(800) 853-2651
SHOP NOW

disturbing trend in farming

B

Bryan inIowa

Member
This past year a lot of the places I have been out hunting at have completely eliminated any fence rows , timber areas, ponds , waterways etc . Now ,I understand ,it's noot my land,it's the landowners to do as he chooses. BUT I see it as a disturbing trend . I realize the $$$ involved and farmers have bills to pay . But what happens when all the cover is gone ? Iowa has went from one of the top pheasant hunting states to the bottom of the heap . I can't blame it all on lack of habitat , but sure isn't helping . Any thoughts ?
 
It's not just in Iowa. Here in Ky, with the corn prices the way they are and tobacco incentives, farmers are trying to make the most of every inch of the property they are farming. I can't blame the farmer or blame it on greed, but the it's necessity of supporting their way of life. There needs to be an incentive to maintain the growth of wildlife cover areas also to supprot wildlife management. This brings up another problem. There are more farmers than there are hunters. So who is going to listen to the hunting community?
 
There may be more farmers than hunters in your area, but all those license fees go to support wildlife management and national parks. Call your state and federal representatives.
 
Hum. On openning day, 1/3 of Minnesota population is out hunting.

They say only 2-3% of the USA population is farming.

From a farmer's point of view, the hunting groups already have a whole lot of power, we are kinda getting over run with hunting themes....

Now, often hunters & farmers have similar goals, so that's not bad.

But.... Farmers seem to be getting it from all sides these days. Not good if the hunters turn against us too. We already feed your trophies for free. ;) I know you all said you understand, not trying to make a mountain out of a mole hill. :)


Neighbor on an 80 NW of me took out his fence line 25 years ago. I've had snow problems on my driveway ever since. It kept the drifting down with that fenceline in....

--->Paul
 
Tobacco incentives, what incentives are there for a product that will kill most of it's users! In some stated it's illegal to fill or reduce wetlands, and they are restricting the amount of farming near rivers to reduce pollution.
 

Iowa is the Garden of Eden compared to out here in the OK panhandle and we manage to keep a huge crop of pheasants around most years, so I don't think any loss of habitat up there is affecting the pheasant population.

We don't have anywhere remotely comparable in terms of timber, ponds, streams, etc, compared to most of what I've seen of Iowa (little brother lives up there) and we've still got pretty good numbers of deer, antelope, coyotes, and pheasants out in our area...


Howard
 
Could just buy a few hundred acres and have all the fence rows, timber areas, ponds, etc. that you wanted.
 
Yep, it raises an age old dilemna, how to balance the interest of land owners, farmers, hunters and other recreational land uses.

I guess as far as pure private ownership is concerned (Our current government mostly, NOT state owned and controlled socialist property) and a land owners right to use his own land he works hard for to purchase and use as he well pleases, absent government or tree huggers or enviornmental extremists or farmers or hunters or other do gooders inteference, those:

HUNTERS can lease or buy their own land
FARMERS ditto
RECREATIONAL USERS ditto

Then next comes the use of public lands and the feds have to determine and balance the uses such as farming or hunting or 4 wheeling etc

I for one DO NOT WANT THE FED OR ANTI HUNT GROUPS OR PRO HUNT GROUPS OR FARM GROUPS OR ANTI FARM GROUPS DICTATING HOW I USE MY OWN PRIVATE LAND subject to eminent domain or health or safety concerns WHERE GOVERNMENT DOES HAVE A COMPELLING INTEREST.

Around here the tree huggers have a group I favor called the Sycamore Land Trust where they PURCHASE land they like to use protect and preserve it as they well please same as if a farmer or hunter wanted to THATS A GOOD PLAN FAR AS IM CONCERNED.

