Quitting good job to farm... am I the dumbest man alive?

There have been a couple of threads about quitting ones job so I thought I would share my situation. I have one more month at a good paying engineering job then I will be quitting to take over the family farm. A huge pay cut and more work. I must be the dumbest man alive, but I have only had one job since university and feel I must try something different. Plus if I don't go back my father will have to sell and I will end 100 years of my family farming Montana's golden triangle. Wish me luck.

man...tough call and good luck. a few things though, will you be taking over the property as well? that's worth some money. also, will you grow hops or barley?

Best of luck to you. At least you have a good education to fall back on. I suggest planting some hops.

The pay cut might be the hardest thing. I think the rest would be interesting. I keep telling the SWMBO that I want to be farmer when I retire, she laughs.

It's hard work, but there has to be some reward out of being outdoors all day and seeing the end product.

What exactly are you farming, and do you have a couple of acres to devote to hops to keep your fellow homebrewers supplied?

Note: Got disconnected from the internet while I was typing this up, looks like I wasn't the only one thinking about hops.

Good luck.

As long as you wake up every morning and "love life" on the farm…you should count yourself among the luckiest people on earth.

Even if things don’t work out, you’ll live the rest of your life with no regrets.

About now I would be thrilled with something like a farm job.

I'm pretty sick of IT, like a number of other recent commenters.

There's more to employment than pay, and if you love what you do you can be much more satisfied than doing something you hat just for money. I didn't see any mention of your own family, but farming is a family enterprise that many times instills a better sense of values in kids than anything they get in state-funded education.

Of course if it doesn't work out I'm sure you can contribute some more to the largest non-federal land owner in the US, Ted Turner, because I'm sure he needs more Montana grazing land ...

Maybe you can do some engineering consulting from home while doing the whole agriculture thing?

Personally, I'd kill to own a big ol' honkin' John Deere!

For me it would have been a no brainer. That farm has been in your family for 100 years, you cant just let that go down the tubes. It may stink for a while, but something tells me that down the line you will look back on this situation and realize that you made the correct decision.

best of luck...

as my father's father told him, and as my father told me... there is no such thing as a rich farmer, you do it b/c you have to, not b/c you want to or you want to make millions...

My family's farm has been in the family for over 100 years as well, and just recently it was sold to the ever growing damand for more land... a developer recently came thru and bought the land, tore down the barn and now homes are being built in it's place...

I grew up farming that land with my dad, and my grandfather... it was the hardest most honest work a man can do and it makes you appreicate the comforts you have...

I suggest keeping your engineering job and consider leasing the land to a farmer willing to work it... running a farm as a business may be of more benefit to you, than to quit your job and try to make ends meet....

Thanks for the kind words guys. As for family, I agree that it is a great lifestyle in which to raise kids. I loved growing up on the farm. I was vital to the farms success and it gave me a great sense of self-worth. SWMBO is more of a city girl I fear the move will be tough on her. I am moving her closer to her family, but that isn't a positive for all people. Another thing is that I am taking her from the beautiful Montana mountains that we love and putting her in the prairie. Hope we are doing the right thing. Only time will tell.

The deciding factor is that we do raise barley and I want to do what I can to lower the malt price for you guys.

Man, that is a noble thing. Best of luck to you.

My hat's off to ya! I only wish I had the balls for a move like that.

Fresh air and hard work.. sounds like heaven

fifelee said:

...SWMBO is more of a city girl I fear the move will be tough on her. ...

Click to expand...

That part sounds familiar. If you start hearing voices out in the field telling you that if you "build it they will come", seek professional help.

Sounds like a new brewery name in the making "Green Acres Brewing"

Best of luck to you

Sounds like an adventure.

Maybe you could consider some engineering consulting on the side...

hey, your homebrewing costs will go WAY down if you malt your own grains

there's plenty of land there to grow hops too, i'm sure

Careful. Modern technology has changed the face of farming from the idealistic days of yore to the more realistic days of an industrial operation. If you're planning on doing it yourself, you likely won't be successful. It's like running a one man factory. Instead of hundreds of acres to keep a family afloat you now need thousands. The crops all are harvested in a narrow window of time so one man can't possibly put in enough hours to get it all off.

