Can Farming be a life sentence?

Zero Commission Livestock Selling - Agents and Private sellers, you can now sell your Livestock for free on Farm Tender. Check out how it works here.

To receive this newsletter in your inbox each day, just register with Farm Tender here.

By Dwain Duxson

Can Farming be a life sentence? - I read about this CEO or Corporate guy here who had a yearning to drive Trucks. So at the age of 60, he quit and started doing what he wanted to do. It's a great story. I have a mate who is also a CEO in a pretty heavy industry, but he can't wait for the day he packs up the desk and starts transferring sick patients from Hospital back into their homes. They use Ambulance type "Patient Transfer" vans. You would have seen them. That's what he yearns to do. 

I went to a party a few weekends ago and was blown away by the people I spoke to who are sick of their jobs. Some were self-employed, some tradies, some in sales, some white-collar jobs, 1 Farmer, and they weren't happy. 

The old adage, Farming's a great lifestyle, and it is too many, but some people go through their Farming life hating the game. I think it's the, "we've been here for 5 generations and over 100 years" thing that forces people's hand. They fight with guilt all their lives about being the one to break such a tradition. It might take a parent to die or something like that to trigger someone to get out, but 40 years of not enjoying what you do, that's sad.

And for the record, I love what I do. We got to a point where we wanted to exit Farming (not that I hated it) and do something else, so we drove out the gate and started a new life. It wasn't as simple as just driving out the gate, but we did it. Years later, we got back into Farming in a very small way, we'd now describe ourselves as part-time Farmers, and that suits us. Think about it, are you really doing what you want to do?

End of message