Posted on 02/05/2006 7:14:10 PM PST by hedgetrimmer
As a third-generation farmer who says he's been driving tractors since he could walk, Keith Petterson never imagined he would someday be selling real estate.
"I have to do that to support my farming habit," he said with a chuckle.
Up until two years ago, Petterson was a full-time farmer, working the soil from dawn until dusk, doing what he considers his "first love." But four years ago, he could see the writing on the wall.
"I knew I had to do something because the farm wasn't paying the bills," said Petterson, whose family planted some of Lake County's first pears.
Although he was once one of the largest pear growers in the county, Petterson said that heavy imports along with low returns and high production costs have gradually squeezed him out of the market. At the same time, he saw the housing market in his area booming, so when a friend suggested he try real estate, he reluctantly scaled back his farming operation and became a real estate agent by day.
"I think we've got to face reality and realize that the farmer of the past--the one who spends 24/7 on the farm--is getting harder and harder to find," said Petterson. "I did that for 35 years. I'm not a real estate salesperson, but I'm 60 and it's just something I have to do because farming just went downhill."
Petterson is among nearly 50 percent of California farmers who rely on some form of off-farm income to make ends meet, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's 2002 census. Across the nation, that percentage is somewhat higher; 56 percent of farmers reported to the USDA that off-farm employment is an important component of their household income.
The trend of farmers taking on other jobs to help pay the bills is hardly new. The percentage of California farmers with off-farm income has remained relatively unchanged in the last 30 years: 47 percent in 1974 compared to 54 percent in 1997 and 50 percent in 2002, the USDA reported.
However, the frequency of working off the farm has grown substantially over the last 75 years, according to a report by the USDA's Economic Research Service. In 1929, only one in 16 farmers in the nation reported working 200 days or more off the farm. By 1947, one in six farmers reported that much off-farm work, and by 1997, the figure had grown to one in three farmers.
Placer County rancher Bob Wiswell said he has had his off-farm business fixing swimming pools for more than 30 years. His family has been ranching for five generations, and he's the first one to work off the farm.
"I started this side business years ago because we could see we weren't making it," said Wiswell. "We were doing well, but we had some really bad years back in those days, and we could just see that it wasn't like it used to be. If we wanted to struggle by, we could, but we wanted a better lifestyle, so I went to work off the farm."
Unwilling to succumb to the pressures of selling the family ranch, Wiswell and his family decided years ago that they would do what was needed to keep their ranch, a prospect that may not be possible for some during tough times. To secure his homestead, Wiswell took what was initially a part-time job. But over the years, his pool business grew, and today, Wiswell partners with his son and continues ranching, which he still considers his primary occupation.
"We could probably make a living now (on ranching), but it's so up and down that I don't want my son to do that, so we're partners and it's working out very well," he said.
Because raising cattle tends not to be as labor intensive as some other forms of agriculture, Wiswell said, it's possible for ranchers like himself to work off the farm. According to the USDA, beef, hog and sheep farmers are the most likely to have off-farm work, accounting for 48 percent of instances when both spouses work off the farm. Dairy farmers, on the other hand, are the least likely to work off the farm because of the time-consuming nature of their farming.
Lake County rancher Marie Ady said she would likely maintain her feed store while ranching until she retires. But she does not like to differentiate her day job from her ranch work, she said.
"I think of it more as diversification," she said. "That's the way you make ends meet--whether you do it in a feed store or you do it in a vet's office or your spouse teaches school or works as a clerk in Safeway. Your passion might be your livestock or your farm, but you go where the money is. My mom used to pack apples. That was the way she used to earn extra money."
Farm structure and size tend to correlate with how much a farm depends on off-farm income, according to the USDA. Very large family farms typically receive little or no off-farm income and account for nearly half of all U.S. farm output. On the flip side, small farms with sales less than $250,000 draw the majority of their income from off-farm employment.
Although residential or lifestyle farms account for a very small share of the nation's farm output, they make up nearly half of all U.S. farms today and receive a significant portion of their income from off-farm employment, the USDA reported.
Jeff Bitter, who grows Thompson seedless grapes for wine in Madera County, said he isn't offended by those who call him a "gentleman farmer"msomeone who holds a full-time job and farms part time in order to live on a farm. But he added that his "real" job has made it possible for him to break into farming.
"I wouldn't say my job supports the farm, but it definitely took having a good job to be able to save the resources to buy our farm and to farm it," said Bitter, who has a master's degree in agriculture business and whose wife also holds an advanced degree and works full-time off the farm.
At 32, Bitter belongs to a generation of farmers who face the challenge of a land market in which prices are at historic highs. Young farmers today depend on their off-farm income to provide the start-up cost for the farm they've been saving for, Bitter said.
"Unless you're born into it through the family, it's generally hard for young people to get into farming with the price of land and just the cost to farm," he said. "You can get a production loan, but if you want to farm with your own cash and not have to borrow money to farm, then you've got to have quite a bit saved up."
Doug Bentz, an almond farmer in Butte County, said he didn't inherit any of the land on his farm. Like Bitter, he depends on his full-time job as a college administrator to be the financial backbone for his farm.
