5 ms·

The only people who think farming sounds great are people who have never farmed. Having all your income depend on the weather or random government policies/tari

The only people who think farming sounds great are people who have never farmed. Having all your income depend on the weather or random government policies/tariffs is heart breaking. You need tremendous scale to weather the storm. Go watch "Clarkson's Farm" to get a glimpse of the realities. (Remember that he is extremely rich and doesn't even care if the farm loses money.) The only good thing about farming is that you only have to work half days, just pick any 12 hours you like!! (Source: both of my families have historically farmed.) I think there is old line about how to become rich racing cars. First, you start out extremely rich. Then, you start a race team. The same is true with farming. Unless you start out rich or inherited the farm for free, it is going to be a slog.

dragontamer 5y ago
I'm no farmer, but you can see the extremely expensive and sophisticated farming machines pretty much every time you drive past a rural area. Giant watering machines, extremely weird "collector" thingies, and a whole slew of farmers complaining to John Deere about "right to repair". Modern Farming is about having huge infrastructure so that very few people can create lots and lots of food. Between the fertilizer, the bountiful land, the water, the sophisticated machines, etc. etc. Also, I had a few teachers who went to the local agriculture university and talked to me about soil types and soil tests. Farmers have to be extremely up-to-date on chemistry, botany and even general biology: you survey your fields by taking chemical tests to determine the nutrients in the soil. You keep careful eyes on your crops at each stage of development: ensuring that they're progressing as expected. Finally, you also need to be on the lookout for insects and/or animals, who can destroy your crops. But not just insects and animals... but also fungus, bacteria, and viruses. (Plants get sick too, just like humans). If a plant-virus starts to spread in your farm, you could lose the entire crop. You're pretty much the "Crop Doctor", and need to be able to tell the different kinds of diseases that can come up (is it a fungus? Should you spray fungicides all over your plants? Should you spray insecticides? Should you burn your crops to prevent the spread?) And despite the miracles of modern nitrogen-based farming... micronutrients in the soil still matter. So you still got that whole crop-rotation thing if you want your soil to rejuvenate between crops. ---------- Soil alone is already a major issue. If you've got too much clay in your soil, you need to find sand and/or compost and mix it into your land. Or you know... sell your land and find better soil. /not actually a Farmer, but had the pleasure of talking to some...
- redmaverick 5y ago
  are there any startup opportunities / products built for farmers that can generate revenue?
  - dragontamer 5y ago
    I assume there are plenty, but you'd be competing against John Deere / Monsanto etc. These companies are in fact doing hard science and engineering. For an example of your competition: https://www.planttape.com/ https://www.planttape.com/ So yeah, form a startup but you need to be in the top of your science / engineering game. But everyone wants a more automated, cheaper, more reliable, less water usage, planting / growing methodology. Plenty of opportunity if you actually have something that's better than the status quo.
- loriverkutya 5y ago
  You are not a crop doctor, that’s a completely separate job source: my friend done it as university major.
  - kbenson 5y ago
    Just like the house owner that does his own work isn't a general contractor. And like that, the distinction is gradual, and there is benefit to the home owner in knowing how to do their own repairs and construction to a point, and then hiring out for the stuff that's too much for you. I don't think most people thought that the theoretical general farmer described is literally a crop doctor, but that they should know enough about it to know when to call in a professional, and when there are initial steps that might be taken to hamper or eliminate a disease before it takes hold.
chirau 5y ago
I have to disagree with you. Or maybe farming is just terrible here in the US because of all the rules and crap with companies like Monsanto. Where I come from, farming is a pretty fulfilling endeavor. Both my parents left senior corporate roles to pursue farming because they love it so much. Even when they made their first money working, they bought a piece of land and were there pretty much every weekend. They started from working the farm themselves all the way to employing people. They are absolutely happy and have zero regrets about it. This is not an isolated incident either, a number of guys I went to school with have since started farming. It is not as lucrative for some of them as some jobs there were in, but they were very happy to leave their jobs and pursue farming full time. These are folk in South Africa, Australia, Zimbabwe, Ireland and a few other places. In a lot of countries, you will find that many people work hard in day to day jobs so that they can eventually get a farm, move there and live happily.
- quacked 5y ago
  My understanding of farming is closer to yours. Farming in order to afford property tax, healthcare, college tuition, retirement savings, mortgage, and your own costs in crops, livestock, or tools is hellish and terrifying. If those costs are substantially reduced so you don't have to scale your farm to an incredible level in order to avoid eviction and poverty, farming as your main profession becomes a more achievable goal.
- obeid 5y ago
  Farming is also terrible where your parents own their farm, maybe not for your parents who sound like are no longer farming. You should ask their employees, i.e., the actual farmers.
- thisisnico 5y ago
  Both of my parents grew up as farmers. It's an astronomical amount of work. The costs are insane, unless you have massive scale it's impossible to compete. The farmland was sold off to large scale farming operations because they can afford to handle ups/downs, they can make extremely efficient use of the incredibly expensive equipment needed to farm. The only way I can see someone successful in a farming endeavour is doing something super niche and hands-on that's highly profitable and doesn't require a ton of land. I'm thinking like apple orchards or vineyards. Additionally you could make your own specialist products and set up a small market to sell them. This is popular where I live.
goostavos 5y ago
+1 for Clarkson's Farm. What a delightful show. They do a fantastic job of taking you through the emotional highs and lows of farming. It punched a hole through my common techbro day dreams of leaving MegaCorp1 and buying some land out in the country to farm. Although, I do still secretly think about raising cattle.. at least until season 2 of Clarkson's farm shows that that is also ungodly amounts of work for little return.
deleted 5y ago
[deleted]
morpheos137 5y ago
as with everything in life it real depends on what you are growing or raising and what kind of other circumstances you are dealing with. It is not reasonable to make sweeping generalisations either way.

