Farming 101

I agreed to let you ask some questions about the farm & then I fell off the face of the Earth.  I'm SO sorry that it has taken so long!  You so kindly got all nosey on me asked your 'what's this farmin' thang all about, Willis?' questions & I left you high & dry.  Sigh.  

I'm going to answer all your questions, but in TRUE Jaime Mac style - I'm going to add my extra commentary as well because you didn't ask some of the right questions.  

And this is another looooong post....

First - a reminder of the story:  B-rad & his brother farm together.  Their dad owned the farm when I met B-rad.  At that time, they grew popcorn & had a whole operation at the farm.  They had employees & everything.  About a month before I had met B-rad, the popcorn processing building burned to the ground.  They had to start all over with what wasn't destroyed.  B-rad & Brian had to purchase some of the land their parents owned after the fire to keep it in the family.  (So at the ripe age of 18, B-rad bought 200 acres.)  In the following years, their dad phased himself out of the farm.  B-rad & Brian are it now.  Sometimes our nephew Brady helps them now that he's old enough.  He's 15 & 3/4 & will be able to drive legally soon.  They farm about 1200 acres total.  That's a LOT, people.   (The boys own a total of 700 now & we rent the rest from other people.  Which we pay those people for...)    

Recently, B-rad & Brian purchased their parents farm (aka 'the barn') which included another 300 acres.  (Even though their parents phased themselves out around in the early 2000's they still maintained ownership of the 'barn' & the land.  They decided to sell it to the boys about 2 years ago.  Their parents still have a place there on the farm that they live in when they're here.  They drive a semi so they are gone a lot or stay on the houseboat.)  That's the hub of the operation.  It has the barn (duh) where they work on equipment & 8 grain bins for storage.

Ginmommy asked:  So, a serious question....what would happen if the weather destroyed your crop? Is that possible? Like hail or a drought? Would you just be sol? I assume you get paid for the crops, right? Or is that wrong?

YES it is most definitely possible & in fact, is happening right now.  The answer is 2 fold.  Yes, we are sol (which for those who don't know is shit outta luck) & yes, we can get some compensation.  Without going into too much detail about actual dollar figures, we have insurance on our crops.  However, we would MUCH rather have a good crop than get the insurance to pay out on the policy.  Anyone who has dealt with insurance knows that:

 A) it's a pain in the ass to mess with 

and B) having whatever you had before your claim (house, belongings, vehicle, grain) is usually worth WAY more than what insurance will give you for it.

For example:  If our crop insurance bill is in the $100,000.00 range (& YES.IT.IS), then if we are deemed to have a $70,000.00 loss - we have to pay a $30,000.00 bill.  They do not give us the cash for the pay out. 

If the Federal government declares areas our fields are in disaster areas we will get some moolah from them as well.  However, again - not as much as if we had a crop to sell.

Amanda wants to know a bunch of stuff:  (she's my kind of gal...)

1. Was hubby a farmer before you got married? Like did you know what you were getting in to?

 B-rad has been a farmer since he was VERY young.  They tell me stories of when he was like 3 years old they would put him in the drivers seat of the truck, (with pillows to prop him up) put it in gear & let him drive in the field while they picked up rock.   

When we met he was in high school so he wasn't as immersed in it as he is now, but I knew what I was getting into.  I used to ride in the tractors with him for HOURS because that was the only way we got to see each other sometimes when we were dating. 

I always maintain that I knew what I was getting into when I get mad because he's 'too busy' for this or that.  And that's true - I did know... but I still reserve the right to complain about it.

2. What kind of crops do you guys plant?

We raise corn & soybeans.  But the corn is not like sweet corn you all are thinking about.    B-rad could explain it all to you - but he's a punk & won't comment.  Our corn (if we have any this year!) is currently contracted to be sold to Tyson's in Ramsey to feed the chickens that you eventually eat!  (So you can see why when people start bashing farmers I get pissed.  Farmers feed everybody - even in a round about way...)  The soybeans we take to Consolidated Grain which is off the Clark Maritime exit off 265.  It's right on the river.  They load the barges, send us a check & I have no clue where they go or what they use them for.  Years ago we grew a type of soybean that crayons were made out of.   Your kids are welcome...

3. What do you do at harvest- like do you sell the entire crop at a warehouse kind of thing or the farmers market??

Great question!  We do not sell at farmers markets because what we grow isn't a 'from the field to the table' kinda thing.  

We are lucky to have as much storage space as we have to house our grain after it gets harvested.  They are called grain bins & most farmers don't have near as much space as we do.  This allows us to play the market with prices & sell when the price is up. Farming is a gamble in more ways than one.  

WE don't set the price of what we'll be paid for a bushel of corn.  Like-we don't say, "Hey Tyson's chickens - we'll sell you some corn for $4 a bushel!  Sound good?"  No, no, no.  The stock market decides what we will be paid.  Isn't that crazy?  If you sell a car YOU decide how much you will take for it.  Not so with our grain.  Again-that's when it comes in handy to have all the grain bins.  We can hold onto it if the price is too low & we can watch the market so when/if it goes up - we sell.   

