Farms

[the game]

have you ever worked on a farm? Does your family own a farm? What work did you do on the farms?

[Swizzington]

Nah, but I always wondered if I would enjoy it. Be your own boss, make your own shit, could be fun.

[Saladbar]

Not me, but I had a friend that wanted to "retire" to work his own farm in Montana. He had experience so he knew what he was getting into. He did about 500 acres of wheat for several years. It turns out, he needed to work almost another full time job to help keep his farm solvent.

In the end, his local crop insurance broker screwed him and a bunch of other locals after a bad drought year, and he ended up losing over $100k after selling his farm and liquidating. Quit farming and went back to a regular 9 to 5.

[Independent voter]

I got an agricultural degree for some reason so I've done some farm stuff. Nobody in the family has owned a farm for a long time, everyone were farmers at one time.

[shadowdasher]

my ex's father was a farmer, soy and corn. I helped out a few times. It's hard work, especially if it's a small farm and they don't have the big fancy equipment like the big farms have.

[Gref]

It is difficult. We have peach, cheery, apple ( and various vegetables) that we grow in our lands. And trust me it is difficult. The sun having a nice combo with all kind of flying bullshit and grass is dreadful. Especially if you are growing "hairy" peach, that hair makes you itch like hell if it touches your body. Add it the days when there is no wind and you just made your hell.

However, I highly suggest for anybody to think growing their own stuff in their backyard. It is definitely relaxing, less tiring. Growing vegetables are always more enjoyable than fruits on trees.

[Pipebomb]

I've always liked the idea of producing your own food. Never liked the idea of how much work it is though, lol. I'll stick to a small veggie garden and some perennial fruits.

[the game]

It is difficult. We have peach, cheery, apple ( and various vegetables) that we grow in our lands. And trust me it is difficult. The sun having a nice combo with all kind of flying bullshit and grass is dreadful. Especially if you are growing "hairy" peach, that hair makes you itch like hell if it touches your body. Add it the days when there is no wind and you just made your hell.

However, I highly suggest for anybody to think growing their own stuff in their backyard. It is definitely relaxing, less tiring. Growing vegetables are always more enjoyable than fruits on trees.

Are stinkbugs a problem for your crops? I've heard they're invading fruit crops.

[Ratboy]

I grew up on a farm, we had on average 1000 pigs and about 100 acres of corn. About 6 years ago my dad took basically a government buyout to get out of pigs because the pork market was terrible for small farmers. Now he just farms the 100 acres switching between corn and soybeans.

At a very young age my dad made sure that I would get as far away from farming as possible (I'm now head graphic designer and production manager at a print shop). My jobs were usually the really shitty ones, cleaning the pens, which could have harden piles 2 or 3 feet high. Catching piglets for certain procedures that had to be done to them. Moving pigs from one barn to another (pigs are very stupid and stubborn) and just general labour.

[Gref]

@mayhem008 I wouldn't call them really invading actually. We don't have them as problem. They can invade however if not precautions are taken. But usually it is a kind of white fungus that attaches itself to trees which comes from south with the winds. You wouldn't see them on your tomatoes but on your peach, cheery, apple trees basically fruits. (never underestimate the carrying power of winds from long distances, we get all kind of bs from africa thanks to strong hot/warm south winds).

[Milchshake]

Grandparents had a small farm, spent most summers working for them. Also worked on larger commercial farms as a fruit picker. After high school spent a summer working a ranch. Which is mostly fixing fences, helping cows stuck in mud, checking for stray calves.

Now I just keep an overly large vegetable garden with a couple hundred plants. Everything is pretty well established so its not too much work. Just have to do a walk through a few times a week to watch for diseases and pests. Finally won the war versus some urban deer.

[shadowmouse]

Technically we do, but my grandfather was the last one to have day to day responsibility for it. These days it has moved to more of a business model and is managed by a trust.

When I was a child I used to go with my grandfather on his rounds -- checking the fields, checking the cattle, going to cattle auctions. The fields were mainly cotton, soybeans and alfalfa, but cattle were his main interest. I used to enjoy going to the auctions with him and even the trips to the vet. I grew up knowing that the steak I was eating had been one of the cows and that a trip to the vet was likely to lead to Rocky Mountain Oysters at dinner.

[Witchblade77]

yes. and because I have, I'm never EVER going beyond small hobby farming to supplement our personal table but not much beyond that. its very hard for variety of reasons, most of which are out of your control.

we do have a small garden and some chickens for eggs, but its small and supplemental, and as such - actualy manageable.

