timis - 11/18/2024 23:23

Excellent question- I think for everyone the answer is a bit different. I began questioning the same thing this fall. Daughter went to 2 year ag program, out of a class of 30 ag kids, from farms, only my daughter and 1 other had ever driven a combine. So what’s the point - my wife jumped me about this during harvest. Our “harvest crew” is me and wife, occasionally dad. We’re just a small family farm. Each of our kids comes out and helps after school, doing little stuff. It’s easy to get caught up in “gotta get done” but if you’re not teaching the future or building relationships with the people you love is it just a business? Last night I came in from discing some corn stalks my daughter combined, her boyfriend ran grain cart (senior in HS, non farm kid) for the first time - told wife they did a really good job. They combined it on my birthday and I was basically regulated to watching - what an odd feeling, pride and yet feeling like your missing out.

So what is farming? Is it a business or a way of life? I think pre 2000’s it was a way of life, a family working together to teach a work ethic and skills that could be used in any line of work, now it has turned into a big money game - more business than family.