A small farm is an important part of agriculture. But I’m not talking about a few acres so much as a few carpets. Our son, somewhat by default, is really into farming. He’s five years old and he will tell his great grandpa, granpda, and dad how to operate equipment in the field. And he will be right. He just doesn’t have long enough arms and legs to do it himself yet, but he does have a pretty major operation going at home. In fact, he recently told me he needs another machine shed to store the equipment for his enterprise. I assume it is a universal farm kid thing to hook up toy implements to toy tractors in order to make lines in the carpet just like Dad or Mom or Grandpa do in the real fields. Our son is a stickler for having everything organized and in straight rows. A good start for potential future farmer. If I flip a parked tractor around when he isn’t looking he’ll spot it soon enough.
He also really wants to do work at home just like whatever is being done on the full size farm. When we are working in the fields he wants to know before bedtime whether we left equipment in the field overnight or brought it back to the shop. He will do the same with his equipment. Right now he doesn’t even really want to play with his farm equipment because it’s winter and we are not doing any field work. We did however get our the wet wipes recently to wipe off the dust that has been collecting on his store equipment. I guess he’s watched us clean a few tractors.
Trucks parked on the side of the road during harvest. Carpets are fields and the laminate flooring is roads. Implements are raised and lowered accordingly for field work and roading. This small farm is a big deal!
At the dealer looking for new equipment. This stuff is expensive and a lot of though goes into the decision process. Especially when it’s your own money!
Getting it done with the big equipment on the small farm! He’s got to have the real deal when it comes to grain. We have plastic baggies of corn, soybeans, and popcorn in the drawers where his toys go.
If we’re lucky our son will be the 5th generation to run our family farm. If that turns out to be his profession then he’s putting in a lot of hours training right now. Of course he spends a good deal of time out in the real fields with the big boys. Beck’s Hybrids has a series of videos called Why I Farm. Beck’s “This isn’t playtime. It’s practice.” sums up the life of a farm kid working on the small farm dreaming of working the big farm one day.
What do you think of small farming? Do you have a small farmer too? Let me know in a comment.
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Play is the work of childhood. The joy and accuracy you’re seeing now in your son’s play bodes well for his future, whether it’s in agriculture or elsewhere.
My word this is adorable.
Thanks, Brooke.
I have seen so many small farmers.. I even invest in them! When my nephew was smaller, I started giving him tractors…. over time, he begged his mom to let him change rooms so he could proudly display them on the mantle. Such a love of the machines, how they work, what each implement does… wish I had photos of all of that.
Sometimes I have to work at it or sneak up to get a good photo of him. It’s like “Seriously, Dad. Trying to work over here.”
Loved this article. I didn’t grow up on a farm but did this with my toys. My sister used to get mad because I was constantly taking the toys apart to make them into what I needed, she said I was breaking them and destroying the value. I didn’t care about value. I had a 24′ wing disk that I needed to be a 33′ to be just like my cousins farm.
As I grew older it became a hobby and I started getting raw materials and making the specialty equipment found in my area from scratch. Finally when I hot my own place I got some 4’x8′ sheets of wood and made a display that was a replica of my cousins farm (I always looked up to him as he was the big rice farmer in the family). At one point I had his exact equipment right down to the model number.
Also have a friend who, when he was younger, took it a step further by fussing at his mom for walking over his carpet rows, forcing him to have to use his crop insurance.
LOL, crop insurance. Too funny.
I just had a guy the other day ask for the dimensions of the rock boxes on our 8360R. He wants to build them with his 3D printer for custom farm toys. How cool is that?
I wish they’d had 3d printing when I was still in the hobby. Would have saved me many instances of super gluing my fingers together and the kicks and cuts from the exact knife. Lol
Out of everyone in the hobby, I’m probably the only one who flooded his fields and put his tractors in them to simulate waterleveling.
OMG, I loved, loved, LOVED this post. So cute and rewarding to see the boy following in the footsteps of his dad, granddad, and great granddad. I gardened with four of my grandkids this weekend. The three-year-old boy was more into using the tools, stirring the dirt, and testing with the water meter than he was into actual planting. Gardening is a new concept to him. He planted radish seeds, then continued to stir the dirt. Who knows how deep those seeds went. His older sisters planted strawberries, cucumbers, lettuce, peas, bok Choy, carrots, summer squash, and watermelon, all in containers. I don’t expect the watermelon to bear fruit, but Megan insisted on planting some. We didn’t think she could grow corn in a container, but as a four-year-old she hand-fertilized her four corn plants and got two ears of corn. Not bad. This is her fourth gardening season and she is only seven.
Our little guy eats cherry tomatoes from our garden like they are candy. Once it gets going we get about a large cereal bowl full every day or two.
Brian, I can look back and remember those days as a youngster, my dad farmed until I was 13 or 14 and I can remember turning my entire bedroom into a replica farm of my dad’s. I couldn’t wait until one day I got to join in the pride of actually working on the real farm, I got my chance about a year before my dad sold the farm with our last harvest I was able to drive the tractor with the grain cart and do some plowing prep for the following year. I still remember when my dad told us he was getting out of farming; it was a massive blow but I continued to work on area farms all through high school and into college. I still enjoy this time of year when you start seeing the equipment in the fields again and the anticipation of the harvest.
Brian,
This brought back so many wonderful memories of our 3 boys growing up. I’ve lived through this stage with all three sons. I’m proud of all three, and the middle son is a full-time farmer today!
One particular memory is that the boys used the floor registers as the ‘unload pit’ to unload their trucks of grain.
Thanks for bringing these sweet memories back to mind!
Wonderful article! Thanks for this blog Brian.
I was in Monticello yestrerday & go a 1/16th JOhn Deere FFA 4320.YOur right on target when it comes to price
Really nice, Brian. I’m know I’m biased, but there’s no better place to raise a kid than on a farm.
We have 4 little farmers in the family 2 boys and 2 girls. Grandpa buys their Christmas presents at the Implement Dealer and as already said some are pricey. One more pedal tractor yet to buy.
Definately, he is a smart kid. I appreciate his small thinking about a farm. In no future, he will do better than the present.
Tractor toys = Farming Simulator = Farming