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Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

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Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#181

Post by newzisforsukas »

stetrain wrote: post #70
driverdan wrote: post #33

Every time this topic comes up I say the same thing. If you've never worked on a farm and have some kind of romantic idea about it then you shouldn't do this. Farming is hard work. Modern farmers have college degrees, millions in equipment, and a vast amount of knowledge and experience you do not have. If you're thinking of doing this and do not have experience go work on a farm for a year before you buy in.

I read someone who retires and "takes up farming" as retiring to a house in a rural location and maintaining a garden and maybe some small quantities of livestock. IE someone who is not depending on the "farm" to be a commercially successful operation or is even attempting to run it as a profitable business. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_farm

> In the U.S., a high proportion of farms might be classed as hobby farms. In 2007, over 40% of farms reported less than $2500 in income and over 10% of farms had less than 10 acres (4.0 hectares) of land

Hmm, why?

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#182

Post by Y_Y »

perihelions wrote: post #81
tetris11 wrote: post #7

Twice in my life now I've thought about the effort I've been putting in to my various projects and the lack of satisfaction I've subsequently received, and generally thought about giving it all up and going back to my dad's goat farm (Note that a single goat can go for about €1000). Then I let loose for a week, touch grass, allow my mind to wander/wonder and - boom - a new coding project consumes me and I rekindle th…

- "(Note that a single goat can go for about €1000)" What a capricious market!

Lisa: Ha! Only one person in a million would find that funny.

https://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=dennis+mille...

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#183

Post by randomdata »

resource_waste wrote: post #36
teddyX wrote: post #26

Farming for fun is probably ok but farming for income sounds like a horrific idea

Yeah, the ROI is way lower than tech. You need capital for land (and if you are going to have this capital as a tech person, go invest it and get passive returns, or start your own tech company doing service work) + labor. Your labor is worth less, and close to third world wages. The economic value comes from improving the land with labor and tech. Your competition is paying the same wages. I know 2 people doing this…

> Yeah, the ROI is way lower than tech.

The classic risk-reward scenario. Tech has the potential for tremendously greater upside, but it is also insanely difficult to succeed in. Farming is comparatively quite easy. Your customer base is essentially guaranteed.

> go invest it and get passive returns

Technically farmland is an investment with passive returns. Other farmers will fall over themselves to rent it from you. If you choose to farm it yourself, you do not lose the passive return. Your farm income should reflect the rent that you would have otherwise paid if it weren't your land. Thus, in effect, you are still paying rent to yourself even if you don't formally account for it.

> Your labor is worth less

My tech job also pays me to farm. Double-dipping will always be worth more. However, even ignoring that, I make more per hour farming than I do in my tech job.

It is not very many hours, though. A hypothetical $10,000 per hour job doesn't get you far if there is only one hour of work per year to do. This is why making a living farming is hard.

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#184

Post by worthless-trash »

trevyn wrote: post #50
driverdan wrote: post #33

Every time this topic comes up I say the same thing. If you've never worked on a farm and have some kind of romantic idea about it then you shouldn't do this. Farming is hard work. Modern farmers have college degrees, millions in equipment, and a vast amount of knowledge and experience you do not have. If you're thinking of doing this and do not have experience go work on a farm for a year before you buy in.

Sounds like you don’t know how to farm romantically.

Do you swear at the crops in french ?

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#185

Post by ifwinterco »

bryanlarsen wrote: post #146
wsc981 wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

My Thai girlfriend enjoys her farm, spends a couple of hours a day to work on it. Of course, it's not our primary source of income, as that is my work as software engineer. For her it's a nice hobby. I don't think you'd need a degree anyhow. Plenty of stuff can be learned online these days. And you don't need a lot of equipment either, if it's just to take care of yourself or your family. Depending on your community,…

You don't need a degree, but if you want to make a good living while farming you need to compete with people who have both a degree and millions in capital invested. Farmers can make a lot of money, or at least somebody does. A single family Saskatchewan dryland wheat farm is typically worth $10M in land and equipment so either the farmer makes enough money to pay the interest on a multi-million dollar bank loan or e…

In the UK with arable you can potentially make money (although probably not), and it isn't a crazy amount of work. You plant crops in the autumn, spray them a couple of times, then it's too wet to get into the field and do anything during the winter even if something goes wrong. Only really busy time is a couple of weeks in the summer for harvest.

