One more time. The coverage decreases as you have poor yields. It is not a long term plan.

SunrayAg said:

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eric76 said:

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Old RV Ag said:

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eric76 said:

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With what land prices are these days, it seems to me that farming is becoming what you do while waiting for the land you just bought to appreciate in value.

I went to high school with one farmer who farms something like 60 to 75 sections (I've heard different figures from different people) and have been told his goal is to be farming 100 sections before he retires. As I understand it, the farmland is all leased -- he doesn't own any of it.

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He's aiming for 64,000 acres. Think that's a tall tale. Got some ranches for cattle that big in NM, CO, WY but not crop farming.

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I forgot to mention that he farms it with his brother.

It's not a tall tale. I'd be amazed if SunrayAg doesn't know who he is. CanyonAg77 probably knows who he is, too.

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I know several farms with over 40,000 irrigated acres, and at least 1 over 50,000.

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Location?

Great thread covering a lot of issues facing farmers and rural life in general.

There is so much luck involved in farming and the margins between a good year and a bad one are pretty thin and frequently beyond someone's control.

One unique aspect of the job and rural life overall that is under appreciated I think is the lack of mobility. You are tied to a specific location. If you get tired of farming in XYZ, Colorado...it's tough to relocate. You can't just update your resume on LinkedIn and give two weeks notice and go to work someplace down the street. It's tougher.

That along with expectations based on the success a previous generation was able to have by farming the same soil can easily make someone feel like a failure when things aren't going well.


On another note...CanyonAg is one of my favorite posters on here...

Old RV Ag said:

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SunrayAg said:

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eric76 said:

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Old RV Ag said:

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eric76 said:

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With what land prices are these days, it seems to me that farming is becoming what you do while waiting for the land you just bought to appreciate in value.

I went to high school with one farmer who farms something like 60 to 75 sections (I've heard different figures from different people) and have been told his goal is to be farming 100 sections before he retires. As I understand it, the farmland is all leased -- he doesn't own any of it.

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He's aiming for 64,000 acres. Think that's a tall tale. Got some ranches for cattle that big in NM, CO, WY but not crop farming.

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I forgot to mention that he farms it with his brother.

It's not a tall tale. I'd be amazed if SunrayAg doesn't know who he is. CanyonAg77 probably knows who he is, too.

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I know several farms with over 40,000 irrigated acres, and at least 1 over 50,000.

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Location?

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Northern Texas Panhandle. The pivots go on forever.

OnlyForNow said:

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And man, did I really ruin the initial issue of this thread. Sorry about that OP.

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Relax. I feel like I'm a kid again sitting in the barber shop on a Saturday morning listening to the old timers shoot the breeze while I'm pretending to read a comic book.

It's amazing what you can learn just by listening.

Besides, plenty of guys are weighing in on the original question. Good answers, too.

I didn't grow up on a farm, but did spend my summers with relatives on one in Iowa. I got to do the fun stuff, like walking soybean fields in the spring with a machete to take down random cornstalks that popped up in a rotating field (my hands might still be scarred), and lots of other awesome tasks. They made sure I got the real experience.
I think one underrated aspect of all this is that almost by definition you are in a small town and all the good and bad that comes with that. Neighbors really do pitch in and help each other, but your failures are also known by your whole universe, and the nature of small towns is that they are talked about too.
And as mentioned above, you live with the knowledge that you have to make it work for likely the rest of your life. You can't really run somewhere to start over. If things go south, there aren't a ton of options.

My father (he claims anyway) intentionally tried to shield me from helping with the farm & ranch operation. He didn't want me to fall in love with it like the previous several generations had because it was too unforgiving and made for a hard life financially.

Based on what little I now dabble in ranching, I can see how he made the right move. I would have fallen for it and I'd probably be miserable trying to scrape by, cursing Mother Nature every step of the way.

The biggest B of it all is that you dont command the price you take for your crop. You get the market rate, good or bad. So savvier operations play the futures market to lock in prices. Which is good until you have a kickass banner year but miss out on a price spike because you already locked in just slightly above average prices on futures. It is entirely possible to miss out on the very rare good times. So many gambles involved, and you really need a bang up year every now and then to ride out the next 5 years.