farming in the 1970s?

any one farm, or rembember farming in the 1970s?
i was just a kid, but my parents and uncle farmed,
seemed like a good time in ag. good prices, before inflation took over
lots of farms, and farmers! lots of ag businesses,
local feed mills and equipment dealerships for a lot of companies,

seem like the early 70s a lot of machinery were sold new,
and barns, grain,and silos

any comments or stories from that era?
thanks

Early 70s was pretty good times.

Late 70s is when things got crazy, some world events led to a seesaw of economics and grain supplies that set up the world glut of grains that depressed farm prices into the 80s. USA tried to help farmers with policies that gave subsidies to producing more bu, so farmers responded and grew more and more grain into a market that wanted less grain so the problem got really bad, just as the general ecconomy got goofy and interest rates went to 14-18%. Banks faced collapse and so they carried the farmers that were too big and in too deep forgiving much of their loans, meanwhile they called in the loans of good farmers and foreclosed on them so the bank could recover their assets and use that to save the bank.

So, yes, early 70s was pretty good.

Mid 70s seemed good but actually was the stepping stone to major disaster, hindsight says that while expanding and cashing big checks it actually was the beginning of the end.

Paul

I started farming in the mid seventies. For a few years I thought I had the tiger by the tale. There was a months long waiting list for new tractors. Factories were running full bore. Then the 80s hit and the bubble burst.

It was a happy time of my life. Started high school in 1970. Graduated college 1979. Took a year off from college to work full time on the farm. Farmed with Dad & brother the whole time. Except 1976 when we had the worst drought I can remember. We had 15-17 quarters of land . Some 10 miles away in one direction and more land 15 miles away in the other direction from our main farm. Might not seem like much now but I could out run our tractors in road gear and we plowed most of our fields back then. The only farm equipment Dad would buy new was a swather & grain drill. Everything else was used. We grew wheat, oats, corn, alfalfa, hay, cows, pigs, chickens, horses. Mostly open station tractors. 2 with cabs but no heat or AC. We looked at it as better than nothing.

I married a farm girl in '68. I had no exposure to farming before that. I worked a lot of overtime then but I helped my father in law when I could. He milked around 30-35 and with only 125 ac. and some off-site fields he kept pretty busy. Four BILs that wanted little or nothing to do with it. Small scale farmers could survive those times if they were careful. He sold the herd some time in the late 70, raised a little beef for family and friends for a while. Then put everything into hay. He passed on in '91 but told me he never wanted to do anything but farm.

I took over a small dairy farm from my parents in 1974. Life was good thru 1981. Milk price went south in 1982.

We were done with dairy in the late 60's, but still had cattle and chickens through the 70's. Did corn, oats, alfalfa rotation. 3 tractors, an 8N, 860 and 961-D. Hauled our corn all the way to Delano, MN. (little over 5 whole miles). Updated from a 2 row planter to a 4 row (used) in the late 70's. Thought we were doing great. We had a Ford 602 picker on the 961-D, neighbor to the north had an International mounted picker and neighbor to the south had a New Idea mounted picker on an Oliver tractor. Neighbor to the east also had a Ford picker going into the 70', went to a New Idea pull behind with sheller for a few years, then got a Gleaner by the early 80's. We were on the small side of average around here at the time. The 80's started seeing things change to land rents and bigger farmers doing more acres.

The seventies were a great time for me because I was 49 years younger than I am now Got out of school in 70 and went right into helping my dad farm. Would have been happy to work for free farming. It was all I ever wanted to do. Borrowed the bare minimum of money to buy my first two quarters. Dad always ran used machinery, it was all you could afford on a small farm if you didn't want to go into debt. Missed a few opportunities to expand because I didn't want debt. Then some family owned land came up for rent allowing me to double in size. Upgraded with some bigger used machinery and just kept on and on. Far as I'm concerned they were better times for farming than we have now.