dragontamer 5y ago

I'm no farmer, but you can see the extremely expensive and sophisticated farming machines pretty much every time you drive past a rural area. Giant watering machines, extremely weird "collector" thingies, and a whole slew of farmers complaining to John Deere about "right to repair". Modern Farming is about having huge infrastructure so that very few people can create lots and lots of food. Between the fertilizer, the bountiful land, the water, the sophisticated machines, etc. etc. Also, I had a few teachers who went to the local agriculture university and talked to me about soil types and soil tests. Farmers have to be extremely up-to-date on chemistry, botany and even general biology: you survey your fields by taking chemical tests to determine the nutrients in the soil. You keep careful eyes on your crops at each stage of development: ensuring that they're progressing as expected. Finally, you also need to be on the lookout for insects and/or animals, who can destroy your crops. But not just insects and animals... but also fungus, bacteria, and viruses. (Plants get sick too, just like humans). If a plant-virus starts to spread in your farm, you could lose the entire crop. You're pretty much the "Crop Doctor", and need to be able to tell the different kinds of diseases that can come up (is it a fungus? Should you spray fungicides all over your plants? Should you spray insecticides? Should you burn your crops to prevent the spread?) And despite the miracles of modern nitrogen-based farming... micronutrients in the soil still matter. So you still got that whole crop-rotation thing if you want your soil to rejuvenate between crops. ---------- Soil alone is already a major issue. If you've got too much clay in your soil, you need to find sand and/or compost and mix it into your land. Or you know... sell your land and find better soil. /not actually a Farmer, but had the pleasure of talking to some...

redmaverick 5y ago
are there any startup opportunities / products built for farmers that can generate revenue?
- dragontamer 5y ago
  I assume there are plenty, but you'd be competing against John Deere / Monsanto etc. These companies are in fact doing hard science and engineering. For an example of your competition: https://www.planttape.com/ https://www.planttape.com/ So yeah, form a startup but you need to be in the top of your science / engineering game. But everyone wants a more automated, cheaper, more reliable, less water usage, planting / growing methodology. Plenty of opportunity if you actually have something that's better than the status quo.
loriverkutya 5y ago
You are not a crop doctor, that’s a completely separate job source: my friend done it as university major.
- kbenson 5y ago
  Just like the house owner that does his own work isn't a general contractor. And like that, the distinction is gradual, and there is benefit to the home owner in knowing how to do their own repairs and construction to a point, and then hiring out for the stuff that's too much for you. I don't think most people thought that the theoretical general farmer described is literally a crop doctor, but that they should know enough about it to know when to call in a professional, and when there are initial steps that might be taken to hamper or eliminate a disease before it takes hold.

chirau 5y ago

I have to disagree with you. Or maybe farming is just terrible here in the US because of all the rules and crap with companies like Monsanto. Where I come from, farming is a pretty fulfilling endeavor. Both my parents left senior corporate roles to pursue farming because they love it so much. Even when they made their first money working, they bought a piece of land and were there pretty much every weekend. They started from working the farm themselves all the way to employing people. They are absolutely happy and have zero regrets about it. This is not an isolated incident either, a number of guys I went to school with have since started farming. It is not as lucrative for some of them as some jobs there were in, but they were very happy to leave their jobs and pursue farming full time. These are folk in South Africa, Australia, Zimbabwe, Ireland and a few other places. In a lot of countries, you will find that many people work hard in day to day jobs so that they can eventually get a farm, move there and live happily.

quacked 5y ago
My understanding of farming is closer to yours. Farming in order to afford property tax, healthcare, college tuition, retirement savings, mortgage, and your own costs in crops, livestock, or tools is hellish and terrifying. If those costs are substantially reduced so you don't have to scale your farm to an incredible level in order to avoid eviction and poverty, farming as your main profession becomes a more achievable goal.
obeid 5y ago
Farming is also terrible where your parents own their farm, maybe not for your parents who sound like are no longer farming. You should ask their employees, i.e., the actual farmers.
thisisnico 5y ago
Both of my parents grew up as farmers. It's an astronomical amount of work. The costs are insane, unless you have massive scale it's impossible to compete. The farmland was sold off to large scale farming operations because they can afford to handle ups/downs, they can make extremely efficient use of the incredibly expensive equipment needed to farm. The only way I can see someone successful in a farming endeavour is doing something super niche and hands-on that's highly profitable and doesn't require a ton of land. I'm thinking like apple orchards or vineyards. Additionally you could make your own specialist products and set up a small market to sell them. This is popular where I live.

goostavos 5y ago

+1 for Clarkson's Farm. What a delightful show. They do a fantastic job of taking you through the emotional highs and lows of farming. It punched a hole through my common techbro day dreams of leaving MegaCorp1 and buying some land out in the country to farm. Although, I do still secretly think about raising cattle.. at least until season 2 of Clarkson's farm shows that that is also ungodly amounts of work for little return.

deleted 5y ago

[deleted]

morpheos137 5y ago

as with everything in life it real depends on what you are growing or raising and what kind of other circumstances you are dealing with. It is not reasonable to make sweeping generalisations either way.