Friends Don't Let Friends become farmers but if you really want my advice, I don't think it is a bad idea

My lovely and gracious wife has imposed a quarantine. My ribs and back ache from coughing. However, I think I am well as I am worried about getting my work done.

I have ordered a lot of parts for the grain drill and I must install them. I don't have much work lined up but it needs to be ready to go.

This worry is a good thing. Not to belabor a long dead horse but... But after spending eight years at a dead end job, it is nice to have "performance" anxiety. Plus, my unemployment just ran out so I really am on my own time!

I have been on my phone a lot while propped in a chair trying not to cough. There are lot of earnest young farmer videos on my Boomerbook and instagram feeds.  It is always the same jaw. High prices for materials and land, low commodities prices, high intrest, rates, high rent, old guys not turning loose, and now there is just a hint of resentment towards megafarms.

Many modern farmers secretly love megafarmers as we all think we have the special key to farming better than anyone else. We don't... 

It seems to me that nerve, cleverness, luck, and just being willing to start over from nothing multiple times is really the key to anything.  Every potential farmer should memorize this advice from my favorite disillusioned colonialist. (Yes, you can be a woman farmer and apply this universal advice)

There is also this poem which I feel has relevance to any of my nephews who may stumble across this blog.

He wandered down the mountain grade

    Beyond the speed assigned—
A youth whom Justice often stayed
    And generally fined.

He went alone, that none might know
    If he could drive or steer.
Now he is in the ditch, and Oh!
    The differential gear!

But I digress..

My problem as a farmer is that I never intended to be a farmer. I just came back to the farm one summer and never left...

I was like many of kids I met working at the College, I didn't know what to do with my life and my parents thought going to college would raise my status. I caught the beginning of the modern Disneyesque fallacy of "follow your dreams," and didn't listen to my parents advice to pick a good career.

Follow your dreams is an excellent idea/goal if you have a solid background to build from. If you do not really know what you like, if you are interested in lots of different things, but are not especially talented at one thing, being told to follow your dreams is failure. 

I should have become a teacher or professor.

I grew up when people thought college would change your life and when people believed you could do anything you wanted with a classic liberal arts education. This was true for some of my friends who went to Colleges where they could change their social caste or build ongoing relationships. I went to George Fox University and Rosedale Bible College. I have no interest in bland modern interpretations of Christianity, I don't like modern worship music, I did not become a member of the Friends Church, or a "politically conservative, theologically challenged," Mennonite, or a douchey white Liberal. 

I somehow accidentally became a grumpy farmer...

But that was a lot of rambling to set up a background so I can say that if I was a young person who wanted to farm in todays world, this is what I would do.

There are three paths to intentionally starting out as a farmer. 

You can work your butt off for your parents and neighbors and build up your farm as you are able. If you get a job with a successful farmer a lot of times they will help you get started. 

You can get a job out of high school and get a retirement account started early, save up money, build credit, learn a trade or skill which you supplement your farm income.

Go to college...

Going to college is the long route. If you go to a trade school, you can start making good money and start a retirement account. You might also look for jobs in the agriculture sector. For example if you are a carpenter, diesel mechanic, welder and work with farmers you will build relationships and get opportunities to pick up ground from an insider perspective. 

If you get a four year degree, for the love of Pete, get something useful. Focus on Accounting, Science, learn how to write grants, study crop science, biology. If you can put up with the BS, try environmental science or forestry. (Of course there are always exceptions. I knew a student who majored in archaeology that was essentially recruited out of college and has a great government job where she gets to travel and gets paid well) 

I also know of young people who got two year Agricultural Science degrees from the Community College, or four year degrees from Oregon State and got jobs in ag related industries and used that to leverage into farming.

When you decided to farm you have to make some essentially philosophical decisions. Are you going to follow the "go big or go home," path or do you want to build slowly.  

Either way you have the advantage of the USDA young farmer program where you can get low interest loans and other help. (This is where I went wrong. I did not take advantage of this program and expand when I needed to do so.)

I am not going to elaborate on the "Go Big Or Go Home," concept as I am not a plunger. I am going to use more what I wish I would have done.

(Also, don't ditch your first job to go to Costa Rica and then just screw around for several years. This is a bad plan...)

When you really start thinking about farming you have to look at where you can fit in to make extra cash. 

