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What were your best years in farming

4

4010jd

Member
Could be most profitable, most enjoyable, or maybe it was the kind of equipment you were using at the time. Look forward to reading all your comments.
 
1991 has got to be one of the best years of my farming, I bought my home farm 2 years prior, graduated from college in 90, but married the girl of my dreams in 1991 and had some of the best crops I ever grew. the weather that year was fantastic.
dad and I had a 1979 7720 that was his first new combine and it was a great on a 6 row head. had a 4240 that pulled a 400 bushel kinzie buggy that kept the crop away from it.
the corn sample that year looked picture perfect, so well I put it in a jar down by the corn dryer room to remind me. The next year in 1992 was a disaster. rained all year and cold, Plowed all my corn down through crop insurance. Dad didnt have any on his 200 acres and we shut the MC 900 corn dryer off the day before christmas. the dump trailers of corn were lifted almost right up and the corn wouldnt come out. looked like pop corn terrible sample and it is beside the sample jar of 1991. Hooked the 4240 in front of a 4630 and plowed 200 acres of corn stalk ground like that, almost pulled the plow apart, the ground was so hard. LAST YEAR the ground was plowed.
Two of the most memorable years I have had farming
back to back. Have had lots of other good years but 1991 most memorable.
 
I never was a farmer, but in the early 70's I had a hog floor, and it made enough money that it could be considered "fun". It was only 40 X 40, and divided into 4 pens. I could keep 15 head per pen, and rotate a batch in and out each month. I bought all of the pigs at a local auction barn, bought all of the feed, and had lots of hand labor. I kept good records, and often made a profit of $50 per head. That was a lot of money to a young man in 1970. I had a day job, so the hogs were a sideline, but the work never stopped. The manure was cleaned off daily by hand, but I was young then. My wife and I were rolling in the dough - got all of our debts paid off, and what could go wrong. Then came the 80's. It got to where you couldn't hardly give a hog away. When we got down to $10 profit per hog, it was no longer "fun", and I stopped buying feeders. I remember guys saying they just opened their gates and let their hogs roam. One guy claimed that he left 6 pigs in a stock trailer with a sign "Free to a good home". Came back the next morning and there were 8 pigs in his trailer. Good memories, but those days are over. I don't know where you'd find a hog in our neighborhood now. I used to step out in the evening, and I could hear feeder lids rattling in every direction from our place. No more. There's got to be some big boys in the hog business yet, because I see pork in the meat section of the grocery store, but the little guy is on the side.
 
That's a good topic, my best years were from 1990, until now. I had worked on a large thoroughbred breeding farm which had 385 head or more of horses, they finally closed up in 2011, After the owner died, I also mowed the lawn there for quite a few years, Now I have also worked on another smaller thoroughbred farm for the last 25 years I love taking care of the horses brush hogging the pastures and taking care of the hay bailing hay. At one time we had 27 horses the owner closed up and kept her seven broodmares now we're down to two, At the other farm we foaled 120 foals a year. So yeah I miss all of that to go from all them horses to just 2! But it was a great ride and I wouldn't trade it for anything. My favorite tractor from the large farm, And my tractor at the smaller farm.
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Almost grew up on my grandfather's dairy farm in the mid 60's to mid 70's. I loved bringing in the hay wagons and unloading them. I was on the wagon putting them on the elevator or in the mal stacking. (Is that how you spell mal). 2 of us, one on the wagon and one in the mal would unload and stack 10-14 loads a day (100-120 bales a load) started baling at 10 stop at 12 for lunch start back up at 1 bale until 4 then go to milk 100-120 cows. I liked forking cow manure. Had a john deere 420 with a trip loader. My cousin operated that, my job was to fork the manure from around the poles and other places the loader couldn't get to them when the spreader was full I would take it out a spread it (john deere 630) . I liked milking cows, I liked cutting calves (my job was to hold them) . I liked my grandmother's food (big full blown meal for lunch) . I liked messing around in the shop in the evenings with the older guys fixing stuff. I loved everything in that period of my life. Man I miss it.
 
Grew up on a farm but didn't do much on my own, well only for a few years anyways. Growing up, the best year we had was during the gas shortage. Sotres didn't have gas, but had plenty of kerosene, and almost everything we had at the time could run off of kerosene. I don't recall what Dad made that year, but he always said it was double what he made the next 2 years combined. When he retired from farming, I put all of our fields in sericial hay, with 3 guys helping, and me still in school and mostly working the fields after school and during the summer, I made close to 30 grand a year, for the 4 years I did hay. I was 17 at the time, and this would have been in 86 when I took over. I will add though the only piece of equipment I had to buy was a bailer. Dad gave me the tractors, and a rake that had sat for several years, the wagin and truck to haul it, and use of the old barn to store it, but most went straight to my customer. When he died, I lost most of the businesss I had, and the land I was renting from him. Havent farmed other than a garden and helping ny buddy on his since.
 
Is this a quiz?
1972 -2014 I'd say all of them. The late 70s was a good time for me. Dairy cows were making me good money and I was young and ambitious. In 1980 I came west and since 1989 have been building my own beef herd. It's been a long slow battle but I would not trade it for a job in town.
 

