sparkiefarmer - 6/6/2023 05:05

A little late here but had a couple days off from Ag Talk.

My unhappiness stems from EVERYTHING being a fight.

Moving machinery is a constant battle, local traffic has increased by a factor of 8 in the last 5 years according to traffic studies.

Somethings broke, if i dont have the part number I have to do mental acrobatics to get it ordered then pray they actually put the order in.

Getting people to do anything is a fight. Allis blew up before seeding, one shop had the cylinder head for 3 weeks before they decided they didnt have the tooling to fix it; AND sent me a bill for $200 for their hard work.

My newest tractor had a glitch and d-rated during that nice stretch in april. Took dealer 4 days to get someone out, and when i called on day 3 to inquire about when they'd come they were all surprised I didnt have it fixed myself, which took some self control to keep my "nice" voice on.

GPS stuff seems to have glitches and screw up as much as it works.

Half the landowners complain every time I see them. Some are annoyed I have a new to me (2015) pickup, other get annoyed if a 50 year old tractor shows up in their field.

Feels like the general public is anti farmer.

Wife wants me with the kids more.

Then there's the classic father son dynamic where all the bad is directly my management's fault but all the good is a fluke of nature and just good luck.

Maintaining our landbase gets me down the most. I can see what's on the horizon and a course change is in order before we find this operation caught in a malestrom. Neighbours farm changed tennants and is rented for $500 an acre this year.

Lots of farms within a few miles of me have changed tennants, but either Im a garbage farmer, person, or dont go to the right church.

Watching the competion roll around in new iron as I pound over the acres in my 8760 and mx110 makes me wonder what Im doing wrong.

Would be nice to have a couple days where I dont have to argue with anyone or explain anything to anyone. (Never guessed as a kid/teen how much time I'd be forced to spend basically teaching)

So thats my long winded and whiney list of aggrevations. Im sure theres more but that catches the main points.