re: farm hands shortage

As a 17 year old in 1954 I made $1.00 an hour as a farm hand during school vacation. Driving tractor, loading hay bales, corn, wheat et. How much does that translate to today? IN other words factoring in inflation are we paying about the same now as then?
If I remember correctly that was about 25% above what other jobs in town paid.

That would equate to $7.89 in todays terms according to http://www.westegg.com/inflation/infl.cgi
Check it out!
From Nebraska Andrew.

Boy...Did I get ripped off...2 bucks in '79 and '80..........

Dave

I've always paid 8.00 for general farm labor and 10.00 for harvest help. Last few years 10.00 won't get anyone interested. Most farmers are gearing up to do it all by themselves or with one family member because of this. 45 foot header on a combine. Semi truck with a pup hauling 1500 to 1800 bu per trip. Grain cart on tracks will hold 1200 to 1500 bu. Cart and combine will fill the truck for a quick second trip to town.
Competent farm kids work for dad or make big money somewhere else. Competent city kids are too smart to do hard work. Mostly they don't know how to put in the effort. Whats left? Whiners and wheezers and know it alls.
Last guy who said he'd help me at harvest wanted 15.00 per hour. Half again more than the normal rate in our area. Ok by me. I'll pay it if it keeps the wheels turning. Have you ever run a combine? No. Have you ever run a semi truck? No. Have you ever run a tractor? No. A grease gun??? No. Ok so your going to help me how??? And charge me 15.00 per hour to do what??? If he could have done any of those jobs competently, I'd have paid him 20.00 plus meals. I'm not going to pay top dollar to have someone wreck my stuff on a learning curve. Nobody can afford that. What I would rather do is put a 9 year old farm girl in a tractor and grain cart and pay her 5.00 per hour until she doesn't need a baby-sitter. Once she can unload a cart on her own and I not worry about dents on a truck, then she'll get 8.00 and it only goes up from there. She will listen to every instruction you tell her. She will remember every warning about things she needs to know. She will ask questions. She will be respectful. She will be appreciative. She will be careful. She will learn fast. She will do it your way, the way you taught her.
The guy who wanted 15.00 and can't do jack...he won't listen because he knows it all. He'll wreck your combine because he won't turn the radio down so he can hear the machine run. He'll take your truck to town and won't come back because he either sleeping, talking to neighbors or stopping at the cenex for a coffee. If you put him in the tractor and grain cart, he'll constantly be on the move driving all over the field, taking the long route, wasting your fuel and compacting your soil because he won't listen to the simple instruction of unloading on the go as your moving TOWARD the truck at the end of the field, not be loaded on the other end of the field and be a half mile away with a loaded cart.
After writing this, I've just realized I'd rather pay the 9 year old girl 15.00 and the experienced know it all 5.00 and all would be right with the world.

My inflation calculator says $8.11. Close though.



Ben
Untitled URL Link

Hey there;
Well, way back in about 1943-44, when I
worked on the Mayes farm, all I was paid,
was $3.00 for a 8-10 hr. day, six day week.
I figure, about $.35 per hr. Then, when I
went to work (at age 18, local factory),
I was paid a whopping $1.50 per hr, course
gas was only $.10 a gal..
Bob
God Bless

Hey there;
Well, way back in about 1943-44, when I
worked on the Mayes farm,(age 12) all I
was paid, was $3.00 for a 8-10 hr. day,
six day week. I figure, about $.35 per hr.
Then, when I went to work (at age 18, local factory), I was paid a whopping $1.50 per hr, course gas was only $.10 a gal..
Bob
God Bless

Dusty Rhoads, I hope you are joking about putting a nine year old kid in a tractor and grain cart. Then you are complaining because you can"t get an equipment trained worker for $10 an hour. Then you want that guy to drive a semi???? I hope that you never have any problems because I see BIG law suites in your future if you are really doing any of those things.

That would now be about $10-12 per hour, I am giving you an educated guesstimate.

Yup, I come up with about the same amount. I learned to drive when I was about 10. Can't remember what the 1st tractor was but it had levers on each side for the brakes. We worked from sun up to sun down. Even back then we only had one boy from our class who went into farming. To many of the guys back then heard how you could make $2.00 an hour in the factories. I am aware as pointed out that the inflation rate shows about $8 an hour. They won't last more than a day and their gone.

