Re: I think I'm gonna quit

Posted by Dave H (MI) on December 28, 2017 at 08:01:03 from (50.127.242.242):

In Reply to: I think I'm gonna quit posted by DeltaRed on December 28, 2017 at 07:37:36:

I'm only a bit younger than you. I did not grow up on a farm. I had a chance to start doing hay about 17 years ago so I did a 10 acre field with about $6K in equipment...$4K was the tractor. Wife and kids help me. I started doing more hay. Hay was good to me for the most part. Every 3-4 years the price bottoms out but it comes back quickly. I now hire the bales loaded and my hay acreage is eroding due to development on land I do not own. Seven years ago I bought a larger acreage and started with corn/soy. Grain has not been kind to a novice. Bigger equipment, pricey when it breaks. I cannot fix the big diesels like I did with the 4 cylinder gassers. I hold my own pretty well with the help of some good friends here. My sales exceed inputs most years. Depreciation eats up the rest but I do not factor that into my old equipment costs...I just take repairs and maintenance. So realistically, from a strictly cash flow basis, I break even or stay slightly in the black each year. YES! It hurts sometimes to get out of bed in the AM. YES! Worry overwhelms me sometimes. I'm not sure when, if ever, we are going to see higher corn prices. If we do, and I don't plant oats that year, I stand to make back some of my larger repair bills from the past. Never going to get rich unless I sell the place. Do I think of quitting...just for a year or two? Every single day of the year. But I chose to be here and it is a lifestyle I enjoy. Two years off will put me in such poor condition physically that I would probably not return. I would miss my big tractor and the combine, etc. Everything except the sprayer, LOL! I'm not going to quit. I'm just going to keep working at making things easier and being more efficient. I get more stressed when someone else farms it anyway. I say keep going until you absolutely cannot physically do it.

• This sums it up.

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