>It also takes time and effort to do it right, and many
>farmers today will use that time and effort in other management practices
that
>may give greater return.
I think off farm jobs and not having the right equipment setup may be the
real reason - coffee clutching aside - for farmers not saving seed. When I
picked up the Model 90 All-Crop I bought, I noticed there was an old seed
cleaner rotting in the weeds besides the old wooden barn which was also
rotting away.
I asked about it and was told "it was too boring to clean seed with it".
Apparently everything had to be shoveled by hand so no wonder it was boring
especially when you consider what the alternatives use to be.
Many of the older fulltime workers earning 15-25 dollars an hour at the
local John Deere plant are parttime farmers. You do the math.
"Alternative Mangement Practice" is called earning enough money somewhere
to make your payments on the note at the bank because you are not going to
be doing it from your farm income.
Seed saving practices may change again however with the new two-tier wage
system installed at the local John Deere plant. New hires are getting like
1/2 what the other workers are getting so the economics of saving your own
seed may be shifting back to making it feasible once again. Mike Miller
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