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| Post Number: 11
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jimhanson 
Group: Moderator
Posts: 8491
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Dec. 21 2006,4:51 pm |
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| Quote | | Farmers today have to be mechanics, engineers, marketers, salesmen...and the list goes on. |
It has always been so.
But farmers today need to climatologists--watching the weather in Brazil to see how their soybean crop is doing--they need to watch Washington to see what country is going to receive agricultural aid, or have aid witheld, or to see what the government is going to mandate on fuel specifications and economy, or what chemical is going to be banned. They need to be adept at hedging costs--fertilizer and fuel--and to decide what the market will be 6 or 12 months into the future in trading commodities.
I grew up on a farm, but wouldn't care to farm today. There are a lot of issues outside of your control--the weather, international markets, government programs and regulation, events worldwide affecting the cost of fuel.
Being a farmer today is as much being an international businessman as it is being the manager of a million-dollar-plus business.
(Hat tip to farmers!)
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"If you want to anger a Conservative, tell him a lie. If you want to anger a LIBERAL, tell him the TRUTH!"
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| Post Number: 12
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riffraff
Group: Members
Posts: 550
Joined: Feb. 2004
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Posted on: Dec. 22 2006,1:26 pm |
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| Post Number: 13
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Ned Kelly
Group: Members
Posts: 1073
Joined: Dec. 2004
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Posted on: Dec. 22 2006,6:31 pm |
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| Quote (riffraff @ Dec. 22 2006,1:26pm) | | yeah i know farmers still have it tough today, but it's a more a mental game these days, you about need a doctorate in every subject to be successful in todays agricultural market, i just like to rattle some cages. arguing with a farmer is about like wrestling with a hog in mud/manure the more you start to wrestle or argue the more the farmer or hog seems to enjoy it! |
Is you talkin about Mama? .......  ......ned
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| Post Number: 14
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Mamma
Group: Members
Posts: 1474
Joined: Aug. 2003
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Posted on: Dec. 24 2006,8:49 am |
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Ok...that's it Ned....your stocking is coming down off the fireplace now!!
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A conclusion is simply the place where you got tired of thinking.
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| Post Number: 15
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TameThaTane
Group: Members
Posts: 6300
Joined: May 2005
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Posted on: Dec. 26 2006,4:28 am |
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Do you know what 4X4 on the back of a farmers pick-up stands for Mamma? Works four weeks in the spring and four weeks in the fall.
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My choice is what I choose to do,
And if I'm causing no harm, it shouldn't bother you.
Your choice is who you choose to be,
And if you're causin' no harm, then you're alright with me.
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| Post Number: 16
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allergic to bogus
Group: Members
Posts: 1484
Joined: Aug. 2004
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Posted on: Dec. 26 2006,9:32 pm |
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Grew up on a farm as well. My memories are of Alot of work done by all family members we all had our assigned jobs and were up with the chickens literally. It did not matter if there was a blizzard in the night. The cows needed to be milked and we had no milking machines. Totally manual labor. The fencing or post digging also comes to mind. Baling the hay, feeding the pigs, going up into the fields to get the cows. No 4 wheelers, just our feet, which were bare most times from spring to fall. Cow pie peeling was entertainment. We even equated the amount of blisters obtained even with our gloves on to who had worked the hardest that day. Funny, my children even helped on the farm growing up. I feel it instilled good work ethic in them as well. You are right Jim, about todays farmers having to be international business men, watching the market, etc. most things done with computerized equipment, stereos and tv's in the cabin of the tractors, etc. I have to admit, I remember that we often hired what were called hired hands back then. Some of them were pretty cute teenaged boys that helped in the fields and it made my day, when I was asked to bring them ice cold water from the well. To a 12 or 13 yr old girl, it made my day.
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Oh come on you figure it out
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| Post Number: 17
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TameThaTane
Group: Members
Posts: 6300
Joined: May 2005
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Posted on: Dec. 26 2006,10:16 pm |
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They don't tell those stories about farmers daughters for nothing! LOL 
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My choice is what I choose to do,
And if I'm causing no harm, it shouldn't bother you.
Your choice is who you choose to be,
And if you're causin' no harm, then you're alright with me.
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| Post Number: 18
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allergic to bogus
Group: Members
Posts: 1484
Joined: Aug. 2004
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Posted on: Dec. 27 2006,9:51 am |
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YOU ARE FROM RURAL MINNESOTA IF....
You know how to polka, but never tried it sober.
You know what knee-high by the Fourth of July means.
You know it is traditional for the bride and groom to go bar hopping between the ceremony and the reception.
***You were delighted to get a miniature snow shovel for your 3rd birthday.
You can recognize someone from Iowa by their driving.
You buy Christmas presents at Fleet Farm.
You spent more on beer than you did on food at your wedding.
You hear someone use the word "oof-dah" and you do not immediately break into uncontrollable laughter.
You think fast food is hitting a deer at 65 mph.
You or someone you know was a "Dairy Princess" at a county fair
You let your older siblings talk you into putting your tongue on a steel post in the middle of winter.
You think Lutheran and Catholic are THE major religions.
Football schedules, hunting and fishing opening dates are checked before wedding dates are set.
Saturday you go the local bowling ally.
There was at least one kid in your class who had to help milk cows in the morning.
You have driven your car on a lake.
You can make sense out of the word "upnort" and "batree. "
You always believed that vacation meant "going up North."
At every wedding you have been to you have had to dance the hokey poky and the chicken dance.
Your definition of a small town is one that only has one bar.
The local gas station sells live bait.
At least twice a year, the kitchen doubles as a meat processing plant.
Your mom asks, "Were you born in a barn?" and you know exactly what she means.
You think that the start of deer season is a national holiday.
Pop is not only what you call your dad, but is the ONLY name for soda.
You actually understand these jokes and forward them to all your Minnesota friends.
***And yes, I still have the miniature shovel that I received for my third birthday!!!
yeseree--yer from Minnesota
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Oh come on you figure it out
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| Post Number: 19
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Clayjo707
Group: Members
Posts: 39
Joined: May 2013
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Posted on: Jun. 12 2013,9:21 pm |
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I find this thread interesting because it reminds me of how I grew up.
I am 33 years old.
I grew up in northern Minnesota (about 20 miles south of Duluth) and my parents chose to live like farmers from the early 1900's. The first pictures in this thread remind me of threshing (we grew oats mostly) and threshed with an old McCormick Deering threshing machine, but powered by a gasoline tractor. We had Belgian draft horses to bind the oats, plow, disk, rake and cut hay (at times we put it up loose), plant, spread manure, get wood from the forest in the wintertime to power the wood cook stove and heat the house...
And no, I am not joking. This was my reality. My parents lived like they were half way Amish.
This is a tough kind of life and full of hard labor. I believe that my body is feeling some of the effects of it now, and I am sure that if I were to continue their method instead of going to college and getting out, my body would be totally wrecked pretty soon.
Point is, farmers work just as hard now as they did then, but the kind of work has changed. Farming is much less manual now and much more mechanized, so the stereotypical farmer is no longer a tough, in shape muscular man who is raising 10 kids to help him farm, but a slightly overweight guy in bib overalls and a baseball cap.
Cheers!
Clayton
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| Post Number: 20
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