Who is the 21st century farmer? Well, surprisingly, I guess that’s me. Growing up in the country farming corn and soybeans with my father, I have always been used to the culture of small town Minnesota and the seasonal work of farming. Going through high school I never would have guessed that I would end up in farming. I thought that I would go into the military or pursue engineering or something of that sort. Had I known, I definitely would have made some different class choices. But that’s in the past. When faced with the choice of what to do after high school, I was given the opportunity to get into my family’s operation, and I said yes.
The thing about getting into farming these days is that you need an “in” or it will be prohibitively expensive. With average land costs around my area ranging from $5000-6000 per acre, it would be pretty near impossible for a young guy like me to make it alone. So thank goodness for family! I farm with my uncle and two cousins and they have all given up some of the land they could use to make room for me. I rent the land I run because I definitely did not (and still don’t for that matter) have the sort of money to just buy land. Renting land can be sort of a difficult thing due to the fact that unless you have a long-term contract with your landlord, they can just go to the highest bidder every year with their land. It isn’t that we want to take advantage of them, but if you constantly must worry if you can run the land in the next crop year. We already tend to be worry warts with the whole “no rain, no money” thing.
The thing about getting into farming these days is that you need an “in” or it will be prohibitively expensive. With average land costs around my area ranging from $5000-6000 per acre, it would be pretty near impossible for a young guy like me to make it alone. So thank goodness for family! I farm with my uncle and two cousins and they have all given up some of the land they could use to make room for me. I rent the land I run because I definitely did not (and still don’t for that matter) have the sort of money to just buy land. Renting land can be sort of a difficult thing due to the fact that unless you have a long-term contract with your landlord, they can just go to the highest bidder every year with their land. It isn’t that we want to take advantage of them, but if you constantly must worry if you can run the land in the next crop year. We already tend to be worry warts with the whole “no rain, no money” thing.
The learning curve in the years since leaving high school has been incredible. I have been driving tractors for our operation since I was thirteen. I knew I had a pretty good grasp on operating heavy machinery. So, what more could there be to farming? It turns out that there is a lot more to know! Running heavy machinery is just the fun part. The amount of work that goes into one field can be surprising. Planting a field will take about half as long as it takes to harvest the field. Planting 80 acres takes about 3 hours and depending on if it is corn or soybeans, it will take between 5-7 hours to harvest it. A field in our area could produce around 180 bushels of corn per acre (up to 50 bushels for soybeans), so that would mean that a combine can process about 2000 bushels an hour. I absolutely love how technology is making its way into farming more and more. My favorite technology is GPS. GPS allows us to make incredibly straight lines while driving the machinery. Essentially, you set the direction that you want to go, then you push a button and it drives in a straight line for you. I used to watch movies on long rounds, but more things would break when I wasn't paying attention, so that got the axe!
I also thought that farming was a seasonal job. Though there is some truth to that, there is always work to do. The busiest season is harvest - no surprises there. Unless it rains during harvest, it is pretty much day in day out working with the machinery, and there is almost always something going wrong. The second busiest time is spring planting. Right at the end of April is about prime time to start planting corn. Planting is busy, but it’s somewhat chill compared to harvest where I always feel like I am in a rush. The third busiest time is summer. I had no idea there was so much work to do in the summer. As a kid I knew that they did some work, but I thought it was just here and there. The summer is pretty much weed and pest control. We may have to spray most of our fields up to three times just to maintain a crop. The most relaxing time as a farmer is (not surprisingly) in the winter. Though this may not be news to you, it may be surprising just how much work there still is. After harvest there is a ton of catching up to do. We have equipment to fix and corn to haul for most of the winter. We also do a lot of our paper work during this season; essentially the not so fun part. This seems like the time of the year when I feel the most inadequate. As a kid I didn’t want to go sit in dad’s boring meetings, but I loved watching corn get sucked into the combine. So if you happen to want to do what your mom or dad does and you can stand the boring stuff, do it. I guarantee that it will be important later.
I also thought that farming was a seasonal job. Though there is some truth to that, there is always work to do. The busiest season is harvest - no surprises there. Unless it rains during harvest, it is pretty much day in day out working with the machinery, and there is almost always something going wrong. The second busiest time is spring planting. Right at the end of April is about prime time to start planting corn. Planting is busy, but it’s somewhat chill compared to harvest where I always feel like I am in a rush. The third busiest time is summer. I had no idea there was so much work to do in the summer. As a kid I knew that they did some work, but I thought it was just here and there. The summer is pretty much weed and pest control. We may have to spray most of our fields up to three times just to maintain a crop. The most relaxing time as a farmer is (not surprisingly) in the winter. Though this may not be news to you, it may be surprising just how much work there still is. After harvest there is a ton of catching up to do. We have equipment to fix and corn to haul for most of the winter. We also do a lot of our paper work during this season; essentially the not so fun part. This seems like the time of the year when I feel the most inadequate. As a kid I didn’t want to go sit in dad’s boring meetings, but I loved watching corn get sucked into the combine. So if you happen to want to do what your mom or dad does and you can stand the boring stuff, do it. I guarantee that it will be important later.
Overall, I love farming. It challenges me in a different way all the time. I manage the land I run (paper work), I work on the equipment we use, I drive multiple different machines during the year, and I make many decisions that can have serious consequences if I make the wrong call. This is all well worth it. I get to work with my hands and still be challenged intellectually. I am able to be outside a lot. And ultimately, I get to be close to the people I love.