Last generation in your family to farm?

[Bennyboy]

My grandma and her husband were farmers and ranchers. We used to churn butter and make homemade ice cream. Not for the novelty but to eat. Herb used to raise and butcher his own cattle,sheep etc and we used to milk the cows.

[LostInAnomie]

1. My Grandparents.

Families simply can't make it on smaller than 100 acre farms anymore.

[Kali]

2. still here

hope my kids will be able to as well
they are 5th gen on this place

[Bennyboy]

4. That's cool... I have a friend that is an almond farmer

multi generational, huge family. Up by Chico.

[murielm99]

28. My husband farmed until the mid 1990s.

We don't live on the property. Now, we have other people farm for us.

It is very hard to raise a family today on the income from a small farm. But we will never give up the property. My kids have vowed not to sell it, either. They all loved it when we still farmed.

[Enthusiast]

29. My mother was born

on her father's farm. The farm is still operating and owned by family members.

[Bennyboy]

42. "splain to me Lucy" other people farm for you?

Wht do you mean? They live on the property, use the tools and equp and then share the profits?

Where is this?

[murielm99]

64. They rent from us.

It is a crop share agreement. They get paid based on the prices and yield.

One of the guys is a full-time meat inspector. He farms several properties in his neighborhood. The other one is my husband's former college roommate. He has his own farm, and he farms ours, too. That is how small farmers survive in today's world of big agribusiness.

These two live on their own farms and use their own equipment.

[Bennyboy]

66. Thanks. Clarified!

[cherish44]

3. My husband's family were ALL farmers

His dad and all his brothers and sisters ended up on a farm. Now his generation I'd say out of 11 grandchildren, maybe 4 are still active in farming. Out of the probably 25+ great grandchildren again maybe 4 are still involved in farming. Around here there are no small family farms anymore. It's all big corporate operations now owned by a few very rich and powerful families.

[Tuesday Afternoon]

5. Still have cousins and uncles farming

I hope we always have farmers in the family. Grandpa would roll over in his grave if we didn't. :D

[Iggo]

6. To OWN a farm? Who knows?

But we were working on farms long before la huelga. And some of my cousins still do.

Pretty sure that's not the farming you meant, though.

[NMDemDist2]

7. my grammy was a farm wife and hubby's parents and brother still farm

:hi:

edit to add, they are big wheat farmers in eastern WA/western ID

[Petrushka]

8. Sold our farm a year ago . . . too much for a new olde widow to handle alone . . . [n/t]

[Mythsaje]

9. My dad (or myself)

because we had a little ranch when I was a kid.

[handmade34]

10. me --and hope to again

[Brother Buzz]

11. My grandfathers father was a winemaker in Napa Valley

He and his father (my great-great-grandfather) farmed the grapes. GGG also raised grapes for his neighbor, Charles Krug.

Phylloxera, or grape root louse, ended that venture around 1888.

[Adsos Letter]

21. I worked in The Valley for 30 years...

I think phylloxera is still an issue; I have seen mega-acres of vines torn out and replanted with resistan root-stock over the last decade.

[Brother Buzz]

63. Yes, phylloxera is here, in fact it never left.

St Georges rootstock, a louse resistant American rootstock, was the fix after the first plague (1880s) and it worked well for years with some inherent problems I won't go into here. It suffices to say it was OK.

Then in the sixties, the eggheads at UC Davis recommended the use of rootstock AXR-1 for higher yields. At the time it was louse resistant. Despite repeated warnings from France and South Africa about its susceptibility (it had failed in Europe in the early 1900s), it became the preferred rootstock into the early eighties.

AXR-1 ultimately succumbed to phylloxera in the 1980s because the louse had mutated. A new biotype of the pest vigorously attacked the rootstock that made up most of the post-1960 plantings, AXR-1 included. Serious dollar are being spent replanting!

As it has been explained to me, the ideal management (Because the louse is not going away) is to do what they did in France and spread the risk among varied rootstock.

Note: St George stock was generally unaffected. The louse and the American species of grapes (St George) have been coexisting for millennia, and have co-evolved and no doubt continue to do so, in other words, they have a long history of reciprocal responses, the grapes evolving chemical and other defenses and the insects reacting by evolving ways of circumventing these defenses. My experience St George roots are smaller yields but good quality grapes.

