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NW KS/ SC ID | The happiest people I know in ag usually have a few things in common, and it usually involves keeping debt minimal, keeping a few cows around, BBQing home raised beef, only landlords are usually relation or good friends, and helping their friends and family out, but only if its appreciated and reciprocated. And they drive something where a scratch in the paint isnt going to ruin their day.
The least happy seem to be trying to whittle their expenses lower than their competition so they can make less money per acre so they can farm more acres, and they rent from a bunch of greedy people that encourage said behavior so they can buy a new pickup to flex on other miserable greedy old people at whatever snooty gathering place they congregate, to make them less content with their renter, then the guy that just overpaid to keep his overbearing landlord happy is approached to rent more ground for the same rate by the jealous people that were flexed on by the overbearing landlord and it dogpiles from there.
The advice to surround yourself with like minded people in your circle is solid advice, and people need to shed greedy Godless people from their circle, lest they become one themselves. I shed one of those people in the last year and I have to say im alot happier. he's more miserable than ever.
The more I realize my net worth should be focused on what friends and family think of me and not what the IRS thinks of me, the happier I am.
Not to go off the rails on a conspiracy, but notice how govt funded ag colleges and big mega ag suppliers encourage the behavior to get big and run over your neighbors? Getting big helps them more than it helps Joe Farmer and Farmtown USA. If you are spending too much of your time doing work to send money to a stockholder driven company, or lease equipment from, to do the work for, a "nutrient" supplier that funds drag queen story hour with their profits, are you going to be happy with yourself?
I keep our little ultra small custom harvesting business going in Idaho after losing dad, because its not really about the money, its about the people. The one 70+ year old customer frustrates me to no end due to his ground conditions and location that brings on wildlife pressure, and creates more wildlife pressure when he turns cows into the field my combine is parked in, but at the end of the day its probably the most beautiful place to pull a combine into, and hes a nice guy, so Ill keep digging rocks out of a cornhead and fighting mud in a snowy cornfield in December for him.
I keep the tiny used machinery business going, because the thrill of outwitting the DOT by trucking across Nevada at 3AM while helping keep older used inventory flowing for a single store dealership that is 4th generation owned and operated by the same family that started it in 1948, whilst en route sleeping on the front seat of a 1995 pickup with 463,000 on the clock (that im excited to hit 500K with!) so I can take hotel money and blow it on a 35 dollar pizza from a single store family pizzeria in California, or 35 dollars for a lamb meal at a Basque establishment in Nevada that has been at it for longer than my parents have been alive, beats the hell out of grabbing $5 bucks worth of slop from McD's so I can go work my ass off to stay in a 50K miled pickup that depreciates every time I turn the key.
I keep the tiny salvage yard business going because Its nice bringing a tear to a 80 year old man's eye when you hit the key to bring the freshly swapped 426 Allis to life (with a friend and neighbor of his providing the loader tractor to do the swap) to breathe life back into the machine for 1/6 the cost of the bill the dealership quoted (that he couldnt justify spending when hiring it done would be cheaper at that point) on his 1976 Gleaner L (the only combine he bought new) that carried him through the 80s, will now carry him till he cuts his last crop (which it did, Fred's been gone 5 years now).
I keep the tiny dryland patch of farm ground in KS going because when you need to unwind, slicing weeds is a decent way to do it, even if the air conditioner is broken. lol
Do what makes you happy, if it makes money, thats icing on the cake. My late father would usually part phone conversations with many of his friends "Have fun, make money" I elaborate on that, Doing both is the goal, doing neither is madness, but if you could only pick one, choose fun.
Don't get wrapped up in killing yourself to make someone else rich, Sometimes we all need to pull back the reigns and see what we can adjust to improve quality of life, and hopefully at the same time keep profits the same, or if we are lucky, increase them too.
Work for yourself and your circle, not Deere and Co, Pioneer, or Monsanto.
Edited by GM Guy 6/8/2023 10:29
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Unhappiness in farming posts?
