I guess I am lucky. All my children are interested in farming. My oldest son has been farming full time on his own now for 30 years. My younger sons started farming more seriously about 4-5 years ago. All of them but the youngest have off farm incomes. The youngest takes care of two hog finishing barns as his additional income source. One is running a repair shop. My second son is a division manager for a company. The middle son feeds cattle on three farms as an hourly employee. My daughter would be called a hobby farmer but is raising her kids while building a beef cow herd.
My kids always where given something for their labor on the farm. This might be pay if the job they were doing directly generated income for the farm. An example was small square bales when I was selling them. Often their worked earned them an percentage of some thing. An example was my sons usually did a lot of feeding chores. They got a percentage of the profit of each pen/lot they feed on a regular basis. By the time they were teenagers they had crops and livestock that was totally their own.
I think several things cause there to be fewer next generation farmers. 1) Economics. Most farm operations can not support multi-families. 2) Kids treated like salve labor when they were younger. Kids need to be kids. 3) Parents that refuse to give up any control to the next generation. 4) Parents that do not have a plan for working the next generation into the farming operation or any farming operation. 5) Young adults need to have an opportunity to build assets when they are younger. If your 70 and your kids are 45-55 then it is too late for them to "buy in" to any farm operation.
Toughest thing I have ever done was to move off the home farm and give the majority of the day to day control to my sons. It had to be done if they were going to gain the experience they need to be successful. I still have veto power over any major financial plans/moves but the day to day operation is up to them. The youngest is 28 and the older ones are just under forty. My oldest is 50 but he has a separate operation. We shared equipment for years and some joint ownership of major pieces. So I have had two basic "plans" to get my children involved. with the oldest it was help him get started and grow while we also grew our business. With the younger ones it was help them grow on their own and grow the farm so the combination can support them at a respectable level.
Guys a farming operation is going to have to grow to support the next generation. There is no way for them to get started if the assets/income/profit are not growing. If the farm is only making $40K to support a family then it sure is not going to support two on $20K each???? Not with the cost of living being what it is today.
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Today's Featured Article - History of the Nuffield Tractor - by Anthony West. The Nuffield tractor story started in early 1945. The British government still reeling from the effects of the war on the economy, approached the Nuffield organization to see if they would design and build an "ALL NEW" British built wheeled tractor, suitable for both British and world farming.
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