We grew up working our farm and I went to school for driving farm equipment and got my agricultural license at 14 to drive combines or tractors, etc on public roads from the valley to the farm in the hills. All the kids in our county worked weeding soy beans and detassling corn in the summer or baling hay for spending moneey...started at about 12 or so. My childhood farm is being auctioned off now and my dad's grandchildren are all splitting the profits from the sale according to dad's will. There are 19 grandchildren and after estate trust costs they should each get a good chunk of change. I'm glad I grew up farming but it's a hard life...when I was a kid most of the fruit and sugar beet harvests were done by Jamaican migrant workers and lots of farm work on the dairies and grain business were done by Irish migrant workers. Hispanics came along long after I'd left the midwest.
