SC Wisconsin | grainbinder - 1/23/2015 22:52
Yes most of the talk is from the corn/bean guys. All of the talk about the 80's "farm crisis" is coming from those areas. I'm in Wisconsin and from dairy farm and to my knowledge there was no crisis here with farmers losing their farms.
I read the first part of your comment and scratched my head - because I also grew up in SW WI and I distinctly remember a cricis. I was only 8-10 years old at the time, but I can still remember hearing about a couple neighbors hanging themselves, lots of farm auctions and sales, etc. But the last part of your response about this land not being IA are spot on and challenged my view of the time. The guys I remember going belly up either started farming like it was Iowa, with four wheel drives, etc. Or they sunk a lot of money into new dairy setups. We bought one of those dairies - roughly 400 acres, the dad had built a new milking parlor for the son, harvestore, all the bells and whistles. It took them both down.
As a general rule, the guys who stayed diversified with existing setups in dairy and stuck with the traditional strip cropped corn/oats/alfalfa rotations made it though. Good luck finding those guys today though. It's all corn and beans and livestock is too much work.
Edited by gmoney 1/27/2015 11:25
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Talked to a banker.....
