dpilot83 - 10/28/2018 08:15



No. It's not what I'm doing.

It may be a business I enjoy (at least sometimes) but it is a business to me, not a hobby. If it doesn't make money and I can't see a way to make it long enough until the next time I can make money, I'm sorry, I'm out.

That mentality drives my decisions. It tells me to plant corn when historically this area grew wheat. It tells me to harvest my own crops when historically we hired it done. It tells me to store my grain when historically we took it to town. It tells me to buy tools instead of hire my mechanic work done. It tells me to use those tools in a 60 year old Quonset instead of a new insulated shop. It tells me to work all day most every day whereas if I had a job in town I would take weekends and holidays off.

I struggle to be a low cost producer to increase the odds that I can weather the low yielding or low price years (I don't believe we have experienced the low price years yet by the way).

If I get to a point where I don't see a chance to turn a profit on rented ground, I'm out. My business puts food on the table for my family. I don't love the "hobby" enough to keep doing it unsuccessfully.