farmimg or trucking?

Seems there are a lot of farmers that also do trucking. Or is it the other way around where truckers are wanna-be hobby farmers?

Neighbor 'kid' is a real farmer. However he drives a truck to pay for the farm. Poor guy just works constantly. Gonna be an old man before his time.

We all know someone like that.

FWIW, several years ago, one of my high school classmates told me that the only reason his son's farm showed a profit the previous year was because he made several west coast runs with his truck during the off season.

Always good to have several sources of income,kinda like the old farm saying 'Don't put all your eggs in one basket'.Has worked well for me over the years.

I went to school about right in the middle of KS. 16 kids in elementary and 100 in graduating class from the nearby "big" school.

I can think of three schoolmates who are BTO and have no time for any other jobs off the farm or on the road, and several who work for those or other BTO and will do whatever they have to to make ends meet when there is no farm work to do. But I do not think of those guys as any kind of farmers since they work little to none of their own ground. Some may raise 5 or 10 steers once in a while but that's about it.

I do not know of any who run trucks long distance but several who work part-time driving concrete trucks or feed trucks at one of the commercial feedlots. The area is pretty much run by BTO and there are few "hobby" formers.

Trucking just about pays for My farm

Farms require trucks, but not all the time. If the truck can earn income when it (and the farmer) would otherwise be sitting, why not?

Frustrated with my job, I quit in the mid eighties. I went into the only thing I knew, and had any chance at, and that was farming. Not good timing! The first thing I did was acquire my own truck, so I could market my crops where and when I wanted. That led into picking up local grain and filling markets when my grain was gone. Not big time, but it sure helped the checkbook. Then a local mill reopened, I got my first diesel truck, and for several years I delivered their small loads. It was a good deal for all involved.

Depends on locality as to opportunity in trucking. Historically, around here the opportunity was quite limited in terms of trucking for yourself. There were several small fleet operators that bid business just about anyplace. So this just about eliminated the chance of a farmer doing a short haul to a given destination several times per week. Most farmers during the 1980's and 1990's who owned rigs had rigs that were barely road worthy and did not hire out to haul another farmer's grain.

I'm a part-timer and I can't truly make a profit and I'm as frugal as they come. My real job pays for the farming.

My kind of guy

The area I live in is 100 percent fence row to fence row corn and soybeans and quite a few farmers have a semi to haul grain. A few farmers try to haul commercially with their hopper but about all they end up doing is wearing out their truck. It costs too much to license and insure for commercial hauling and the rates are too low to make any profit. A commercial truck has to be on the road ten hours a day every day. Most farmers can't do that without hiring a driver and if they hire a driver there goes what little profit there is out the window. Farmers used to be able to haul for the local elevator in the off season shuttling grain but the local elevators around here have turned into big business and want cut rate contracts only the full time trucker who is not interested in making money can fulfill. Hauling feed ingredients to the feed mills used to work pretty well for off season farmers but that ended when larger trucking companies started bidding for feed ingredient hauling to keep drivers busy. If a farmer wants to put a wet kit on his truck and add a pusher axle he can lease a feed trailer from a large feed mill and make good money hauling feed to hog or turkey sites. But that takes a GOOD trained driver and dedication to 11 or 12 hours a day driving five days a week or more. I used to drive for a local farmer who used his two trucks to haul ingredients to a local feed mill. I would go 90 miles to Sioux City at 6:00 in the evening, make the round and be home at midnight. Then I would be back up at six in the morning to take care of my farming and shop work. It was a job for a younger man for sure and the owner of the truck didn't make any money in the end.

I have seen plenty of dairy farmers that have sold out and gone truckin'. I think that it is partly that they hate the idea of having to punch a time clock or take orders from anyone. Trucking is also relatively easy to get into, so there tend to be a good number of owner operators who will drive rates down because they think that they can make up for loosing money on their rate by driving more miles.

That's my understanding of the grain trucking business in current times as a race to the bottom. Who will do the haul for the least amount of profit? The feed
delivery side can be lean as well. Stuff gets broke because a farm refuses to cut trees back or keep driveways in good condition. Get stuck then have to call for a
tow or hope the hotshot neighbor kid does not break the frame of your truck when he hooks on to pull you.

Driving a truck pays enough to live on here, but not really enough to get ahead. To get a head driving truck, you need to drive a load like fuel, hot tar, over size loads. Maybe float heavy construction equipment. While I have drove some truck, I wouldnt go out in search for the job. One of my sons drives a feed delivery truck. So I have a reasonable idea about the current situation driving truck.

Permit, license fees, DOT regulations, insurance electronic logs are all additional costs and requirements. My brother who farms looked into it, decided not enough money for the effort. Besides many farm trucks are local only and may not have the endurance for long haul. That said there is a BTO farmer that also has a trucking company among other business ventures. My guess it is a separate entity.

I drove truck, not mine but for somebody else, for 35 years. It provided me and my family with a decent living and It enabled me to afford to play farmer during that time and in my retirement years.

I thought that you can only haul your own stuff with farm plates.

Not all farmers run farm plates on their trucks, when I stopped doing long haul I licensed my truck with limited commercial tags for hauling 150 mile radius in state.

(quoted from post at 13:54:30 03/17/21) I thought that you can only haul your own stuff with farm plates.

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RLP, there is no law that I have ever heard of that farmers cannot run a trucking business. Please post what law you are referring to.

Its a good fit. Farmers are independent by nature and don't want a "Boss" looking over their shoulder. I've farmed and now have trucks. Both are risky, and you have to work your butt off to make it. " Now hiring Drivers"... if anyone is interested Bill

Thanks folks. These are great responses and kind of what I expected. There is a lot of variance here. Glad that everyone can "follow their dream" however that may happen.

DOT regulations are a PITA too at that. We have to go through DOT paperwork just to run trailers for lawn mowing anymore!

I was farming full time last year, but for a myriad of reasons quit raising organic laying hens. I am still gonna farm my 200 tillable acres, but now need extra income to hall pay bills. Considering I am only running 200 acres anyway, and have never filed bankruptcy, the BTOs consider me a hobby farmer even if i was still doing it full time.

Incidentally, one of those local bankruptcy filing subsidy farmers is starting back up for a third time around here. $5 corn sure makes some people stupid.

Yea pretty funny a BTO that would be in bankruptcy without a gov't handout calling a small part time farmer that receives no gov't money and turns a profit
a 'hobby farmer'.