When you plant a crop, you may have one or two years before you see a return. When you find ground that you can afford to farm you will soon see reason why it was cheap. It may be wet, have 4.1 pH, have serious weed issues, be on a 10 percent slope, or just be a lot of small odd shaped field. This is fine, if you have to do it you have to do it.

But, you have to have cash flow and you will have to have a skill that you can rent out to other farmers. Truck driving is an excellent option as a Farm Endorsement is easy to get, but if you have a CDL then you can have more options. Although, I would recommend staying in the Ag community as they best way to get ahead is though relationships that you build. Welding, electrical, accounting, carpentry, are all good side gigs.

Don't fall into the new equipment trap but don't hold on to junk. 

You will have to finance key pieces of equipment, especially if you are doing custom work.

When I started doing custom no-till planting I financed the drill.  However, I rented it the first year and figured out a business plan. I lined up twice as many acres as I needed to make the payment. I used a Minneapolis-Moline G1355 that I paid $4,000 for several years previously. 

I soon discovered that I needed front wheel assist. I then bought a 1984 White 2-155 with 6,000 hours and nice paint for $17,500 and that was probably a mistake due to my lack of nerve. I should have gone one step further and bought the 1990 185 White for $25,000 as I still have that 2-155 and have put two engines and another like 8,000 hours on it.

1972 White 2-60 cost $2500. New Holland BC5070 was financed at $12,000 ten years ago and it is time to be replaced. Purchased baler because I had a deal to supply 10,000 bales a year to a feed store at $2.25 a bale. Paid for the baler. (20% down and 5%, paid for it over 3 years)

I just looked at this baler to replace my old one. It is newer and has a heavier frame and better hydraulics. Price per bale is now $4.50 to feedstore but can probably only sell 3,000 bales per year.  I passed on the purchase price of $25,000 (10% down and 7 percent on 5 years)

Previous century White tractors with cold a/c and a lot of hydraulics. This year I rebuilt one powershift and replaced a front axle, have another front axle to work on, another powershift to rebuild, a lot of electrical issues, hydraulic leaks, really wish I could upgrade to a Case/IH 7250 or a White 4-270 (and a 2-110 FWA or a decent condition 105 for the mower and baler)

The only thing I have ever found that made money reliably and I am sorry to see it end. This 2-155 has seen two Great Plains 1500 no-till drills. I really need to update the drill but out of my  original customers three are dead, two have retired, two bought their own drills, plus the government payments have changed, and chemicals are so expensive you might as well work the ground.

But I digress...

What I want to say is you have to realize what makes money. Your tractor must be reliable but there is no shame in pulling a $20,000 baler with a $2500 White 2-60 with no cab and air conditioning as long as you have the sales to make the payment.

Focus on fertility and pay attention to trends. Right now the new buzzword is Regenerative Agriculture. It is a pretty broad term but if it means more sales of Buckwheat and Annual Ryegrass and more grant opportunities, I am interested. If I am still sick, or if I am driving in circles I am going to attend these webinars.

Interact with other farmers. I tend not to. Friend networks are so important. Small farmers need to work with people they can trust. I can't tell you how many times I have hired neighbors to haul hay or unload trucks or asked for advice, only to lose my customer or lose ground.

Don't hold a grudge, but don't be a pushover. Its great to be nice and helpful and carry people who can't pay but some people will use you for self financing. Don't let it happen twice. But, don't be mad for more that one season.

Finally, that USDA beginning farmer loan program.  Use it.... If I would have had the balls to buy a farm with it 30 years ago I would be a millionaire right now. Or two balers and a stacker, or rented good ground. It is there to be used. Also, I realize I only have ten readers a week but if you are female or not a White Male, the USDA desperately wants to give you money. Take advantage of it!

The best advice I was ever given.

Know who your friends are, No one cares about your money like you do, Some people just like to talk... They are NOT your friends.

Have a happy day!

It finally rained and I am sick...

I have been planing like mad for the last week.We have had a dry fall. I should have plowed.

But plowing takes time and money. Although, making eight passes with a heavy disk also costs a lot of money and doesn't bury the straw.

Today I had planned to help Muddy Valley with packing. However, I suspect he doesn't want me to show up with a serious cough, body aches, head ache, minor temperature, and no energy. (I doubt he minds if I am also grump.)

Crop prices or terrible. There is nothing to grow that will make any profit at this point for next year.

