Grain farmers chime in! Advice?

   / Grain farmers chime in! Advice? #11  
Illinoisdmax said:
And again Robert, I'd just really like to say thanks. What you typed up there took some time and thought. It means a lot to me that there's still people out there who believe that there's still some good left in this younger generation that I'm unfortunately categorized in.

Your welcome, I'm only 33 so I know what your going through as I went through the same process 8 years ago.
 
   / Grain farmers chime in! Advice? #12  
I just didn't want to start the topic off as one huge question. I have the land to start, not necessarily make a years salary on, but enough to start. I lease 30 acres right now to a farmer down the road because I cant do anything with my 504. Id like to know what else ill need besides a cultivator, disk, planter, 100hp tractor and a combine. I could hire someone to haul grain. Pay FS to come spray. The main thing I need to know is the specific implements ill need for an under 500 acre operation right now. And how hard it is to obtain these "beginning farmer grants" that I've been reading about.

Here's what one of my neighbors uses to farm about 200 acres of oat and, occasionally, wheat hay:

A large offset wheel disc (15-20 ft) pulled by an early 1980s Steiger Super Wildcat tractor (175 hp or so).

A Landpride grain drill (15 ft) with seed and fertilizer boxes

A 20-ft wide field cultivator with an attached spike harrow pulled by a 1980s model IH tractor (about 100 hp).

All of his equipment is used except for 90 hp Kubota cab tractor that he bought new.

Farming is his evening and weekend job so he needs fairly large size implements to do the planting quickly.

Good luck.
 
   / Grain farmers chime in! Advice? #13  
Robert,

What hay market do you mainly focus on? Horse hay in square bales seems to be the thing around here.
 
   / Grain farmers chime in! Advice? #14  
I would ask the guy that is farming it now if you could help him out for a year. He might need the help and you could gain valuable experience. There are parts of the operation that you can hire out to avoid MAJOR equipment purchases. Harvesting is probably the biggest piece that alot of people contract out. Around here harvest rates range from $20 to $30 per acre plus fuel. It saves you shelling out major cash for a combine and heads. As mentioned earlier you can talk to a local ag extension agent or go to a local farm show. They often put on seminars that can be useful. The local seed dealer can also be a good bit of information. They can advise you on soil sampling/tissue sampling, fertilizer rates and pesticides/herbicides.

If the market is right you may be better off starting in the hay market. I put up about 5000 small squares of grass and we are getting $4.00 each for horse quality grass hay.
 
   / Grain farmers chime in! Advice? #15  
BTW, I'm only 31. It's exciting to have young people getting into ag. I grew up on the farm and am starting back small, but every young person we get into ag is exciting for me.
 
   / Grain farmers chime in! Advice? #16  
The absolute cheapest way to get started is get a good no-till planter and a sprayer. You will have to go round up ready but you don't need a large tractor and you can control the timing of everything. You'd have to hire out the combining.

If you don't believe in no-till, things go up in price very quickly.
 
   / Grain farmers chime in! Advice? #17  
Let me add my prospective as I am close to your age and have a bit of experience with Midwestern farming. I'll just start by saying that what you are planning isn't going to be profitable, or at least it would be difficult to make it very profitable. My father grew up in Illinois and my uncle continued to run the family farm until he retired a couple years ago. It was a 3000hog/year farrow to finish operation as well as a few hundred acres of corn, soybeans and a little wheat. They made their money on the hogs, the crops went to feed the hogs and any excess was sold. The wheat ground was simply there for a place for them to spread the manure, of course the wheat was also sold. I spent every summer there for 5 years from high school to college as well as spending a bit of time there around harvest and planting time. I learned a lot about that type of farming and what works and what doesn't. What they did worked because the were controlling basically the whole system and producing more with corn and soybeans than just the commodity (value added.)

