What Does the Farmer Say?

[Deberg_1990]

Work, work, work, work, work, wa work!

[hometeam]

Originally Posted by Fish

Mechanics, accountants, and executives? LOL... you can't be serious.

That mechanic is on a set 8-5 schedule. His little 9/16 wrench is actually quite a bit easier to turn than the baseball bat sized wrench needed to loosen the nuts that are bigger than your hand. So no, all wrench turning is not the same. Not even close. Not to mention that the farmer can fix the same pickup the mechanic is working on, in addition to having the responsibility of fixing the combine, fleet of diesel farm trucks, the tractor, all the different things the tractor pulls, the Farmhand used to feed the animals, the buildings where it's all stored, down to the fence that's surrounding the farm. Quite a bit more responsibility.

An accountant? Yeah, sitting in a chair pecking a keyboard is quite a feat. With the TPS reports and whatnot, now there's the definition of hard work. Forget working outdoors in weather varying from below freezing to over 100. Accounting can give you stomach pains sometimes.

And how about those executives? Working with other people's money. My how difficult. Nevermind that the the farmer deals with just as much money as that executive, with most of it being his own investment. And you're forgetting that not only does the farmer also deal with just as much if not more money and all the same responsibility that comes with it, the farmer is also expected to do the mechanics job as well, and still fit all that in to a day's work.

So the farmer is simultaneously doing the job of two of the other professions you've listed. Show me the executive that also does the full job of the mechanic, and then you might have somebody to compare to what a farmer does in a day.

Not to interrupt your guys little battle,

But most mechanics work 10,12,16 hour days. Then they go home and do side mechanic work to make ends meet. Just throwing that out there.

[RealSNR]

You guys don't know me. You don't know what I do. You don't know the shit I have to put up with.

[KCUnited]

Try articulating your thoughts on Alex Smith on a browser minimized to the size of a business card for 7.25 hours a day. That's a **** ton of scrolling over.

[Fish]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Now who's being ignorant?

You have the most simple-minded view of what constitutes hard work imaginable.

You and the rest of the shit-slingers and tractor drivers that would get absolutely eaten alive if you had to answer to some of the people that the rest of the world does.

By god, if you can't bust your knuckles doing it, it ain't hard!!!

Mouthbreather.

I have a feeling that accounting would simply bore a farmer as opposed to eating him alive. But go ahead and call me names if that helps you feel better about the conversation...

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Fish

I have a feeling that accounting would simply bore a farmer as opposed to eating him alive. But go ahead and call me names if that helps you feel better about the conversation...

Says the guy who decries anybody that dares suggest that the things that make a job difficult may be more than simple physical exertion as 'ignorant'...

[Fish]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Says the guy who decries anybody that dares suggest that the things that make a job difficult may be more than simple physical exertion as 'ignorant'...

Moving the goalposts by trying to change the meaning of "Hard work" is rather silly at this point. You put forth 3 examples, but the fact remains that the farmer has more combined physical exertion, financial responsibility, and required work hours than any of the three you mentioned.

The fact that you consider them shit-slinging mouthbreaters tells me all I need to know about your understanding of what they actually do. A couple weeks as a farm hand would do wonders for your ignorance.

[gblowfish]

Rolling hay bales for one day will prove to ANYONE that farming is hard work.

[mr. tegu]

I don't work hard, I work smart.

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Fish

Moving the goalposts by trying to change the meaning of "Hard work" is rather silly at this point. You put forth 3 examples, but the fact remains that the farmer has more combined physical exertion, financial responsibility, and required work hours than any of the three you mentioned.

The fact that you consider them shit-slinging mouthbreaters tells me all I need to know about your understanding of what they actually do. A couple weeks as a farm hand would do wonders for your ignorance.

Yes, no, no.

You continue to presume that the first trumps the latter 2 and that's simply not true. Hell, the latter two claims are simply laughably inaccurate. This 40 hour work-week crap has been dead in urban life for better than a decade; everyone busts their ass.

And again, I've bucked bails (for blowfish's benefit) and while it sucks, it's mindless and generally stress-free work. It's just labor-intensive. I've dug more trenches than I dare count. I've had to bust out post-hole diggers when setting posts on any number of occasions because "it'll take too long to put the Auger on and re-set the brushhog" and other such farm logic. So again, spare me - I've served my time outdoors. It's an entirely different kind of work and it's hard in its own right, but it's certainly not harder than some poor sap working until midnight under a deadline because he's going to get blasted in 4 hours. It's more physically taxing, but it's nowhere near as mentally exhausting.