We have ten acres of grain corn which part is going for whiskey and the rest to the local feed mill for maybe $250 a ton. I was going to grind some for my neighbor. He has been setting on it for a year. I have very glad I didn't buy any for $450 a ton as I would still have it.

I have a friend with cows and I think I am going to put all my bags of grain together and make him a mix, sell it cheap, and sell the mixer grinder and pellet mill. It is not so much that there is not money in it. I am just tired.

We planted Timothy for hay, K31 Fescue (which can go for hay for seed) and Annual Ryegrass. Annual Ryegrass is not a good price but it is cheap to grown and seems to actually sell. Annual is used for cover crop and as long as there is price supports for cover crops in the Midwest I am hoping for a market. 

I want to grow buckwheat again next year as it is an excellent rotation but the people we grew it for this year are pretty sketchy so I don't know.

I experimented with Birdsfoot trefoil as it is nitrogen fixing and tends to reseed itself in hay fields. $250 for fifty pounds so it is an experiment.

My next project is hopefully 40 acres of Orchard Grass but it is getting late and we need to spray out the annual ryegrass in the field (annual ryegrass is a weed). They sprayer is broken and it is mid October so who knows.

My neighbor who grew lots of Orchard Grass before getting a real job has been giving me advice on planting. It is much different from the advice other people have. 

I guess it is a difference in attitude. This guy is precise and methodical. What I have found do work really well is just planting really heavy.

He suggested a seed inoculant which contains soil microbes. Sort of an instant compost tea. It is called Recharge and it is really super expensive, (as all good snake oil should be.)

It is mixed at 4 oz per 50lbs of seed. I was going to buy a cement mixer from Harbor Freight to mix it but they were sold out. I just used a stick. I put the magic powder on one side of the drill so we will see if there are trails in the field.

The product was a little short on application instructions and long on propaganda so I don't now if I did it right. The first mix I made for the Timothy I mixed water with it to make a liquid and then stirred it in. The rest I just dumped in dry. I can't remember if I used it on the K-31. 

I got another miracle grow product from the local Co-Op for that and planted half the field using that product in the liquid fertilizer.

Who knows....

Hay season, my unlikely sprayer, the state of Oregon thinks I am always on vacation

When I decided to build a sprayer to fit in the back of my salvaged John Deere Gator I never thought it would be as handy as it has proved to be.

My imaginary plan after my daughter's graduation was to complete my Agricultural Turf Certification, buy a few key pieces of equipment and do work for local parks and school districts and conservation districts. It was probably a good plan but after breaking my leg and then launching into the farming season I suspect this will never happen.

Building the Gator Sprayer was as far as I got.

I use it a lot. It is perfect for spraying fence rows and field borders. I have used it to apply hay preservative as the auto rate control is really useful. 

Friday I used it to apply Glyphosate to our five acres of Bourbon grain corn. The wheels fit down the rows! 

I need to build new booms as the one I bought do not hold up to rough fields and I need to put a bigger battery in it. If I don't have 14 volts on the meter, the electric valves start closing on me and mess up my spray rate. Of course I had to use five boom sections which at 1.5 amps per valve does add up to a voltage drain.

Spraying the booze corn! (and wishing for rain)

Hay season is not as fun as it once was. I hoped to pick up some custom stacking but the jobs so far have not been great. Hillsides and swamps. With breakdowns included.

A hydraulic line under the cab leaked all day without me seeing it and I lost brakes and steering at the top of a steep hill. It was not that bad a ride. But, after that I went home.

I did have a great view!

Now I must write my weekly letter to "Frances," explaining that if I were still employed by the University, I would not be on vacation.

Oregon Frances Unemployment-my fiasco continues

Have you ever spent 5 hours on hold? 

Last Monday it rained and so I decided I should work on my Unemployment benefit payment which is an utter joke.

There is a toll-free number which if you ever succeed in accessing, will solve all your problems.

I started dialing at ten minutes to the 9 a.m. opening time. I would get a busy signal and then immediately get cut off. I hit redial after every disconnect. 

I repeated the process for a hour until I finally got through to an automated phone tree. I put in my info and the automated voice told me to expect a two minute wait.

I was on hold for four and a half hours.

This was not terrible. I put the phone on speaker and I did the dishes, four loads of laundry, fed the chickens, pulled the PTO on a White 2-105, attempted to pick up my tools, and then I saw my wife was home for lunch.

