My comment was specific to people "Fleeing" rural america. Not the specifics of Norfolk Catholic.
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Dylan Kautz
- Thread starter SavageHusker
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Not necessarily fleeing, but farming efficiencies, economics, land consolidation & falling birth rates are contributing factors.
When I am back home (Boyd County & Gregory County, SD), it is not too hard too hard to pick out the remnants of old homesteads on every quarter or half section. My great grandfather had a large farm (3 Quarters) a century ago. Even my Dad experienced ‘small, community’ farming as a teenager in the’50s on threshing crew. Now, my cousins are operating farms that are several thousand acres.
Yep that is what I am saying. They just do not need as many people.
Even when I was a kid, 30 years ago, there were 2 farms on a section of land. My uncle had 560 acres, probably 280 of that was dry land corn. The rest was pasture/hay ground. Had a cow calf operation of about 100 head....he was my rich uncle. Crazy how the world changes.
Crazy how much value of land has escalated too. Bachelor Uncle who passed away a year ago & had a similar sized farm / farming operation between Gregory & Winner, SD.
He was a wealthy uncle too & didn’t know it! Amazed at value of his real estate. Vastly exceeds price my Dad had opportunity to buy a similar farm in late 50s for just $50 / acre.
Ok, so the chicken or the egg here, did farming efficiency happen because of lower available work force or did the efficiency cause the work force to go elsewhere? My believe is that people left the rural area first and the efficiency is a direct result.
I am by no means an expert, I think they went hand in hand, and as technology & costs rose made it harder for a younger generation to afford to get in the business. In my simple perspective, one begat the other in a vicious cycle.
We left our farm in the 60s & know others left in that timeframe too. Ours was not an economic decision, but unfortunately one of necessity when Dad suddenly became a single parent with two very young boys. As a young person, I envisioned going back and had I stayed single, I could have seen myself back there in some ag operation ... but, life events happen!
We left our farm in the 60s & know others left in that timeframe too. Ours was not an economic decision, but unfortunately one of necessity when Dad suddenly became a single parent with two very young boys. As a young person, I envisioned going back and had I stayed single, I could have seen myself back there in some ag operation ... but, life events happen!
I'm no expert on the economics of agriculture, but I think that the markets have forced guys to become much more efficient. You have to get bigger and farm more land which requires more and bigger equipment which all requires more capital. Kids leaving is the same thing. They either sell lease to another farmer who is getting bigger and bigger.
Think the average production for irrigated corn this year is forecast to be 170 bushels an acre. $3.40/bushel=$578 per acre. 578X160= $92,480 potential income for a quarter before any costs, which obviously keep going up. Average value of irrigated farm ground in NE Nebraska is $5,420...that is a lot of capital at risk, in my opinion. I don't know how they make it, to be honest.
A little of both, lots of WW2 vets took their GI Bill went to college and never came back to the farm. My dad did that, I think after seeing a little bit of the world many didn't want that type of life. I think that started the exodus, but it was a slow process that really got going in the 80's. Lived in Plainview Ne for about 7 years. I had a friend who grew up in town during the 70's. He said even in about 1975 there was still 3 car dealerships, 2 grocery stores, 2 implement dealers, 4-5 full service gas stations, and about 5 restaurants
Now there is 1 grocery store, 1 Caseys for gas, a used car dealer, and I think a small JD implement dealership.
Lots of factors go into it though. Living in the Magic Valley around Boise Idaho the farming is still more labor intensive, they use a lot of gravity flow irrigation and grow a lot of table crops. I tell farmers all the time that a 2000 acre farm in the Midwest is a farmer his grown son and maybe a hired man. Out here in Idaho it is 12 guys working that same 2000 acres.
Well, it looks like Dylan Kautz has a chance to leave Norfolk and play football somewhere. Where that is will be determined.
For college or Senior Year?
Norfolk Catholic was C-2 back in the mid to late 90s. Beat us by a blocked punt returned for a TD.
Snap was good BTW. Important detail to one person only, the rare DB/long snapper.
I kind of forgot...college.
D
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Yep.
It happened here back in '04. Callahan had Ryan Goodman as a walkon QB with a wrestling scholarship.
For some unexplained reason, he put Goodman in for a few garbage time plays one game and he never played another down. But he was immediately on football scholarship and his wrestling scholarship opened up for someone else because of Callahan's bonehead move.
I would disagree. Farming efficiency and tools allowing for larger farms started way before people left. Although there was a bit of a migration after WW II the one most refer to started in the late 70s. Automation started in the early 60s. Modern Milkers, Modern combines, all started to take over the previously manual processes. Look at corn as an example. In reality they're are not many true "Cornhuskers" left. The combine now takes it straight from stalk to grain to silo. A field that used to take days, and a dozen men to clear even in the 50s by the early 80s into the 90s took 2-3 guys, a combine and a couple trucks to do in a few hours. That is when Rural america really started to move.
As workers moved so did a lot of support businesses. Small town banks are harder to find and they get consolidated in towns like NP and kearney. Especially once most banking could be done online. Same with things like car dealerships and even grocery stores. In some places they got bigger. In others they disappeared or shrunk.
Yep, I remember that. Goodman didn't last long in the program if I remember correctly.
*Just looked it up, Goodman finished his career at North Carolina State. He's coaching at Coastal Carolina with Joe Moglia, Marvin Sanders, and T.J. Hollowell now.