HWOEVER Im NOT in favor of outside interests be they FOR OR AGAINST hunting or farming regulating how I must use my own land, let them buy it like the Sycamore Land trust does

Nuff said, I favor private ownership of land and the landowners right to do as he pleases NOTTTTTTTTTTTTTTT socialistic government control

John T
 
Mornin there Nancy, good point I LOVE National Parks, we visited 8 of them this summer, but just what do you want those "state and federal representatives" to do??????? Choose, regulate and tell private land owners they can or can not hunt or farm?? I prefer to allow the land owner to choose if he wants to farm or hunt NOT those "sate or federal representatives" subject, of course, to health and safety concerns, where those representatives do have a compelling interest over private land butttttttt nottttttttt to tell the land owner he can farm or not farm or hunt or not hunt

Thats my story n Ima stickin to it. Ive worked hard to make farm payments all my life so I can choose to hunt or farm or not ON MY OWN LAND Im willin to live n let live so if the neighbor wants to buy land to farm or hunt or NOT farm or hunt Im all for him

God Bless n have a Happy Thanksgiving now, I enjoy your postings

Ol John T
 
Heres my take on this bein a farmer. Ive cleared several old fence rows and takin out several old ponds and trees around our farm. The fence rows were there for a reason 40 years ago when it was pasture. Now its crop land and all the fence row does is cause me headaches and get in the way and are unecessary to be there. Same as the old ponds. They served there purpose but I dont need them. I cut the tree lines way back so I dont scratch up my equipment. Money is a factor as well. If you can gain say another 15 acres by cleaning up that mess you cain gain another say 10,000dollars if your corn makes 170bushel/acre and you get say $4 a bushell for it. Now if a hunter or the wildlife dept want to pay me to leave it every year I will. I understand your consern that its not an issue of not havin a place to hunt but there not bein anything to hunt. Well if you have a good wildlife dept they should be awre of this. Its not just specific to your area.farmers are doin this everywhere. Here were I live in IN the DNR has started releasing and raising quail and some private people and it seem to be working cause Ive seen more these last few years than ever. Its been my experience that the animals will adapt to there surroundings. It might just not be as easy to walk down an old fence row and jump them out any more. Not to upset or offend just my stand on this as a farmer
 
Being a farmer and a hunter I, I also see that happening around here. I see loss of habitat all over ag land, but it is not even close to the loss due to housing and the land owners that want to get rich selling lots. The biggest thing here with farm practices is the clearing of tree/brush lines so that irrigations can be installed more econamically, one big system rather than fewer smaller ones. Also with bigger equipment all the little jogs and corners make for odd feilds. I personally planted alot of trees a few years ago, and will be removing one of the planted tree lines just for the factg that is makes that feild a real pain to plant, spray and etc. Another factor here in MN is the politicians and their descision to redo green acres and that is the biggest cause for habitat turning to tilled land. I know just in a 2 mile radious at least 300 acres of long time grassy brushy areas, basically CRP type land, but not enrolled in CRP, that has been plowed under and planted due to the fact it no longer qualified for green acres. Always rememebr the farmer pays the taxes, the insurance, and all expenses to owning the land. We have alot of good sportsman groups that donate an awful lot of $$, maybe these clubs need to approach the farmers with these areas with a little incentive to keep the habitat, habitat. Of course there are some mega farmers here that will tear down a nursing home if it meant they could plant one more bag of seed, but most are doing it the right reasons.
 
The farmers are businessmen. They are in business to make money. Unless you are paying them (and rather handsomely) to "maintain habitat" in lieu of growing crops, they'd be damfools to worry about habitat. Now, if you could somehow show them how having deer, pheasants, etc, improves their cash flow, and that having hunters swarming their land and increasing their liability is beneficial to them, they might take your message to heart.
 
(quoted from post at 07:06:28 11/24/10) This past year a lot of the places I have been out hunting at have completely eliminated any fence rows , timber areas, ponds , waterways etc . Now ,I understand ,it's noot my land,it's the landowners to do as he chooses. BUT I see it as a disturbing trend . I realize the $$$ involved and farmers have bills to pay . But what happens when all the cover is gone ? Iowa has went from one of the top pheasant hunting states to the bottom of the heap . I can't blame it all on lack of habitat , but sure isn't helping . Any thoughts ?
Click to expand...