[Silver Swan]

12. I grew up on a farm.

My father was a farmer, but he had four daughters and no sons.

My sisters and I did not marry farmers, but the farm stayed active in our family for fifty years after my father died in 1954, because my mother still lived there and rented the land to neighbors, under crop share agreements. When our mother died in 2004, we sold the farm. I would have loved to keep it, but I couldn't afford to buy out my sisters' shares.

My cousins are still farming, but they are nearing retirement age and I don't know if their children are going to continue farming.

[Arugula Latte]

13. My great grandparents owned a farm in northeastern Ohio.

My grandma grew up on the farm, helping out, so I guess technically she was farming. My mom has fond memories of spending summer weeks and holidays on the farm.

My husband grew up on a farm in Illinois, but none of the kids from that generation are still in farming.

[Aristus]

14. My great-grandparents.

My grandfather was born into an Alabama farm family, but he became career military. My grandmother was also born into an Alabama farm family, but she became a Pentagon civilian employee and an instructor on public speaking.

[madrchsod]

15. both my grandparents till they married...

and my mother until she was 20. most of my mom`s relatives were farmers and their kids still farm.

[Mugu]

16. Both my parents. n/t

[rrneck]

17. Me.

And I don't miss it. It's honest work but you don't own a farm, it owns you. At least that's how I felt about it.

[SeattleGirl]

18. My dad's generation.

Had two uncles who were farmers.

[proteus_lives]

19. Great-grandparents on my mother's side.

Their children became town-folk. My father's family was pretty much all made-up of bankers, traders and business-people.

[Adsos Letter]

20. My GGG Grandfather and his son were farmers in Minnesota

The father was permanently disabled at the Battle of Vicksburg and was unable to work the farm any longer; his son served throughout The War, but became a doctor afterward. That was the end of farming on my mom's side.

My Great Grandfather on my dad's side raised wheat and hay in the Cutting's Wharf area south of Napa; my Grandmother had memories of being a little girl and bringing eggs into town to sell at market. They rode the wagon in when Napa still had dirt and gravel streets. That was the end of farming on that side of the family.

My wife's great grandparents, on her mom's side, were farmers in Missouri; I think her dad's side was pretty much always one step ahead of the law, so I'm not sure they ever had time to farm....

[Norrin Radd]

22. I'm 36. My father, born in '42, grew up in a family that farmed cucumbers

for Heinz. That was the last generation to farm in our family.

While tracing my lineage, I discovered that our patronymic line were farmers since the 1400's.

[pokerfan]

23. Myself

[Sheltiemama]

24. My great-grandparents, on both sides.

One of them used to own the land in East Tennessee that the late Alex Haley owned and lived on decades later.

[elleng]

25. I really don't know,

but it does seem to be in my father's 'blood,' somehow!

He's an attorney, as were 2 of his brothers; his father had a Deli in NYC, and Dad picked up cooking/food interests from him, I think. He/we had nice flower garden in NYC suburbs when we moved there, and he had a great vege garden in VT. SMALL plot of toms, and some fruit, in Florida, and he's just moved to Iowa (where my brother is) and Dad's growing tomatoes!!! (He's 95!)

[csziggy]

26. My mother's parents had a small family farm in Central Alabama

And my father's grandfather had a dairy farm in Upper Peninsula Michigan. Mom couldn't wait to get off the farm though we vacationed there until the civil rights marches in the 60s. Dad remembers vacationing on his granddad's farm while he was growing up.

And I sort of farm - I breed horses, or did until the market crashed. I may convert it to growing enough food for us, if I can physically do the work.

[TheKentuckian]

27. Greatgrand parents as adults, grandparents as they were growing up.

and my family is old. My grandmother would be 102. The greats would be around 130 or so.

[Orsino]

30. My grandfather. n/t

[Burma Jones]

31. All four of my Grandparents farmed when they were young

But they migrated North, the Men to work in the Steel Mills in Gary, IN., One Grandmother went to College and became a Nurse, the other Grandmother smuggled Booze from Canada during Prohibition to supplement My Grandfather's Steel Mill Wages and Bookie income, plus she had fun doing it.

So, they were farm kids, turned 18 and headed north.

My Paternal Grandfather retired at 60, divorced my Paternal Grandmother, married my Maternal Grandmother, bought 200 acres in Western Kentucky and raised Cattle, Hay and Corn. He farmed until he was 75 and died of Colon Cancer at 80.

