Quote from: TboneAgain on June 24, 2014, 04:40:32 PM
Thank you for resisting, or at least trying, or at least talking about it for a second or two.

My dad was a farmer, as were many of his friends. I worked with and for Dad and for his friends for a lot of years. I was young and dumb then, but knowing what I know now, I wouldn't go back to it for any money.

Aww T, I wish every kid in the country had the chance to work on a farm, ranch, open prairie, what have you.
I loved the work, hard as it was. Though ours wasn't a farm, as it was a high end breeding cattle ranch, Hereford, to be exact.
But as much as it beat the hell out of me, I'm grateful for the experience.

Would I go back today? Hell no! That's a young mans job.

Quote from: Solar on June 24, 2014, 06:20:44 PM
Aww T, I wish every kid in the country had the chance to work on a farm, ranch, open prairie, what have you.
I loved the work, hard as it was. Though ours wasn't a farm, as it was a high end breeding cattle ranch, Hereford, to be exact.
But as much as it beat the hell out of me, I'm grateful for the experience.

Would I go back today? Hell no! That's a young mans job.

Dad loved his damned Herefords too. I'm not saying I got no good out of it. Of course I did get good out of it. My point overall is that farming really can't be compared to any other industry, in terms of the way its workers are treated. I would guess that something like 90% of it is off the books. Even on my own father's farm, I never existed if IRS or OSHA or anyone else came asking. I'm having a hard time thinking of a less regulated or standardized industry.

Quote from: TboneAgain on June 24, 2014, 06:53:04 PM
Dad loved his damned Herefords too. I'm not saying I got no good out of it. Of course I did get good out of it. My point overall is that farming really can't be compared to any other industry, in terms of the way its workers are treated. I would guess that something like 90% of it is off the books. Even on my own father's farm, I never existed if IRS or OSHA or anyone else came asking. I'm having a hard time thinking of a less regulated or standardized industry.

Don't know about your area of the world.  In my area the farming day starts out with a safety talk.  No one works outside an air condition tractor unless it is shut off and locked out.  If the air conditioning stops working it is put out of services and fix before it can be used again.   There are no hay wagon like the old days, there hydraulic hay stacker.   All small maintenance jobs are done in the fields in my area.  If it a big job it is done in a an air condition shop in the summer.  In the winter it is heated.  Not all farms are run this way, but in my area the farms are good size.   

My last job that I worked at for 36 years was big on safety in my last 25 years.  So I was happy to see the change in farming in my area when I move back over here. 

Quote from: walkstall on June 24, 2014, 07:43:53 PM
Don't know about your area of the world.  In my area the farming day starts out with a safety talk.  No one works outside an air condition tractor unless it is shut off and locked out.  If the air conditioning stops working it is put out of services and fix before it can be used again.   There are no hay wagon like the old days, there hydraulic hay stacker.   All small maintenance jobs are done in the fields in my area.  If it a big job it is done in a an air condition shop in the summer.  In the winter it is heated.  Not all farms are run this way, but in my area the farms are good size.   

My last job that I worked at for 36 years was big on safety in my last 25 years.  So I was happy to see the change in farming in my area when I move back over here.

All of these things are EXCELLENT changes. I wish they were industry-wide. They are not.

In my experience, it's tough to imagine air conditioning, either for the boys on the hay wagon or even for the fellow driving the tractor. Dad's Massey-Ferguson 35 didn't have an A/C option.

For sure, the boys on the hay wagon had no A/C options.

Quote from: TboneAgain on June 24, 2014, 07:49:37 PM
All of these things are EXCELLENT changes. I wish they were industry-wide. They are not.

In my experience, it's tough to imagine air conditioning, either for the boys on the hay wagon or even for the fellow driving the tractor. Dad's Massey-Ferguson 35 didn't have an A/C option.

For sure, the boys on the hay wagon had no A/C options.

Amen to that one. Auto-stacker hay wagons are still not universal in my area, though: particularly the smaller farms with weird terrain that isn't profitable for agribusiness people working at faster speeds thanks to better gear.

Quote from: TboneAgain on June 24, 2014, 06:53:04 PM
Dad loved his damned Herefords too. I'm not saying I got no good out of it. Of course I did get good out of it. My point overall is that farming really can't be compared to any other industry, in terms of the way its workers are treated. I would guess that something like 90% of it is off the books. Even on my own father's farm, I never existed if IRS or OSHA or anyone else came asking. I'm having a hard time thinking of a less regulated or standardized industry.

Sooo true, I was paid a monthly wage including room and board, all under the table.
And it was some of the best money I'd ever made, spent nothing for an entire year and bought my land.
Oh, and I didn't date for a year, because I was too tight to spring for a dinner, I was a saving..
I loved that!

Don't know if I told  this here, but we had been in the high Sierra all summer running cattle, and in the Fall we brought all the cattle down to the ranch, and it was culling time.
Well to make a long story short, John, the owner, says, "see that cow yonder with the bad eye"? We need to cull it out first.

I said Hell John, that's a long way away to see a bad eye, he said the brown and white one, with a shit eating grin. (they were all Herefords)
I laughed and took a long look, and pointed to one particular cow, he said no, not that one, I said you mean the one next to the ugly one?

OK, I think I was set up that afternoon, but as soon as I said it, I caught what I had just said, and everyone started cracking up.
He looks at me and says, remember when you first started working here and asked me "How do you know when you're officially a cowboy"?
Well..... Yar now!