I grew up in big ag. I think a lot of people get hung up on subsidies and the actions of large conglomerates.
While it's true that's what got us there, in my experience what keeps us there is the _this is how my father did it and it worked_ attitude. Looking to the past for a recipe for success.
A lot of the old timers actually experienced a time where farming was harder than it was (it's still not an easy job). To them it makes sense to follow what was led as that made life easier.
The guys running the farms that are doing really well tend to have a large subset of their acreage dedicated to organic crops based purely on market demand. They also test their soil, rotate their off season cover crops based on those tests, have their livestock graze on the cover, and have radically different opinions than the norm on plow, vs till, vs low till, vs no till (they use them as the situation calls for it, not beholden to a particular method)
In short the successful folks question what was done and are trying to get out ahead of industry trends where most people are just blindly following a pattern that worked at some point in the past. IMO it's not too much different the tech industry.
While it's true that's what got us there, in my experience what keeps us there is the _this is how my father did it and it worked_ attitude. Looking to the past for a recipe for success.
A lot of the old timers actually experienced a time where farming was harder than it was (it's still not an easy job). To them it makes sense to follow what was led as that made life easier.
The guys running the farms that are doing really well tend to have a large subset of their acreage dedicated to organic crops based purely on market demand. They also test their soil, rotate their off season cover crops based on those tests, have their livestock graze on the cover, and have radically different opinions than the norm on plow, vs till, vs low till, vs no till (they use them as the situation calls for it, not beholden to a particular method)
In short the successful folks question what was done and are trying to get out ahead of industry trends where most people are just blindly following a pattern that worked at some point in the past. IMO it's not too much different the tech industry.