Re: OT What should I do with 25 acres of crop land?

Posted by paul on January 31, 2011 at 11:08:50 from (76.77.197.242):

In Reply to: OT What should I do with 25 acres of crop land? posted by soder33 on January 31, 2011 at 10:31:44:

A general location would help.

Farming for profit is a full time attention needer. Hay is even worse - you gotta cut, rake, bale, and stack _whn_ the crop needs it, not when you feel like it or get around to it. Bale alfalfa 4 hours toolate & it turnds from $6 premium hay to $2.50 stemmy hay.

So, do you have the time & dedication? 25 acres of hay is a lot, where will you store th bales? What are your people-skills for marketing the stuff?

Hay takes a year to establish before you really get a good crop - th first year you only get a small, weedy yield of hay, pretty much garrenteed to go in the hole the first year. You make money off the 2nd through 4th year of hay, and then it starts decining again unless you renovate the fields (be that replanting alfalfa, or fertilizing any type of hay, or dealing with thin weedy wet-compacted areas, etc.)

Hay on more than 5-10 acres or 'waste' land is quite a dedication, requiring time & dedication and a 5 year plan to become profitable.

Not scaring you away from it; just at that size on good farm ground and needing to make more than a rent; you gotta know what you are in for on this!

You're looking to make a $5100 profit on 25 acres, plus seed fuel fert etc. The taxes come to $200 an acre.

That might be 40 bu of corn or 18 bushels of soybeans per acre just to pay the taxes.

Are you planning to farm longer, and keep the fertilizer & lime up; or will this be a one year thing and so you can just mine the soil, not replentish any, and sell the place.... Fert is terribly expensive this year.

Depending on your state, you may have had to notify your renter back in September that you were ending the rental agreement. This is so he didn't add fertilizer, buy seed, sell potential crops, and arrange crop insurance on the ground and now you pul the rug out from under him... Did you do this or is it a non-issue?

Harvest is very difficult to do without a lot of expense. You likely need to hire combining done, might be around $30 an acre - another 6 bu corn, or 3 bu of soybeans.

You can buy an old planter for corn for $500 or so, but top yielding corn needs good fertilizer, and very evn seed placemnt, and very good weed control early in it's life. Can make the difference between 50 bu an acre corn, or 175 bu corn.

Soybeans are less fussy how they are planted, but don't like to be too wet, or too weedy, have insect issues these days, and so forth - kinda easy to plant, fussy to grow. Real easy to grow 30 bu soybeans, real hard to grow 60 bu soybeans.

What crop was planted last year; and what herbicides were used? It could be difficult to plant small grass seeds (hay) if certain chemicals were used.

If it was corn, it's nice to put in soybeans now. If it was soybeans, it's nice to pick up the 40lbs per acre of nitrogen the soybans left in your field...

In short, it would be difficult for you to learn enough to make a good good crop of corn or soybeans, and pay for the equipment to grow them, for just one year.

Hay is always a 4-5 year commitment, and you need to plan to lose money the first year as you establish the crop.

As well, previous renters and the Farm Program at the FSA office (likely in the county seat) need to be handled properly, as to get the lase for the land released properly, and if the land is in the Farm Program it's aboout in the middle of a 5 year deal and you have to meet certain requirements ofr they want all the money back....

Farming is always a risk; crop prices are high _today_ making farming look easy, but you need the weather, world events (which control crop prices), and local weed/ disease events to be good for _only one year_ to be a good one. Farming is more about averaging 5-10 years out, make money some years, lose money other years as these things go up & down.

Can't tell if you want to do this for just one year, or are in it for longer. The longer you want to do it, the more sense it starts to make.

Sitting back and sipping a beverage on the weekend and cashing the $1700 check no matter what the weathr is sometimes starts to look better and better. :)

If I've discouraged you, that's cool.

If you are thinking 'I don't care what he says, I wanna farm it' then that is cool too, and I'd wish you well on it, ask more questions. :)

--->Paul

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