How many Farms on AS? answer the poll.

[Marc]

I think it is the south would have won we would have it made hank jr
It just seems funny there is rednecks in NY.

Have you ever been to upstate NY?

Don't worry about it goatchin, all the midwesterners are just jealous because our land is so much more fertile and we're not running out of water....

 

[ropensaddle]

Have you ever been to upstate NY?

Don't worry about it goatchin, all the midwesterners are just jealous because our land is so much more fertile and we're not running out of water....

Ha ha Jealous I almost spit up my tea as far as water I live
just fifteen minutes from one of the best springs in the world, if
you ever get the chance to try Mountain Valley Mineral Water
in the bottle do it it is the best water. The land here is rocks
so you are right, but about two hours depending on your driving
habits you are on the Mississippi delta, the most fertile ground
I have personal seen!

 

[user 19670]

Currently 80 acres, but in a couple of years I will buy my parents 120. Then I will start looking for more... and more... and a little more. Mainly just beef cows and hay. Use mine for hay and run the cows on my parents. Hard to do working full time and finding time for the family. Can't get anything done outside when it is dark before you get home from work.

+1

Couldn't get much done on our 15 acres while I worked in town. Was always dark it seemed.

Now that I am retired I am preparing a site for a nice shop. On the side we raise "pastured" chickens for eggs & meat and a few dairy goats. Actually, I don't really call what we have a "farm" but other people have corrected me soooooo . . .

At the very least, I don't stand much of a chance of burning up all the mature trees in the rest of my life
Want to build a mill too and have some fun.

 

[Marc]

Ha ha Jealous I almost spit up my tea as far as water I live
just fifteen minutes from one of the best springs in the world, if
you ever get the chance to try Mountain Valley Mineral Water
in the bottle do it it is the best water. The land here is rocks
so you are right, but about two hours depending on your driving
habits you are on the Mississippi delta, the most fertile ground
I have personal seen!

Heheh... tongue in cheek of course.

Although being completely serious here for a moment, a while back I saw a documentary on general agricultural practices around the world that claimed the CT River valley was the some of the most fertile ground conducive to farming in the world. Of course, I believe it was produced by PBS out of Boston so it was probably biased...

 

[ropensaddle]

Heheh... tongue in cheek of course.

Although being completely serious here for a moment, a while back I saw a documentary on general agricultural practices around the world that claimed the CT River valley was the some of the most fertile ground conducive to farming in the world. Of course, I believe it was produced by PBS out of Boston so it was probably biased...

The delta,and the corn belt seem to produce the worlds staples
but over fertilization has hurt some farms! Since they started the
CRP and letting the land rest, it has helped but the delta is a very
rich and fertile ground.

 

[Marc]

The delta,and the corn belt seem to produce the worlds staples
but over fertilization has hurt some farms! Since they started the
CRP and letting the land rest, it has helped but the delta is a very
rich and fertile ground.

Well, the one problem with farming in New England and some parts of NY are the hills and variable terrain. Some of the land here is supremely fertile (the bottom land) and other spots are terrible sandy and rocky. We just don't have the acres of flat to support 50 bottom plows and what not, combine that with the urban sprawl and the fact the almost all the farming operations here are so old, they'll never have the chance to grow beyond their original 80-140 acre size, it's clear why the huge shift in production over the last 100 years has been westward from here.

Plus I know a lot of farmers around here that get the shaft on federal subsidies, but that subject is really right for the section of the forum....

 

[windthrown]

It seems like a lot of AS members have some type of farm background that's why i started this poll.

1. Own or work on a working farm.

We call them RANCHES out here in the west. 'Course, this place is 1/4 sheep ranch, and 3/4 tree farm, land-wise.

 

[stipton]

On aprox. 84 acres. Was a chicken farm up until 1960. Currently use about 6 acres for feed corn for the deer and turkey, keeps the JD and Farmall greased up. About 4 acres of christmas trees, 50% have gotten way too big, probably going to end up firewood in the near future. Now days, just private hunting for family and close freinds and big old fields of grass. Makes for some real nice country living.

