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| You think that corporate job is bad, you could have been drafted for Nam and be paid 90 bucks a month for doing engineering work like I was. The draftee is expected to be available 24/7 for guard duty, and 16 hour shifts of KP in those days. That army hitch probably cost me $50k in income (1967-9) and a million since then from my bad attitude about being told what to do. My active duty attitude wasn't quite as bad as the dentists and medical doctors that had been drafted though. It cost them a whole lot more though as commissioned officers they had better living conditions, pay, and working conditions.
On the farm you can be with your honey daily, and can participate driving, running after parts, supplying food to the crew in the field, watching the markets and get more involved as you learn how to run machinery. You'll not be long in running tractors hauling grain and you will probably treat the machinery a little better than average but you will have to study up on the shop manuals to learn how to fix what you will break. But while honey is fixing you can get tools and parts from the bench and speed up those repairs, once you learn all about those tools and parts. Then if honey is as bad as most of us about putting tools away, you can do that to speed up the next project. You have much learning in front of you, but you will and you will love that. You are forming a partnership and you can actively participate, not just cheer from the sidelines.
As for marketing there are many opinions. Subscribe to services that offer advice, and farm newspapers. Active farmers get on mailing lists of magazines that offer marketing advice. Check out the Big Show on line from 11:30 to 1 on WHO radio's web page. Market to market has good opinions at times. There is much information, some even is good. News that affects markets is always good. I'm getting interesting information from Iowa Farmer Today's daily mailing and weekly newspaper and from the Iowa Farm Bureau Spokesman. Though printed information can be a few days late. Fundamentally, you need to know your break even price and the cost of drying and storage. You watch for market prices that exceed your break even price by the profit level you want, and most gurus suggest you sell in 10% increments about monthly. Don't try to catch a peak, you can't know its a peak until its passed. Catch adequate profit and run with that. And don't market once a day, watch the markets as often as you can when the market is up, because it will often open up, rise for an hour and then fall. Catching most of that morning rise can spell profit that day.
Gerald J. | |
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A Perspective on Farming vs. a Corporate Job