On the other hand, livestock farming is incredibly hard work (cows need to be milked 365 days a year) and you more or less always lose money.

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#186

Post by miah_ »

uxp100 wrote: post #173
synergy20 wrote: post #167

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Michigan might be cool in summer, what about winters? I need find a place for summer as I'm getting older and texas is just darn hot for 4 months in summer.

Michigan is not particularly cool in summer.

Right, it gets humid, but averages low ~80's. I'd honestly say its low ~70's, but this summer has been hot. I remember times when I was a child where it would still be snowing in May. Spring is also short, winter starts in October. I don't remember ever going out for Halloween without wearing a jacket, or where there wasn't cold rain or snow.

Michigan summers are much much milder (and shorter) than Texas summers (I lived in Houston for a few years).

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#187

Post by debacle »

newzisforsukas wrote: post #181
stetrain wrote: post #70

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I read someone who retires and "takes up farming" as retiring to a house in a rural location and maintaining a garden and maybe some small quantities of livestock. IE someone who is not depending on the "farm" to be a commercially successful operation or is even attempting to run it as a profitable business. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hobby_farm

> In the U.S., a high proportion of farms might be classed as hobby farms. In 2007, over 40% of farms reported less than $2500 in income and over 10% of farms had less than 10 acres (4.0 hectares) of land Hmm, why?

Because there's huge benefits to having a Schedule F on your federal tax return.

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#188

Post by riffraff »

jfengel wrote: post #38
driverdan wrote: post #33

Every time this topic comes up I say the same thing. If you've never worked on a farm and have some kind of romantic idea about it then you shouldn't do this. Farming is hard work. Modern farmers have college degrees, millions in equipment, and a vast amount of knowledge and experience you do not have. If you're thinking of doing this and do not have experience go work on a farm for a year before you buy in.

There's also the old joke about the farmer who wins the lottery. "I'm going to keep farming. And when the money runs out I'll find another way to keep farming."

I almost experienced this for real, when I was a kid I was working picking grapes in a vineyard and it was a terribly maintained one, you had to bend over and kneel etc. At the time the highest jackpot in history came up in my country, something like €50M

At some point the owner told us "I'm sorry guys, we'll fix this field. If I win the lottery, I'm gonna fix all of this, and I'm gonna hire a bunch of hot brazilian dancers to entertain us while we work".

It didn't even occur to him that he could stop doing it.

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#189

Post by scruple »

totemandtoken wrote: post #116
miah_ wrote: post #54

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Maybe they have saved enough from working in tech that they can grow vegetables for themselves in a very low scale way. Its nice to escape from the career you've had for decades. Sometimes its not even an escape from the career, but the career and the city you've lived in. Moving to the forest and growing some vegetables and raising chickens isn't that difficult. You certainly don't need "millions in equipment". Its…

It's always interesting to hear from people who moved to Michigan because the better part of my adult life has been devoted to getting out of Michigan. It sounds like you have a peaceful life though

I grew up in Ohio, and I did grow up on a farm for the first part of my life, and I worked like hell to get out of there and I'd never go back, but somehow a small farm in Michigan has become an idea in my brain, too.

Re: Neofetch developer archives all his repositories: "Have taken up farming"

#190

Post by baq »

zer00eyz wrote: post #107
baq wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

They should, it's basic insurance. You don't have to be a speculator, just understand that you're long the thing you're producing in the future so it makes sense to be short some future contracts to lock in your price in that future . (Just make sure your futures broker accepts delivery, otherwise there's funny stuff happening)

> They should, it's basic insurance. If you grow corn: It can be sold as a future, and you can have crop insurance on it. IM not sure you grasp what a future is in the case of a farmer... Now if your in construction, or buying fuel a future can be insurance. Or a risky bet. None of that is like your heath or home owners or car insurance.... unless you dont have them.

Yeah I mean if hail destroys your corn it's a different kind of insurance you should buy, I agree I guess? I mean there's always a risk of getting LME-nickeled if I may, but just hoping that corn has a reasonable price next year is also a risky bet?
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