Kids leaving the homestead

[land steward]

I hope this thread gets some responses cause this situation is the death knell of most family farms. Kids grown and gone. Although they might have an affiliations for the farm that has been here for genearations they have no intention of living here. City life, more work, more money seems to be what most want these days. Living here cause I love it is okay. No problems there. It just seems silly to bust ones butt working a place especially with concerns of getting old while hoping the kids will take it over one day. Heck this is a story that goes back hundreds of year in this country and probably a thousand in Europe. The day used to be that you needed kids, lots of them to manage a place. The farm or homestead kept everyone feed and hopefully with good clothes and a education. Heck if every generation wanted to keep thier parents, grandparents farm then life would be different. History proves this is not the case. I have seen it so many times. Either the kids are upset that the farm is to be sold but dont live there or help out. Most of the time the farm is just sold to some rich city person and the kids fight over the scraps. There must be other folks out there who will hopefully comment on this situation. My grandson is 5th generation. It would be nice to carry on the legacy. Most farms dont stay in the family that long. In the end maybe one just throws up their hands and walks away like so many others have done for generations.

[Equilibrium]

Similar issue for us... we put the land in a generational skip trust. That way once they come to their senses like we ultimately did and want out of the fast lane and the rat races.... they've got a place to go. There's something to be said for "vacationing" back home for children and grandchildren.... running in the woods... building forts.... running out of hot water before it's your turn for a shower.... counting deer in the fields.... sharing a bedroom with your cousins... wading into the pond picking water lilies.... getting filthy dirty helping in the garden then hosing off.... letting a calf suckle your arm up to your elbow.... eating blueberries fresh from the bog.... getting chased by the rooster then naming it "dinner".... catching fireflies.... tossing firecrackers on an open fire.... sitting out in the garage with "neighbors" who just stopped in to stop in and catching up on all the gossip and goings on at the farm auctions and Friday night supper club all you can eat fish frys. Those are memories of family and community.... the memories will never leave them. They're wholesome memories. I couldn't wait to leave for the good life complete with A/C and flush toilets and phones that weren't party lines.... now I can't wait to be free enough to go back home and I regret the day I chose to leave but I would have never known if.... I hadn't left and taken my memories with me. Our children are entitled to make their own mistakes... just as we did IMHO. The best we could do was to provide ours with a safety net.... that's why we chose the trust. They'll each have to pay a little every year toward property taxes after we're long gone pushing up daisies but.... that will vest their interest in the property for their children.

[NCLee]

I hope this thread gets some responses cause this situation is the death knell of most family farms. Kids grown and gone.

That's been the case around here, especially in the last 20 years. (sigh)

The downturn in the economy has slowed it down, but hasn't stopped it. That's from the developers swooping in and gobbling up farms for cookie cutter McMansion subdivisions standpoint. But that isn't a sliver lining, to use an old cliche, as this downturn is forcing more small family farms out of business, too. Not the image that young people need to see in order to even consider trying to make it on the farm, themselves.

Neighbor, next door, has turned over operations to his son. I seriously doubt that'll happen in the 4th generation. (I was here when my neighbor's father farmed this land.) Not only the lure of no sweat and clean hands income, regulations are killing small farm operations. It's unbelievable some of the hoops my neighbor has to jump through now to bring in his crops. People who've never gotten their hands dirty write, often ridiculous, rules he has to follow.

The question looms larger and larger. What's the agenda behind those "ridiculous" rules? It's far more than lack of knowledge by someone who has the authority to write those regulations. That's the sad part, on the surface, and the maddening part that lies beneath, the destruction of the family farm.

In closing, there's a 2500 unit golf course community going in less than 5 miles from us. Within the same area, a 280+ acre farm is up for sale. And, another one (don't know the acres - substancial) for sale, too. Yet, a third that was recently logged - an indication that it's being milked of its assets before the for sale sign goes up. (sigh)

I sometimes think I was born 50+ years too late. My grandmother didn't live to see what's happening to her way of life. A way of life that I cherish and am watching disappear everyday.

Lee

[BonnyLake]

I worked for a fairly large scale family farm for 5 years and during my tenure there I saw changes happening at an amazing rate of speed that the county and city governments can't usually seem to muster for any reasons. Of course it had to do with land and money and taxes; why else would all of the 'T's' get crossed and the files not get lost?

