[AT] Sad times

[Mike M]

Here in Michigan, if the farm has been in continuous use as a farm for
100 years you can apply for a Centennial Farm designation. If no heirs
want to farm it, they can still sell it, but it must remain farm land
and cannot be developed.

Mike M

On 7/24/2019 6:30 PM, Greg Hass wrote:
> Had to take a trip to a town 20 miles from here today. Decided to
> bring back roads home; pasted many old barns some falling down, some
> being kept up. You could tell from the old milk houses that many had
> been dairy farms. Many old silos, a lot with the blower pipes still
> up. All are now a part of the past, a past that will never come back.
> Many memories came to mine of how it used to be, farms all over with
> small herds of cattle and the family making a living. My dad was able
> to raise 6 kids and send most to college on 160 acres; my mother never
> worked off the farm- she never worked on the farm either but thats a
> whole other story. Now we have several farms in the county that milk
> over 5000 cows. The most my dad milked was 36 cows and I had 3 uncles
> that did about the same. My favorite time of year was chopping corn
> silage, I can still smell the smell of fresh chopped corn as I
> unloaded it into the blower. Now you don't get near it. My cousin
> chops 12 rows at a time with 1100 horsepower and fills a semi in 3 and
> a half minutes but no one touches the silage. My brother talked to an
> older guy yesterday from northern Michigan that has a lot of hay
> ground and can sell small squares for $8 a bale; however he only
> harvests 20 acres because none of todays younger people will handle
> bales. Just within two miles of me, three guys with a little over 100
> acres each have quit and rented the land out, none were retirement
> age. I know they say change is the only thing certain in life, but
> I,m not sure that a lot of it is really good for us, or maybe I'm just
> old and set in my ways.
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