In 1962 at 13 years I made $.50 an hour throwing bales. Now I pay about $15.00 so that maybe they will come back.

Wow! A buck an hour was big wages in "54.
As a teenager in mid to late 50s, I got $2.00 a day for however long it took to get the hay in.
My first "big" paying job was in "59 when I was 17. I got paid $.75 an hour riding on an Oliver pull type combine.
Earned enuf to pay for my senior class trip to D.C.; couldn"t have gone otherwise. Still think the neighbor farmer had that in mind when he hired me. He was a good guy.

I will pay most any one who shows up $8 and $10 to good barn help in tobacco.

I don't think dustyroads is too far off. I started driving tractor when I was 11. I was mad about it because dad made me wait that long. All my farm kid classmates were already driving for their parents at 8 and 9. I'm 28 now.

I got minimum wage, $1.25 an hour, for farm work from '62- '66 (age 13-17). I paid $4 to high school kids to buck bales in the late 70's.

Easy to find workers- the football coach was a farmer, and he required either so many hours working out in the weight room, or pay stubs for bucking bales. Haying paid much better. And I got the best guys, because our babysitter was a cheerleader, and we just put her in charge of labor. Everybody always showed up early, so they could hang around her.

Look at this way, in the 1950s a dollar would have bought over 6 gallons of gas. Are you ready to pay $16.50 per hour?

I'm sorry, what is the issue with the 9 year old running the grain cart?

Clinton county Ohio, 1954. buck an hour. They couldn't have got any help in our area for what you are quoting.

jenkbefrm........just curious, are you female? If so, would you agree with Dustyroads? I do agree with him by the way.

(quoted from post at 00:24:38 08/06/10) Dusty Rhoads, I hope you are joking about putting a nine year old kid in a tractor and grain cart. Then you are complaining because you can"t get an equipment trained worker for $10 an hour. Then you want that guy to drive a semi???? I hope that you never have any problems because I see BIG law suites in your future if you are really doing any of those things.

Click to expand...

9 year old FARM kid, and nobody thought twice about it 20-25 years ago...

That's about the age I learned to rake hay. Somewhere in the 8, 9, 10 year old range. Started running wagons at about 12.

There is a difference between a 9 year old on a 8N ford with a flat wagon with 90 or so square bale on it and a 9 year old on a 4640 JD with a 900 bu grain cart behind. Just my .02 worth

I also agree with him.A 9 year old girl that knows how a farm opperates and has experience doing so will work very willingly and be happy to help out the neighbor and make some cash.My girls oldest is 13 don't have the power in there arms to steer my 4 wheeler and only the 12 year old wants to.Friends girl was driving his at 6 years old with a throtel block so she couldn't go to fast and with supervision.there are alot of girls on the farm who are way more mature at 9 years old than most city girls at 16.It all depends on the responsibilities you give them and at what age you start.Commonsence still has to be used.

I started at 9 years old,(1962), driving a 2 cylinder JD w/trailer, picking up stumps after they were blown out of the ground with dynamite. "Graduated" to cotton stalk cutter, disc, do-all, dirt pan, every summer, 5 days plus til noon on sat., for $16 per week. Every day after school, during planting and harvest, for 65 cents an hour until 1971. Paul

Dusty,I agree. I started driving farm truck at 11. Hauled grain from the combine to the local elevator about 3 miles away on gravel township roads. The truck was a 1929 International 1 ton. Neighbor kids were all doing the same thing, except with even bigger trucks. This was in 1948 in North Dakota.

I agree.I started driving a tractor at 9,and I would have sooner if anybody would let me.It didnt even have power steering.A 9 year old kid would need somebody keeping an eye on her close,but still probably better help.Trouble is not all 9 year olds will want to do it.A grain cart might be a lot for a 9 year old,but it depends on the kid.Some could do it,some wouldnt be able to at any age.
Ive actually seen farmers,who drove tractors all their life,scare the heck out of me.Same as with anything else.Some can and some cant.