Egon
Epic Contributor
Consider doing a lot more planing, estimating cost/earnings and seeing the local agriculture agent before laying out any money for equipment.
Consider doing a lot more planing, estimating cost/earnings and seeing the local agriculture agent before laying out any money for equipment.
Good point-I was referring to 30" row equipment, not 40". In our area, you really don't see much left of the older 40"-much of it has gone to the recycler when scrap iron prices went up, but I'm sure there's still 4 row equipment out there. (For that matter, a lot of used up 6 row equipment has gone to the scrapyard as well.)
My thought was that you can get by with a smaller, less expensive tractor if you are using 4 row equipment.
It's certainly true that the newer tractors are more fuel efficient, but without know the budget and available time available for the operation, I was assuming a limited budget but a lot of time. Although fuel is certainly one of the costs of operation, you can still buy a lot of fuel with the money not spent on a more expensive tractor. Just a thought....
Ken Sweet, can you chime in on this subject?
GGB
I really can't improve on the advice given so far. Having grew up farming many years ago and having been out of it since the early 70's nothing I could tell you would be relevant today. I still live on a farm and my wife recently retired from USDA, so we have some frame of reference. I do know enough about farming that we rent out all of our tillable ground 180 acres on one farm and about 120 on another a few miles away. We have taken a little over 100 acres out of production completely. We have our Great Plains no till for sale.
You simply cannot imagine the obstacles or requirements. You not only have the tractor and equipment, but a combine, grain truck/trucks/buggies, grain storage with dryers or pay a boatload to have this done AFTER everyone else has finished with theirs. Depending on where you live, you will need to look into putting your land to grade for irrigation or price walking rigs if your land can't be contoured properly. You will also need sheds for storage of equipment if you don't already have them. You need to become a decent welder or make friends with one, get lots of tools, really big air compressor etc.
We raised cattle and you couldn't get me back into that at the point of a gun.
You really need to have a good financial reserve for the off years. Prices are not bad now, but have been and may be again.
Just a few thoughts for what they are worth and I am sure others will disagree. Also, I am not saying it can't be done, just not by me.
Do you really think that trucks and buggies are necessary for ~80 acres of corn? A couple of used gravity boxes would do everything necessary. Hire it hauled to market in the spring.
80 acres corn @ 200 bu/acre would require one 16k bu grain bin with a stirator and a drying floor. Not really that big of deal. 80 acres beans @ 55 bu/acre would need only a 4500 bushel bin which could easily be bought used.
None of this seams the least bit overwhelming if done over a few years.