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At the 7 Oaks Farm in Southern Oregon, about a half hour drive south of Grants Pass, Doreen Bradshaw watches as her family farm changes. Her kids — and now her grandkids — are battling with the decision: do we farm, or do we not? This is in some ways an age-old question as children who have grown up on the farm decide whether to stay in the business or move on to other pastures. Farmers all over the country are getting older, with the average age in the mid-50's. In Oregon, as many as half of all farmers and ranchers may retire in the next ten years.
Doreen Bradshaw has four kids. One daughter is a teacher and another owns a golf shop. Her son works for Hewlett-Packard. And her fourth daughter stayed on the farm and manages it with her husband. According to Doreen, the farm can really only support two families anyway, so everything has probably worked out just right. But why did the children who moved on decide to? And how does the daughter who decided to stay feel about her decision?
Doreen Bradshaw is kindly hosting us at her farm for the next in our special broadcast on the rural economy, but we'd like to hear from you too. What's your experience with farming? When did you decide to take it on, or leave it behind?
Note: This show is part of our Rural Economy Project.
Tagged as: farming · rural economy · southern oregon
Photo credit: Cassie Wieden — OPB
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For the perspective from 3000 miles away, here's a great audio slideshow about a young dairy farmer in Vermont who moved back to the farm after a short, unhappy stint building houses in Pennsylvania. The land may look different there, but the issues aren't.
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My husband and I purchased a 50 acre cherry and pear orchard in the Columbia River Gorge on April fool's day 2002 in our early 30's. My husband has his Master's degree in Horticulture and I attended the Pennsylvania Governor's School for Agriculture as an urban teenager. As a teenager, with basic introduction to agricultural economics, I thought farm life would never be the life for me.
After purchasing our farm, we converted a portion to winegrapes. It was important to us to keep things diversified and not establish a mono-culture that would make us vulnerable to shifting crop prices. We also have some livestock, poultry, and a small market garden.
We are part of the new model of farming. We both have jobs off the farm (I am a part-time Family doctor and my husband is a wine-maker). My husband farms with two employees and we spend all our extra time gardening or preparing meals from our garden produce, eggs and milk. We are fortunate that garedning and cooking amazing food is our hobby. You have to have a passionate love for the earth, food, and being stewards of the land. In the new model of farming, you simply cannot approach the business of agriculure as a way to get rich, because the farm will gobble up as much money as you give it. Agricultural life pays you with community, sustenance, beauty, and a sense of purpose in the world.
We don't know if our kids will continue in this tradition, but it will be their choice. In my unique perspective as a small town doctor, I see elderly farmers who have successfully handed their farms off to the younger generation and others who sell their farm or take it out of production.
We will continue to farm despite the extremely demanding work ethic, long hours, and poor profit margins because we love this life and we cannot imagine doing anything else. Wendell Berry, one of our household icons, provides inspiration: "We lose our health-and create profitable diseases and dependences-by failing to see the direct connections between living and eating, eating and working, working and loving. In gardening, for instance, one works with the body to feed the body. The work, if it is knowledgeable, makes for excellent food."
Maria
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There are strong migration tendencies among a modern population: The Migration from Farms to Cities. From Poor Jobless regions to Richer Booming regions. And from sprawled dysfunctional cities to the more desirable smart green cities.
In the Past 100 years we have emptied out the farms and populated our cities. And it starts when the high school graduate leaves for college, gets married, goes to graduate school, gets a first job, and never returns.
Farming is long hours, high risk, loneliness and hard work. And many who tasted it retreat to the comfort of city dwellling, white collar employment with generous benefits, and boutique organic farmer's markets. I don't doubt some few and elegant and Jeffersonian -minded gentlemen and gentlewomen return to the farm, but it hardly compensates for the massive talent drain occuring the opposite way. People want their morning NYTimes and cappechino, not an udder in sore need of milking. And the work continues 24/7/365. It is a Romantic Ideal that few can afford.
Many choose to return in smaller ways. Living in the city with a weekend country home or retreat...like Manhattanites heading to Long Island or the Catskills on weekends. Growing backyard vegetable gardens and orchards, some of which approach fairly large quarter or half acre. Having a flock of laying chickens. Providing for a colony of carpenter bees. Maintaining a small potbelly piglet. Participating in a Community Garden on a reclaimed vacant lot. Maintaining a composting garden and a city of earthworms. Re-landscaping your front lawn so it is productive and can help supplement a city soup kitchen.