I'm a country boy and I rent my land out. I've seen the transition from small to big and it's definitely a case of 'go big or go home'. The only ones that survive are the ones that expand and adapt to the modern reality.

Now that I've played devil's advocate, please don't think I'm wishing failure on you. I've just seen some of it and the cause was clear. I don't want to see a fellow brewer go the same way. Best of luck to you!

Fingers said:

Careful. Modern technology has changed the face of farming from the idealistic days of yore to the more realistic days of an industrial operation. If you're planning on doing it yourself, you likely won't be successful. It's like running a one man factory. Instead of hundreds of acres to keep a family afloat you now need thousands. The crops all are harvested in a narrow window of time so one man can't possibly put in enough hours to get it all off.

I'm a country boy and I rent my land out. I've seen the transition from small to big and it's definitely a case of 'go big or go home'. The only ones that survive are the ones that expand and adapt to the modern reality.

Now that I've played devil's advocate, please don't think I'm wishing failure on you. I've just seen some of it and the cause was clear. I don't want to see a fellow brewer go the same way. Best of luck to you!

Click to expand...

OH I am well aware of the issues you mention. When I say the land has been in my family for 100 years I only mean a small piece. My great-grandfather had a 160 acre family farm. My grandfather owned 800 acres. Now my father now has a 5000 acre cooperation. It is a lot of work...but I will be a CEO.

homebrewer_99 said:

Maybe you could consider some engineering consulting on the side...

Click to expand...

I really hope to do some consulting in the winters. Anyone have any work leads for a mechanical engineer familiar with the semiconductor industry?

If you ever need a professional (read tax-deductible) reason to visit the Pacific Northwest, OSU in Corvallis is one of the top barley research centers in the world.

We're also the world's leading producer of grass seed too. I just learned that the other day!

Good luck in your endeavors fifelee! I'll be very interested in hearing your progress on growing barley. You should try some hop varieties too.

Let me give you some advice from a man who has "thrown it all away" for what he hoped would be a better way of life.

Me:
31 years old, living in Rural Southern Minnesota
Single
10 years in the same job, built up to 3 weeks vacation finally!
2 year old Dodge Ram 4X4 (paid For)
3 Bedroom House in a small town (NearlyPaid For)
1 year old GSXR 1100, 1 Year Old Polaris Snowmobile, 2 year old Dirt Bike, HUGE tool Collection, Large Gun and Ammo Collection with a HEAPS or reloading gear, HEAPS of hunting fishing gear, $10K in audio gear,3 year old Lund 16 foot boat with 40HP motor (everything Paid For!)

Fell in love with a girl on the other side of the world in an internet chat room

Took a 3 week vacation to Australia.

Came home and put it all up for sale.

3 months later I moved to Australia for good, with nothing but the love of a good woman and $60K in my pocket.

My fiends, co-wokers and family thought I was INSANE! SO did I to tell you the truth, but I thought "Hell with it, I have to take the chance, and if it doesn't pan out, I still have 30 years to get back and get ready to retire"

I took the gamble, and i am happy to say that I won!

Missus and I now make over $200K combined, live in a house that's worth close to $1M and life is good.

I'm sure that not everyone that takes a chance gets lucky and has no regrets like I did, but if they never take the chance, how the hell will they ever know. Most of us live our lives in a RUT. We work in jobs that we don't like and come home to escape.

KUDOS to you mate for having the BALLS to chase your dream... hope it works out for you as well as it did for me!

(I am not allowed to own guns (missus hates them), and the tool collection is taking a long time to build back up, but at least now I have home brewing to help ease the pain!)

Wishing you the best of luck fifelee.

I left my job as a Telecommunications Engineer with 22 years with the company to run an RV Park/Campground. Yeap, I wanted to be a trailer park manager:cross:

The first year was great, the money was bad. It was tuff to keep the bills paid. A friend from my past life in communications offered to let me do engineering work on the side. Thats what I do now, I'm set of as a 1099 contractor doing engineering work from my home and running the RV Park.

My love is running the RV park, the engineering pays the bills.

I suppose the theam is don't burn any bridges when you leave. You may need some engineer work on the side to get you through the hard times.

Ah, grass seed! Achoo! One of my neighbors grows seed grass/grain. Weird how you can plant three adjacent fields within four days (same annual rye) and the grass comes up weeks apart!