starting out farming the hard way

[Dammann Farms]

I have heard many young people say that they want to farm, but they can not afford it. Well, I truly feel that if you want something bad enough you will find a way, it may not be easy but it will come. What makes me say this, is our neighbor was not raised on a farm, but has always wanted to farm. He works in town, but this summer he started a custom hay baling and just bought some cows. He is putting a calving shed in across the road from us and we could not be more excited for him. He is starting to acheive his dream of farming. I heard the old cab less John Deere start up and he just finished after dark. I have no doubt that this young man will succeed because he is not afraid to work. I just say encourage any person that you hear wants to farm tell them they can do it!

[Jerry]

you know the reason most young farmers never do it? most of the ones that farm discourage it. i started from pure scratch, nothing but an employee. been my dream my whole life. have worked on a farm since i was 7. no one and i mean no one helped me start out by giving me anything, didnt inherit land nor money nor equipment. i just had the balls to prove the big boys wrong. i have been called dumb stupid ignorant and even had several try to tell me to just work for them for the rest of my life and i will be something. i have only maybe 2 farmers in my entire life tell me i might can make it. the negativity runs alot of guys off

[Dammann Farms]

This kid isn't getting anything handed to him either. I just wanted to tell people that it is possible to start from scratch!! Well, my husband and I know that we need more young people to get into farming because they will not be enough of us in the future to provide food, fuel and fiber!

[Ian & Val Plagge]

We agree that if you want to farm, you can figure out a way to farm. If you put your mind to it, you can make changes to your life to make it happen. The only thing we question is that there needs to be "more people farming because there will not be enough of us in the future to provide food, fuel and fiber" - the number of farmers is decreasing every year because we are becoming more efficient, and this will only continue. As a young farmer, you need to make sure that you can make it and survive the "cut" it this is what you want to do for a living - or always look at the plot book while planning a marriage - haha.

[Anthony Adams]

You wouldn't believe how many guys hate my guts out here. Probably more than like me for sure!!! I thrive off of it though, they always cringe when I walk into the parts store, I can tell they don't like me, and don't like seeing someone young succeeding! And the ones that actually do like me, are the most supportive people I know, and also enjoy seeing the others get mad at speaking a good word on me! I catch alot of crap of some guys, but also get alot of good comments from some others and alot of advice from those folks too.

[Anthony Adams]

Agreed!! I grew up on a farm and loved every minute of it, however it wasn't my familys farm, and when the gentleman who owned the farm decided to sell out he didn't give us a chance to take over. But I wanted to farm, and my Dad wanted to farm too. So we started into custom harvesting and started building on an equipment line. Now here I am 4 years later......I've got an equipment line and my Dad and I are farming nearly 3000 acres and are in talks for another 2400 acres! One thing I will say to any beginner, stay diversified in your starting operations! It's better to be smaller in a couple different things than to have all your cards bet on one thing. I've done ALOT of harvesting, but trust me, theres been a few times when I needed more harvesting!! If I could do it over, well for one, I wouldn't have bought a few of the fancy things I have lol. But one thing I would've done is ventured out more into other things...(ex. Cattle, etc.) I can credit my harvesting for putting me in the position I'm in today, but it in no way came stress free and was sure no bed of roses! But I never gave up, (I won't say I never thought about it though). I'm selling off two machines now and am setting myself up for the farm alone...and I've never felt better! I'm finally to the point where I can survive on the farm alone, and if and when the extra acres are added to our block, then Dad and I will both be set.

I started with nothing but some savings I used for a down payment on my first machine, and Dad put the money up for our first tractor/trailer. And I started up, within two years I bought another combine and a grain cart. This year I actually was running four combines. Now with selling two of the machines, I'm stepping into the farm full time with a two tractors, one combine and a pretty decent line of machinery. Don't let anyone tell you "it can't be done", it can! Consider anyone who tells you that an obstacle, trust me, I've heard that same line so many times I just consider it a Hello.....lol. Just keep your head up, don't give up, if your passionate enough about what your doing you'll always find a way to keep things going, It ain't easy all the way through but it can always be accomplished!!!

[Jerry]

yea those guys who say you cant and try to talk me out of it are the ones who fuel the fire for me. i have a guy who farms over 10,000 acres trying to rent 35 acres out from under me. lol i like it!!! he might get it but he better watch it cause ill make sure he pays

[dale a. Brandt]

now this is a discussion i can really get into!!! i also really like to prove the nae sayers wrong over and over again. I grew rapidly and at one time lost alot of acres quickly....i held on with the skin of my teeth... and now its paying off again.... i just leased the biggest and nicest farm in my area.... it was out for cash rent.... i wasn't even close to the high bid.... but the owner liked me--the "underdog" so i got it...and then within hours came along two other farms. now the whole neighborhood thinks i put in the high bid.....its kind of fun... the coffee shop talk... the local homecomings... there is so much side talk going on when i walk into a crowd.

one man that cash rented several farms away from me in the past (my moms cousin actually) is getting old and lazy enough that he will probably quit soon.... so the moral of the story is...... sometimes you need to hide back in the weeds and wait for the exact opportunity to grab some greta farms and opportunities

Dale

[Grant Hildabrand]

are you farming that west tn ground with good cotton base? I like it down there near Millington, Atoka, and Covington. I spent a week down there with Glenn Zarecor in the FSA office back in February.

[Jerry]

yea i farm mostly in millington but have a few in atoka as well. some of the farms here have a great base but some dont have much of nothing.

[Jerry]

heres how much motivation i have gotten just from the farm i used to work on untill this year. this farm consists of 13,000 acres.


in 2003 i asked for 20 acres, a whopping 20 acres to have as my own as a christmas bonus, i was gonna furnish all the inputs and everything. the land was even rent free on their behalf. it was owned by a church and they just wanted it farmed to keep weeds down. i was told id recieve the land. the folowing year they acted as i didnt know what i was talking about so i asked again, same thing happened the next year so i gave up asking. 20 acres to a 13,000 acre operation is nothing.

in fall 2007 i rented a massive 650 acre farm with about 90 percent irrigation. it was cash rent and was to begin in 2008. the farm came up for sale so i brought it to farms attention that i worked for. it was an hour away from them so i thought id be safe. the deal was for them to buy it and rent it to me. i even did all the work for them in buying it. they had agreed to let me farm it. said it was a great oppurtunity for me to get going. guess who farms it?????? they do i have absolutely nothing to do with it. i might ride by it and look once a month just see what could have been. by the way the farm averaged 65 bushels an acre soybeans last year.

so if you ask me, they owe me 650 acres of ground and i will somehow someway get it in the future. i was their must trusted number 1 employee and the only one the farm who could do everything from plant spray combine run the picker land levelers and all. i will never treat my employees the way i have treated in my lifetime by the big boys. ive been on both sides of the fence so i know how it feels

[Mike West]

Yep all the talk about wanting young people in ag is BS. All they want is your labor and in return they expect you too work for peanuts, and live in one of their old farmstead where you'll never build any equity. Also they can count that old house as part of your pay. You can work all you life for a big operator and end up with nothing. And then they wonder why there are no young people who want to farm, geesh.

[Nick]

So are you building enough equity in the Oil industry now to start farming for yourself soon?