Modern mechanized farming is more industrial than gardening. It is as profitable as it is souless.
Populated dynamic cities are too good an idea to abandon. High density living with smart urban transit has a smaller enviormental footprint. And Cities are just too compelling interesting places with lots of interesting and smart people in a compact area. Would you leave Portland for a Harney County farm? One quarter of the US population resides in the 10 largest cities.
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My wife and I have started a farm this past October. We started raising pasture-raised laying hens for eggs and have added raising pasture-raised chicken and lamb. We will add cattle soon and turkeys for thanksgiving.
My wife and I both received degrees from Oregon State. I believe one key is that we can combine our education and continuing education with knowledge from current farmers to produce healthy land, food and people. While this work doesn't require a degree, it does require the ability to think outside the box and solve problems. We cannot let other people think for us.
Young people want to farm but they have been tought that there is no money in farming. What we have learned is that directly marketing to your community enables the farmer to gain more of the food dollar. This, along with stacking multiple complementary enterprises on the same land, enables a farm to support a family. Luckily we have proven successful models like "Polyface Farms" to model after.
If I may counter a few points:
Farming is lonely:
- Our farm is far from lonely. People visit and we interract with our community. There are customers to interact with and animals to share the land with.
Farming is risky
- Farming is *much* less risky if you start small and stay out of debt.
Farming is long hours
- Farming takes a lot of work and it is typically on opposite ends of the day (for animals) but it isn't necessarily "long hours."
Populated dynamic cities are too good an idea to abandon
- I have nothing wrong with cities. Many of our customers are in cities. However, if everyone lived in cities no one would live in farming communities which supply food to these cities. I would love to see a mutual-respect grow between people who live in cities and farming communities. We both have much to learn from one-another.
People want their morning NYTimes and cappechino, not an udder in sore need of milking
- With current technology (think smartphones, tablets, etc.) I can sip my coffee and read my NYTimes (or any other newspaper across the globe) while I "milk my cows" in the milking parlor.
We've noticed a growing contingent of young farmers. We are very encouraged by this and it is exciting to have young friends our age who are farming full-time. There is hope.
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Farms are lonely places but still a few will seek them. But many more would just as soon read about them or write about them. Just like longing for Sailing the Seven Seas.
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My Husband and myself are young farmers in Eastern Oregon who can not aford to buy a farm and were not born into it so we lease ground as well as work in town. It is our dream to one day have a place of our own and that is why we choose a life of hard work and long hours. Farming is no longer the simple lifestyle it has been made out to be. As a small farmer being able to aford the rising costs of seed, fertilizer, equipment and everything else you have to have another job. Finding ground to lease that hasn't been gobbled up by the big farms has become almost impossible. We have been working at it for several years now our progress in the profession seems slow. We have often questioned our choice, but the hope of someday being self employed and owning our own place has so far won out.
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Answer to the question what will happen to Oregon's farms: Corporations corporations corporations. Big ones.
The up and coming generation as a whole is not taking an interest in the maintenance of it's own society. There are exceptions of course and there seems to be a higher food security consciousness today evidenced by the local, organic and slow food movements; the Eric Schlossers, Michael Pollans; farmer's markets, etc, but these phenomenoms' patrons are mostly of baby boomer age and even at that only a minority of Oregonians/Americans are engaged.
Face it: people have tuned out. Our society offers too many simple distractions and temptations for people to care en masse. Whether it's evironment, climate change, governmental affairs or our food future, this society is abrogating that responsiblity to others. People - except in very small numbers - are not taking control of their own destiny. That void will be filled by those with the motivation and resources to do so and that's the major corporations.
I hate to be a pessimist but show me evidence on a major scale to the contrary.
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My husband Dave & I became farmers in our 30's quite haphazardly. We had a real estate opportunity to buy a 40 acre ranch here in Central Oregon, pitched to us as turn-key. All the hay equipment, irrigation equipment was here and with some basic instruction we were told, we'd be ready to go. But as every 1st generation farmer with zero experience knows, it's just not that easy. In the last five years of trying to get this ranch operable and flourishing we have sought information and education anywhere we can. Our biggest struggle to date is attempting to have the books come out even at the end of the year.
