extent. Farmers in southern MO, AR, and similar areas have a much longer planting window for optimum yield and dryness then do say central MN, WI, SD etc. You can use a much smaller planter if the window is longer if you choose to. Here near Lake Michigan our planting window is very small so even small to medium size farms have relatively large equipment to deal with all the other choes and the climate.

Bryce

Many of the farmers around me do all you mentioned. They plumb, lay brick, concrete, run electric, mechanic, weld , drive trucks, run a business, pay laborers and raise families. I would say a farmer is one of the most skilled folks around. I think you need to spend some time on a farm.

Good one haha
I would have to agree most of them have enough time to. But there going to hire it done. Haha

I usually don't respond to threads like this but I'll make an exception that might help the original poster.

Farming is a business for the most part. So look at it like any other business , some take advantage of it some work hard, some own the business , land equipment and buildings and let others run it and set back and collect money. If there are loop holes that can work to their benefit that's the people making the rules fault. If i could find a loop hole that would let me stop my tax dollars from paying for someone's abortion i would use it.

Their are 2 owners that own the business i work at, one owns 70% and showes up a few times a year and one that owns 30% and works in the building most of the time. If it wasn't for the money of the one that owns 70% there would be no job there for me to have. I don't think less of him because he just sets back and collects the profits because like I said if not for him I wouldn't have that opportunity to make my money. He drives a Mercedes while I drive a hyundai to work and I'm ok with that.

It sounds as if your jealous of the one's that have. If so your missing life. My advice to you is make as much as you can as long as you can and try to find joy in the life you have or do the best you can to improve your life every single day until you reach that point.
Everyone wants more money but don't hate on people with more than you, have a wonderful day.

I hope to God this isn’t copied and pasted on a Ag forum

You don’t know any farmers. You’ve lost all credibility