# For those that work off the farm full time



## slvr98svt (Jan 18, 2011)

How far do you drive to work?

I currently work 28 miles from my house/farm. Problem is, said house and farm is 100 miles from where myself and fiance grew up. We have an 8 month old daughter and have been looking at getting back to where we are from for the lack of family support and just overall friends in the area.

A opportunity arose to purchase a retired dairy farm with about 175 acres of good land in said home town. This would put me at 70 miles one way. Not a huge factor as the drive is fairly rural with what shouldn't be any real traffic jams.

I currently work 8 hour days 5 days a week. I used to work swing shift 12 hour days so I am used to being gone for 13+ hours a day.

I see this as a great opportunity to grow the farm and business, plus have family that can help out when needed. However I do not want to bite off more than I can chew.

For anyone that works a fair distance from home, do you see it as a huge limiting factor? I only raise beef cows and hay. Not a dairy farmer or cash cropper.

Thanks,

-Matt


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## slowzuki (Mar 8, 2011)

I travel 40 mins each way for work, I wish it was only 20, I can't stand the wasted time in the car.

In hay season it's a pain too as I can't scoot home to ted at noon for example.


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## slvr98svt (Jan 18, 2011)

I hear ya there. My current drive is about 35 mins. I have freedoms now and it is close enough that I can go ted or rake and come back for the rest of the day, however that will not be possible once my drive turns into an hour and 15-30 minutes.

I feel as though the pros out weigh the cons. I will have friends and especially family help for those days that hay needs to be cut before I get home at 5 etc.


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## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

Currently a little over 500 miles. Fortunately I only travel it every two weeks. When I am at work, I am really at work. It requires a lot of planning.


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## hillside hay (Feb 4, 2013)

About 1.5 hrs each way. Costs about 900 per month just going to work


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## Trotwood2955 (Sep 4, 2012)

I only have about a 20-25 minute commute (one way), so I am pretty lucky in that regard. But my thoughts for your situation would be the longer drive time would be well worth it to be closer to home and family support. My wife and I have a little one as well, and luckily have family nearby that handles most of the babysitting when we both need to be in the hayfield, or working cows, or doing whatever that isn't convenient (or safe) to have a young child around.


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## 506 (Mar 22, 2016)

Matt - I drive 85 miles one way to my full time job. I'm off of the property for 12 - 13 hours per day. I deal with my hay and custom ag work on the side (evenings, weekends, vacation days). I don't find the distance to be enough of an issue to worry about or to cause me to regret living where I live. I do have to do a bit of juggling when hay is on the ground but I knew that when I made my move out of the suburbs. I would jump on this if it presented an opportunity to move closer to family/friends plus grow your side business. Farming families and friends tend to help each other out so I only see an upside to this.


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## Teslan (Aug 20, 2011)

Lostin55 said:


> Currently a little over 500 miles. Fortunately I only travel it every two weeks. When I am at work, I am really at work. It requires a lot of planning.


I don't know how you do it Lost. Especially with irrigation and now your custom stuff.


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## r82230 (Mar 1, 2016)

Guess I am blessed, 7 miles each way and I can cancel work (self employed), if I need to. You guys have my respect.

Larry


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## kyfred (Dec 23, 2009)

38 mi to work about 50 min due to speed limits . Have done it for 31 yrs 11 mo and 7 days but who is counting. Most of it the trip is right after midnight usually home around noon or after. Used to do everything by myself after dad died. Now we have a brother in law that helps with the upkeep of the equipment and helps with the hay and cattle. Our son Is a big help with the hay and cattle operation. He could probably do everything himself but is getting ready to get a job in a factory so we will see what the future brings. Looking to retire from the off the farm job and hopefully have some time to work the farm and run down every now and then and see VOL . LoL


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

111 miles round trip about 2hours 15minutes it's getting old but it's worth it. Before moving back to the farm worked anywhere from 1 to 8 hours away so an hour one way ain't bad and I am home every night. The most important thing is, what does your wife think because if she is not for it forget about it . Also don't count on all things going as planned my dad is gone 11 years never seen that coming and my mother in law was going to retire and watch the kids she had cancer so bad she was gone 3 months after retiring 6years ago . So my wife is still home with the kids instead of teaching school so I could farm full time.


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## BWfarms (Aug 3, 2015)

I strongly advise a Honda Civic 4 banger or for a little nicer, the Accord 4 banger. Wife has the Accord and drives to RTP daily. Her commute is 40 miles and she does have to join traffic. Even with 2 hr daily commute (round trip) she has been entertaining buying farms 30 minutes or more away. She doesn't do much of the labor on the farm but fields most of my sales calls and puts orders together so I can focus on Haytalk 

I used to work part time 20 hrs a week (over 3 days) but that job wasn't but 20 minutes away so not really applicable.


