Well, it's like you said. Basically, I started off with his equipment, but I started my own business, everything else. You know, it's been tough. I quit two years ago. My wife is a nurse, and she's off now on leave, but she was basically paying all the other bills. I got in with two good years when the prices were right. Durum went through the roof for two years, then all of a sudden has gone down 300% since. Now we're actually talking about going back to work. That's pretty sad, you know, especially on 1,800 acres, if a guy can't make it pay.
My dad, you know, when he was farming back in the seventies and eighties...yes, they had high interest rates, but land prices were low, and he didn't have any of that trouble. Now I have high land prices and low interest rates, so really there's not much difference there. It kind of pencils out the same stuff.
Basically, I've got about a year or two left of farming at these rates, at these prices and everything; otherwise I'm going to sell. This is due, as I said, to these subsidized intensive livestock operations around my area. I'll not get a good dollar for my land. I mean, I took the equity when I had a house in town, working, and I paid off the first quarter of land and all that stuff, then bought some more, and paid through the nose for it, but I had to in order to be farming close to my parents.
They've been talking about succession planning, but we're nowhere near that yet. I don't know what's going to happen in the next year or two. I might have to simply pack it up and cut my losses. That's why I'm here today.