12
— Lancaster Fanfling. Saturday. April 28. 1973
The American Farmer
Way of Life or a
(Editor’s note: This is the third in
a series of articles on the
American farmer. The series is
furnished courtesy of DEKALB
Agßesearch, Inc., in an effort to
increase public understanding of
this important industry.)
Who is this man - the
American Farmer?
The vast majority of farms in
the United States are family
owned or operated. The primary
business of these owners and
operators is farming, although
3pme supplement their farm
income by off-farm employment.
Perhaps the term “family
fanner” is misleading. Mention
the words to many, and minds
immediately dart back to “the
good old days.” They conjure up
thoughts of a small farm being
operated by a self-sufficient and
independent family.
But the 1973 version of the
family farmer isn’t like that. He’s
not self-sufficient, and he knows
He has organized his farm as a
business enterprise, and he
operates it to achieve a profit. He
provides most of the
management and capital and he
assumes all of the financial risk.
Along with his family, he
performs most of the labor. He
might hire extra labor, but
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John i
otanffer
R.D. 2 East Earl, Pa
usually only during peak work
periods.
He may own his land or he may
rent it. He may be the sole
operator, or he and his son might
have a partnership established.
He sometimes incorporates his
operation - for tax or inheritance
purposes - with his wife and
children serving as officers in the
corporation,
He’s willing to go into debt and
finds, in fact, that he must rely on
credit to keep his operation
competitive and efficient enough
to support an acceptable stan-,
dard of living.
Unlike farmers of past
generations, he’s not suspicious
of new ways and new technology.
He believes in agricultural
research and he’s quick to put it
to work on his farm.
He’s not a “hayseed.” He may
dress differently or drive his
truck more often than his car, but
he knows the world. His areas of
knowledge range from ecology to
economics.
During the past three decades,
he’s seen more than half of his
neighbors leave their farms and
seek other employment. They did
this, not always by choice, but
because the rules of our economy
demand efficiency. He is the man
who made it this ,far - the “fit-
REPAIR
SERVICE
215-445-6175
test” survivor of the unrelenting
economic pressures of our freely
competitive society.
Some express concern that
agriculture is under the control of
large corporate farms. Of the 2.9
million' farms in the United
States, less than 0.1 percent of
them are owned or operated by
corporations with ten or more
shareholders, and they account
for less than three percent of total
farm sales.
Several corporations have
entered fanning, many of them
to their own regret. The results
have been nothing short of
financial disasters. FARM
JOURNAL recently analyzed
these corporate flops and cited
the major reason for their
failures: “Financially oriented
brass didn’t really understand
farming.”
FARM JOURNAL found
another difference between the
corporate farmer and the family
farmer - thriftiness! “The front
line manager fanned strictly
first class, figuring he had plenty
of money to spend because the
outfit was big.” One of the family
farmer’s biggest assets is his
ability to watch his dollars
carefully and invest them wisely,
because he’s never known it any
other way.
Corporate farmers can’t afford
to overlook the one factor that
makes farming different from
other industries. Because they
produce commodities and
operate under totally free
competition, farmers - unlike
many businessmen -- have never
enjoyed the freedom to tack on a
suitable margin of profit to the
products they sell. In agriculture,
the buyer normally commands
more power than the seller. The
farmer takes what be can get.
You can bet he’ll be mighty
careful when it comes time for
him to buy equipment. And you
can bet, too, that he will use it
well. When it comes time to plant
corn, and bad weather has set
him behind, he’ll be on the job 24>-
hours a day. There are no eight
hour days, five-day weeks or
overtime paychecks for the
farmer.
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He may dress Jy
his car, but the American farmer is a businessman. He's both
management and labor. He knows no eight-hour days, five
day weeks or overtime pay. And he can’t strike for higher
wages. _
Do you use
2,44)?
irasses.
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,t
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Phone 717-548-2376
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