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## broadriverhay (Jun 13, 2014)

I work 3 miles from home and my farm is 2 miles in the other direction from home. I feel very lucky after reading some of your posts.


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## slvr98svt (Jan 18, 2011)

Thanks guys. I honestly am not worried about drive especially having the family closer and being able to help out more often.

I just wanted to reinforce that to myself and see how many of you are in the same boat.


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## Thorim (Jan 19, 2015)

Question; is there anything that if you moved back closer to home would prevent you from getting a job closer to your new/old home?? I understand jobs can be hard to come by, not sure of the economic conditions in your area.


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## PaMike (Dec 7, 2013)

The farm is 2 houses down the hill. Work is 2 miles away. If I had to drive what you guys do I would quit or go insane...


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## notmydaytoday (Sep 16, 2016)

I drive 40 mi. one way it takes just under a hour. In the summer i have about 4 hrs. of good light before dark but this time of year i am lucky to get 1 hr.

When my wife and i bought our place it added 20 mi. to my drive but well worth it.

Next year will be my first year doing my hay ever with no experience at all. We will see how it works out.


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## notmydaytoday (Sep 16, 2016)

PaMike said:


> The farm is 2 houses down the hill. Work is 2 miles away. If I had to drive what you guys do I would quit or go insane...


I might be insane but i have a dream to keep me going.That and a little faith is all one needs.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

23 miles here. Just shy of half an hour. As said above get a cheap reliable economical car if you are gonna do it. But even with a 3 hour commute, you are still home for 15 hours.


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## luke strawwalker (Jul 31, 2014)

Dad worked for 22 years at the nuke plant... 52 miles each way. Outages were seven 12 hr days, didn't see him much, but that was only for about a month to five weeks twice a year. He worked a lot of overtime. I pretty much ran the farms, he helped on days off.

I worked during outages out there... 7 12's are rough, lemme tell ya. I drove a school bus here locally for 9.5 years, about 6 miles to/from the school twice a day. Rate of pay was pretty good but not enough hours, and gas was rough.

Expect to have a "work car" (or truck, but the gas will eat you up) and figure on it being "disposable", because you'll put SO many miles on it you'll wear it out fairly often. Best work cars Dad had was a pair of Ford Festiva's (made by Kia actually in Korea) that ran forever (200,000+ miles) and got 47 mpg on the highway with the manual box. Of course they're not made anymore... never put a wrench to them.

If your hours are decent, it certainly can be done... sounds like a better arrangement than what you have now.

Later! OL J R


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## slvr98svt (Jan 18, 2011)

Jobs are not necessarily hard to come by, its good paying jobs that are! I also work at a nuke plant, I am however off shift and don't work the 12's anymore except during outages where its minimum 12's, 7 days a week.

I currently commute in a 2wd 6 cylinder 5 speed F150. I don't want to have to down size even more to a car, but 50+ mpg's in a diesel VW is tempting.


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## Lostin55 (Sep 21, 2013)

Teslan said:


> I don't know how you do it Lost. Especially with irrigation and now your custom stuff.


Good planning, a great wife, above average employees, and a hell of a lot of dedication.


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## broadriverhay (Jun 13, 2014)

I work at VC Summer Nuclear Plant. I work 6 12's for about 2 months every 18 months for refueling . Other than that we work 4 10's.


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## deadmoose (Oct 30, 2011)

slvr98svt said:


> Jobs are not necessarily hard to come by, its good paying jobs that are! I also work at a nuke plant, I am however off shift and don't work the 12's anymore except during outages where its minimum 12's, 7 days a week.
> 
> I currently commute in a 2wd 6 cylinder 5 speed F150. I don't want to have to down size even more to a car, but 50+ mpg's in a diesel VW is tempting.


Of course fuel is cheaper in a lil commuter car.

The real bonus is tires, brakes, and other parts. $900 tires for Ram? Be about $400 for my Saturn.

Only problem is rust mites show up when you quit using the truck so much. Here anyway they did to mine.


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## Thorim (Jan 19, 2015)

I've known a lot men that the only thing they ever did was farm through the lean times and into better times, they were never rich by the standard of having a lot of money but they were richer in family and friends then any billionaire, they knew there would be bad years but they also knew there would be good years to. I've also known men that worked off farm to help cover expenses they did what they believed they had to for their families they too were blessed with the richness of family and friends, but always seemed to me they were more distracted and worried splitting their time between two jobs and for that one job would always suffer..... I guess I would rather be poor and be on the farm full time then have to split time.

Matthew 6:26 "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both"... To be fair the complete is verse "No one can serve two masters. Either you will hate the one and love the other, or you will be devoted to the one and despise the other. You cannot serve both God and money" Though I have found this to be true about working two jobs as well imho


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