What Real Farmers Say

From what I’ve seen, being in a mix of industries, having several businesses, the kids want nothing to do with it because they’ve had a negative experience from it. I see parents working their kids, but never paying them anything. Or constantly berating them for the work they do put in, because a 16yr old doesn’t do the quality work a 45 yr old can do. 

It’s okay to have chores that are their responsibility, but when they are 16, running the grain buggy, plowing stubble, or loping horse for 8-12hrs a day, sometimes both in a week, they’re doing a full days work, and deserve a full wage. At that age, you should also be discussing the future… how will this place move forward, are you interested, will you stay with it? Kids shouldn’t work for free. If they have the understanding they’re working towards something that will be theirs in the future, it’s an incentive. But so many parents don’t include their kids in the decision making, don’t teach them what it takes to manage, and don’t prepare them for the future. So the kids feel like they need to go out on their own to make their own place. Then they discover that most places pay more than minimum wage and only have an 8 hour work shift that’s not 7 days a week, a retirement plan, often with insurance.

If you want the farm/ranch to stay in the family, you need to plan accordingly, same as planning crops in the spring, or planning grazing strategies for the herds. Teach those kids the skills they’ll need, and make it a two-way conversation.

— Cow-puncher77 (406 upvotes)

Aging farmers are to blame.

When Dad insists on farming until death, 50yo kid either works on the farm and can’t afford to keep it going or builds a business and life off farm and isn’t willing to start over when Dad dies.

— ExtentAncient2812 (237 upvotes)

My Iowa wife’s father, uncle and brother all passed away since 2021. They worked the family farm. Of the two sons left in Iowa, one has chosen a life in academia, the other, not very ambitious, has had a succession of different jobs. The 3000+ acres of their farm is now cut up among two sides of the family who are now estranged from each other. As someone who grew up in a big city, I had the opportunity to view farm culture up close for 30+ years. First of all, in deference to farmers, it’s a risky business and it’s hard not to be sympathetic when you take into account the variables over which they have no control. So, in terms of why kids are reluctant to stay in the family business, there’s that. And then there’s the changing world around them. My wife’s father was born in the early 1930’s and the awareness of life beyond agriculture was very thin. With a smartphone in hand, farm kids now have all the temptations of a seemingly more varied and glamorous world in the palm of their hands. Why stay in a small community where little happens and the population is shrinking? Lastly, there is the failure of the older generation to do a better job of motivating their kids to stay in agriculture. Sorry to be critical, but my wife would be the first to say that farmers can be incredibly non-communicative, stubborn, and set in their ways. I watched the interface between three generations in an Iowa farm family and the breakdown in continuity with the youngest was painfully obvious.

— cbjunior (192 upvotes)

Yeah, growing up with a poor work/life balance with nothing to show for it will do that.

— Original_Bicycle5696 (60 upvotes)

Yeah usually the family business can’t support multiple people full time anyway. Hats off to the folks who work full time jobs AND farm on the side.

— Pitiful_Objective682 (44 upvotes)