CO, NE | 4430deere - 3/9/2014 18:05
What gets me is the people in rural areas that complain about the depopulation of the rural areas and small towns. These are the same people that never spend a dollar in their local community, but rather drive 70 miles to a big city every week to buy their goods.
As well, these are some of the same people that are farming thousands of acres, and then when an acreage of 20 acres with a house and yard come up that someone like me would like to buy, they bid far more than it is worth and the first thing they do is push in the yard and plant crops though it.
How they do things like that and then expect the rural areas to survive is beyond me.
That aspect is not as bad where I'm from. It's more of an issue of kids moving away and getting jobs like I did and not coming back to farm. There isn't a lot that isn't agricultural related. Most land around there isn't sold in tracts less than a quarter section, and is often part of a group of parcels. That's to be expected out this way though.
Most people are good about spending money in town. There's a really good parts store that understands their customers and carries what they need. The hardware store is pretty good. The grocery store is good, I know the people that run that. Co-op is a pain to deal with, but there aren't a lot of options.
For a smallish town that has done a good job of attracting industry, check out Columbus, NE. Lots of manufacturing there getting for skilled workers. It wouldn't be hard to work a job in town and farm at other times (outside of planting season). But that's corn and soybean country and seems to have benefited well from the higher prices. Good ground in the area for sure. |
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