Iowa land sale

[Tree Spud]

We don’t have the crazy deep top soil here like they do in Iowa just the high land prices.
Land here goes for 12K-15K an acre easy with land that the fifth generation farmers wanting even higher so their sons can farm next to them.
Not unusual to get 200 or more bushels per acre here either. I think our county is one of the highest ag counties in the state if not #1.

I don’t see how anyone could make profit on crops here unless they are pretty much paying cash for ground and are third to fifth generation farmers with equipment paid for.

Farming, unlike other business' is highly subsidized with gov't funding. Up to 40% of their income is govt subsidized...
RECORD-HIGH AG SUBSIDIES TO SUPPLY 39% OF FARM INCOME

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Farming, unlike other business' is highly subsidized with gov't funding. Up to 40% of their income is govt subsidized...
RECORD-HIGH AG SUBSIDIES TO SUPPLY 39% OF FARM INCOME

Some (maybe a lot?) of farmers are one step above a welfare recipient.

 

[Mortenson]

Hey now, that's a low blow to welfare recipients! Who I might add, don't pay tax and usually only support their local walmart, cell phone stores, manicurists, & used Mercedes dealerships. At least we support local agribusinesses, machinery dealerships, banks, etc, and pay tax. Love it or hate it, farming is a government job. Govt makes the reports and pretty much sets the price. It's not a free market. They can keep prices within a range that the PTB deem appropriate and by throwing a few crumbs and thus buying our information, keep the cheap food policy moving. Working on year end taxes now, and other than the subsidy portion of federal crop insurance premium (which I always gladly paid for fully before it became federal), I have no crop subsidy income this year (in reference to the 40% above).

 

[Howboutthemdawgs]

Hey now, that's a low blow to welfare recipients! Who I might add, don't pay tax and usually only support their local walmart, cell phone stores, manicurists, & used Mercedes dealerships. At least we support local agribusinesses, machinery dealerships, banks, etc, and pay tax. Love it or hate it, farming is a government job. Govt makes the reports and pretty much sets the price. It's not a free market. They can keep prices within a range that the PTB deem appropriate and by throwing a few crumbs and thus buying our information, keep the cheap food policy moving. Working on year end taxes now, and other than the subsidy portion of federal crop insurance premium (which I always gladly paid for fully before it became federal), I have no crop subsidy income this year (in reference to the 40% above).

I’m extremely interested in your business just from a curiosity standpoint. Obviously from the outside looking in it seems like an extremely, inefficient, propped up industry but I’m sure that is a wildly inaccurate observation. Is the government so heavily involved because they basically want to control food prices? Can a farmer survive and even thrive without being in their pocket?

 

[Mortenson]

I would say that yes it's an inaccurate observation, but as in any walk of life, there are definitely scumbags who abuse or cheat the system. Large grain farms have gotten larger, with the idea of being more efficient. Most are probably good, honest people. That leaves quite a few who aren't. If you're dishonest enough, you farm in multiple counties and move bushels from county A to county B and engage in insurance fraud. Sometimes they get caught and make the papers. Personally, our farm would be considered small. We've grown at a snail's pace, but we've grown. We don't cash rent any ground anymore. I'd like to think we'd do OK without any govt intervention ever again. I would continue buying crop and hail insurance, as we've always done even before it was a federally subsidized product, to protect ourselves. Taxation and the cost of machinery are my biggest worries going forward. Take away federal crop insurance and the farm programs and things will change in probably a dramatic way. I think I'd like to see that happen, but I don't know if the nation as a whole would like it. You mentioned it being a propped up industry, it becomes a big debate that includes biofuels. I'll let everyone else tackle that if they want, but I'll just say again that democrats have always been considered the "farmer friendly" politicians, therefore I vote for less farm subsidies. And nobody should bounce here over from the high land value/net worth thread and not realize it's all connected. Don't badmouth the system if you're happy with your land portfolio and net worth statement which is being propped up by the current system which also includes CRP, Carbon payments, renters who pay you more rent, etc etc..