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West Michigan | Well technically Im 4 generation. Yes I do feel that are problems lies more on the labor. As of now me and my brother feed/bed/scrape put it this way we do everything have for the past 2 years. My father has had I guess you could call a rough life battling addiction and had a run in with the law 2 years ago. leaving the cows to my 83 at the time grandfather. So me and my brother stepped up and kind of handle everything I managed were we planted what we sprayed what alfalfa fields where coming in and out and the cattle. If your wondering about school both me and my brother did online at the time for the main fact we enjoyed helping out on the farm part-time but when the whole deal with my dad happened it just led us to spending all of are free time dealing with the cattle and the crops.
I was coming to ask advice mainly on custom feeding because I understand that are real problem is we do not bring in enough money for the amount of people on the farm at least I feel.. We farm a bit over 1000 acres just about half cash crop and the rest alfalfa we sell to a dairy. Both seem to make good money. Ive run the numbers on both and they work out just fine. We have tried to find custom work that we can do with are Spfh but there's no dairys left that were around are size.
On my grandpa I feel half the reason he has not given up the farm is because both sons did not show any interest in i. Which kind ticks me off because that's all I want to do. My dad has had a horrible time with addiction but there is a reason for that involving my great uncle passing in a silo accident and him finding him at a young age. My uncle hasn't been back to the farm since he left for college but came back for about a year after he had lost his job. I feel it was really hard on the farm because there were 2 people getting paid a livable wage. If you get what im trying to say here is my grandfather has noticed that both sons just want the land and the farm so they can cash out on it. I have thought about asking him and grandma if we could have a talk about the future of the farm. There is hope to this all tho because my father got sober and kinda seems to show interest in the farm along with my uncle that said he really enjoyed working on the farm and would stay but he understands that we cannot support another person.
I feel I have a decent head on my shoulders for my age and did a lot of growing up fast. Sorry for the trauma dump but its kind nice to get some of this stuff off my shoulders. Really haven't talked to very many people about this are whole situation and just how stressed out I am. To be honest I feel its made me a better man and showed me who I want to become and who Im not gonna become. Again sorry for leaving a huge pice of the puzzle out just never planned on telling This much of are story
Last thing! About the dairy cows leaving it was do to a money issues. Grandpa felt it was the only way to save the farm. I was to young to fully understand what was going on but I know it was stressful for everyone. Before any of you start going on about how a dairy can operate at any size its just the management that runs it into the ground. Please stfu! If its that easy then why have the avg amount of dairy farms gone down by 60% or more.
Thank you to the guys that weren't just smartasses. Im being 100% seriously on these question Im asking. Im not looking to get told the only reason we are failing is because we chose AngusxHolstien cross and since we dairy farmed we can't raise beef cattle. Truly thank you to all that gave me real advice on what we could possibly do. I hope and pray to be in this business for the long run but if we can't make something work out before this upcoming summer Im going to look at possibly working for a different farm or trades hopefully farming tho cause that's what I wanna do! Hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and have a great rest of your night! Feel free to ask anymore question. | |
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Cant make Beef cattle work for us!
