No one wanted to quit
Most farm people who give up
farming feel they have no other
choice. That’s the conclusion of a
team of rural sociologists from the
University of Missouri who con
ducted detailed interviews with 40
displaced Missouri Corn Belt farm
families. Asked if they wanted to
give up, all of them said no. They
were instead forced off the farm by
adverse economic conditions that
had prevailed since 1979.
Bill and Judy Hefferman con
ducted their study earlier this year
in cooperation with the U.S.
Department of Agriculture. They
chose a section of north central
Missouri because of its good
quality farmland and because it
was more than 50 miles' from a
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metropolitan area where high
paying jobs often keep otherwise
failing farmers from going under.
They developed a list of 40 families
who had left fanning during the
five years between January 1980'
and January 1985. The sociologists
then contacted those families and
subsequently conducted in-depth
interviews.
There were some striking
similarities. All were fairly new to
farming, relatively young,
operated primarily on rented land
and concentrated on crop
production. Almost all of them
grew up in farm families.
That profile would describe the
majority of failed farms
throughout the United States. It
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The Heffermans found that most
farmers who had gotten out got
into farming during the boom
years of the 1970 s and early 80s,
nearly three-fifths rented all of
their land when they started, and
more than half began farming with
another family member, usually a
parent.
Those interviewed range in age
from 22 to 64, but three-fourths of
the husbands were under age 45,
and 84 percent of the wives were
younger than 45. That means that
10 or 15 years ago when they
started out, they were 30 to 35
years old with a number of years of
partnership experience with other
family members.
And that they were taking ad
vantage of the good opportunities
that existed in those days to make
it on their own. Borrowed money,
rented land, a short inventory of
well-used farm equipment par
tially paid for, and an un
derstanding that a hungry world
would consume all of the corn,
soybeans and small grains they
could produce-those were the
elements needed to make it on
their own.
These weren’t small part-time
farms. The average operation
when each farm was at its peak
consisted of 500 acres; 200 owned in
the sense that the farm family held
title, and 300 rented. In the at
mosphere of the 70s, the prospects
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looked good for these farmers.
They had farm backgrounds,
experience, and an operation large
enough to support a family and
thrive during those prosperous
agricultural times.
But then came a new decade and
some serious new problems. One at
a time, these Missourians left the
land, some by choice, salvaging
what they could and starting over
somewhere else. Others were
liquidated-sold out by their
creditors. And yet all of them said
they did not want to give up far
ming.
Many of the farmers thought
they could have stayed on the land
with just a little help from outside.
Many said lower interest rates
would have made the difference.
Others said higher commodity
prices or more favorable govern
ment policies could have kept them
going.
Almost one-fifth claimed they
could have continued if the Far
mers Home Administration had
reorganized their loans. One-tenth
said they would have stayed on the
farm had they been able to find off
farm jobs to supplement sagging
farm incomes.
Are these families better off now
that they’re no longer struggling to
make ends meet on an unprofitable
farm? Probably not, at least in
their own opinions.
Over half said they were not able
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to pay off all their debts, even after
their assets were liquidated. And
almost two-thirds of the families
said they were either worse off or
much worse off now than they were
in 1980.
Almost one-fifth said that even
after liquidation and a new start
away from agriculture, their in
comes were not at all adequate for
basic living needs. In fact only 28
percent described their finances as
better now than when they were
farming.
All of the families interviewed
acknowledged the tremendous
stress they felt when they finally
had to quit farming. Many of them
faced immediate relocation while
others stayed in their homes but
were uncertain about the future.
And most of them felt the
loneliness and extreme anxiety of
the situation with very little out
side support and even a lack of
understanding among famly and
friends.
This Missouri profile doesn’t
describe all farmers who have left
the land or who are in serious
financial trouble. It does however
support other reports of farm
families who are being displaced.
The sociologists and other
behavior experts say many of
these families leave the farm with
a great feeling of personal failure
and with financial obligations they
cannot possibly meet. No doubt
some failed because of their own
lack of ability or willingness to
change, but others were simply in
the wrong place at the wrong time.
In the world of business, com
panies fail with great regularity.
In fact, a small business that
survives in this day and age is a
rarity. And there are plenty of
business people who will tell you it
takes a bankruptcy or two just to
gain enough knowledge to manage
a successful business. Maybe
that’s true for farming also.
The farm family that has lived
through a failure might not ever
want to try it again, but .on the
other hand some of those farm
families have gained some
valuable knowledge that could
serve them well in a future far
ming enterprise.
One final thought. It would be
interesting to check back on those
10 families five or 10 years from
now to see what they’re doing and
how they feel then about what
happened.
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