[Johnnysquaw]

Agriculture is big where I'm from. I'll just say the guy driving the 1978 pickup is worth tens of millions.

[Cthulhu 2020]

Yes. No. Farmwork.

[Gamdwelf]

have you ever worked on a farm? Does your family own a farm? What work did you do on the farms?

Yeah family farm. Go and work on it almost every weekend in the summer. My uncle who is supposed to get it when GPA dies doesn't want it maybe I'll get a farm some day.

[Shaede]

When I was younger I worked on a horse farm a couple of summers in a row. Some grunt ass work, but satisfying. Upkeep on a farm is no joke...lot's of hard work. It's great tho...you don't have anyone breathing down your neck.

The specific work I remember doing were thing like taking care of the grass (a ton of ground to cover), painting barns, fixing barns, washing horses, shoveling manure, doing basically anything the guy would ask me to do.

I wouldn't mind having a farm if I could ever afford one...haha don't see that happening any time soon tho. Unfortunately working with autistic kids doesn't pay that kind of money.

[Deleted]

I live on a farmland with my fiance but we're not farmers.
We do have cattle grazing but they're not ours.

Apparently if you live where I do, your land needs to have some sort of use or so the deed to the house said.

[Zephyr Storm]

Grew up on a farm. Helped my father farm until I graduated with a Bachelor's Degree in Radiology and now work at a hospital. We farmed between 1,000-1,500 acres (varied over time). Raised corn, soybeans, and wheat. My grandfather raised cattle, swine, and chickens and I helped with the chores associated with them. I also always took pigs to the 4-H county fair every year.

Growing up on a farm, you do a lot of stuff that other people will never ever do or learn. Being a farmer teaches you how to raise animals and plants and how to be a carpenter, mechanic, lumberjack, weather predictor, excavator, butcher, and several other things. Put in a lot of hard work year round, building sheds/barns, putting up new grain bins, baling straw and hay, butchering cows/pigs/chickens for meat, putting out and taking care of a garden, helping to clear snow off the roads in the winter, etc, etc, etc. Also put in a lot of volunteer community work in the local towns.

My sister and brother-in-law both got degrees in agriculture. My sister has a Master's in Crop Science and my brother-in-law has a Bachelor's in Crop Production. They have a greenhouse where they hydroponically grow five different kinds of lettuce as well as arugula and spinach. They distribute the crop to local stores and restaurants as well as sell some themselves directly to other people.

Learned a lot of good life lessons growing up on a farm. Wouldn't have traded any of it for the world either. Regardless of what city dwellers think of us country bumpkins, we're all pretty good folk, who would bend over backwards to help someone in need. But we're also very firm in what we believe and aren't easily swayed from our ideals.

[Bloodedsoul]

Grew up on a horse stable, we took care of 33 horses on average. I wouldn't trade a minute of it for another way while growing up. My little sister runs it now, I help out every weekend, and weeknights here during hay season. I learned what I consider basic work ethics, such as the animals well being comes before your own, especially boarders. There were days if I made the mistake of sleeping in till 5 am I didn't get breakfast until well after 9 because the horses were on a schedule to be fed. After feeding them, you had to pick stalls ( or strip them depending on the horse and if they had to stay in over night due to thunderstorms), check fences every day, make sure water troughs were full. Once a week troughs had to be dumped and scrubbed clean.
Throughout the day there were horses we were responsible for training, from breaking to just taking out for an hour or four trail ride to keep in shape. You had to help keep up with maintenance on the barns, fences, house, and farm equipment. During the winter if the tractor was down, or refused to start, you had to shovel walk ways from each of the pastures, break ice from troughs, if horses had shoes, pick their hooves out to remove ice buildup.
Summer time ment haying season. I had to get all my normal chores done ( summer often ment 4 am wake up times) and any riding I had to before the dew was off the fields. After that it was either mowing hay, raking, or bailing. After pulling all day in the fields, back to do evening chores, and ride any horses that had been missed.

As Zerphyr said, I learned basic carpentry, electrical, plumbing, mechanics. I can run a dozer, backhoe, excavator, dump truck, front loader, and just about anything with a spear in front of it.

I believe it made me the man I am today, my own son who is 5 weeks old now ( hurray!) will be spending summers at my sisters to learn the same things. We always had cousins helping during the summer ( there were usually 10 or so kids there to help). I used to catch flakk in school because I never understood how anyone slept past 6 am, half your day is gone.