Any fellow farmers out there??

[BuckSutherland]

The mood of all the local farmers is probably the worst I have ever seen. Almost every farm I know is BARELY getting by, and many are ready to jump off a tall building. Morale is just terrible.

I run a small operation. Currently sitting at 110 acres. I have my 70 acres of corn in, but prospects to get the beans planted look awful. This is one of the slowest planting seasons ever for our country. It just never quits f*****g raining anymore. I am so sick of mud.


Watch CBOT prices over the next week. Beans up 30 and corn up 13 yesterday. Beans up 13 and corn up 8 again this morning. I am sitting on about 25,000 bushels of grain to market. Hope it goes up more and this fricken rain STOPS!!!!! There will be millions of prevent plant acres this year across the country. South Dakota looks like a top contender for the most acres.

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

I have a lot of friends that farm in South East Minnesota. They havent made a dime in 4 years. most of them which are dairy farmers. To top it off several of them had the roofs of their free stall barns collapse from the heavy snow we had this past winter and insurance doesnt cover it. One of them is a large hog farmer and the swine flue out of Asia was a huge blessing for the US hog market. I love agriculture and it is basically what keeps the midwest immune to recession. Farmers have a huge impact on their local economies and everyone should be thankful for that.

I'm not a farmer and not telling you what to do so take this with the best intentions and with a grain of salt. I believe it was Gabe brown that said going broke farming was the best thing that ever happened to him. He sold all his tillage equipment, bought a used no till drill, and started planting and grazing cover crops and was able to (over time) eliminate his fertilizer bill and greatly reduce his herbicide expense. One thing he keeps saying over and over is start signing the back of the check, not the front.


I wish you and all the farmers out there the best. Remember to slow down this spring and be safe. The farmer is more important than the farm. God bless.

 

[Baker]

I have the greatest respect for farmers!

 

[4wanderingeyes]

I will tell you, around my home area, unless you farm 5000+ acres, you will struggle. The big business farmers are taking over, and they make it tough for the family farmers. I know several farmers, I use to farm my first half of my life, the issue I see today is when times were good, farmers spent like times would stay good, now they are stuck with high bills, and no reserve now that times arent as bright. A good friend of mine farms about 600 acres, he went out and bought all new equipment, and leased a couple hundred more acres a few years ago, then prices fell, and he didnt plan ahead for the cost of fertilizer, and seed, so he skimped on fertilizer, and guess what? He lost his ass big time from production, and paid hard for it! Today you have to run it like a business, not a family hobby, or you will be the next to sell out to big corps!

 

[S.T.Fanatic]

What 4wanderingeyes mentioned is how it is in my area too. Much of this can be blamed on a flawed tax system.

 

[Barndog56]

There are tons of farmers all over the country that are making money, without falling into the corn/soybean/dairy sinkholes. People can make money farming small acreage thru crops like vegetables, mushrooms, cut flowers, nuts, berries, etc. Heck, we're having to pay twice as much for a bale of mixed grass/alfalfa hay as just a couple years ago.

A friend of mine took over a dairy farm 4 years ago. He had 60 cows then, and was losing money. He switched to milking three times a day, and bought more cows as other farms closed. Now he's up to 100 cows, produces more milk per head, and still can't make money. Wisconsin dairy farmers produce more and more and more milk each year, then complain the price is too low. But he loves his cows and refuses to change to some other form of farming.

There are farming opportunities out there, but you may have to think outside the corn/soybean box.

 

[ksgobbler]

I thought of this article when I started reading posts.
https://www.google.com/amp/s/newfoodeconomy.org/rural-kansas-depopulation-commodity-agriculture/amp/

 

[r49740]

There are tons of farmers all over the country that are making money, without falling into the corn/soybean/dairy sinkholes. People can make money farming small acreage thru crops like vegetables, mushrooms, cut flowers, nuts, berries, etc. Heck, we're having to pay twice as much for a bale of mixed grass/alfalfa hay as just a couple years ago.

A friend of mine took over a dairy farm 4 years ago. He had 60 cows then, and was losing money. He switched to milking three times a day, and bought more cows as other farms closed. Now he's up to 100 cows, produces more milk per head, and still can't make money. Wisconsin dairy farmers produce more and more and more milk each year, then complain the price is too low. But he loves his cows and refuses to change to some other form of farming.

There are farming opportunities out there, but you may have to think outside the corn/soybean box.

What kind of prices are you paying for a square or round bale of timothy/alfalfa mix?

 

[j-bird]

I am not a farmer but own a farm (150 acres - 100 tillable) and have farmers in the family. Just today on the radio they said that normally by this date roughly 1/2 the corn for the year is planted here in IN....this year....only roughly 6% is planted! I suspect there will be a lot of dust in the air soon here as we are just starting to dry out. The bean crop should be fine....corn?...corn will be interesting to see....at least here. May see a lot of combines still in the fields in November this year here....unless it's for chop.

I will also say that in my area....unless you farm for the fun of it (because there is so little money in it, if any) you go big or you go home. "Small" farmers (people who truly farm for a living) farm 1,500 acres minimum....to have a chance. Here the small farmer is dead. By "farmer" I mean someone who uses farming/ranching as their primary source of income. Most folks retain the land but simply rent the ground to someone else. I do. I have to. No way I can make the investment to farm my 100 acres of tillable and make a profit in doing so (unless I'm growing something currently illegal). Most folks here that own the farms have "normal" jobs for their income and only farm, if at all, simply for a little extra money or battle to simply break even. The margins in crop production (here it's corn and soybeans) requires a significant volume to be able to make an actual living off of it. We have a large dairy farm (one of the largest in the state) just a few miles down the road....so it helps drive the silage corn market here. Many of the livestock farmers are the same way....your either pretty small....or it's huge confined type operations.