She suggested I drive in to town and show the folks at WorkSource Oregon that I was permanently on hold. I think it might have been that the only hold music was starting to drive her insane. Especially after I started whistling the tune some what off-key.

So I drove in to town.

The WorkSource people were not unsympathetic but went through the whole process of explaining that they were unable to do anything about it and solving benefits issues was not their job. I might as well tell DMV my problems as I would get the same result.

I explained that I knew that this but DMV cannot access my Frances Account and make notes or interpret cryptic messages from faceless benefits administrators.

So they logged me in and made notes and told me to just stay on the line. 

I went downtown to the Liquor Store Harbor Freight and looked at the screwups in mowing the practice field at my former job. I was in the drive through line at Burger King when the line was answered.

I gave my information and explained that I had proved my identity many times and asked for help.

The lady asked if she could put me on hold for 15 minutes while she researched my problems. I said, "no problem!" She seemed surprised but didn't press the issue. I was overjoyed at only 15 minutes on hold. 15minutes is nothing after 4.5 hours...

I went through drive through and got my Whopper.

She came back on the line and said my issue was just a box not checked and asked if she could fix it. I said "please!"

When I got home I saw that my claim status for the week had changed from denied to under review. 

A week later it says "paid."

I still have not seen any money or a payment card in the mail.

This weeks claim has been flagged as due to the fact I worked at an educational establishment they suspect I am on summer break and they can't pay me on summer break...

It is a wonder anything gets done at the State of Oregon...

When the only tool you have is a hammer, every problem looks like a nail- Planting Timothy with Great Plains 1500 no-till drill

I planted Timothy yesterday. I had worked the ground a couple weeks ago right before a good rain. The plan was to get a sprout, spray out the weeds, and no-till the Timothy into a stale seedbed. 

I had a choice of three grail drills. 

My favorite is the 1953 MM drill but it is only 9 ft. We also have a mid 1970's John Deere that is 12 foot but I hate it. 

But, I do have a Great Plains 1500 no-till drill and it is hooked to a very comfortable tractor with heat and AC and it is 15foot wide.

The problem with the Great Plains is that is has so much down pressure it is hard to regulate planting small seeds.

The small seeds box has separate tubes which drop behind the v-openers and right in front of the press wheels. There is so much down pressure that in loose soil the v-openers dig a trench regardless that I have the press wheels set as far down as possible.

It did not work.  The field looked like I had disked it.

Outside round is with down pressure. Second round is without. You can also see the difference the harrow makes.

Harrow vs no harrow?

I had removed the harrow on one side for repairs and left it off because I suspected that the harrow was responsible for burying the seed. This was true. Without the harrow the seed was the right depth but it was at the bottom of a two inch deep trench. This is good for a dry summer but not good for a hay field.

The Great Plains 1500 no-till system is two parts. There is a three point style drill with press wheels and heavy down pressure springs. This is then mounted on a cart which has no-till coulters and a hydraulic lift.

To decrease my down pressure I added cylinder stops to the main lift cylinders.

I added cylinder stops until the v-openers quit digging a trench. I also blocked down the drill wheels but the small seeds turn so easy there was no problem with the drive wheel slipping

This worked quite well. I was able to reduce the spring pressure on the drill to the point that I was no longer digging a deep trench. I left one harrow off to see it that would help.

After planting I flat rolled the field to conserve moisture. 

Flat rolling to conserve moisture. I suspect it won't rain again until we put hay down

Well Poop...

It was probably too early to cut hay anyway...

I had a plan. Today was supposed to be Sunny! I was fluffing up the hay when suddenly it rained. I suspect hay making is over for today, and for another week...

It was actually really nice looking hay. Had $150 worth of inoculant on it...

Some people don't like Conklin Proserve. We have used it for years. I usually add another quart of molasses to it. I suspect it just makes me feel better. But adding molasses is always a sure bet, animals can smell any amount and they love our hay. 

My current plan is to go fishing. 

My wife went to Church. I stayed home...

Oregon's New Unemployment Program has a clever name but doesn't work. Frances is a slow learner or just more administrative dysfunction

My unemployment misadventure is becoming less entertaining.

