Re: if acquire 30 acres tillable, hmmm

Posted by JD Seller on April 09, 2018 at 17:50:01 from (208.126.189.95):

In Reply to: if acquire 30 acres tillable, hmmm posted by michaelr on April 09, 2018 at 08:31:37:

Certified organic is a very vague goal. Organic what???? Produce, grain crops, beef, and etc. So your goals need to be more defined.

No one is going to rent it for a few years doing organic farming. It takes three years to become certified organic. So you have to live with the lower yields and fight the weeds an all while selling for non organic prices.

CRP is a 10-15 year commitment. Also there is going to be very few "new" acres go into the CRP program. Many more people with acres are wanting in the program than there is acres available.

Living more than an hour away and trying to grow organic crops is going to be very hard to do an be successful. Organic production is the most management intense style of farming. It also is the most labor intense way of farming too. Controlling weeds and other pests are a constant battle. The only way that you could even hope to be successful on 30 acres is to grow produce. This is even a higher level of management and labor involved.

Now to make the odds even worse. Any ground that is farmable is going to require a lot of capitol to purchase it. For organic you need good quality ground too. So the purchase price will be on the high side of the market too. If it has been farmed to death and has little to zero fertility your doomed to fail. You would need livestock for a natural fertilize supply. No form of livestock works living an hour away.

I know of a few successful organic produce growers. They are super managers an do every step correct and on time. 24 hours too late on harvesting some produce reduces its valve by half or more. A weed escape this year can cause trouble for decades down the road because of the seeds it can produce. I know of more successful organic dairies than any other type of organic farming. They can utilize roughage in their cows diet so they have many more cropping options. If the weeds take over a field they can make it into silage before the weeds go to seed and still have some thing to feed the cows. Not good quality but at least something. If your growing grain only and weeds take over your stuck letting them mature with your crop. So now you have more weed pressure for next year. That cycle can get out of control real fast.

I wish you well. Every farmer does it a little different. I can tell you that farming is a very mature industry so that makes it much harder to get into. Looking at your goal of 30 acre tillable and maybe and equal part not tillable. This would mean 60 acres total. In most areas of the country this would cost you between $4000-10000 an acre even with half not being tillable. So can you make that work financially??? There will be little return for the first few years if you go organic. Can you make that cash flow??

I know right now regular farm ground will not cash flow on its own merit. So you have to have other income to pay for it. That can be paid for land or off farm income. So the capital struggle will be as hard as learning how to farm while making any money.

So I think your need to fine tune a workable "plan" before going much further.

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