I was a kid also but I loved it especially running equipment my brothers and I worked hard milked 70 cows 200 hogs.I dreaded the thought of milking the herd after putting up hay bales all day but when we started in on the nightly milking it was a special time for us to compare stories of the day with brothers.I look back and I cant thank my parents enough for working the crap out of us the best thing for teenage boys.We were done milking in 1979 dad took a job at a sales barn and mom took a job at a factory and we raised beef after that.

My dad switched from a mixed farm operation milking cows to ship cream from, feeding pigs skin and a few hundred laying hens. To just keeping cow/calf beef herd, and growing some spring grain, in 1970. I started high school in 73, and worked after school and weekends, and all summer for a dairy farmer just down the road. I did pretty much everything that could be done on a dairy except chop and plant corn, that was done custom. Milked, forked pens, cleaned stables, washed milkers and bulk tank. All bucket milkers, and flat top milk cooler, no auto wash. Cut , raked and baled thousands of small square bales, drove livestock truck, all for $2.50 per hour. I was one of the few kids at high school that had and bought his own car. Times were good in dairy, and purebred Holstein cows were in hot demand. My boss had a great eye for cattle, and used to show and win, selling purebred Holstein’s brought in as much or more for my boss as the milk. I left after high school, and took work in the city for a couple years. By 1981 interest rates were 20% and times were changing fast. Dairy farms started selling out, I rented a barn and started milking cows on my own. The 70’s were about the best time to farm. Commodity prices were strong, farm land was cheap and readily available to buy or rent. By 1990, the wheels were falling off agriculture.

Inflation hit after the oil embargo of 1973. I was a kid so I seldom saw the farm from a business standpoint but I was soon getting wise beyond my years as to what was going on. The federal govt through FHA loaned a lot of money out that doomed many of those same borrowers during the 1980's. Mom and pop ag suppliers still were predominant during the 1970's. Everybody was happy with the size farm that they had. Most farms around here ran 4 row planters and combines. Nearly all hay made dry was done with a small square baler. Most farms on my road were small dairies. Some equipment was bought new but quite a bit was bought used. Most colors got represented to some degree locally.

My brother and I started our dairy farm in the late 60s.... our part of mid Michigan was still heavy in dairy farming and most were expanding in the 70s that's when a lot of the milking parlors were being built and that's when most of the blue silos went up...believe it or not there were two or three crews building blue silos in the state and there was a waiting list to get one built.....and that's when the muscle tractors as they are known now were being sold....we still had lots of local dealers and it seems like there was always a tractor demonstration going on someplace.....not many dairy farms left in our county now and no implement dealers....

Agree with Paul below... Mid 1970's, starting about 1973 grain prices really took off, with corn going from maybe $1.60 a bushel to $4, nearly a 3 fold increase. Export demand and some crop production hiccups- a big frost in 1974 that hit the corn crop, a significant corn blight caused partly by many hybrid companies using susceptible genetics- drove the higher prices. Inflationary trends on most commodities kept farmers bullish for some time. Look around and you will find a lot of grain handling setups from the '70's, and lots of tractors from then as well. Politics changes the export climate, with both Nixon and Carter having policy that affected trade. Better crops and less demand made for lower prices. Rising interest rates made debt unbearable to many by the mid 80's.

Nonetheless, there was a lot of optimism in ag in the '70's, similar to '06-to say, 2015 or so.

Started farming in the mid-60's, had to get a town job in 1971 as things were not good. Cut down on the farming but I remember every farmer around was buying new equipment and some land when the big price increases hit for the grain farmers. Lots of new tractors and everyone had a new small farm truck and pickup, but lots of them overspent and were bankrupt a few years later.

I wasn't alive then but near where my grandfather lives is an abandoned dairy farm with lots of vehicles and all the trucks and cars plates expired in 78

yea did it all thru that era graduated 73 married 77 still own the ground today and more but have cash rents it all out. i now make money every year instead of about every five years