Re: farming in the 1950s and 1960s ?

Posted by ss55 on April 17, 2021 at 07:51:52 from (96.42.212.92):

In Reply to: farming in the 1950s and 1960s ? posted by swindave on April 16, 2021 at 08:08:23:

I suspect that farming (or the path of farming) may have changed more in those twenty years between 1950 and 1970 than it has changed in the fifty years since then.

In 1950 most farms were widely diversified with maybe half or less of the acreage in row crops, the rest in small grains, hay and pasture. Diversification spread the work load out and reduced high peak demands for labor. There were a comparably small number of beef cattle, hogs and chickens on most farms, a couple milk cows and egg laying chickens for the family, maybe more for some extra milk and egg money. Draft horses were disappearing, some fertilizer and hybrid seed corn were in use, but few other chemicals. Farmers shared labor more, threshing and shelling corn with the neighbors. Health problems caused most farmers to retire in their late 50's to mid-60's and pass the operation to the next generation.

By 1970 most farms started to grow in size and become much less diversified in crops and livestock. The chickens and milk cows left for dedicated poultry and dairy farms. The beef cattle and hogs either started to either disappear or grow into beef feedlots and pork confinement systems. Where the livestock was gone, corn-soybean rotation replaced corn-small grain hay rotations. Chemicals replaced mechanical cultivation for weed control. Genetics, fertilizers and improved weed control allowed corn yield to triple from 30 BU/acre to near 100BU/acre. Fewer tillage operations across the fields and larger equipment allowed one person to grow cash grain on 640 acres instead of 160 acres. Grain dryers replaced corn cribs for drying corn. Two or three neighbors might still share labor at harvest, but combines reduced the need for threshing and shelling rings. Mechanization and better health care allowed older farmers to stay in business longer, sometimes skipping the next generation passing the operation on to grandchildren, if they were still interested.

Those trends seem to be continuing today. Maybe you could call the 1960's the beginning of industrial farming?

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