I did not have much land or cash when I started.  Raising hogs made use of what I did have: management ability, time and energy, and physical capabilities to do what most people can't (or more accurately, won't).  It is a tough, grueling job when it is done on a shoestring budget.  It is also mentally demanding if you are wearing all or most of the hats involved. 

Time has a different meaning to a livestock farmer, especially to those of us wearing most of the hats involved.  From my perspective, the difference between a $10.00 hair cut and a $1000.00 hair cut is the $1000.00 hair cut requires an appointment.  One makes a living in this business by getting things done when they need to be done.  The reward is a day's pay.  The penalty for not doing so is often ten day's pay.  The rest of the world wants to pin me down with appointments for everything under the sun.  If you've got enough livestock to make a living and are doing most of the work, something urgent will likely come up at the last minute regardless of when the appointment is.  I've still got time to do the things off the farm, but I need the flexibility to do these things as time allows rather than whenever it happens to work for someone else.  It gets real old when the rest of the world keeps expecting me to throw $1000.00 out the window for relatively trivial reasons.  Even many of those still in the business who are no longer wearing all the hats by themselves quickly forget what it is like to be on call at all times.

It's a matter of making choices and dealing with the results.  I could have invested in bigger and better facilities, and have someone else do all the work.  Years like 2009 (and the government constantly changing the rules) are the reason why I did not go that route.  The swings in the hog business are much more unforgiving than the corn and soybean markets have been.  I sleep a lot easier doing most of my own work on a smaller scale with little invested.  2009 was not a difficult financial year for me, but I won't make the really big bucks like some of the others next year if it turns around. 

Ultimately, it will be the government with it's overbearing regulations that will drive me out of the livestock business.  They are killing small guys like me with paperwork and expect me to drop whatever I am doing to report to them at their convience.  Little by little, the government is making rules that have little to do with the realities on the ground and more to do with political agendas.  They are taking over the management of my business.  They are, in effect, steeling my farm, running it into the ground, and leaving me to pay the price for their arrogance.  That is the most dissapointing thing about the livestock business.  The lefties in government will have land owners in their firmly crosshairs as well before this is over.

I did not have much cash or land when I started in the 80's, just my own time, some management capability, and physical durability.

Today, I have a little land (it is very tightly held in families in this area), a little cash, still some freedom for the pursuit of happiness, still some physical durability, and a few functioning brain cells.  I have had many blessings.  Life has been good, but this country is headed in the wrong direction.  I fear the next generations will never have or know what we had.