 

[GrantC]

We call them RANCHES out here in the west. 'Course, this place is 1/4 sheep ranch, and 3/4 tree farm, land-wise.

You must not be a native...because every red-blooded Northwest boy knows that cattle live on ranches, sheep live on farms. At least, that's the way it was in the Oregon I grew up in! :biggrinbounce2:

(Don't get me started on people referring to 5 acre plots as "ranches"...)

-=[ Grant ]=- (Proud member of SNOB. Look it up.)

 

[windthrown]

You must not be a native...because every red-blooded Northwest boy knows that cattle live on ranches, sheep live on farms. At least, that's the way it was in the Oregon I grew up in! :biggrinbounce2:

(Don't get me started on people referring to 5 acre plots as "ranches"...)

-=[ Grant ]=- (Proud member of SNOB. Look it up.)

Here in the south Willamette Valley... where sheep are nervous, we call this a raaaaanch. I was born and raised here in Orygun myself. 5 acres? We have over 100 acres on this here ranch and tree farm. You can get lost on this place...

Beer SNOB (Supporters of Native Oregon Beer), eh? I planted a half acre of pinot noir here this last year. We drink Steelhead and Rogue mostly here. Though I still like my Coronas with lime.

BTW: the Oregon you grew up in, unless you were born within the the 20 years, is all but gone. Unless you live around here?

 

[cjk]

36a here that the wife grew up on. I was a city boy when I met her and never would have imagined I would be a farmer. We rent out the land for now until we have enough equipment to do it ourselves. My wife started raising mini cows after she saw them in a magazine. She got a couple as pets and they started breeding, then we got another that was prego. After only a couple years we were up to 7. Shipped the little bull when he started to get testy and butchered a little steer. So now she is on the lookout for another bull to breed "her girls". We put up a shed and are buying used equip as we find it. We have the hay making equip covered now. Made about 1000 bales last year, first time running a baler, on the neighbors old pasture.

CAll me crazy but its kind of fun as long as I dont have to make a living doing it. We both work regular jobs and do this in our spare time. Someday I hope to just our little place and work just for me.

 

[windthrown]

CAll me crazy but its kind of fun as long as I dont have to make a living doing it. We both work regular jobs and do this in our spare time. Someday I hope to just our little place and work just for me.

Yah, something like 95% of all farms now have some form of off-farm income.

Sad, but true. I was raised in the suburbs mostly, was a landscape contractor and an engineer for 5 and 15 years. Then moved back to OR, fell in love, and moved onto this sheep RANCH/tree farm 4 years ago. Hard way to make a living, but we have other forms of semi-retirement income. Raising sheep is a rich man or woman's hobby.

 

[cedarfarms]

i run a few head of beef on 100+ acres, also lease another 40 that is overgrown with red cedar, been slowly clearing the ovegrowth to feed the owb, this area isn't suitable for cropping year after year on this rocky loam soil. so livestock is the way to go in this area.
i can't wait to retire to do this fulltime...

not many of us canuck farmers on this site, is there ?

 

[Gologit]

Yah, something like 95% of all farms now have some form of off-farm income.

Yup...very true. We run about 100 head of beef and, while they keep us busy, it's not really enough to make a good living on. I like the life-style though, or I wouldn't do it.
But, to make ends meet, and provide health insurance and all that other stuff, I work away from the ranch. In early Spring I fly planting rice. In Summer and Fall I work in the woods. In between times I do a little contract falling whenever I can find something close enough to home. In the dead of winter I do aircraft repair, mostly fabric work.

And when I'm not doing all this there's all the usual stuff involved in being in the cow business....fences, gates, calving, marking, doctoring...you guys with cows know the drill.

