55 Years And Counting From The Tractor Seat

By Bill Whitman 

 I’ve seen some really hard times in my life – the late ’70s and ’80s were devastating to the entire agricultural industry, especially grain and dairy farms. From my perspective what we’re facing today is yet another “Perfect Storm.” With rising prices for grain, inputs, equipment, land and labor, grain farmers cannot anticipate a profit this year or for the next two years. Add to this the cost of operating money at high interest rates, and the stress levels individually and within farm families are going to be tested.

Unlike my generation, we have a labor force that isn’t focused on the trades but on “clean” jobs that allow workers to go home after they punch off the clock. Even equipment companies are having difficulty in keeping experienced service techs on the job. The problem is that the men and women that come out of agriculture are valued by the blue-collar employers because of the work ethic and honesty inherent of farm families. As I see it, lack of loyalty to the labor force by business administrators transfers to lack of loyalty to the brand. It was recently pointed out to me that a brand dealership in northern Michigan was paying their mechanics $45 an hour while charging over $250 an hour.

To save costs, we should increase our in-house equipment repairs. Paying dealerships thousands of real dollars to change the oil and diagnose simple breakdowns is something every farm can do for themselves. The challenge is to look at your expenses last year and objectively look at what you could have done yourself and use that number to determine if doing more of these jobs can put enough money in your bottom line to make it a viable option.

I can also see a couple of intangible benefits. Getting intimate with your equipment can pay dividends as you can assess for yourself when equipment/parts need replacement. No one has more invested in your equipment than you do so you need to take as much on yourself as possible. The second benefit that I can see is that turning wrenches can have a therapeutic effect on your mental health. When economic stressors are constantly bombarding you day after day, working on your equipment can give you a sense of accomplishment as you complete even the most basic of jobs. Emotionally, accomplishing projects daily, successfully, helps maintain a balanced mental attitude as you approach other economic challenges that do not have easy answers.

With the USDA itself predicting that one in four farms will be gone at the end of this year, you can easily see that the stress involved will unfortunately lead to a rise in mental health crises’ on the farm. In an industry that already has high numbers compared to others, we can only imagine what an increase will do to our communities. I personally have known three farmers over the years that have chosen suicide as their way out. I’m betting that most of you have similar experiences.

What can we do to help ease the stress driving our neighbors to such extremes? I suggest that we will see a period of time before us that will require that we support each other, as I’m pretty sure the days of making money are on the shelf for a couple more years. What I am sure of is that they will return because the country and the world still need to eat.

IndianaAg@bluemarble.net