Around 2004 I still had my older cheaper equipment, had plenty of good ground to make my hay on. Plenty of good paying long term customers, weather was good for the most part. I made plenty of money. Then I got newer, bigger equipment, weather got wacky, economy tanked and customers sold off horses or moved away or died. Now I am back down to the amount of ground that I had in my third year, and it doesn't matter if I make money or not or if the hay is done or not I still take off to have a good time.
 
I would say 1970 s - 1980 s. .I had A good job, making A good living for my family. Those days are gone now. But we made it. Enjoying my retirement. Good luck to all.

Hammer Man
 
Early to mid 90's I guess. Had some fairly new equipment,the kids were at the age where they weren't much help,but they were a lot of fun and still wanted to try to help. Dad was still around and healthy and was helping me as much as he could. Milk prices were decent. The wife had a pretty good job at the local hospital,a mile from home.
Things are OK now as far as prices. I never in my life dreamed cattle prices would be as high as they are. The wife doesn't work so she's here to help me.
 
1991. The year I quit.

Two of the happiest days of my life were the day I started farming and the day I quit.
 
1962, I was soph in high school, planted 8 aces of potatoes for FFA project, planted by hand, hoed by hand, dug by hand. Made a small fortune for a 14 year old kid. Enough to buy a '58 ford Fairlane. Left farm for 20 years, started again in '86 with 500 acres, broke even most years since, sometimes a little better.

Dick ND
 
When my brother joined the Air Force and I was drafted into the Army during the Korean War. I also married my wife. Hal
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All my years in farming were memorable in one way or an other. The most enjoyable were the years as a kid growing up on my dads dairy and the years after when i was still full of pizz and vinegar starting a farm on my own.
The worst years financially were when we had droughts in 95/96 (had to sell the whole herd of beef cause of no grass and hay) and again 2 years in a row in mid 2000 when i harvested a whopping 54 rounds of hay from 300 acres on top of having to deal with the aftermath of BSE and worthless bisons i could not even GIVE away.
The best years financially are the previous 4 years up to right now with record meat and yearling prices no debt to speak of and low operating costs.
It was all worth it in the end and i would do it again in a heart beat
 
Goose got it right. For me, it was the day the University of Alabama accepted me into Engineering School!
 
Probably the 1980s and 90s for me. Land and machinery mostly paid for and an adequate line of machinery to work with. My dad was still able to help quite a bit with the farming operations.
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Just these past few years, with some good crops, and some fantastic prices, I have updated and filled out my line of machinery. Probably mostly enough to last my career. And debt is paid off.
 

A combination of Gene and Paul. LOL The last three or four years I've gotten ahead the farthest, or maybe recovered the farthest.
 
Tough one... Lets see, 1985 was really good. I was getting ready to graduate high school, cows were cheap in the fall of 84. My dad was working and travelling a lot so I was pretty much running the place. We bought 500 cheap, thin, broken mouthed head cows that fall. Fed hay rough hay, and I mean rough that we had rolled on the shares. Used that snazzy new Ivomec pour on that had just come out (no one here ever dewormed cows) fed them the hay and thin stillage from the Wild Turkey distillery. Drove the old tanker truck to school every day..... That spring they had doubled in size, 100 of them had calved, and the pound market had gone gang busters. Bought a new haybine, a new round baler, a new pickup, and a new bass boat plus had money in my pocket all year.

Didn't hit that good again until 2010. The drought in Texas pushed a lot of buyers this way, and I'd come out of 2009 with half my hay production still in the barn. We had a good year, bought plenty of hay cheap too. Been pretty good ever since. ...
 
Yes I did, were did the cows go? I was told there were 300 head there, I dident see any last week, When I drove by the farm.
 
Every year since 2005 has been pretty good except for 2012 when we had the drought. By 2005 I had my chicken farm paid down. In 2007 the chicken business started to suffer because of grain prices. I sold my chicken farm in 2009 and came out pretty good and decided to increase my beef cow herd. I bought a herd of young bred cows for $800 a head and that was the best investment I ever made. I sold a couple of those same cows that are now 10 years old and they brought $1600 and were open. I don't get to carried away with buying because it's proven that anything that goes up will come down. I still remember selling calves for $33cwt.
 
I have had many" best " years, I have been very fortunate, and truly blessed. 1981 I started farming on my own, rented farm milking my own cows ,I was 20. The next year wife and I married , another good year for sure. !987 our first child was born and we bought the farm and put in a pipeline milking system.1989, As our farm had no house, we lived in a trailer ,12' x 60', I got the chances to buy a house and move it onto our farm, and got rid of the mobile home.Things were moving along well for us , milking more cows, and renting more land but things changed in the late 1990's when the local Indian res, built a casino just 5 miles down the road from our farm. Traffic became crazy , we started to think about moving. 2004 we bought a new farm , and moved our family, now 3 boys ,and our dairy herd ,25 miles north of were I had lived my life till this time. Tough to pick up and move a dairy farm , but we did and made many new friends and good memories along the way. In 2010 we bought another farm, and more than doubled our land base. little bumps have jolted us from time to time along the road, but I have been very lucky. And the harder I work the luckier I get.2014 we were able to buy two new tractors, making another year to remember.No one" best" year, but many VERY good years, and a loving wife to share my good fortune with. Bruce
 
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