The farm had the use of 500 acres, most of which was planted yearly with vegetables. They owned half the land and leased the other half and the plots were centrally located within a managable area of travel for moving laborers and equipment around from field to field. Within a two year time period almost all of the leased land was being sold, either to developers or smaller strips to the county for river easements so they would have flood plains available 'just in case'. The farm was able to pay cheap rent on the land because the owners had agriculture tax advantages and the land was being cleaned and well maintained during the off season - a win win situation.

BUT - the current generation of kids that were inheriting the ground weren't all that interested in the longevity of the bigger picture, the idea of seeing cement poured over the top of perfect topsoil didn't seem to bother them ... instead all they saw was 'get quick dollars' and up went the 4sale signs. And the county was more then happy to 'expedite' (make sure that) all the paperwork and tax calculations for the sale and back taxes of re-couped lower ag taxes was completed timely and the deals were done - and the land was gone - poof! It can happen just that fast - some of that ground was built into low-rise huge warehouses and they are still sitting empty nearly 7 years later! What a shame and what a waste :( and you can't ever get that ground back again. Now the farm has had to lease land 15-20 miles further out of town in smaller plots and it has taken a financial toll on them to try and break even with all of the extra travel time and equipment - last I heard they were trying to stay in business, but...

I hope that there are still generations coming up through the ranks that will see natural green instead of banking green when they inherit grandpas land someday.
!

[Equilibrium]

I definitely think the last coupla generations has been sold a bill of goods that the grass is greener on the "other" side but.... we've got bigger problems, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Sqwd_u6HkMo.
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I'm not so sure about this since developers in the US are only responding to increased housing demands, "That's from the developers swooping in and gobbling up farms for cookie cutter McMansion subdivisions standpoint." It's definitely not McMansions going up around me.... and hasn't been for a while. We've got a big time demand for "affordable" multi-family housing and subsidized housing and those projects are eating up way more land than the McMansion subdivisions. It's all the retention ponds and playgrounds and set backs that are required of developers. Then there's all the hospitals and free clinics and strip malls and fast food restaurants and roads to get to and from work more people need.... and and and.... none of this holds a candle to the land that's being sucked up by multi-international corporations to feed "our" growing "global" population.

[TSJ]

People leaving the countryside and small towns that serve the rural life are in decline. This trend started in the 1920s when the "Golden Age" of American agriculture ended. The Great Depression really accelerated it. Back in the 1900s even into the early 20th century American was a rural and small town nation. Not anymore. My parents ran screaming from the rural life in 1930s never to return. I grew up in the city. My parents never missed their early life and in fact didn't care to talk about it much. It wasn't easy as physical problems and bad health plagued their parents. So they had to do most of the chores. You can well imagine what drudgery was for the children keeping firewood supplied for heat and the kitchen they were 9-10-11 years old with mainly just an axe. Same thing for the garden. They raised and sold watermelons, anything really, to bring in money. When I saw a watermelon in the grocery store, I thought, YUM! When they saw it, they thought UGH! Endless rows of weeding and turning melons as children. I never saw my parents so much as touching or watering a plant let alone even think of having a small garden in the city.

When I became an adult and in charge of my own destiny, I always had a small garden. It just felt...good being in one. A sense of accomplishment. No matter how bad of a gardener I was, I *always* got something out of it. When I retire, the Good Lord willing, I will again have a real garden and a orchard even if it just a bunch of pecan trees.

I had a friend once who was a scion to a large farm. He hated it and the rural life. All he talked about were the chores. He never mentioned the fact he got to drive tractors as kid (what a dream for most, eh?), keep any animal that he took a whimsy to, or took his .22 rifle out and shoot tin cans when he wanted to. He forever after stayed in the city and rented out the farmland. All because of the daily chores he had to do before he went to school everyday.

Now, my parents in overcompensating for their miserable childhood, made sure I never had to do a lick of chores in my life growing up. I will admit, I am lazier than a fence post and procrastinator extradinaire, as a result of this rearing but really, I can't blame it on them. It's probably just my nature to be shiftless. But rest assured in three years I will be looking for property. And I will have my garden and orchard.

Amazingly, my youngest son who is in the Philippines with his wife finishing his RN degree has exhibted some interest in agriculture. He already has two salt water tidal pools leased and is raising fish and shrimp. He just bought 2 pigletts to finish for slaughter and has expressed interest in starting a banana plantation. And he likes to hand raise parrots! He never once expressed interst in animals or gardens growing up. It just smacked him between the eyes when he became an adult.

Life works in funny ways.