full time- part time farming

Anonymous-0 · Dec 11, 2008

just curious to see how many of you guys farm full time or part time. and if part time, what is your other job I;m p.t. and I do construction but lately it's been non existant.

rrlund · Dec 11, 2008

You can do this part time? CRAP,I must be wasting an awful lot of time doing things that aren't necessary then.

kyplowboy · Dec 11, 2008

I guess you could call me a part time farmer. I work nights as a water treatment plant operator. I work here 3 nights one week 4 the next on 12 hour shifts. I only work here half the time, farm the rest. I got off work Tuesday morning, stripped tobacco all day Tuesday, Wednesday, and part of the day today till I had to come back to work. I will sleep all day Friday, work Friday night and then we are killing hogs Saturday. That is a normal week for me. I get one or two good nights and one or two good days sleep a week. I am going to have to give up something one of these days. I hope I can find a few more acres of barn room so I can give up the water make'n gig.

Dave

IaGary · Dec 11, 2008

Full time farmer.

Part-time electrician, carpenter, mechanic, cook, welder, plumber, vet and serve on 3 boards.

Gary

Dairy Farmer in WI · Dec 11, 2008

full time in the summer. part time in the winter. winter time i help my nextdoor neighbor install and finish wood floors. makes me a few extra bucks to install floors. he farms too so i get back early enough to do chores early and stuff like that
DF in WI

Mathias NY · Dec 11, 2008

Part time farmer here. My wife works full time as a manager in retail and I am full time as an engineer at a machine shop. Next year the plan is for her to quit her job and work the farm full time. I'll probably have to keep my job though, after all we've got a farm to support...

Anonymous-0 · Dec 11, 2008

25 yrs fulltime job/ partime farmer. Now full time farmer/ partime retired

billonthefarm · Dec 11, 2008

Farmer all day everyday. This time of the year its chores in the morning, tinker in the shop on some old tractor then chores at night.
bill

Doug in Illinois · Dec 11, 2008

Can't afford to farm full time. I am a Rural Mail Carrier for my full time job. Grain prices are way down, fertilizer and seed is still high. Too bad my regular job has to pay for my "high priced hobby" as my wife puts it. 160 acres in Nebraska rented out, along with haying here in Illinois. I have one "customer" who has paid me $300.00 this summer for at least $1500.00 of hay and custom work. I already have buyers for my hay next year from the same fields, and no more custom for him. He is in to me for at least 30 big round bales I could have sold elsewhere and around 40 acres of custom MO-CO and baling. DOUG

phillipd · Dec 11, 2008

full time dairy farmer,serve on 5 boards lol

Anonymous-0 · Dec 11, 2008

ive been full time farmercowboy ever since i finished school in 1972, never ever had a off farm job.

Paul from MI · Dec 11, 2008

Part time farmer, semi-retired engineer. Got so many projects that I'll have to live to be 95 to get 'em done. Full time enjoying life.
Paul

John B. · Dec 11, 2008

I work as a mechanic for a local construction company and grew up on a farm. I still like to garden and work the soil but don't have time for it. I buy and restore farm machinery as a hobby and sell it on ebay. Nice little extra income.

Kevin in OK · Dec 11, 2008

Part time if you can call it that. Roughly once a week when it's nice out, maybe once a month during the wintertime. But then it's hard to call a farm, too. 15 acres of pecan trees doesn't really cut it, when all you do to it is keep the grass mowed down and the sticks picked up. Haven't had a harvest in years due to bugs crows and squirrels, poor production and stubborn equipment.

Otherwise I'm a student. Just started college in August at Oklahoma State University.

Kevin

Anonymous-0 · Dec 11, 2008

Wish I farmed but I don't.

For some the tradition was marry a teacher, so you had a predictable income. Then your farmed and did what ever you could to make the farm plus work.
Depends on the kind of farming - dirt farm, horse farm, etc..

GeneMO · Dec 11, 2008

Farmed full time for 3 years after graduating with a BS degree in Ag. from the University of MO.

Then got a part time job with ASCS for 3 years, then a part time job with Federal Crop Insurance for 5 years, then in 1985 took a full time job with Farm Bureau doing crop insurance claims work. Still there.

195 acres. Buying another 120 in a month or so.
Neighbor does all the row cropping and rents the barns and pastures. Wife is a retired school teacher.

My motto: The less I farm, the more money I make.

Gene

kyhayman · Dec 11, 2008

Full time farmer, part time consultant, hay broker, excavation contractor, real estate developer, and photographer. For several years I farmed part time and was a county agent first, then an ag teacher. 17 years of 'working for the man' was enough.

RalphWD45 · Dec 11, 2008

I'm a 8hr a day overhead crane mechanic, and 4 or less hr a day pig farmer. I am set up where I dont have to feed twice a day (arent timers great!) I generally leave home around 1:45 pm and get home by 11:30. I really hate it in the summer when Im mowing, or involved in a project, and I have to go in and shower, so I can go to Boeing. I used to carry a cell phone till I found out how much people loved to waste my time. When it comes time to vaccinate, or cut pigs, I hollar for help from my son and son in law, and they wish I would hang it up and retire. I guess I must have married a teacher too! She hasn't Quit trying to teach me where my place is, since we said I Do.

