Anyone else noticing that people don't work together as much

JD Seller · Oct 26, 2014

What I am meaning is doing projects together. Like the cabin Larry posted about in his earlier post. A group of guys banding together to buy/build a hunting cabin.

This used to extend to equipment in many families. I can remember my Great Uncle owned the square baler an my Grand Dad owned the tractor and wagons. They baled all the hay together.

Another Great Uncle owned a two row corn picker and traded out picking all of the families corn.

My sons and I own several of the large pieces of equipment together. The one combine is a good example. We all own it equally. We split the repairs into a percentage of use. We just keep track of all the repair cost for each year. Then we add up the total acres used. We then come up with a repair cost per acre and each pays for his acres of use.

I just don't see families working that way much anymore. I think that makes it easier for families to fall out. If you work together your less likely to not work out any issues that come along. It is easier to walk away.

Billy NY · Oct 26, 2014

I think its become a way of life, for whatever reason, its not as common as it may have been.

One of the things that stood out to me years ago, was when our old barn and house (no excuse, but worked out of town) became a problem. Neighbor ignited the situation with the town, instead of first, coming to us to discuss it like you should with any problem or concern, I did not disagree about the situation, but it could have easily been resolved and avoided the fiasco with the town whom we beat in court fair and square.

Common sense would tell you, go and talk with the people, if after that you determine its untenable, ok.... take it to the next level, same people broke in, stole things, they also dumped all their garbage in an old van body truck, so I classify that kind a face value, people seem to like to be jerks.

I enjoy meeting people when I buy things from ads on CL, been pleasant so far for many years. Same mentality, talk with people, make a fair deal on something, and leave with a smile. I also keep in contact with neighbors about things regarding the land, etc. so it does not become like the above. We live in a dis-associative society it seems, and it shows.

With equipment as you have mentioned, some just can't come to an agreement, like what you describe, seems they all bought into it at one point in time, and its worked all these years. It would seem cost effective in some situations.

People and the complexities of the human race, don't think I'll ever understand the "cut throat" mentality when it comes to important matters.

37chief · Oct 26, 2014

I can remember the whole farming community would come together to harvest beans. One family owned the equipment. they would move the equipment from field to field until all the beans were in. There were probably 10 to 12 men involved. Now it can be done with a whole lot less. As farming begin to quit here, families starting to drift apart, dying, or moving away. That is what happened in my part of California. About the only time the community gets together anymore is to clean the grave yard every year. Stan

Don-Wi · Oct 26, 2014

Around here, families fight, neighgbors don't help or maintain much if borrowing, and it's become better to be self sufficient. This year we picked up 2 more chopper boxes and a pull behind sprayer as the neighbor we tried to work with from time to time just wasn't doing anything to help himself, so we more or less cut most ties.

Donovan from Wisconsin

rustred · Oct 26, 2014

so true, now they are fighting with each other to see who can own the most land and make enemies. just greed has taken over.

The Dukester · Oct 26, 2014

Well, maybe it's because in our formative years we are more than ever introduced to competition in virtually all walks in our growing up life. In schools for instance, there are continual contests in acedemics and sports...and winners, individuals and teams, are applauded and rewarded, while losers often looked down upon, castigated, belittled, repremanded, bullied, and even sometimes physically punished. At home, especially if there are several children in your family (God forbid), you are in competition for virtually everything, especially now that most parents don't think they have time for you because they're so busy working to get more stuff than their neighbors and other associates have. All our leaders are placed in their positions after having won competitive elections. Now that farmers don't get together to harvest crops like they used to that association is lost. Aw, I'm sure there's more....Sure we're independent if we can be. Only place where there's equality is maybe church or lodge....and nobody except losers go to those places anymore...,.
Bottom line is you sure as heck don't wanna help someone get ahead of you, that's just dumb.....
Sounds awful doesn't it....well, think about it......

Traditional Farmer · Oct 26, 2014

People these days want more things than they use to it seems,plus equipment and systems these days are geared for one person to do it all.Most people in business farming or otherwise now are under more pressure than they used to be because the cost of doing business has skyrocketed.

Bryce Frazier · Oct 26, 2014

Well, they do work together, but in most cases, they are working together to sue another part of the family!! : Bryce

TWheat · Oct 26, 2014

"Only place where there's equality is maybe church or lodge....and nobody except losers go to those places anymore...,."
Really!!And how do you know that??

Fergienewbee · Oct 26, 2014

It's worse than that. My folks had friends for 40 years or more. Family reunions were common and as a kid I attended many shivarees for older cousins. I don't keep in contact with any of my high school friends. Families are not as close either. I have a sister that lives 30 miles away and I have been to her house once in the last 30-plus years. She's never been to mine. We settled my dad's estate six months ago and I haven't heard from her since. Maybe I'll get a Christmas card--maybe not. My wife's family still help each other: building a house, moving, etc. but even they are not as close as they once were.