We've got an abundance of cover here in SW Iowa, and there still are no pheasants. We do have an over-abundance of coyotes though.
 
Between 2008 and 2009 the U.S. population grew by approximately 3 million. The extra people will need food and housing.

If this trend continues Farm/Hunting land will continue to decrease.

I am glad I will not be alive to see the U.S.A. if it becomes entirely city/urban !!!
 
Maybe it is by design, some people don"t want uninvited hunters on their land, maybe they have run out of ways to keep them off. I have timber company land on 3 sides of my place, all of it is leased to hunting clubs, they hunt all over my place and one day someone is going to get hurt or shot on my land and then want to sue me. Yes, my land is legally posted, won"t matter to a jury, these days every dumba55 is a victim.
 
Around here there is still plenty of woodland and deer are a nuisance. I've cleaned up a few acres this year and plan on clearing some more. It's gotten so hard to scratch out a living that I have to utilize every acre. Part of the reason is that rich urban hunters have driven up the price of land to the point that there is no way to buy any and expect to pay for it with livestock. I enjoy wildlife and occasionally hunt but making a living is the priority.
 
Fence lines serve no purpose now days, unless you run cattle in your fields. machinery gets larger, unused fence lines just get in the way, same with old unused groves and farmsteads. There are less pheasants this year, and I live next to hundreds of acres of grass (CRP, RIM ect). less deer too, the only thing we have too many of here in western MN is coyotes. I wonder if that is related? My wife came home from work one evening and said there was a deer run over north of our grove, next morning I went there to look and all that was left some tufts of fur, some guts and a leg. I wake up some nights to coyotes yipping, then our dogs start barking..
Brian(MN)
 
John, something is terribly wrong with your keyboard. It keeps repeat printing characters and makes it difficult to read. Better look for some spare cash and buy a new keyboard.
 
I heard more farmers say this fall that they wished they had left the old fencrows alone. They not only provided a natural habitat,but they used to slow down a lot of water during heavy rains. Unfortunately...the trend to larger farms and farmers continues. The projected acres for the average farmer is expected to be 10,000 by the year 2020. Wouldn't surprise me a bit!
 
Thanks, hey I admit this one is oldddddddd not as oldddddddd as me though lol

Happy Thanksgiving n God Bless

John T
 
GOOD QUESTION, Im not sure, they are a not for profit and just want to preserve the land as is BUT I LIKE THEIR APPROACH OF BUYING IT LIKE I HAD TO BUY MY FARM. I reckon if its off the rolls then we taxpayers are stuck with them not paying real estate taxes while we still have to

Happy Thanksgiving

John T
 
Come to the thumb of Michigan. They are clearing 40 and 80 acre parcels of wooded land. Talk about land changing hands when the wind blows. You can see for miles with no trees. It would be nice to have a little protection from the wind.
 
Same thing happened in central Oklahoma in the 30's when farmers started losing their land. Banks made up farms with some rows running 10 MILES. When the drought occured, a lot of that land became dust in the wind. Grandad said they called it the "Dirty Thirties".
 
In Nw Ohio we have the Nature Conservancy buying a lot of ground around me. As I understand it, they do not pay property taxes.
 
Hunters that want more habitat needs to buy up land for their own use, stock it and plant feed for the animals they want to hunt.

The fellow I cash rent my farm to cut and baled over five acres of corn this year that the deer and coon had stripped clean. I have a five acre field the borders my woods and the deer and coon clean at least a 1/3 of it when it is in corn. Right after the beans were harvested this year one of my workers counted over twenty deer at the edge of my woods in the bean field.
The DNR adds turkeys and coyotes and pheasants and you don't see many pheasants by hunting season. The wild turkeys are starting to eat corn in the amounts as the deer.

Think what a service it would be for the hunters to buy land, plant crops and not harvest them so the animals would not have to eat the dollars out of farmers pockets that farm for a living.