I read all the time about people who buy a piece of land and within a couple years are living off profits made on the farm. As a lifelong entreprenuer I pride myself on making money from my own ingenuity. But I cannot fathom how anyone can pull it off in this lifestyle - perhaps the reason itself that the agricultural life in this country is dying. The price of equipment alone is disheartening, then there is maintenance, seed, fertilizer, water rights, utilities not to mention labor!
It is a shame that the government models and regulations do not support the family farm ideal - and hasn't for the last 30-some years. The USDA has structured itself to keep the little guy down despite how much they want to contribute to their community. We dream of earning our income solely off the farm - I don't know if that will ever happen as long as we have a mortgage.
Yet, the local farming community here in Central Oregon is really at a crossroads of growth. Dave & I have discovered a whole network of young, local, 1st generation farmers like ourselves who really want to make a change for the community. It seems we all know that seperately we will all struggle, but perhaps together we can implement some more public access and change for the little guy. The old-timers and aging ranchers around here seem to keep to themselves and do not divulge the secret to their success, which may be contributing to their demise. If there is a future for small Oregon Agriculture I think it is going to have to be a collaborative effort for all of us.
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Seems like you are on the right track, common sense is to pull the farming/ranch community together to make the whole stronger. If the old timers are not willing to share keep at it, their knowledge is essential to be passed on. Good Luck and Thanks
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I don't think their is a secret they worked hard and have been broke their whole lives. The only thing they seemed to accomplish is to make there real estate payments. In most cases they had to file for bankrupcy a few times. This is a direct quote from my Dad who would fall into the "old-timers and aging ranchers" category.
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My wife and a few of our friends are interested in starting a small farm, but none of us grew up in farming families and from the outside is seems overwhelming. Do you have any advice for us? What are some available resources that will help us start this journey? Do you know of any mentoring programs where older, experienced farmers mentor younger farmers with little or no experience?
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Big step, and a fabulous adventure awaits you! Here's a simple first contact to get started - Friends of Family Farmers http://www.friendsoffamilyfarmers.org/. They hold monthly gatherings in the Metro are to share and learn, connect people with resources of land, tools, ideas, and advocate for the small farmer. OSU also has a Small Farms program http://smallfarms.oregonstate.edu/beginning-farmers is another interesting place to go for information and perhaps find a Small Farms Extension agent to talk with.
Good Luck! I'm excited to think of you taking this step. We need more of you. Maybe I'll get brave myself, one day....Karen
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Go right to your County Extension Agent, they have the answers to the questions you are asking.
Long ago we Liberals set up the extension programs to help support farmers, doing crop research, and all of what it takes for people like you. OSU has departments set up to help you out.
The Federal Small Business Administration probably has business type information for you.
There is a lot of information and support for you, so Dig In!
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Two things:
- Going to a farm and volunteering with nothing expected in return is a great way to get experience and learn a bit about the farming community.
- I have found that reading books is helpful ( for example, "You Can Farm" by Joel Salatin).
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I grew up on a corn and soybean farm in NE Kansas and was the only son in my family. My father was any only child so there was a lot of pressure on me to take on the family farm once I was old enough. I went to college and got an Ag Degree and eventually came back home to farm with my dad for two years.
Unfortuantely, working with my dad was quite frustrating and it was ultimately the primary reason I moved on from farming and now work in IT in Oregon. My dad owns all his land and equipment and has no debt. Its a perfect senario for someone my age to get into farm. It pains me that I'm not farming but I still can't deal with working with my dad. I miss the lifestyle but also enjoy my career in IT.
I'm curious how other young people have delt with this problem. It seems as though every time I try to work out the issues with me and my dad it just ends up in denial on his end. He's quickly reaching retirement age (although most farmers farm until they die) and keeps expanding the farm.
Lance from Corvallis
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Hi Lance,
I read a good book called "Family Friendly Farming" by Joel Salatin that may be of use. I hope I can pass down a farm to my children some day, allowing them to do what they think is right (even if I think it's wrong). :-D
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Farming is great, it is a perfectly acceptable business and life. What is not great, occurs when we try to turn farming into a moral obligation, a romantic ideal or some-kind of sentimental duty. The difficulties of farming tie in with the difficulties of rural economies in general, and the difficulties small businesses face in competing with a global marketplace.