You simply disregard all forms of toil that aren't physical as basically being inconsequential. Whatever. Like I said, stress puts more 'city folk' in the ground than combines drop farmers. You can ignore it, but it's quite real.

[Zebedee DuBois]

My uncle farmed until he was 90. They own all that expensive specialized equipment to eliminate the hard work. There are plenty of long grueling days - there is also plenty of days with 3 hour lunches.
If it was all that hard, all the farmers would be mexicans by now.

[Deberg_1990]

This farmer can't work too hard if he finds the time to make all these YouTube vids.
Posted via Mobile Device

[DJ's left nut]

Originally Posted by Zebedee DuBois

My uncle farmed until he was 90. They own all that expensive specialized equipment to eliminate the hard work. There are plenty of long grueling days - there is also plenty of days with 3 hour lunches.
If it was all that hard, all the farmers would be mexicans by now.

My dad's good friend has a huge tract out in Kansas; he and his sons have farmed it for years. He's in his late 60s and still farms it. He has about 3 really busy times of the year when he has to push himself pretty ragged, but he also has massive expanses of the year where he just heads to the Ozarks and kills time. He also has a month or so in the winter after all the winterizing is done, the broken stuff is largely repaired and the books are in order where he just heads south until it's time to start up again in the spring.

His son does a lot of the planting and bitches constantly about the boredom; says he's only in there anymore to make the turns (GPS sets the rows but for some reason still can't turn correctly and there has to be someone to make sure it doesn't drive over a fence).

We've been on motorcycle trips with them and a bunch of guys they farm with and when you get them drinking, they're pretty funny about stuff like that; they admit that there's a shitload of down time where they're just kinda waiting for the crops to grow and ground to thaw.

That recharge time helps immensely especially when contrasted against most jobs where the endless grind is what makes the job so difficult. "Great! You got that pile sorted through...here's this one"

I'll admit, my shots about the GPS, etc... are all second hand (I've not seen those in action), but even 10-20 years ago when I was doing that stuff, the AC cabs where the norm. The long-ass lunches were common and for the most part we knocked off at 4:30-5 to go back in and eat. At times the guy that owned the place would head back out to the garage to do some wrenching, but how's that any different than me wrapping up work when I'm at home? This idea that farmers work these interminable hours when the rest of the world doesn't is simply not true.

Like I said, nobody overstates their pressures and understates others better than farmers and stay at home moms.

[salame]

oh wow
that was ****ing horrible

[Fish]

Originally Posted by DJ's left nut

Yes, no, no.

You continue to presume that the first trumps the latter 2 and that's simply not true. Hell, the latter two claims are simply laughably inaccurate. This 40 hour work-week crap has been dead in urban life for better than a decade; everyone busts their ass.

And again, I've bucked bails (for blowfish's benefit) and while it sucks, it's mindless and generally stress-free work. It's just labor-intensive. I've dug more trenches than I dare count. I've had to bust out post-hole diggers when setting posts on any number of occasions because "it'll take too long to put the Auger on and re-set the brushhog" and other such farm logic. So again, spare me - I've served my time outdoors. It's an entirely different kind of work and it's hard in its own right, but it's certainly not harder than some poor sap working until midnight under a deadline because he's going to get blasted in 4 hours. It's more physically taxing, but it's nowhere near as mentally exhausting.

You simply disregard all forms of toil that aren't physical as basically being inconsequential. Whatever. Like I said, stress puts more 'city folk' in the ground than combines drop farmers. You can ignore it, but it's quite real.

Have you ever priced one of those air-conditioned GPS capable combines that you started your spiel with? $500,000 just for itself. That's not counting the header, trailer, spare tires($2-3k per tire), fuel, and everything needed for maintenance. That's just one implement. Do you have any idea what the maintenance costs of something like that are? Obviously you don't, or you would see how completely dumb your claim is.

Add in 4 or 5 grain trucks, trailers, storage sheds, cost and upkeep of cattle, land taxes, feed, seed, fertilizer, tools, and agricultural insurance to cover your millions of dollars of assets.

And farmers don't have regular pay periods either. Which requires considerable financial responsibility. You greatly underestimate the effort needed to manage finances in an ag business environment.

You've reduced your argument to mental exhaustion. Well that could be argued as well, but why bother at this point. You're just wrong. Farming is hard ****ing work and will age a man hard, which is why I left the farm and got a job in the city.

[salame]

aren't farmers all tax cheats?