My wife is my good right hand...she can run any machine and do any job on the place...a lot of it she does better than me. Good thing she likes this kind of life as much as I do. She stays full time on the ranch and I know for certain that there's a lot of weeks she puts in more hours than I do.

Neither one of us watch much television. Bob

 

[czar800]

Yah, something like 95% of all farms now have some form of off-farm income.

Its a sad fact, My dad, brother and I farm our home farm that's 166 acres and rent about 200 more crop farming corn,soybeans,wheat,oats and hay. We also keep 45 cow calf pairs and at times have over 120 steers that we fatten out. All of us work off the farm to get benefits and a paycheck, most of the farmers that don't work someplace don't have any benefits or if they do there terrible. But i do hope that in my life time farming will turn around and a man can make a good living doing what so many of us love.

 

[Gologit]

Yah, something like 95% of all farms now have some form of off-farm income.

Its a sad fact, My dad, brother and I farm our home farm that's 166 acres and rent about 200 more crop farming corn,soybeans,wheat,oats and hay. We also keep 45 cow calf pairs and at times have over 120 steers that we fatten out. All of us work off the farm to get benefits and a paycheck, most of the farmers that don't work someplace don't have any benefits or if they do there terrible. But i do hope that in my life time farming will turn around and a man can make a good living doing what so many of us love.

Well said.

 

[berryman70]

Farm Market

We have a small fruit & vegetable farm & roadside market. Been doing it for 16 years, but have be involved in different types of farming all my life, my wife has a apple orchard/cider mill - greenhouse business background. We have a 2 acre apple orchard, I grow around 8 acres of sweet corn & 3 ac. pumpkins & winter squash. We keep a 2 acre strawberry field which gets replanted/rotated every 3 years. We also grow tomatoes, peppers,summer squash,cucs. & gladiolus. We have a small greenhouse for display, we purchase hanging baskets & bedding plants to sell as well as other produce for the farmstand. When we started out, we had a 4' x 8' covered covered stand, we now have a 20' x 24' enclosed building with a full front porch for display & sales, also have a 10' x 10' walk-in cooler behind the building.
We both have full time jobs, but in a few more years I'll be able to retire from my reg job & do my farming full time.
Don
berryman

 

[iCreek]

Old Farm Pics

We have another old farm house, way on the back of the property, it is a pretty neat old farm house also... The barn has fallen down, but still have some buildings standing, the outhouse is a double seater, still in good shape....

Not sure why alot of these old houses have two front doors, does anyone know? Have some other pics of the old log house, mid-late 1800s that I might post later, heck we even have two old horse drawn buggies still in a barn.

Here are a few more Pictures Old Farm House and Outhouse pictures

 

[farmermike]

I have what they call a hobby farm in my neck of the woods. 550 acres of corn and beans. Both myself and wife have full time jobs in town. Wasn't always like this. Used to be able to make a decent living just off of the farm(I did raise alot of hogs and beef then) Lost my pasture to the dnr, so had to let the cows go, hogs went about five years ago. Change isn't always for the best. We both like our jobs, the pay and benifits are okay. It wasn't what I was planning on doing, but it pays the bills and I can live with the stability of having a paycheck every two weeks. The farm is set to actually make some money this year. Be nice to pay some debit off from years past and actually be able to have a vehicle to drive that doesn't have over 100k on it(207k actually). Farmed long enough to know that the current prices won't be there forever so I'm taking advatage of it. Input costs have risen dramatically so there isn't as much in it as everyone thinks, but still should be a great year if it rains. I will always be a farmer first and enjoy farming so much more now that I don't depend on it for the majority of our income. It's very relaxing to come home from work and get away from the people that I have to deal with(I'm a correctional officer at my day, night, or evening job, depending on the week).

 

[cabinman]

Farms/ranches

Farms,. are acres that are tilled, planted, and then harvested,.. Ranches, or raaaaannnchhes, as some one said,..are pastures, where live stock grazes,and then are harvested, Dont Quote me,..Iam Just an old farm boy,... E,J,