Farming has changed

BIG RUH · Sep 30, 2014

I was looking at my FFA corn work book last night. Price of seed corn, Pioneer 3369A, $33 a bushel. Gas 20 cents a gallon, Everything was cultivated, no herbicides, anhydrous was just becoming popular to use, but I didn't. Fertilizer cost $45 a ton. Cost of average size new tractor, &7,000. Farm ground was selling for $1,000 - 1,500 an acre Sold corn that year for $1.07 a bushel.
Now, seed corn $240 for 40 pound bag,diesel fuel $3.89 a gallon, Cost of Herbicides and anhydrous, fertilizer $800 a ton. Cost of a new tractor $150,000+ Farm ground 5K-7K an acre. Price of corn, $2.63 a bushel.
Really shows how much more efficient the farmers are now compared to then

LAA · Sep 30, 2014

Technology has improved most major crop yields form 3 to 5 fold in my lifetime but that does not mean that todays farmers are really more efficient than their predecessors, they just have more tools to work with. When it comes to making a living on the farm there were a lot more diversified farms back then, all the eggs in one basket has never been a long term winning strategy and still isn't.

Mike M · Sep 30, 2014

I think Ohio State did a study that showed the Amish are making just as much as the BTO ?
They do have a MUCH lower operating cost.

dmiller · Sep 30, 2014

This would be great information to share with my students when talking about time value of money. What year were the earlier numbers from?

BIG RUH · Sep 30, 2014

This is from the school year 1969-70

rrlund · Sep 30, 2014

And still somehow it seems like I'm better off now than I was 40 years ago.

oldtanker · Sep 30, 2014

(quoted from post at 08:46:59 09/30/14) This is from the school year 1969-70

You failed to factor in just how much more ground was being farmed back then and the government buying up the great surpluses to keep farm commodity prices up. Didn't matter how much farmers over produced the prices stayed up. Today overproduction reflects in the amount the farmer receives.

Rick

Dick2 · Sep 30, 2014

Or maybe you just got used to it?

Alan K · Sep 30, 2014

I was thinking about that the other day. Years ago everyone was on 38" or 40" rows, then 36", then down to 30" and even lower, plus now days planting almost triple the amount of seed per acre. And the seed companies want you to plant more so you gain more. Maybe if a farmer ends up with less selling the grain the seed companies should take less too.

Lazy WP · Sep 30, 2014

You ever priced a good team? Or the feed it takes? I seriously doubt that they have a whole lot less in operating costs.

tractorguy2 · Sep 30, 2014

I think the farms were as efficient as they could be back in the 70's. I'm pretty sure they were more self efficient back then they are now.

Grandpa had alfalfa, corn, milo, wheat and sometimes oats. The corn was listed with a four row lister and the milo was planted with a four row JD 490A planter.

Plus he had cows,pigs, and chickens. he sold the eggs to the local grocery store.
The freezer was all ways full of meat and had eggs every morning.

When the tractor broke down. he didn't call a truck. he pushed it in the barn and repaired it himself.More than once we had his Farmall M tore all to pieces in that dirt floor barn with no heat. Same with his truck when it broke down a 1948 chevy.

A lot of repairs were made to the equipment with number 9 wire.
The only time new equipment was purchased was when we could no longer put patches on the old stuff.Not because it was out dated or a few years old.

Corn that was fed to the chickens was picked on the ear and ground in the david bradley hammer mill. grandpa thought leaving the ear lay on the ground was a waste when the chickens would eat it.

Goose · Sep 30, 2014

I picked up a current issue of "Successful Farming" in the waiting room at the VA this morning while I was in for my annual physical.

I was amused to find a two page article extolling the virtues of rotating crops to control weeds and insects, like some great scientists had just figured it out.

We did that when I was a kid 70 years ago, 'cause no one had heard of chemicals, let alone drench their crops in them. And the article portrayed it as a great new discovery.

Mike M · Sep 30, 2014

They can easily make more horses and feed them on pasture most of the year.

Spook · Sep 30, 2014

Seems like the real BTO's around here have other income sources. Trucking, trailer parks, rental housing, storage parks, construction related companies. Some have apartment complexes and retail developments. Big money makes big money.

dmiller · Sep 30, 2014

Thanks.

