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Sheridan Mi | Twice. The first time was in the 80s. The advice I'll give you from that one, take it or leave it, find the enterprise that makes you the most money and concentrate on that. I was renting every inch of ground I could find. I was milking cows and growing corn and wheat for cash crops. It didn't take too many years to discover that the cows were paying for the cash crop habit. I sold the combine and the truck, gave up a lot of rented ground, kept the best and closest to home and just what I needed to feed the cattle. I improved the dairy facilities.
In 03, the boys had already decided that they didn't want to keep it up. I'd had a passion for Angus cattle since I was a kid, so I sold the dairy herd and got in to them. I run cow/calf and finish out all of my calves. I had found a good balance between acres and cattle and things were running along smooth. My aunt died and I had been renting that farm for 40 years. My brother had said all along that he was going to buy her place when she passed on, so I went ahead and seeded it to alfalfa in my regular rotation like I was going to still have it. One of the Mennonites wanted it more than my brother and I lost it.
The next year, another place, larger than my aunt's and closer to home got sold out from under me. I'd had that one for over 40 years too. My wife was all upset, afraid she'd have to go back to work. I told her not to worry about it, we'd get the cattle we had, fed out and then I could get my Social Security. I took that at full retirement age, sixty six and two months.
I had just seeded about half of that second lost farm too. I had a boat load of cattle in the feedlot and was short on feed. I had to get some other ground seeded to alfalfa and run some other seedlings out farther than I would have in my rotation. I sold about half of my cows off. When I got some of the calves fed out and some ground seeded, I needed to start to find a balance again. I picked up one small piece of ground, but only about two thirds the size of my aunt's place. I've built back up to two thirds of the cows I had before. I could still add a few more unless we get a drought.
I don't think I'm doing much less work than I did when I had more acres and more cows. Maybe a few less days of haying, a few less filling silo or picking corn, but doing chores, I don't think it takes any longer to feed more while I'm out there. All that said though, if the acres I lost were offered back to me this year so I could expand back to where I was, I wouldn't take it. With my SS, and cattle prices as high as they are, I'm better off than I've ever been, and hey, you have to cut back or quit at some point. Expanding again now would be a step backwards for me. | |
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Anyone downsize their farm operation? How did it go?