Paul from MN · Dec 12, 2008

I am a full time exec with a software company.

Spend as much time as I can working my land. Unfortunatley it is 100 miles away from home.

Fortunatly it is winter as I am 1000+ miles away on a business trip (might have have a bit much to drink tonight and fortunate no livestock is depending on me...)

Fergienewbee · Dec 12, 2008

Just a hobby to manage our land for wildlife. I'm trying to work with released quail for training my dog. Plant food plots and work on timber stand improvments, all for better wildlife habitat. May sell some timber one day or leave it for the kids to sell. Both have their sights on big city life.

Larry in Michigan

Anonymous-0 · Dec 12, 2008

Wife and I both work full time Her M-F daytime me 12hr 24/7 (14 shifts a month 7 to 7). She takes care of me and the house and raises/sells cats, we raise Quarter Horses and Australian Sheperds. Not a business, just a hobby that pays for itself and puts a little jingle in the pocket. I take care of the dogs, horses, and anything outside. Seems like the homework is much more than the job work so not sure what the answer would be. I'll stop when it quits being fun.

Dave

super99 · Dec 12, 2008

I work full time at a fork lift manufacturing plant, farm 65 acres that I bought from Mom and 2 Aunts. My Grandparents bought the farm in 1945. Like to work on tractors and machinery. Wife is between jobs right now, hope she finds something soon. I am a deacon and trustee at small country Baptist church and on the board of tractor club. 3 grown kids, 1 grandson and 2 on the way, 4 tractors, 1 combine & 2 lawn mowers. Been married 36 years to my high school sweetheart. Tax preparer asked my why do I farm, I could make more $$ renting it out. I asked him if his hobby was tax deductible. He said no, and I said mine was. Chris

NEIADan · Dec 12, 2008

I'm a hobby farmer gone bad. Wife works full time to support the house and I just kind of hang around the house feeding and picking up after our collection of cattle. Have farmed part-time most of my life. 3 years ago I sold my graphic design business and went at this farming thing full-time. We have gone from 12 old stock cows to over 450 feeder cattle and 750 acres. Now it is deep in debt, no time to play with the old tractors and to much frost on the head. I didn't know living a dream could be so much work.

Sparktrician · Dec 12, 2008

Full time Electrical Contractor, Part time farmer. We farm about 195 acres, mostly hay, some pasture, and about 45 head of black angus brood cows, and the same of feeder cattle. The herd grows every year....In the electrical side of things.....Most of my work is agricultural, livestock barns, grain handling setups, local elevators, ect....so usually I am in my NATURAL HABITAT!!!!

bruster · Dec 12, 2008

I'm gonna expand the plots I worked this past season to do some truck farming. I think food is one of the few industries that will do OK in the coming redepression.

fixerupper · Dec 12, 2008

I can't really say I'm a full time farmer but I'm certainly not part-time either. The first twenty years of my farming career was as full time as it gets-hogs, cattle and 560 acres of crops. Now the livestock is gone and I farm 700 acres but most of the field work is custom done by a large farmer neighbor. Large farmer runs combines on the wheat harvest so I travel around with them in the summer and also work for them on an 'on call' basis in the spring and fall.

I really enjoy this arrangement, though being away from the wife and family in the summer is unpleasant at best. In the winter I do some custom tractor/military restoration work in the shop to pick up a little coffee money. Jim

TractormanNC · Dec 12, 2008

Part time here also. For 33 years taught electronics at local community college and farmed at night, weekends, or whenever .

Now that I am retaaaaaarrrrddddeeeedddd uh retired I guess its full time ?

Anonymous-0 · Dec 12, 2008

2 jobs, one full time-year round. Other full time MAy thru Oct. Small farm that's just a place to live and an excuse to own a bunch of tractors and live in the country. I've been at it for almost 40 years, seldom ever turning a profit. I own a farm but hesitate to call myself a farmer. Some people fish. Others play golf. I ride around on an old tractor. Still enjoy it and don't know what I'd do with myself if there wasn't fences to fix and hay to bale.

chris blohm · Dec 12, 2008

i call myself hobby farmer worl full time at john deere dealership
rasie sheep and chickens
bale my own hay rasie food for winter months
wife works full time at hospital
got 3 three kids at home all love to help till the manual labor kicks in then they are gone
only thing that I would change would be more hay ground

MarkinMO · Dec 12, 2008

Part time farming, mostly hay production but have a few cows. Full time job is with large computer company everyone here would recognize.

Anonymous-0 · Dec 12, 2008

Dad and I both teach full time at the high school (ag and math) and farm about 1000 acres with a few cattle goats and chickens! Wouldn't have it any other way- Oh yeah, somehow we both married city girls.

James Howell · Dec 12, 2008

Part-time hobby farm growing hay for both horses and cattle.

I have the utmost respect for all the full-time and part-time farmers on this forum.

If I had to farm for my living, I would starve to death.

Full-time college administrator - inside work with no heavy lifting.

dwrk · Dec 12, 2008

Full time, milking 50 cows, 1100 acres of crops, some custom work, 260 acres of woodlot to log in the winters. Just started selling seed for two companies to see how that goes.

full time- part time farming

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