Family Run Farm Supplies From Horse Feeders To Fencing

I just watched yet another farm down the road go up for sale and I'm starting to wonder if I'm the only guy left in the whole State who isn't selling out to big agribusiness conglomerates. I took over my farm from my dad, who took it over from his dad and so on right back to the late 1800s. Other then the automated horse feeders I put in a few years ago, not a whole lot has changed on our farm in all that time.

I grew up farming, from the time when I turned five and my dad put me in charge of the chicken incubator, to age ten when I took over cow milking operations, I've lived and breathed farm life. Like my brothers and most of my friends, I learned to drive a tractor long before I was able to drive a car. We put in long hours and we did things the right way instead of concentrating on getting as big as we could, as fast as we could. Our methods have always just seemed right, although many people today are taking what we've been doing for decades and sticking fancy labels on it like 'sustainable farming,' or 'green farming.' Whatever. I just like knowing that my land will remain just as productive as it is today when my own son has kids and one of them is put in charge of that chicken incubator.

While agribusiness keeps buying up farmland and wrecking it with massive sewage lagoons, fertilizer treatments, pesticides and genetically modified crops, it's good to know that there are still a few agricultural businesses that are operated like they used to be in the old days. For example, I deal with a place called L&J Feed, a family run business that's been around for over forty years. As a matter of fact, that's where I bought those horse feeders I was mentioning earlier. Places like that know the local farmers, they stock the supplies and equipment that they need and there's no pressure to buy overpriced gadgets that are only going to be outdated in a few years anyway. My horse feeders have lasted ten years and there's no reason I shouldn't get another ten out of them.

I suppose some people might think I'm old fashioned, especially the ones who retired after they sold their farms to the mega corporations, but it seems that a growing number of people -the 'green' city folks- think I'm on to something.