Rather than poor poor me the hunter cause of the big bad farmer. Become a big farm hunter. :)^D
 
The trend I find alarming is good conservative Americans thinking they can tell someone else what they can do with their private property...

Around where I grew up, the only land being cleared is land that used to be farm land many decades ago. It was abandoned for whatever reason and grew up to scrub brush.

It wasn't habitat 100 years ago, and the critters got along just fine. They can live without it now just as well.

The only destruction of habitat going on is being caused by people building houses. NOT farmers. Seems everybody wants a house out in the woods, and they clear a patch of woods to make it happen.
 
I think the birds of prey are taking more of them. Here in NE Iowa I am seeing a lot more hawks and eagles since they banned DDT many years ago. When I was a kid, never saw an eagle and very few hawks. Now see them a lot.
 
I've noticed a lot of the farmers around here have been pulling out their fencelines the last few years. From what I've heard, it's so they can turn around in the fields better and the GPS systems work better for them.
I work with a guy that runs his small family farm and he's finding it impossible to find anyone to hire to do any custom combining or anything for him because he still has fencelines around his fields.

Tom
 
This is hardly a new trend. It started happening as soon as mechanization came to farming, although it has become more prevalent since the advent of very large tractors and implements in the 70s and 80s. If we wanted to really go back, we'd take down all the fences, plant native grasses and bring back the buffalo.

For what it's worth, pheasants are not native to North America. They were introduced here in the 1850s. So we're not really destroying their natural habitat by tearing down fence rows.
 
I don't blame them. Constant battle keeping up them old fence rows. Plumb bushes and sapplings start growing and then next year you have to stay away a foot or so. Then trees start growing in that foot and you stay away another foot next year and so on and so on. Then thistles start growing and need to be sprayed every year and giant rag weeds. Then the original trees have limbs so big and spread out they are getting in the combine real. You can't cut them off at ground level because that old fence is mixed in there so you cut them off at top of fence and it grows into a bush next year. Any of this sound familier to any one?
 
Dick,,in no way am I blaming the farmer ,,if it came across that way ,i'm sorry . I grew up on a farm .And if had not chosen my current career path i'd be back on a farm in a heartbeat. That being said ,, I do pay a farmer for the privalige of hunting on HIS land . I am concerned about farmland being bought up for housing and urban sprawl also . Iowa DNR seems to be slacking as far as habitat programs . I wonder what South Dakota is offering land owners/farmers. They seem to flourish on the out of state dollars flowing in .
 
Yup... If it was me I'd obliterate every damn tree, rock line and trash row in every field here. Luckily I've got lots of time ahead of me because there's lots of them to move.... It takes so much time working around rock piles and rock lines...

Rod
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Tractor Parts Tractor Manuals

We sell tractor parts! We have the parts you need to repair your tractor - the right parts. Our low prices and years of research make us your best choice when you need parts. Shop Online Today.

Copyright © 1997-2024 Yesterday's Tractor Co.

All Rights Reserved. Reproduction of any part of this website, including design and content, without written permission is strictly prohibited. Trade Marks and Trade Names contained and used in this Website are those of others, and are used in this Website in a descriptive sense to refer to the products of others. Use of this Web site constitutes acceptance of our User Agreement and Privacy Policy TRADEMARK DISCLAIMER: Tradenames and Trademarks referred to within Yesterday's Tractor Co. products and within the Yesterday's Tractor Co. websites are the property of their respective trademark holders. None of these trademark holders are affiliated with Yesterday's Tractor Co., our products, or our website nor are we sponsored by them. John Deere and its logos are the registered trademarks of the John Deere Corporation. Agco, Agco Allis, White, Massey Ferguson and their logos are the registered trademarks of AGCO Corporation. Case, Case-IH, Farmall, International Harvester, New Holland and their logos are registered trademarks of CNH Global N.V.

Yesterday's Tractors - Antique Tractor Headquarters
Website Accessibility Policy

Back
Top