My Paternal Grandmother was chief of OB/GYN Nursing at Methodist Hosp

My Maternal Grandfather died before he retired at age 62.

My Maternal Grandmother lived on the farm with my Paternal Grandfather until they moved to Florida, where he was diagnosed with Cancer. They then moved to Troy, TN for my Grandfather to live his final year in a small rural town, in farm country. My Grandmother then lived another 21 years in Troy until this year when she died at 101.

[semillama]

32. My grandparents as well.

They intended for my two uncles to be farmers, and my dad (the youngest brother) to be a minister.

None of that happened, to say the least. There aren't any farmers in my family now, and the family farm was swallowed up by urban development in East St. Louis.

[Rosie1223]

33. We're Back

Both sets of our grandparents were farmers. Then a generation skip -- my father-in-law was a factory worker, my dad a college professor. But my husband and I are back on the farm, working, in addition to our own acreage, what's left of his grandparents farm.

[Ex Lurker]

34. both sets of grandparents grew up on farms

my family has since played around with it, but mostly as a hobby.

[femmocrat]

35. Both sets of grandparents had small farms.

Chickens, vegetables, orchards, a cow. It was a necessity in those days with so many children to feed.

[pitohui]

36. still some of my generation (first cousins) farming

it is not a life i would wish on my worst enemy, god bless the army and the gi bill that got my dad away from it

[DevonRex]

37. My grandfather was a farmer and a teacher. nt

[Bertha Venation]

38. My father was an Oklahoma farm boy.

[dropkickpa]

39. A bunch of my family still do

[Blue Diadem]

40. My great grandparents.

I recently learned that they were farmers while researching our ancestry.

[HamdenRice]

41. My father, till he left for NYC just before WW II

My grandparents remained farmers till the 1960s -- of the very traditional kind. Never had a car, never had a tractor.

They had an old plough horse and plough up until the late 1960s. They had no running water, no indoor bathroom or plumbing, when I was visiting. They had a wood stove for cooking and wood pot belly stoves for heating.

I vaguely remember when they got electricity and telephone in the mid 1960s, but continued to use kerosine lamps.

They grew tobacco as well as food.

[AwakeAtLast]

43. My Dad still dabbles

He's 70 and takes care of pasture ground. He cash rents to the "young kids" to grow crops.

[mysuzuki2]

44. My grandfather, born in the 1890's.

He came to the US from Sweden as a toddler and his family farmed in southern Minnesota. He was drafted into the army in WWI and had never ridden in a car or seen a city until then. He never went back to farming. " How can you keep 'em down on the farm after you've seen St paul", to paraphrase an old song. He saw an immense amount of chamge in his 80 some years. When he was a boy he literally plowed with a mule,. Whe he died in the late 70's, we had gone to the
moon. He was a life long repub but I loved him anyway.

[SteppingRazor]

45. Depends whether you count step-family.

On my dad's side, my great-grandfather apparently owned a small fleet of fishing boats in Ireland and sold off the business to come here. His ancestors, from what I can gather, had been fishermen for as long as anyone knew, so no farming there.

On my mom's side, her people were city folks for several generations back. Her mother's folks were in show business, and her father's folks worked in a factory.

However, my mother's father died when she was very young, and the man I know as my grandfather (my mom's stepdad) was raised on a farm in West Virginia, one of a dozen kids. The place had been in his family for so long that the deed to the land was written on sheep skin. So, if you count him, hen it'd be his parents that were the last to farm.

If you don't count him, then I can't say, but it would go back to at least my great-great-great grandparents on my mother's side, possibly further.

[Jokerman]

46. I have cousins that still farm.

My Dad never owned a farm but he grew up on one and we all helped work my grandparent's farm in their later years.

[applegrove]

47. My grandmother was a farmer. A doctor's wife and a farmer.

[MineralMan]

48. My parents. They still own their citrus farm, although they

have it custom farmed these days, since they're 85. They bought it in 1971.

My father says that if he had a million dollars, he'd keep farming until it was all gone.

[elehhhhna]

49. Great Great Grandparents, in Holland --

then started using the carts to move things and people...now one of their biggest moving & storage companies!