Now, lets say you did want to make it on just crops alone. Nowadays the only way to make it good is through 'economies of scale'. By the time you pay for the equipment, the GMO seed, the chemicals, fertilizer, etc you better have plenty of acres to make it pay. One guy I knew when I lived there was actually making a darn good living doing only corn and soybeans. He only owned a small plot of land where his house and shop were (maybe 10-20 acres, I can't remember) and owned basically zero equipment. What he did was rent all the land and lease all the equipment. Last I knew he was farming about 30,000ac, all equipment was leased and not more than a couple years old. Doing something like that would never pencil out on a small acreage, but on that scale it was quite profitable. Of course, there are many farms in between my two examples, but that should give you a little prospective.

With the land you have and even your limited equipment, you could still make a great living farming in that area. Livestock and/or direct marketing is the key. You need to read a book called "You Can Farm" by Joel Salatin. Even if you don't agree with all of his philosophies, it is a good read and has a lot of good principles about farming and running a business in general.
 
   / Grain farmers chime in! Advice? #18  
I commend you in having the drive to want to farm . Being young is one hurdle . I started my business 15 years ago , banks are even more conservative now than they were back then . Now that I don't need their money the banks solicit me regular . My father in law has farmed all of his life . I have seen him " wear many hats " ; they include equipment operator , mechanic , laborer , marketer , buyer , crop inspector , and the list goes on . He and my favorite mother in law :) , by his side all the time , started very lean . They have never had hired hands , done everything theirselves that they could . I told him the other day , that it is sad , that when you are young and productive you don't have the equipment , then when you get old you have the resources , but not the energy . :confused: Talk to some local farmers , bankers , crop specialists in your area . If you choose this occupation , be conservative , work your operation on your budget , keep loan interest at a minimum , realize this market trend we are in is always volatile . Good luck with your endeavors . :thumbsup:
 
   / Grain farmers chime in! Advice? #19  
You might also think about it that it costs money to produce soybean and corn... You need to buy the seed, probably spray roundup, probably spray nitrogen. What I am saying is that the investment is not just a one time investment, every year you need to put out some real money to get the stuff in the ground and make it grow.

Frankly from a strictly business perspective, even with the current prices, you might want to make sure you right down on paper all your costs and how you are going to end up making money. And then maybe think if you can live with that hourly rate. And, the price of beans and corn my drop, the prices of fertilizer will go up as diesel goes up, and you can't count on mother nature all the time either.

I don't mean to sound discouraging, but that is way banks are not excited about lending startup farmers money. The business plan is hard.

Good luck.

Wayne
 
   / Grain farmers chime in! Advice? #20  
The absolute cheapest way to get started is get a good no-till planter and a sprayer. You will have to go round up ready but you don't need a large tractor and you can control the timing of everything. You'd have to hire out the combining.

If you don't believe in no-till, things go up in price very quickly.

Its not a case of believing in no-till for everyone. In our area of NY no-till just doesn't work. I'm way too small to worry about buying a good no-till rig but the reason I keep hearing is because we have such a short growing season here and a very short window to get planted. Turning the soil over (either with bottom plows or with chisel plows) helps our ground warm up faster allowing to get the seed planted earlier then with no till.

But your correct in that if it is a viable option for his area then it would help keep equipment costs down but you still need a decent sized tractor to pull a good no-till planter just because of the added weight those planters need to work.
 

Tractor & Equipment Auctions

2001 INTERNATIONAL 2574 6X4 DUMP TRUCK (A51406)
2001 INTERNATIONAL...
2010 Ford Edge SE SUV (A51694)
2010 Ford Edge SE...
2022 CATERPILLAR 242D3 SKID STEER (A51406)
2022 CATERPILLAR...
Sakai SW880-1 (A47477)
Sakai SW880-1 (A47477)
2016 INTERNATIONAL MA035 (A53843)
2016 INTERNATIONAL...
2002 Ford F-650 Crew Cab Dump Truck (A48081)
2002 Ford F-650...
 
Top