I have collected zero unemployment benefits. This is not the end of the world for me as I don't pay rent and I have a freezer full of beef. However, there are people in Oregon losing their homes because of the failure of Frances.

Frances is the clever acronym for the new Oregon Unemployment Insurance benefits website. It went online March 1st of 2024. It was not a complete failure, only a partial failure.

I expect any new software to have some bugs but the problem with glitches in the Frances website are compounded by the structure of the State of Oregon administrative state. 

If something goes wrong with your claim, there is no reliable way to fix it. Sure, the spokesman will say there are several options for help built into the system. That is true. But they actually solve the problems people are having.

There is an online chat icon. I think it is an owl. It bounces with enthusiasm when you ask it a question. I found that despite the nice graphic, it is mostly programmed with stock answers to imagined questions. There is supposedly a live chat also but I have very mixed results with that option.

There is a phone number to call for help. The phone number is always busy. If you get past the first busy signal then you get a second busy signal and it hangs up on you.

There is a message feature that is a little hard to find. This is NOT email or text messaging as you might imagine. You write a message in the Frances website and you are assigned a number. You may or may not get a speedy reply. You must use that number with all correspondence. 

I found it is best to list only one problem at a time and include your phone number. At first there was a really good chance of getting help. I spoke on the phone with a couple people and they really helped me. However, they called me as I had included my phone number in my message. Now they don't even answer my messages.

The live helpers are limited in what they can do. This is also the problem with going in to a WorkSource Oregon location. The live people I talked to were very helpful. They could all look at my account and see possible problems, but they could not fix the problems,. Apparently there are caseworkers behind the scenes who make the decisions and they are separated from the real world by a wall of bureaucracy.

Also, I suspect those caseworkers are actually contract workers in India.

My problems with Frances started March 1st. 

Suddenly, my password would no longer work. I could not prove my identity but I was in the system. It took a month but I found someone who helped me. I can't really talk about that made a promise. I was lucky.

I can now log in. And whhile I missed the March unemployment because I couldn't record my job search, I was eligible in February and April forward.

Every week I log my job search and every week I get declined. 

The letter states that since I worked at an educational institution Oregon law requires that I verify that I am not on spring break. (I swear I am not making this up) I have filled out questionnaires asking me this question. I have written messages stating that I worked in facilities and we work during spring and summer breaks, I went as far as to point out that even if they didn't want to pay me for the week of spring break, there were no Schools that had a three month spring break!

I have written messages online. I tried to file and appeal online. I even wrote an actual letter and sent it though the US Postal Service.

Last Thursday I went to WorkSource Oregon location (again) and I bought my letters and I ask for help. The fellow was a little grumpy which I don't mind. I actually prefer grumpy and effective to happy and a bit dim. He dives in to my file.

After a lot of muttering behind his computer he comes up with this diagnosis. Someone keeps denying me benefits because they think I am on spring break. My former employer may be objecting to my collection. of benefits but he can't tell if that is the case. He didn't think they had responded yet.

So I went home and email the head of the University HR and asked her. I got a very nice and very quick reply. They were not objecting and she was going to log into Frances from her end and see if she could fix the problem. 

We shall see...

In other news:

I have been working like a dog! Unfortunately for me, I cannot charge for my work as I must not have any income or I will have serious insurance problems. I have been helping out neighbors and building a sprayer. As long as my diesel tank is full and someone helps me load bags, I am good.

I no-tilled oats in a little valley that I never knew existed

I am building a sprayer for the Gator. Since I have no income I have been using up all the parts I bought on sale and buckets of leftovers from other projects. It is going to be interesting. A seven nozzle sprayer with a five section auto rate controller, gps speed control, and output for my FarmerGPS guidance system. Pretty much overkill for a 15 foot RTV sprayer and a 50 gallon tank!

Friends from Church invited us to an Alabama tribute band concert. It was absolutely entertaining. There were old folks dancing in the aisles. Plus they totally rocked. They also ROCKED really black wigs. Our friends said they have been going to tribute band concerts. They saw a Eagles cover band and a Led Zeppelin cover band. This might be a good plan. They tribute bands are fans and they love the music. They were not bored with playing the same songs. It is also cheap. You are not paying $150 and up to see a group of 80 year olds mumble through the words. Of course the bonus real bands is might get to see Bono have a heart attack on stage. This is also the bonus when you watch Joe Biden eat an ice cream.. But I digress...