[elehhhhna]

50. Great Great Grandparents, in Holland --

then started using the carts to move things and people...now one of their biggest moving & storage companies!

[LaurenG]

51. My dad - until he went into the Army

after that the farm was done, though my cousin still farms.

[bikebloke]

52. Great-great grandparents

They had a small farm in Fairfax County in the mid-1800's. I found the land through census records and an old map in the library from that period. Surprisingly, they hadn't built a 7-11 on it, so I walked the small plot that had turned into woods.

[Kickin_Donkey]

53. My dad ...

or me, as I grew up on the farm, helped out through my immediate post-college years, and lived on the property till we sold out in 2005 (although I never considered myself an active farmer).

My dad and this two brothers farmed a thousand acres of fruit and nuts in the Sacramento Valley until they retired and sold out four years ago to a corporate outfit. None of my generation went into farming.

It was a great life growing up on a farm, although I didn't bear the burden of being a farmer. I don't think my dad misses it one bit. It broke my heart when we moved in 2005; the family dirt was ingrained in me. But that's life, I guess.

[La Lioness Priyanka]

54. no one in the the last two centuries

[ashling]

55. My grandparents - both sides

My father in law farmed cotton and ran a cotton gin - I've worked on the farm and in the cotton gin

[Wapsie B]

56. Between rantings of how the evil liberals were ruining this country

and needed to be lined up and shot my dad did a little farming. But those days are over for him; the farming, not the ranting.

[MilesColtrane]

57. My dad's parents farmed.

The siblings who stayed, and their kids, are still farmers.

My mom's parent's didn't farm, but did have a garden and chickens. I think anyone who lived through the Depression and had any amount of land kept a garden and maybe a couple of animals.

[Zomby Woof]

58. My great-grandparents

They grew tobacco, among other things. My dad learned to drive a tractor at age 6, and harvested a plot of tobacco which belonged to his grandmother before he even hit high school. Later in life, they just maintained some basic produce and livestock, mainly goats. After my great-grandfather died 42 years ago, that was it for farming in my line.

[mwdem]

59. My grandparents.

They had cattle, chickens, and fields of vegetables. My grandfather owned a tractor, and when it didn't run, he'd rent out a mule and plow. I saw him do it more than once when I was a kid. They raised all kind of vegetables, and canned most. I loved growing up next to them.

[carpetbagger]

60. Great great great grandparents

Then they made all the peasants move to New York.

[Moondog]

61. Unknown. (They must be back there somewhere.) I seem to come from

a long line of city dwellers. I wish I could claim some farmers in there (they're so much more societally useful), but I cannot honestly do so.

[texanwitch]

62. My Aunt still farms, and I will.

I would now if I could, I got land that was farm.

The people who owned it grew cotton.

[Startup]

65. Not including growing pot... Grandparents. nt

[Xipe Totec]

67. Define family, define farm

My father's ancestors were miners, for at least 8 generations (1700's).

My mother's ancestors were cattle ranchers for as long or longer (1600's).

but I have relatives even today who work their farms, and we ourselves belong to a CSA, so technically, we are farming.


the question oversimplifies society's structure.

[livetohike]

68. My Grandparents on both sides - when they lived in Czechoslovakia

they all worked on a farm (for the man) and had home gardens. They emigrated to the states in the 1920's.

[wickerwoman]

69. Great grandparents had a farm in upstate New York.

My mom and her brothers and sisters played there when they were kids. Some of their cousins still have small farms but don't use them for their primary income (just sell Christmas trees and such).

[NickB79]

70. My dad and 6 uncles are all still farming

And I know at at least a few of my 20+ cousins will be farmers as well.

Hell, if the shit ever hits the fan (2nd Great Depression, for example), my wife and I plan to move back in with my dad and work the farm.

[Nevernose]

71. Granddad was a sharecropper until WWII broke out - I've got the last plow used on that farm

Storming the beaches at Normandy gave him the opportunity to escape that life.

When I was a kid he planted his backyard garden, about half an acre, with cotton instead of his usual veggies -- and made me pick the cotton. My fingers were bleeding after the third plant. Nothing teaches you as much about a person as much as a little shared blood does.

His father, whom I never met, 'cropped until the nineteen-fifties, and the last plow used on that farm (circa 1865-1955) is now mine. It's a nice reminder of where we come from and who we are.