"Typically my day job would subsidize the farming for cash-flow purposes or for equipment purchases and things that would've been put off until better times if I was depending on just the ag income," said Bentz, a past Butte County Farm Bureau president. "When you need a piece of equipment, whether it's a shaker or sweeper, that need doesn't just come up when the prices are good or the volume and quantity are good. When something breaks down, you need it then. The day job smoothes out the whole cash situation."
In many families, the farmer's spouse works off the farm to obtain health insurance and other benefits, Bentz said.
"When you've got a good job, you're not going to give up the benefits of the job to risk doing just the farming, which doesn't have the security and doesn't have the health benefits and all the other benefits that come with a full-time job," he added.
For now, neither Bentz nor Bitter have any desire to quit their full-time day jobs, which they consider their bread and butter. Bitter said he likes farming the 40 acres he has, and he likes that his job at Allied Grape Growers relates to his farming.
Many farmers choose off-farm jobs that put them back on the farm. Kulwant Johl, who farms 800 acres of peaches, prunes, walnuts and almonds in Yuba County, works by day as an agricultural pest control advisor. Because his off-farm job entails visits to other farms, Johl is able to travel back and forth from his appointments with clients to his own farm, which he shares with three brothers.
Two of his brothers also have agriculture-related day jobs. One works for Sunsweet Growers, the other for Sierra Gold Nurseries. The third brother is the only one who stays on the orchard full time.
"Since the operation is so big, we need somebody here," said Johl.
He wanted his day job to be an extension of his farming, and Johl said helping other farmers with crop diseases, insects and nutritional needs provides him the kind of knowledge that is useful on his farm.
"This job really benefits me," he added.
But having a farm-related day job could also mean working extra long hours, especially when the demands of both off-farm and on-farm jobs collide during the growing and harvest seasons, Johl's busiest time of year.
"During May, June and July, I try to check every farm once a week," Johl said of his pest control advisor duties, which include servicing 60 to 70 farms on a rotating schedule. "It makes it hard sometimes, especially during harvest, but we just work long hours."
Yet having a day job is not necessarily as easy as it sounds. Finding off-farm employment may not be feasible for some farmers.
"When you reach my age, there's not a whole lot out there in the job market besides being a greeter at Wal-mart," said Petterson.
Younger and better-educated farmers and their spouses are typically the most likely to work off the farm, possibly due to their higher employment marketability, according to a 1994 Agricultural Resource Management Study by the USDA.
"It is certainly not an easy transition because farmers are jacks of all trades and masters of none," said Paul Lum, a Solano County farmer who also works for the Solano Irrigation District. "Farmers do have a lot of skills. A lot of farmers are good mechanics or welders. Some farmers are really good managers. Some are really good at managing businesses and finances. So it's just a matter of the individual finding their niche. It was not easy for me either, but when you don't have a choice, you jump into something else with both feet."
In his day job as an agriculture water conservation coordinator and irrigation specialist, Lum said his transition was "sensible" because he works with farmers on irrigation management programs that increase efficiency.
"So I work with farmers just like I've worked with farmers all my life," said Lum, who grows almonds and other seed crops.
For Madera County winegrape grower Dino Petrucci, he simply enjoys both farming and his catering business, which he's had for more than 30 years.
"There was a need for caters in our community and it was an income that allowed me to remain in agriculture," said Petrucci. He is in the process of expanding his catering business and is now marketing a barbecue sauce and marinade that he developed from old family recipes.
"People say, 'Dino, how do you keep so many irons in the fire?'" he said. "I tell them, 'It's still fun, and I'm still healthy enough to where I can do it and that's why I'm in it.'"
PING
Seems this guy knew the writing on the wall long ago
I still think they have better lives than those constrained in a cubicle all day.
Muleteam1
I don't know about pear and grape farmers, but here in corn country, my family has made several livings from working directly with the farmers.
I happen to know some of the smallest and some of the biggest in our state.
All I mean is, that I have more than just a passing interest in the sustainability of our farmland AND the farmers.
WHAT???!! All these illegal immigrants aren't saving farmers?!
bookmark for later printing.
Did ja hear the one about the farmer who won the lottery? When asked how he'd spend his millions, he said, " I'll farm until I'm broke..."
Need to look to the builders first. The landscapers next. Around here, anyway. Most of the farmers I know who use immigrant labor, have been doing so for decades.
Rights, farms, environment ping.BTTT
That's the way things are. My friend who is a postal worker is also a farmer. She, her husband and her Dad run the place, but she works off the farm to help make ends meet and provide she & her husband with healthcare.
I have a small farm, but there's no way I could sustain it without other work, too. It does get into your blood, and I've wanted a farm my whole life; only took me 35 years to get here, LOL! I find it a joy to grow and sell food to others at my little farm stand, provide fresh eggs, herb & veggie seedlings in the spring, cut flowers and raspberries in the summer, pumpkins & squash in the fall, etc. People appreciate it, and it's going to be hard for me when I get too old to do it.
But my FIL is over 70 and still spends more time on a tractor than not...he's a retired IBM Engineer who took an early retirement to farm fulltime about 25 years ago.
LOL ow.
Good for you and your family. It sounds like you have a wonderful farm operation.
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