New Farmer

[Farming5]

My uncle and I farm our 200 acre family farm. Right now the farm is a work in progress. We were just renting the farm out to our neighbor and we stopped renting it 4 years ago and started farming it ourselves. My uncle grew up on the farm and knows a thing or two anout farming. I plan to go to college and learn more anout farming to improve our pofit. We are currently buying out the farm from my Grandma's sister. We are planning to build a large 60x100 foot barn this summer or fall. We have to rent a JD 1590 drill from the county now because we don't currently have a barn large enough to get a 1590 drill in. When I get out of college I plan to take a portion of the field and start a small herd of about 5-10 dairy cows to bring in some extra profit. I also plan to buy a tractor with good horsepower and a loader on it. I have been looking at a 6 or 7r series tractor because I have a decent amount of money to spend. I need some help with the hay equipment I want a nice new John Deere baler and a gooseneck trailer for the bales but don't know about the rest of the hay equipment. Could you guys please help me?

 

[wolftree]

Welcome to TBN. Perhaps the first thing you should decide on is what size bales you wish to put up. Given your location, 50-60 pound square bales for horses might be worthwhile. Small bales are commanding premium price these days, ($5-$7 a bale). By using a "Bale Accumulator and Grabber" your manual labor can be cut considerably.

 

[Farming5]

Like I said my uncle and I have just gotten into farming, and neither of us now much about dairy cows as our farm has mostly just been a soybean/wheat based farm. I was thinking about a nice new john deere round baler. I would only use the hay bales for the winter months and when there isn't enough grass in the pasture for them to feed on. I will have to do some research on round bales that are a good size for dairy cows and that can sell for good money when I have a surplus of bales.

 

[Verticaltrx]

This probably isn't what you want to hear, but....

If you truly want to start a profitable farming enterprise, building new barns and buying expensive tractors right off the bat is a fast track to the poor house. You need to focus on things that have a high rate of return, don't depreciate and don't take a lot of capital to get into. Also, DO NOT BORROW MONEY, ever. There are many opportunities to get into farming with size neutral enterprises that you can start small and grow without incurring debt or getting in over your head. Direct to consumer marketing is where the real money will be. Also, half of making money farming is saving money. Lastly, you will be money ahead by buying hay and not owning any hay equipment or tying up any land in hay ground, although I'm sure many on here would disagree.
A couple good books I recommend you read are: "You Can Farm" by Joel Salatin and "No Risk Ranching" by Greg Judy.

 

[Verticaltrx]

Here is a series of videos by Joel Salatin about this type of farming (there are several parts);

 

[jimpen]

The surplus bales in square size can be more profitable in the initial run. The guy driving by in a pickup that needs some hay to feed his goats, sheep or other small livestock is not going to want to buy a +1000# round bale. He needs just a few square bales for a few weeks at a time.

The other insistence on JD is also questionable. Most brands of balers can be just as good as the green paint on JD.

Same as the tractor. I have a Mahindra, nad it has pretty much been a champ. But I will grant I'm a casual user on just 6 acres. But when I was a teen many years ago working on a farm they had Ford 8 to deal with the cows and a Massey to run the manure spreader and other implements. The baler was also a Massey.

Just throwing in my :2cents:

 

[Farming5]

We aren't exactly starting a new farm right off the bat. Our farm has been a succesful farm for over a hundred uears. My uncle already has a John Deere 4430 and I don't plan to get a nice new tractor for a while. I plan to start it off small with a John Deere 4010 to do the little jobs while my uncle and his 4430 do the larger jobs. We will eventually upgrade to newer tractors, but for a while. We are only building a new barn because we have been renting a planter from the county for a few years now and we would like to pick up a nice 1590 drill from our local dealership, but it won't fit in any of our current barn because it is too wide. Plus the people who we plan to have the barn built by build quality barn for cheap money. Thank you for the bale suggestion, I will have to look into buying bales, just not many farms around us make bales and I don't want to go driving all over Ohio to buy bales.

 

[Farming5]

I know JD's aren't the cheapest tractors on the market but our farm has only ever run JD's and that is really the only type of tractor that the dealers around us sell besides Case and IH. I will look for the cheapest tractors I can but it will probably be a John Deere. And I don't know much about baling, that is why I came to you. Thank you for the suggestion about other brands, I will have to look into them.

 

[jimpen]

Realistically tractor dealers are used to working with customers in a 100+ mile range or so. But being in Marysville I know there is a Mahindra dealer in Beavercreek, OH. There is a New Holland dealer there as well. You're oriented more towards Columbus, but they are out there.

 

[smstonypoint]

This probably isn't what you want to hear, but....

If you truly want to start a profitable farming enterprise, building new barns and buying expensive tractors right off the bat is a fast track to the poor house. You need to focus on things that have a high rate of return, don't depreciate and don't take a lot of capital to get into. Also, DO NOT BORROW MONEY, ever. There are many opportunities to get into farming with size neutral enterprises that you can start small and grow without incurring debt or getting in over your head. Direct to consumer marketing is where the real money will be. Also, half of making money farming is saving money.

Sound advice, although I will pick a few nits.

1. Any sort of equipment, new or used, is going to depreciate.
2. Many successful farmers use equity and debt financing, as do many unsuccessful farmers. The successful farmers have business,financial, and marketing skills.
3. The prospects of a 200-acre farm producing enough net income from commodity production to support you and your uncle are dim. You should look at the commodity enterprise budgets from Ohio State: Farm Management Enterprise Budgets | Agricultural, Environmental and Development Economics.
4. The prospects from specialty crops are brighter for a 200-acre farm. You can't compete producing a commodity -- you can compete producing a product. These specialty crops are management- and labor-intensive, require access to suitable markets, and you would have to develop marketing skills. See Enterprise Budgeting Tools - Agricultural Marketing Resource Center.

When I get out of college

Depending on the stage of your college career, you would benefit from taking some economics and business management courses. Better still would be courses in agricultural economics if you are attending a land-grant.

Steve