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- Thread starter SoapyCy
- Start date
Morning coffee at the local Caseys
January
Meet with seed/chemical/consultants/fertilizer reps and finalize purchases, move snow
February
Mostly insurance meetings, lender meetings, finish taxes, move snow
March
Working on equipment and getting things ready
April
Planting season, tile repair season
May
Planting
June
Spraying, mowing
July
Spraying, get harvest equipment ready, mowing
August
Spraying, get harvest equipment ready, mowing
September
Harvest
October
Harvest
November
Tillage and get things ready for winter, tile work
December
Meetings and wrap up anything that didn't get done already.
Those are the typical timelines. During any months, hauling grain that was binned on site will occur. I would say that can eat up about 2-3 months of time, pending where you haul it.
Livestock, typically 1-3 hours a day if you don't have dairy cattle. While I have hired help for the chores, I do many of the repairs at one of my livestock facilities and that can be nothing for a month to about a full week in a month. Hay guys would have cutting and baling season also.
Many farmers I know have some off farm employment. It can be totally different or they haul grain for cooperatives, sell seed, sell or repair equipment. That weaves into the non planting and harvest seasons also.
Meet with seed/chemical/consultants/fertilizer reps and finalize purchases, move snow
February
Mostly insurance meetings, lender meetings, finish taxes, move snow
March
Working on equipment and getting things ready
April
Planting season, tile repair season
May
Planting
June
Spraying, mowing
July
Spraying, get harvest equipment ready, mowing
August
Spraying, get harvest equipment ready, mowing
September
Harvest
October
Harvest
November
Tillage and get things ready for winter, tile work
December
Meetings and wrap up anything that didn't get done already.
Those are the typical timelines. During any months, hauling grain that was binned on site will occur. I would say that can eat up about 2-3 months of time, pending where you haul it.
Livestock, typically 1-3 hours a day if you don't have dairy cattle. While I have hired help for the chores, I do many of the repairs at one of my livestock facilities and that can be nothing for a month to about a full week in a month. Hay guys would have cutting and baling season also.
Many farmers I know have some off farm employment. It can be totally different or they haul grain for cooperatives, sell seed, sell or repair equipment. That weaves into the non planting and harvest seasons also.
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where is walk to the mailbox for gov check? or is it direct deposit now?
Tables? Farmers don't need tables. They'll all gather in Casey's parking lot around a brand new $90,000 pickup truck, drink coffee, kick a few tires, discuss grain and livestock futures and the price of condos in Florida.Not during the 'rona. They pulled their tables.
(just ribbing farmers, I have wealthy farmer relatives that I rib a lot and they love it. Gives them a chance to reply back about how hard farming is and how they are going broke all of the time!) They're great people-Cyclone fans!
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It's not a whole lot, I never really pencilled every minute down. I would say if you wanted to average it out over the month, 1-2 hours a day when you throw in driving time. January is a slow month.
Reminds me of a story my Dad told me awhile back. He's at the tiny bar in our tiny town and there's a drunk guy in there ranting over how lazy farmers are.
Drunk guy blurts out "you work three ****ing weeks in the spring and three ****ing weeks in the fall."
Dad replies, "three weeks? You need to get bigger equipment." It did not calm the drunk guy down.
Hauling grain if you store it
We also spend a lot of time picking up rocks in the field in May & June
You lazy ass holes don't even have to drive your own combines!
And ***** about the weather.
First I doubt many full time farmers don't also have livestock. A lot of them have all the farm jobs. For example, my 71 year old dad farms 400 acres and works full time at an outside job (often with a lot of OT), so while the winters may be slower farm wise, you are just kind of catching up.
If someone has livestock, the winter months are usually a bigger pain in caring for them---everything takes longer. Think about how much time it takes a person to clear snow in a normal house in a town. Now think about how long it would take to move snow along a big driveway and a whole yard. The other thing to remember is that a lot of years you are still doing field work well into November and you hope to start again in March. So you don't really have a lot of months of downtime.
Really depends on the type of farm. Grain only, or livestock and grain. Livestock and grain is more complex and time consuming year round.
the size of the operation is also a big factor.
the size of the operation is also a big factor.
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