How agriculture works thread

[jjp8182]

I agree. You need a meaningful scale to make good money due to high capital costs.

All capital intensive businesses need large scale.

MoKelly

Very true - on a slight tangent it amazes me when I see a large construction site with 6 to 9 large articulated tractors pulling one or two dirt pans/scrapers a piece - really helps give a sense of scale to construction project ..... much like seeing multiple combines working in a single field.

 

[JethroB]

In my area it’s mostly a rotation of cotton and peanuts with vegetables increasing. Cotton depletes the soil while peanuts builds it back up. Both crops are Roundup Ready for ease of weed control. Occasionally there are some soybeans, corn is rare. Many small land owners of a couple hundred acres or less who rent or lease their fields to neighboring 3-4th generation farmers on a handshake as I do. I’d guess a typical field size is 40 acres but range from 5-200. Pivot irrigation systems are common which are fed from ponds. The ponds will have 6-8” deep wells nearby used to replenish them as they are pumped down. Weather and commodity prices are the biggest unknowns for them. I’m sure there are plenty of sleepless nights.

I know a lot of comfortable farmers but not many wealthy ones. Wives often work off the farm for income stability and benefits.

 

[ovrszd]

Dale Farms/Dale Brothers Farms leases some equipment. Buys some. They analysis the best course of action.

A combine will run around $300K. Then you have to buy various heads for it depending on the operation. In their case they grow Soy Beans/Corn. 30-35 ft bean heads. 12 row corn heads.

Their GPS guided 24 row planters will run $200K.

They pull the planters with Center Pivot 4wd tractors on tracks. One is 450HP. One is 550HP. They cost $250K or more depending on equipment.

Sprayers will cost $200K. 90ft booms. GPS guided.

It has taken this family 50 years, three generations to get to where they are. It's a brutal life with tremendous rewards. Small percentage of men can handle the stress. When was the last time any of us woke up in the middle of the night puking up blood from stress?

The Patriarch is two years younger than I. Known him since we were kids. Great friend. No envy here. He's earned every penny. I'm very proud of him and his family.

 

[ovrszd]

Here's a video of one of Dale Farm's crop sprayers in action. Excellent example of GPS technology mated to a piece of equipment that can fully utilize the technology.

 

[JethroB]

Here's a video of one of Dale Farm's crop sprayers in action. Excellent example of GPS technology mated to a piece of equipment that can fully utilize the technology.

Nice video and narration. Thanks.

 

[ovrszd]

Nice video and narration. Thanks.

Thank you. I am amazed by it all. I've got some very good video of high speed planting that I need to get published. I love shooting these guys. Hate the video processing part. I'm way behind....

 

[JethroB]

Back in October 2018 farmers here were busy digging and harvesting peanuts. Hurricane Michael was wandering around in the Gulf of Mexico trying to pick its route. Neighbor down the road had 400 acres to get in in a hurry. They picked & hauled around the clock for days which is unusual and they finished in time. Others were doing same and with cotton also. Many didn’t finish in time. A costly storm for so many in many ways. Michael turned out to be a CAT 5 when it landed east of Panama City and headed north.

 

[sixdogs]

Agriculture is not always fun and games when rains swamp everything and flood your newly seeded and fertilized fields. Here's a quick shot of that as well with Laura Farmgirl "wakeboarding" on the edge of a flooded farm field. It's a little levity when you consider the gravity of all that time, money and effort down the drain.

That wakeboarding segment starts at 5:20 on the clip.

 

[ovrszd]

Weather is the one thing that the farmer cannot control. The healthy minded farmer puts it in perspective. As displayed above in the video Six posted. The cold hard reality of that is hard to comprehend. I admire all farmers for their ability to accept it.

 

[sixdogs]

Weather is the one thing that the farmer cannot control. The healthy minded farmer puts it in perspective. As displayed above in the video Six posted. The cold hard reality of that is hard to comprehend. I admire all farmers for their ability to accept it.

Around here, we figure one in 10 years will have nothing go wrong with the weather. Right now, everything is parked with cooler weather, cold soil and damp ground.