 

[bzb_1]

I technically am not farming yet...I know your talking about tilling but I am getting in the poultry game. Building 4 broiler houses and should be up and running around August give or take.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

I technically am not farming yet...I know your talking about tilling but I am getting in the poultry game. Building 4 broiler houses and should be up and running around August give or take.

How many chickens will you be growing there? There's a chicken/turkey operation a few miles from our place. I'm guessing the sheds are maybe 100'x40' or so, so they house a lot of birds. It's the smelliest farm I've ever been near - I have no idea how anyone could live in that house since the smell is so strong.

 

[bzb_1]

What you are smelling is $$$$. Lol. We will be growing 35k in each house in 7 week turn arounds. Just under 1 million a year. Our houses are 600'x63'. We are not even up and running yet and have had farmers tracking us down to buy our manure. We are doing a lot to be good neighbors though. I am planting screening cover and when we met with the engineers we doubled everything that the law established...for example we have to be 400' from any residence that is not ours...we doubled it...150' off the center of roadway...we doubled it...we are also not composting our dead...we are doing an ecodrum which basically incinerates everything. It will still be smelly but not as bad as others.

 

[Ben.MN/WI]

We have to shut the windows of the car and turn off the vents when we drive by that chicken farm or else the whole interior of the car smells like that money!

Their house is closer to the barns than the road is, so they must go through a lot of scented candles there-

You'll have to take some pictures as your barns are being built since that sounds like a cool setup. I've never seen the inside of an operation like that. How is the manure collected? Are there grates on the floor that the manure falls through or do they just go on the floor and then after 7 weeks the whole barn is cleaned out when the chickens are sold?

 

[bwoods11]

I am not really a farmer, but I do get income from farm rent and enter it as profit/loss on my taxes. Farm land has been the best investment I have ever made. Bought and sold several farms with the goal of acquiring land with rental income to supplement my retirement. (50/50 timber to tillable farms is what I typically buy)

As far as making money farming, I think you have to be big or specialized? Small cattle guys seem to be doing well right now, pork prices are up. Corn might come back in 19, who knows? A lot depends on the trade deal with China.

Having hunting parcel(s) that also pays $$$ you an annual income is a lot of more fun than stocks/bond/gold? I will say that even though commodity prices are low, I had 4 farmers trying to rent my new farm in MN, and the rent is still strong.

 

[bwoods11]

What you are smelling is $$$$. Lol. We will be growing 35k in each house in 7 week turn arounds. Just under 1 million a year. Our houses are 600'x63'. We are not even up and running yet and have had farmers tracking us down to buy our manure. We are doing a lot to be good neighbors though. I am planting screening cover and when we met with the engineers we doubled everything that the law established...for example we have to be 400' from any residence that is not ours...we doubled it...150' off the center of roadway...we doubled it...we are also not composting our dead...we are doing an ecodrum which basically incinerates everything. It will still be smelly but not as bad as others.

A septic guy once told me other peoples shit is "the smell of money to me"

 

[bowhunternw]

How many chickens will you be growing there? There's a chicken/turkey operation a few miles from our place. I'm guessing the sheds are maybe 100'x40' or so, so they house a lot of birds. It's the smelliest farm I've ever been near - I have no idea how anyone could live in that house since the smell is so strong.

I have always thought that all county ordinances should contain, "for any type of animal confinement" that the owners home has to be the closest inhabitable house. Rather than stick it in someone elses backyard. My wife and I rented a house when we were first married, there was a huderite colony and a hog confinement within a mile. There was no air conditioning and I remember days when you could smell hogs in your clothes the next day while at work. The main reason I would never ever consider buying a rural house in ag country.

 

[Barndog56]

What kind of prices are you paying for a square or round bale of timothy/alfalfa mix?

Small bales are $6 a piece if we can find some. For the last 3 months we've had to buy large square bales. The price for those climbed from $115 to $135 in those 3 months. And now we're going to have to find somewhere else as they're sold out.

 

[bzb_1]

We have to shut the windows of the car and turn off the vents when we drive by that chicken farm or else the whole interior of the car smells like that money!

Their house is closer to the barns than the road is, so they must go through a lot of scented candles there-

You'll have to take some pictures as your barns are being built since that sounds like a cool setup. I've never seen the inside of an operation like that. How is the manure collected? Are there grates on the floor that the manure falls through or do they just go on the floor and then after 7 weeks the whole barn is cleaned out when the chickens are sold?

No dirt floors and we put down bales of sawdust type litter and collect it all about every 3-5 flocks. Between each flock we basically fluff it

 

[bzb_1]

I have always thought that all county ordinances should contain, "for any type of animal confinement" that the owners home has to be the closest inhabitable house. Rather than stick it in someone elses backyard. My wife and I rented a house when we were first married, there was a huderite colony and a hog confinement within a mile. There was no air conditioning and I remember days when you could smell hogs in your clothes the next day while at work. The main reason I would never ever consider buying a rural house in ag country.

Where we built this farm is very close to one of the most prominent neighborhoods in the area...Its a golf course community. A concern of ours was someone would try to stop us from doing this. Our attorney assured us that they built their homes in Ag country...Not the other way around. There is nothing they could do as long as we follow the laws and obtain proper permits. So far were good. There is another chicken farm actually closer that has been running for years.

 

[Bill]

There’s a hog confine about 1/4 mile south of my hunting land. The smell of pigs in November tells me it’s time to hunt my good south wind stands....

I keep threatening to hang my camo on one of the exhaust fans because the deer are used to that smell. Just can’t bring myself to do it....

I hear you Buck lots bad the last two years. Rain all spring and when it did quit it stayed quit!