2 Old 2 care · Sep 30, 2014

Back then, we worked from 4:30AM until way after dark, 7 days a week, 365 days a year. There were no vacations. Dad had a 25 year old broken down pick up. Mom worked at the local high school in the cafeteria. When she got home, she cooked and then worked on the farm's books. The kids worked like rented mules. We wore clothes until they almost fell off of us. We lived in a 100 year old house that the wind blew through like it was made of Swiss cheese. I had to pack fire wood for heat starting about the time I started to school. Forget all about air conditioning.... Several of my aunts and uncles died in their 50's. We never had much, but we thought we were lucky. I guess in some ways we were.

Now days, we work a lot of hours in the spring and fall, not so many in the winter, and stay busy during the summer. My wife and I get to do a good deal of traveling in the off season. I drive a fairly new truck. Our kids went to private schools. They had nice clothes. I'm 67 and healthy as a horse, still hoping to work another 10 or 15 years. My wife stayed home and raised our kids. Now that they're grown, she went back to school and got a degree. I already have mine. We live in a nice house that's barely 7 years old.

Now...Y'all wanna tell me again just how good we had it back then? I know...I know...We all walked to school, 10 miles each way, in knee deep snow, uphill both ways....Wasn't it WONDERFUL.

I'll take farming 2014 style ANY DAY. Y'all can have the nostalgia trip back into the old days.

tractorguy2 · Sep 30, 2014

I don't we ever had to work that much back then. Still have the same pickup today. A 1967 ford.

DaninKansas · Sep 30, 2014

Just as much per acre? I could see that - actually they should be makign more per acre.

I make a huge profit off my little 40 acres of hay. But if I had to put up enough hay to make a living the best thing I could do is quit while I was ahead. To put up enough to make a living - or part of a living - I'd need new tractors, balers and swathers. And it wouldn't hurt to have a good pickup and trailer so I could move the hay too. All those expenses lower my per acre profit while raising my overall income.

Animal · Sep 30, 2014

I am with you, I remember the good old days, what and I don't want any more of them, but you forgot the comfort of the old Out house!

Northvale - PA · Sep 30, 2014

as Henry Ford figured it, the horses and farm hands actually needed half what was produced back then. Fertilizer and fossil fuel changed that equation of course. It would be very hard to go back.

BIG RUH · Sep 30, 2014

oldtanker, all I was doing was comparing then and
now, not doing a Sheldon Cooper analysis. You seem
to be the only one not understanding this. If you
want to over analyse, by all means do so Doctor
Cooper.

ShadetreeRet · Sep 30, 2014

How does bushels per acre compare, then and now? Just curious.

BIG RUH · Oct 1, 2014

Shadetreeret, I got 135 BPA that year, but that was ear corn as I had livestock work book projects and fed the corn. Also corn was planted at 38" rows, Dad's equipment. I fertilized heavy and got the rain when needed. Can't say for sure as there is a BTO farming that farm now. Dad sold the farm in the 70s when soy beans were $13- $14 a bushel. I think it now produces 150 - 200 BPA .

2 Old 2 care · Oct 1, 2014

He called him Sheldon Cooper! That's funny stuff right there!!!!

2 Old 2 care · Oct 1, 2014

This past spring, we planted dads original farm IN TWO DAYS. It used to take us weeks, and we only planted part of it then. It was dusty dirty work then. I sit in a nice clean quiet comfortable cab most of the time now days. This years crops are well over 10 times the acres we planted back then.

Granted this has been an exceptional crop year, but our yields are well over double what they were 40 or 50 years ago.

I'm as much of a nostalgic old fool as the next guy, but I wouldn't go back in time for all the tea in China.

oldtanker · Oct 1, 2014

(quoted from post at 19:15:55 09/30/14) oldtanker, all I was doing was comparing then and
now, not doing a Sheldon Cooper analysis. You seem
to be the only one not understanding this. If you
want to over analyse, by all means do so Doctor
Cooper.

Big Duh

I said that prices then and now are very different because then the government supported prices by buying up the surplus and it was in the 100's of millions of tons a year of farm over production. Today the farmer has to sink or swim without those price supports. So comparing then and now prices of what a farmer got paid is not an apples to apples comparison. When the average grower is chasing last years prices you are going to get overproduction. Without the government buying the surplus farm commodity prices are going to directly reflect supply and demand.

They were getting as much as 200 BPA (records at the time) in the corn belt in the early 70's. Record dairy hers were bumping 100 LBS per day herds too. Where farming has become much more productive is that one man can farm much more than he could back then. One guy farming without help 1000-1500 acres isn't unheard of.

You really should try reading comprehension. It works so much better than trying to insult someone who may not agree with every thing you said or questions your thinking.

Rick

Farming has changed

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Member

Member

Member

Well-known Member

Similar threads