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Pierce county WI | Yeah, I would guess we're both a product of our environments. When I was growing up, there were very few full time grain farmers. And most of the well off farmers dairied. The guy I lease my semi on to had a trucking company and grain farmed. You just didn't raise only crops. When I graduated high school, I went to tech school for truck mechanics, and started wrenching and driving. I always liked semis. Then I decided I wanted to farm for myself. I guess I was probably 21. I would milk for friends on nights and weekends. I started raising crops, hay, and heifers. At 24, I quit trucks, and just dairied. I liked my cows, but it wasn't my only focus. I loved raising crops and working with machinery. I wasn't going to have enough land base to full time crop farm, but I could full time farm by dairy farming. I did a good job with my cows though. When there was fieldwork, I didn't abandon my help and just sit in a tractor. I helped get chores done and then they could help with fieldwork also. When I had the opportunity to continue to farm, and sell the cows at a high, I didn't think twice even. I still truck and do custom tiling, but I'm very happy without the cows. I'll say this though, I would love to make a good living on a small dairy herd, and get some time off, so my kids could grow up like that. But I'd never want to milk 19 times a week by myself again. Or go years without a morning off. That wouldn't be fair to my family either. I milked 3x, and had a part time guy would milk 2 times a week, and help out during fieldwork. Like I said, I miss chopping corn silage and filling silos, and being in the barn on cold winter nights. I can always go hang out at a friend's farm for milking or chopping, if I really miss it bad. I just milked to farm is right, I just love to farm! | |
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Really sad dairy article