The rural economy is what it is, exactly because of what it is, a small market. There are not a lot of people---not a lot of clients. Rural economies shouldn't be expected to do well, how can they? Or how could they? This is not the result of something small communities did wrong, or large communities did wrong, it is the way of the current world. It doesn't seem particularly complicated or even interesting, it is just the matter-of-fact nature of less people, spread over large areas---isolation is simply harder to sustain unless you are specialized, or so basic you are a necessity. Is it like the difference between selling lemonade on your block or in the middle of the food court at the mall. It is only obvious where you are going to have a harder time making a go of your lemonade business. To me living and farming in a rural area could be seen as a luxury---you are going against the odds. The people and companies that seem to succeed in rural areas, are the ones that in effect are outsourcing their clients---or they are relying on tourists to come to them. But either way they are rarely existing because of their own communities, or their own local customer base. There is nothing wrong or right with either way, with rural or urban living, one is just more of a gamble. Rural living and farming are more of a risk nowadays because of globalization, everyone has more options everywhere, so it is harder to compete on a small scale, for all of us.
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My husband and I are growing pears and cherries in the Columbia Gorge. The farm would have been big enough to sustain a family 30 or 40 years ago, but not now. We both work full-time, professional jobs off the farm.
One of our preteen children has an interest in continuing to farm, but the other doesn't. I am afraid that there isn't enough earning potential for her. She realizes already that if she wants to farm she will have to have supplemental income.
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Is there any truth to the legend that the way to become a millionaire farmer is to start with $25 million?
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Our decades of descent into Conservatism is just killing off our small farmers and other small businesses. Fanatical De-Regulation has just turned loose giant predatory Corporations which have put small farmers out of business and consolidated their lands into Giant Corporate Ag-Businesses like ConAgra, Monsanto, etc.
We really ought to return to Liberalism and regulate our economics, our tax and financial systems to skew back to supporting farmers and small businesses. I belive that we as a nation are a lot better off with great numbers of small farmers and small businesses, keeping many people in small business and small agriculture and supporting families instead of giant Conservative Corporations.
During the few decades after the Great Depression, when we had Liberals in government, we had great supportive programs for small farmers and small businesses. To paraphrase Marty McFly, let's go Back to the Future!
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By bringing in the conserative and liberal lables you are reinforcing division. I would imangine many farmers are conservative, by nature they need to planning for all the challenges of farming.
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Jem, my point is that the Liberals have always been on the side of the small farmers and the Corporatist Conservatives have always been against them.
Conservatism is a very carefully crafted set of lies designed to get people to vote against their own self interests and for the interests of Giant Corporations. So a vote against Government Regulations just turns the Giant Corporations loose to prey on the small farmers and small businessmen. And the small guys always lose in any battle against Corporations. Why can't the small guys trying to farm and do business see that?
We need President Lincolns' idea of "Government Of The People, By The People, and For The People", not the Conservative idea of "Government of the people, by the Corporations, and for the Corporations"!
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You need to decide whether you want to be in farming for the long haul or if this is just whimsy.
I have been in agriculture since I bought an abandoned nursery in 1985. It is a long hard struggle to survive, that's what a farmer hopes for, survival.
Ultimately, without off farm income, we couldn't make it.
For young people, you need to be realistic, when the crop is coming in, you have lots of friends that want to aplaud you for you efforts, but those people are far and few between when the real work happens, on a cold, wet and rainy sunday morning; when something has gone terribly wrong, and your ability to survive also depends on your ability to solve a problem without help.
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My daughter and son-in-law have a small organic farm outside of Dayton, Oregon. We moved to the state to be close to them and support their hard work as they returned to the honorable profession of farming. Up untill now we have lived 15 miles away. Last year an opportunity came up to purchase a small farm right next door to their farm. After much serious reflection of life goals and values, we decided to buy the farm and will move to join them in the next six months. We are recreating an old fashioned family farm. The joy of being there for them, our grandchildren, raising my sheep and sharing good quality organic food is indescribable.