4. Are your crops very profitable? Like enough that you guys could live off of what you make just on the farm? Does Brad work another job in addition to the farm?

More good questions.  There's no black & white answer to are the crops profitable?  Sure, on an average year we make money.  (And by make money I mean break even...more on that in a sec...) But it takes BIG money to put our crops out.  Like 6 digits worth of big money.  So like this year - we spent 6 digits putting it out only to watch it burn up in the field.  We will NOT make our 6 digits back out of it to cover the cost this year.   (How will we pay our bills then?  UHM, not really sure?  We'll cross that bridge when we come to it.  I don't worry about stuff like that.  I can't do one.single.thing to change it & worrying about it doesn't do anyone any good.)

Here's what I'm talking about when I say 'break even'. The boys are relatively young farmers so most of our equipment, ground, etc has a loan on it.  (We didn't inherit our ground.  It was NOT handed to us on a silver platter.  We have loans on it.  We inherited some equipment from their dad but is was old & worn out years before that so now the boys are having to invest money into newer, updated equipment.)  The boys have never collected a 'salary' from the farm.  (That's not to say that the farm hasn't paid for things sometimes instead of it coming from our personal accounts.  Like tires on their pick up trucks...which they use....for the farm...) I consider a 'good' year when the farm can pay for itself.  Meaning we don't have to put in any of our personal money to pay some of the bills.  That has happened before...& it sucks...  

Recently the bill for our land payment came due.  This is for the 200 acres that B-rad & I own together.  The top line is the annual payment...the bottom line is what we have left to pay... 

UHM yea, THIS is why B-rad farms....we do not have $13000 just laying around...

Of course we live on some of those acres so essentially he is working for where we live.  Sheesh, no pressure..

It's not free...he definitely pays a hefty price.

Yes, B-rad has another full time job besides the farm.  He has to be up at like 4:30am or something stupid.  He works in a machine shop all day & then comes home to work on the farm until 10:30 or 11:00 at night during planting & harvest.  His lifelong dream is to be able to quit his 'day' job to stay home & farm full time.  (That's just crazy talk if you ask me, but he LOVES it!)  However, you know B-rad has become accustomed to a certain lifestyle...& well, I want silly things like a roof over our head, groceries & electricity & my salary just won't cut it.  They are working towards finding a way for the farm to support paying B-rad to work there full time.  Brian is a bit apprehensive to make that leap & I can appreciate that & this year will NOT help B-rad's case at all.  No crop, no money, no B-rad salary....

This is where we live!  I know ya'll love my ghetto white lines marking where our field is!  That's the 112 acres where we live.  The other 100ish acres we own is in another county.  Our house is there in the corner on the right.  It is a seriously massive field.  Right above the bottom white line is a grayish line - that's the road we live on.  We have a lot of road frontage. (which according to my mother in law is good...)   It is one of the biggest 'all together' fields we farm.  When he plants or harvests here it takes a day or 2.  (Most our other fields are around 50ish acres.) B-rad works really hard for this & what other mid 30ish aged couple can say they own THIS?! 

And yea, ok -  the view is crazy cool.  

(Don't mind the helicopter spraying...it's the only pic I could find on quickly...) 

 It's lush, rolling hills of green in the summer...

And towards the end of summer, it becomes the perfect scene of a crisp, fall day...

I wanted to show ya'll where the 'barn' is in relation to our house.  You read about B-rad being there all the time.  It's about 3 minutes from our house.  Start on the right side of the screen at the yellow marker & follow the blue line to the orange marker on the left.  

(B-rad will NOT be happy with that pic of the farm on Google Earth.  It was taken in June 2010.  Notice the dark places in the green on the left?  We had some seed issues that year & he had to go back & re-plant it.  This really shows where the seed did not come up!)

The barn is marked at the top (yea, I did that...fun, huh?). This is also where some of  the 300 acres we bought from their parents a couple of years ago are located.

 The storage bins are towards the bottom.  (They are the gray circles.)  This is where the grain gets stored.

And I left the best farming questions for last.  

Alicia asked:  Do you ever make out in the tractor while you are out there all alone? I want pictures!

Typically I try NOT to ride in tractors anymore.  My butt is too wide & too old for the crappy places I have to sit.  B-rad comes home every night so (most) nights I'm able to talk to him for a few minutes.  There are some nights he's out later than I stay awake.  If I get really bored I will ride around with him but there is no making out.  Poor B-rad...

And my FAVORITE question of all comes from Denise:

Will you and Brad will the farm to your future children? What if your future children don't want to farm?

We will not be willing the farm to our future children.  I say to hell with them.  They haven't worked for anything - they don't deserve it.  If my future children don't want to be farmers, screw 'em.  Kids are so ungrateful nowadays....

Thank you so much for asking your questions.  I am obviously passionate about this farming life of ours & I love explaining it to people who have no clue how it all works.  If there's anything else you want to know especially about what we're going to do with the farm when we die & leave it to no one please feel free to comment!  Thanks again!