News: farmers killing themselves in staggering numbers

[ovrszd]

Quite true and this is nothing new. About 1/2 of my family operate farms and that's where I came from and no shock, they are not getting smaller... Do note, all industries get smaller in time, that is, have fewer people working in them. How many desktop computer manufacturers where there in 1990?

I measure farm operation size by acres or livestock numbers. No by number of workers.

 

[atsah]

Fact of the matter is, when the older guys get to old to operate there farms, the younger family doesn't want any part of it. I see it happen here often. Large abandoned farms are common around here.

 

[ovrszd]

Fact of the matter is, when the older guys get to old to operate there farms, the younger family doesn't want any part of it. I see it happen here often. Large abandoned farms are common around here.

Abandoned as productive land sitting idle?

What's an acre of good tillable land selling for?

 

[atsah]

Abandoned as productive land sitting idle?

What's an acre of good tillable land selling for?

Yes sitting idle and buildings falling down.

I don't really know about the price but it can't be much.

 

[deserteagle71]

Fact of the matter is, when the older guys get to old to operate there farms, the younger family doesn't want any part of it. I see it happen here often. Large abandoned farms are common around here.

And I know exactly how those young folks feel. I grew up on a dairy farm in Pennsylvania and didn't know there were such things as weekends and days off until I got drafted during the Vietnam buildup.

 

[ovrszd]

Yes sitting idle and buildings falling down.

I don't really know about the price but it can't be much.

Don't judge a farm by the buildings. Large operations value the land.

It's my speculation that idle productive land is because the asking price is so high no one can make it work.

All that said, I am not familiar with your area or it's productivity.

 

[atsah]

Don't judge a farm by the buildings. Large operations value the land.

It's my speculation that idle productive land is because the asking price is so high no one can make it work.

The farms I see are not for sale for one thing. The land is no longer being worked, the elderly owners live at there once productive farms with no intentions of selling the property. There children are off doing other things, I have talked to several old farmers and that's what I'm told. It's sad to see but that's the way it is..

 

[ovrszd]

The farms I see are not for sale for one thing. The land is no longer being worked, the elderly owners live at there once productive farms with no intentions of selling the property. There children are off doing other things, I have talked to several old farmers and that's what I'm told. It's sad to see but that's the way it is..

Sad maybe, but it's their choice. It'll be short term. As soon as they die or become unable to sustain the farm it will be sold. That's where the bigger farmer comes in.

Just for curiosity sake, ask around concerning the selling price of farmland.

If it's tillable it quickly brings $4K per acre.

A non tillable 23 acre with no useable buildings just sold for $5,400 per acre.

 

[atsah]

That's where the bigger farmer comes in.

Sometimes but more times than not I see farms bought up by developers and a short time later see a bunch of cookie cutter houses in what use to be corn fields.

My brother bought 205 acres a few years ago close by and he paid $160,000. Big 15 year old house and nice big barns, 130 acres of which is tillable.

 

[ArlyA]

Just to give you fellows an idea, what size ag really is. A few years ago in my home state (we don't reside there) was wet, so they were combining wheat that was on the wet side. We were at my sisters operation watching these full sized trucks rolling in, filled with this high moisture grain, that needed to be dried before it could be stored.. A few were dumping grain in front of us into the drying system and I know they had at that time three combines operating in the fields running 24/7. Two were contact harvesters but that's a side bar. So I asked my brother-in-law working there "how many acres of wheat are in this system being moved to here and being dried?" That is, the grain in the combines, field wagons and the trucks on the road being hauled to us. He thought a minute and says "3/4 of a section worth". A section is a square mile.

This is the high protein winter wheat we make our bread from. This is the ag industry and yes, they are a family ran and owned operation.