Larry

NY 986 · Oct 26, 2014

Nobody works with their neighbor anymore with maybe one or two exceptions that I know of. It's gotten bad to the point that if you hire custom work you don't know if you are going to be put off till bad weather hits in an effort to force a competitor out of business. I would hate to guess the number of farmers that would like to see me fold so they can pick the family farm here. Even as a kid I would never have described the atmosphere as very hospitable but it has gotten substantially worse in the last ten years. I wonder what it will be like if we hit hard times such as they were in the 1980's.

bison · Oct 26, 2014

(quoted from post at 13:17:19 10/26/14) Around here, families fight, neighgbors don't help or maintain much if borrowing, and it's become better to be self sufficient. This year we picked up 2 more chopper boxes and a pull behind sprayer as the neighbor we tried to work with from time to time just wasn't doing anything to help himself, so we more or less cut most ties.

Donovan from Wisconsin

retty much the same where i Iive.
If i can't find a way to do things by myseIf i may as we quit farming.
I haven't got a singe neighbor Ieft that is wiIIing to give a hand.
And the kids Iive to far away to be of any heIp

Donald Lehman · Oct 26, 2014

My father and the neighbors used to work that way. Next door neighbor owned the forage blower, Pop owned the forage harvester, a couple of wagons and a wagon jack, Couple of others had dump trucks and extra tractors, couple more supplied labor. They all worked together to chop corn. Early to mid 1950's. By the early 1960's about everyone was expanding their herds and had their own equipment.

We are seeing some of the teamwork coming back into vogue again. My neighbor is one of several sons and his fahter and brothers are working several different farms and all of the machinery is shared. Just up the road a farmers son bought the adjoining farm and they share their equipment. Lotta small farmers are buying their forage from the bigger guys. Some of the bigger guys use the smaller farmers for labor so the small guys can reduce their feed bills at times. Which is working together after a fashion. The small guys reduce out-of-pocket feed bills and the big guy gets a decent worker.

On the other side of the coin, sometimes the personality clashes just aren't worth the hassle of working together.

Dick2 · Oct 26, 2014

After Dad passed away, I turned the farm over to my younger brother but still went to the farm and helped him whenever I could. Two of Dad's friends that he had helped often helped my brother get the farm work done for a couple years. After my brother retired, he works part time for his tenant and helps our nephew on his farm 60 miles away.

Brother was a good farmer and knew how to make and save money. The BTO's are envious of him because he spends the winter in AZ while they stay home and fret about making their payments.

There are not many farmers with livestock near mephew's farm, but livestock farmers help each other as they can't get any reliable help in that area.

Bob Bancroft · Oct 26, 2014

In my youth, my father, uncle and cousin(20 years my senior) all worked together. They tilled and planted separately(except when renting some land together) but had one baler, one bean thresher, and for a while, one combine. We would pull beans with two tractors. And run them over a little "shaker" to get some stones out with another. Then a tractor to pull the thresher. We picked corn with a team of two tractors(with winter fronts) on two, one row corn pickers. Baling together was a necessity as there were usually two people on the wagon.
I'm the only one left farming, and if our only grandson(whose mother won't allow him here) doesn't take over, it's over.

Nebraska Cowman · Oct 26, 2014

I think it's because we can. If I need a tool I don't have, rather than go borrow it from my neighbor I go buy one of my own. When all the people that farmed the land had was their labor they were more willing to trade.

Spook · Oct 26, 2014

Our society has become a zero sum game. A few superstars make the big bucks in many professions, and everybody else scrapes by. I see guys on here advocating some form of Darwinism, perhaps we should be careful of what we wish for?

Donald Lehman · Oct 26, 2014

Yup, back when I was in my late 20's-early 30's I had health problems that pretty much bankrupted me. "Friends" and neighbors circled like a bunch of stinkin' vultures, one of em even bragging about what he was gonna do with the place after I went belly up. Sold off a lot of acerage, but we are are still here and farming. The one who was bragging about what he was gonna do with my land never got an acre of it either!

2underage · Oct 26, 2014

I am not so sure it as bad here. I can get help from other farmers if and when I need it. There is one big farmer nearby who loans me equipment and sometimes borrows some and there is no need for talk about pay.

Also I am not so sure it ever was really as easy to get along with your neighboring farmers as some seem to remember. I am in my 80's and I can remember that there was always some farmer out to show his neighbors that his farm was the best and that he was by far the better farmer.

I believe it all began to change after the big war[www 2] and when into a decline from there on and continues to this day. During that war there was a great deal of cooperation in many different occupations and the shortage of new equipment meant that sharing with your neighboring farmers was the patriotic thing to do. And because many of the workers were in the army, sharing the work was also agood friendly way to help your country.

