Friday, August 17, 2012

Where Would You Farm?

I thought this was a great thread in the Cafe.

"I've always been a grass is greener on the other side kind of guy in my head. always wanted to move somewhere else to farm when i was younger. Thought it would be easier to get started. I've now realized that i have enough trouble with all the help i get from my family and neighbors now, i would be a failure if i just loaded up a trailer and moved somewhere and tried to start farming......

just for fun though, tell me where you would consider moving to to try and start farming, and why?

3 places i always considered were
1. North Central Missouri, where my grandma is from. for years i would read info on there about land prices that were half of ours, but as i grew up i realized how much year to year varied. it always seemed like they were 2 days away from a flood, or a complete disasterous drought. and the terraces.... my grandpa worked very hard to take out trees and fence rows on our farm allong with us. and i shutter when i drive out there now and look at all the crooked field edges and terraces to farm around.... though i still get the "bug" when i go out there to visit. its a good thing my family doesn't own any ground out there still, or i'd likely be BROKE!
2. Western kansas, i always thought that if i had irrigation i would be set. our water table is too low in my county to irrigate and i thought that if i lived in western kansas that i would have it all figured out. but after these last few years i have realized that sometimes no matter how much water you throw at it you can't combat mother nature.

3. Norfolk Nebraska..... a friend of mine from college and I thought we were going to set the world on fire. i work in a steel mill here in indiana and in norfolk there is a mill i could have tranfered to. My friend was going to get a job at the mill in indiana with me and we had a plan to work there long enough to transfer to nebraska. where the ground was 1/2 as much at the time. we thought we;d be able to buy a cheap house and live dirt cheap and invest all our money in ground..... luckly for him he didn't end up taking the job at the steel plant in indiana and is faming full time with his family. as for me i would have likely gotten home sick soon!

I've since realized i'm much like other young part time farmers trying to make there mark on the world. more times then not patience is more important that anything......

So, where would you farm and why?

Ed

2 comments:

  1. Vanilla Plantation, Gulf of Dulce, Costa Rica. You can walk out the door and pick an orange off a tree. They taste better fresh.

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  2. Illinois would have been my first coive but today it would be southeast Iowa. Hey David, picture uploader shows on this Xyboard.

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