What a person enjoys in farming can have something to do with how long they have been doing it.

I'm now planting my 37th crop since started farming on my own......more if you count the years growing up helping dad. I planted about 4 or 5 rounds with the planter so far this year and unless I need to run it on a day that someone needs off to attend a kids school function or something like that, it will probably be all I actually run the planter. Planting is boring for me any more as is most of the other tillage operations. I do still like to harvest some but not the long hours I used to. I have been round and round with those tractors a number of times that seems equal to the national debt. After fewer hours each year it causes my body to ache from the back surgeries I have had and the arthritis in my joints. That doesn't mean I still don't love farming. Heck when I am on vacation scuba diving or riding motorcycles I still eat, sleep and breathe farming. Rarely a waking hour goes by that I don't think of something contemplating farming. I take farm magazines with me and get on the internet and talk to you guys when I am out of the country.

My enjoyment now comes from playing the game. I can make more money contemplating doing the right thing, making the right moves and decisions, than I ever could driving a tractor. There are younger guys out there like I once was that enjoy driving the machinery and I am happy to let them enjoy it. I've been there, done that, enjoyed it, moved on. The last year or so I have been studying this economy more than I ever have, trying to decide which direction it is heading. If I am able to stay just a little ahead on the direction it is heading, making the right decisions for this operation as situations unfold, it will make more difference in the bottom line than anything I could ever do on the tractor, because the younger guys can do the tractor thing. They have not learned to enjoy the bigger picture yet.

Heck I could plant corn in my sleep (I probably have a few times ). But this economy thing, this is the most exciting thing that has came along in a long time. There have been fortunes made and lost in the last couple years of farming and it is going to get even more interesting. THAT is what is exciting about farming for me right now.

What you enjoy about farming at 18 may not be the same thing you enjoy at 35 or 55 or even 75. Heck I enjoy picking up rocks with the four wheeler about as much as anything any more (imagine that). Gives me time to think and contemplate and get a little much needed exercise. Maybe BTO's are enjoying what they are doing (whatever a BTO is. I guess it is probably anything over 100 acres in New Hampshire and 50,000 acres in Brazil. Or maybe it is one acre more than I am farming, whatever).

I would not presume to know they are not enjoying what they are doing.

John