BAnNC · Oct 26, 2014

Neighbors around here would come and hand milk when my folks needed to be away. They would give you the shirt off their back even if it were old and patched. IF YOU NEEDED IT!

Hay hay hay · Oct 26, 2014

Well I am the naive city guy that retired to my dream farm 15 years ago. I have great neighbors, real full time farmers that are the best folks and neighbors a fellow could ask for. I will never know as much about farming as each of them has already forgot, but they will do anything to help me. Whether it is fixing a machine, understanding how to make a repair or going to look at a piece of used equipment I want to buy. These are fine folks and great individuals and I greatly value their friendship. I only hope that somehow and someday I can repay them for all their help and support.

oldtanker · Oct 26, 2014

I think a lot of the none help today in my area has to do with almost all the farmers are bigger. Most have hired help and they either don't need the help of they don't really have time. One guy here goes solo and sometimes is on a tractor 18 hours a day to get his crops in. He really doesn't have time to help others.

The sharing equipment also died when the small farmers died. Who with a thousand acres or so has time to wait for a combine when the other guy is combining a thousand acres.

Rick

The Dukester · Oct 26, 2014

Sorry, I was being needlessly cynical I guess. It's just so discouraging to see our attendance becoming lower and lower in church, just like it has for years in the local Masonic Lodges.Whatever I was way out of line using the term "losers" and I apologize.

JD Seller · Oct 26, 2014

Dukester: The numbers in church and many other civic organizations is dropping because people have much less time to pursue those type of things. With both man and wife working day jobs it take them both working at home after that to make things work. Also with the cost of benefits many jobs have mandatory over time rather than hiring another worked. All this adds up to less time for outside interests.

Bret4207 · Oct 27, 2014

Part of the problem with helping or getting help or equipment is that someone is always last in line or is the one getting the equipment after it's been broken and the repair either wasn't done or wasn't done right or he showed up to the 4 farms ahead of him but only half the crew shows up to his farm. It's trying to schedule the weekend guys around the full time guys.And then there are the personalities. I have neighbors that I'd love to help if they'd help me, but the drama that goes with one of them is terrible and the other has a work schedule that's insane to work around. Plus the drama queen can't fix anything or operate a shovel without someone babysitting him, much less a baler.

So we tend to go it alone and help from time to time. It's just the way it is. Plus, equipment is relatively cheap and far more avaialble than it was during and after WW2. The old days are sort of gone I suppose. And yeah, our society breeds more isolation, that's a fact. No one has time for the Lodge or the Rotary or Elks, no one puts their kids in 4H because there's so much school stuff to do. Plus, people are working more than ever hour-wise the studies say. It's a lot less stressful and expensive to turn on the TV than go to 4H or Scouts. And church?! The national campaign of driving faith out of our lives has reached an all time high. You are a freak if you actually attend church anymore ir think of anything beyond the moment. Pretty sad.

JML755 · Oct 27, 2014

I'm a pretty handy guy and always willing to help a neighbor/relative. But I'm loathe to ask for any help myself. I'll try to do a job myself until I can't figure any other way to do it alone. Usually my wife gets called on to help and if she's not around, then I'll go to a neighbor. This is for the quick "can you give me a hand" jobs that take 5 minutes or less. I've never asked for any help on a bigger project (addition, roof, basement remodel, major vehicle repair). I guess I just don't want to be "beholden" to anyone, like I owe them something in return and I also don't want to burden anyone since I know their time is precious to them.

Times are just different. When I was dating my wife and saw my future FIL working on a car, I'd jump right in, hand him wrenches, just stand around in case he needed help. Daughter's boyfriend will sit on the couch watching TV on his laptop while I work on a car or did a bathroom remodel, never once ask if I need a hand. Don't think less of him for that, though. Don't think he helps HIS dad much either.

mkirsch · Oct 27, 2014

The "good old days" weren't as good as you remember.

You only borrowed/shared equipment because you HAD to. And, you felt GUILTY about it. You felt POOR. You felt like a FAILURE.

The end goal has always been to build your place up enough so that you could own your own equipment and not have to be beholden to the neighbor.

W_B · Oct 28, 2014

We worked that way back in the day (late 60s / early 70s). We just farmed part time, a neighbor was full time and there were some guys my Dad and his farming partner worked with that had some equipment and did a few acres. We all pitched in to do things like baling hay and harvesting. We used the neighbor's barn that he rented to keep some feeders. We fed his steers along with ours and we all hauled manure. When we got finished up with combining corn or beans we moved into his fields to help out. Having more labor than he did we baled and stacked a lot of his hay along with ours. We used his baler and wagons when needed. The other guys would lend us their new Ford 7000 tractors and plows when we were behind on that. Didn't think that it should be any other way, no one kept track of who worked what hours on anything or what equipment was used. As long as the job got done.

Anyone else noticing that people don't work together as much

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