Retiring?

[Nora]

Have you considered when you'll call it a day and retire from farming? Do you have children who will take it over or will you sell it off? My husband and I are dealing with this now. We've already cut down considerably on our operation because we just can't handle it anymore. Our children visit us often, but they've made their lives in the city and aren't enthusiastic about rural life at all. I think we would've retired by now if one of our children wanted the farm. It's just so hard to imagine letting it go. What's your plan?

 

[RichZ]

My wife and I made the hard decision to sell our farm this past year. Luckily, for us, farming was never our main income, but selling our farm of over 100 acres with 5 barns and moving to a 9 acre small (for us) place was hard. We still have a huge garden for our own use and have a few critters as pets, and chickens for eggs, so we're not totally out of farming, but we really don't sell any farm products anymore. Well...we may sell some eggs next year, and maybe some veggies, but that's it. It's really hard to get farming out of your system.

 

[greg]

My wife and I made the hard decision to sell our farm this past year. Luckily, for us, farming was never our main income, but selling our farm of over 100 acres with 5 barns and moving to a 9 acre small (for us) place was hard. We still have a huge garden for our own use and have a few critters as pets, and chickens for eggs, so we're not totally out of farming, but we really don't sell any farm products anymore. Well...we may sell some eggs next year, and maybe some veggies, but that's it. It's really hard to get farming out of your system.

I cannot imagine what you felt after selling your farm since we tend to get attached to our farms. As you say, it is hard to get farming out of your system; it becomes second nature after a while. We have not yet made plans to sell but have ceded most operations to a management firm.

 

[RichZ]

I cannot imagine what you felt after selling your farm since we tend to get attached to our farms. As you say, it is hard to get farming out of your system; it becomes second nature after a while. We have not yet made plans to sell but have ceded most operations to a management firm.

Thanks, Greg. It was one of the hardest things we've ever had to do. The worst was re-homing our goats, sheep, llamas, horses, etc. They were all beloved pets to us. We didn't sell ANY of them, but found them all loving homes. Even though we had a fairly large goat dairy farm (125 goats) they all had names and we were attached to ever one of them. The same with our sheep, horses, etc. That was hard, but I've had 3 back operations, and my wife has fibromyalgia, and we just couldn't do it anymore.

 

[Digger]

Farming is my second career, or so I like to joke. I got remarried and had more children and I'm hoping those two will take over someday. I guess that's the dream at least. I'm not sure that I could handle not working at all though.