Will we all be financially rich, no, but we will have a richness of life that others can only dream about. We consider our family to be truly blessed. We learn from our children every day.My daughter and son-in-law have a small organic farm outside of Dayton, Oregon. We moved to the state to be close to them and support their hard work as they returned to the honorable profession of farming. Up untill now we have lived 15 miles away. Last year an opportunity came up to purchase a small farm right next door to their farm. After much serious reflection of life goals and values, we decided to buy the farm and will move to join them in the next six months. We are recreating an old fashioned family farm. The joy of being there for them, our grandchildren, raising my sheep and sharing good quality organic food is indescribable.
Will we all be financially rich, no, but we will have a richness of life that others can only dream about. We consider our family to be truly blessed. We learn from our children every day. -
When you look at it, at history, our current Conservative Corporate Ag-businesses look an awful lot like Feudalism, gad what an ugly thought.
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Good point. Coporate business is not just in agriculture, government is setting agriculture policy and even more ugly corporate is in the business of government.
The President is calling for new energy technolgy, sustainable farming is renewable energy technology. Fortunately there is a movement for change that has been in the works for decades, it is finally becoming mainstream in the nick of time as we are running out of pertolium and obesity is an epidemic.
The young people on the program are ahead of the curve and need to think big business organically, seize the opportunity.
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It sure does look like feudalism doesn't it? If history repeats we are due for a revolution.
PEOPLE! This isn't a drill! This is a real crisis and it's time to foment some rebellion. Let's at least march in the streets.
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My wife and I moved out of the suburbs a year ago to a home on three acres. We love our new place. My thought is to put up a green house that is ran on solar energy, grow organic produce and sell locally. I'm a 35 year old small business owner and would like to make a transition to farming over the next five years. If the greenhouse works out possibly expand to a larger piece of property.
Any tips greatly appreciated.
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TOL the other day was about growing pot and one guest said that when he advised people about how to grow good pot, they called it "tomato talk" because they are so similar. So maybe you could reverse that and talk to a pot advisor and use the advice to actually grow tomatoes. Pot growers have really studied it out, so you might as well learn from them.
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Fortunately Oregon is an oasis. We have almost 100% family owned farms, even if they are corporate. We grow over 250 different crops here, and we have a population that is very supportive of buying local. However, about 90% (I would guess) of the food grown here in ORegon is exported to other states or around the world, because our yields are so high and our population is so low. After growing up in the Bay Area, totally a city girl, I got a degree in hort from OSU and have been farming on a small scale for the last 30 years. I have been involved with supporting young farmers and passionately believe that we need young people to carry on. Vegie
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Neither my husband nor I grew up in a farming family or even in agricultural regions. I grew up in the suburbs of Seattle and he grew up on the Oregon coast. Yet, as young adults we felt called to an outdoor, active vocation. We worked for two seasons on an organic farm in Bellingham, Washington and then took the plunge and moved to Oregon to start our own small farm in Yamhill County when we were in our mid-20s.
We’re now in our fifth season growing organic vegetables for our CSA. We own our land and make our entire income off of the farm. Given that the majority of American farm families rely on off-farm income for at least a portion of their livelihood, we consider our small but stable farm income a big success.
But it’s been a lot of hard work to get to this point. At a time when our peers were getting seemingly stable jobs at companies offering salaries and benefits, we stepped out on our own and took big financial risks by becoming self-employed. We went without health insurance for a long time and still only have a major medical plan, which is scary with a new baby in the house. However, now many of our friends who went the ‘traditional’ professional route have since been laid off while we’re still chugging along and growing our farm. It’s a ton of work and we have to motivate ourselves to work through challenges, but it’s been worth it. We love our work and lifestyle and have learned that we are tougher than we ever would have imagined.
When we were starting out, we wished longingly that we had grown up on farms or had land in the family. We had so much to learn and build. We’ve since changed out mind and become grateful to be first-generation farmers. Even though we had to start from scratch with knowledge, skills and resources, we also started our farming career free from baggage. We didn’t have to inherit our parents’ farming mistakes or debts. We were able to start small, at a scale we could handle, and then grow bigger as our income and management skills allowed. I think that taking over an existing farm is a huge challenge for a young person. I admire folks who are able to do so, and I hope that more step up to the plate as our current generation of farmers ages and retires. Oregon needs farmers!