How agriculture works thread

[ovrszd]

This video was filmed a couple years ago showing their new at that time "high speed" JD planter. They've since bought a second one. They've also bought two Center Pivot JD tractors on tracks to pull them. One is 450HP, the other is 550HP. To maintain the speed they want in hill ground it takes a lot of HP. Their goal is 10mph. This tractor cannot do it. Gets along fine on flat ground such as this field. But in hill ground it may be down to 5-6mph. I looked up the data on this planter using JD's website. It weighs 40,000lbs empty.

 

[ovrszd]

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.

Same here Six. Dale's got 1,700 acres planted about ten days ago. Now they are worried as it will be emerging next week. Forcast says three nights below freezing next week. Again, I admire their tenacity.

 

[ArlyA]

Nice video by Laura in Nebraska about growing seed corn.

 

[sixdogs]

Think cranberry sauce comes from a can? Look at all the work that goes into this berry.

 

[ovrszd]

I used to go to Ft McCoy WI periodically. There are a lot of Cranberry fields there. Very intriguing farming for a corn/soy bean guy like me.

 

[Cougsfan]

Yea this is an interesting thread. Big tractors and monocropping are certainly one way of agriculture, should other ways be posted here too? Like, smaller scale farming? I happen to work on a 1.5 acre garden among a 12 acre farm that primarily uses a 2 wheel walk-behind tractor and produces I'd estimate well over 30 different types of all certified organic veggies for a CSA delivery and 2 farmer's markets...it's great! They even let me use my tractor for land improvement projects outside the garden deer fencing!!

The size of farms is a topic that I have been discussing with another group. There are some really varied opinions. What constitutes a small farm is not even clear. Most of the world considers anything over 4 or 5 acres a large farm while in North America it is probably more like 100 acres in the east and 1000 acres in parts of the west.

The discussion can branch off to corporate farming versus family farms. Almost everyone seems to agree that family farms are more ideal as it keeps the profits in the community. But unfortunately that is not the way farming is headed. Also corporate farms often are more concerned about profits and somewhat minimize efforts toward sustainability (monocropping, excessive herbicides, poor erosion control, etc.). (From my own observations I have seen that is not always the case, but I have also seen that happen. In general corporate farms place a larger emphasis on meeting a bottom line over sustainability compared to most family farmers).

Larger farms also can be accused of helping to turn the small rural American and Canadian towns into ghost towns.

There is also discussion about the how the continual increasing of yields decrease prices (farmers are victims of their own success). That along with the huge cost of machinery tend to drive farm size up so as to spread huge capital expenses over more acreage. The large machinery then decreases the need for farm labor. For the family farm without unlimited financial backing, the increased financial exposure often leads to bankruptcy on a depressed year. Also family farms, despite their best intentions, often don't have the management skills to actually effectively manage a very large operation. All in all, while migrating to larger farms seem attractive, appropriate and besides they make for really impressive pictures; it may not really be the best way to be going.

In some areas the trend is actually to start downsizing farms. I don't see that as all bad. Things like wheat, rapeseed, corn etc., a larger farm makes sense, but how large? For most vegetables a small 10 acre farm might provide a better answer.

 

[ovrszd]

We have to decide what we want as a consumer nation. If food costs are the priority we need large farms.

I grew up among 150 acre farms. Diversified down to growing their own chickens for consumption of meat and eggs. Milking cows for consumption and selling some milk for small cash flow. Trading on Saturday to exchange valuables with those in town.

Those days are gone. The process is not cost effective. No farmer in my area (midwest) is doing that. They can't survive doing that.

So they are left with two choices. Off farm income. Increase in size.

I don't see it as a bad thing. We will only go back to small diversified farms if this country goes into a devastating economic crash.

We may be approaching a time where "reset" is needed. Hang on. It's going to be a bumpy ride.

 

[sixdogs]

Cougsfan--Farming will only get bigger because of the economics of scale. We aren't going to mow our lawn with a 12 inch wide lawnmower when we can buy a six footer. Nor will we eat soup with a teaspoon when a soupspoon holds three times as much. Bigger is just faster, easier and results in a greater profit or lesser loss.

After all that, big farming leaves niche markets and pockets of opportunity where scale isn't possible. I knew a family making good living on 15 acres of specialty berries. Scale wouldn't work for them even though it was a somewhat inefficient operation.

 

[ArlyA]

The size of farms is a topic that I have been discussing with another group. There are some really varied opinions. What constitutes a small farm is not even clear. Most of the world considers anything over 4 or 5 acres a large farm while in North America it is probably more like 100 acres in the east and 1000 acres in parts of the west.

The discussion can branch off to corporate farming versus family farms. Almost everyone seems to agree that family farms are more ideal as it keeps the profits in the community. But unfortunately that is not the way farming is headed. Also corporate farms often are more concerned about profits and somewhat minimize efforts toward sustainability (monocropping, excessive herbicides, poor erosion control, etc.). (From my own observations I have seen that is not always the case, but I have also seen that happen. In general corporate farms place a larger emphasis on meeting a bottom line over sustainability compared to most family farmers).

Larger farms also can be accused of helping to turn the small rural American and Canadian towns into ghost towns.

There is also discussion about the how the continual increasing of yields decrease prices (farmers are victims of their own success). That along with the huge cost of machinery tend to drive farm size up so as to spread huge capital expenses over more acreage. The large machinery then decreases the need for farm labor. For the family farm without unlimited financial backing, the increased financial exposure often leads to bankruptcy on a depressed year. Also family farms, despite their best intentions, often don't have the management skills to actually effectively manage a very large operation. All in all, while migrating to larger farms seem attractive, appropriate and besides they make for really impressive pictures; it may not really be the best way to be going.

In some areas the trend is actually to start downsizing farms. I don't see that as all bad. Things like wheat, rapeseed, corn etc., a larger farm makes sense, but how large? For most vegetables a small 10 acre farm might provide a better answer.

So Im not sure what you surprised of?? In 1960 there was something like 75 snowmobile manufactures and today we have 4. In 1918 there was more than 100 auto manufactures in the untied states alone. So all industries compress over time and we find less and less manufactures and farms go the same way with less farmers doing more and more land. In Minnesota today the average farm size is around 376 acres which is actually smaller than I had expected it might be. Heading west of course farms get larger. In Sully county in my home state of SD has 1,070 square miles is farmed by six family operations. The whole county is pretty much fields and no fences. So do we see how this is going? Canada has very large operations as well. I can't call this bad. Machines get larger, they get mores efficient and scales become huge!.

 

[sixdogs]

Around me are some huge blocks of land in the 10,000 acre size. They usually run multiple combines, lots of grain trucks and the work gets done in a hurry. There are a lot of 2,000 acre places usually run by a father and son team with some hired drivers for planting and harvest. Most city people couldn't clean the garage with two people let alone feed the masses and run a zillion dollar business.

Along those same lines, when the discussion in this thread concerned the price of tractors, $200,000 and $250,000 were numbers tossed around. Well, prices are up because I know of $500,000+ Deere 9000 series tractors. If this page printed, here's a sample:
https://configure.deere.com/cbyo/#/en_us/products/agriculture/tractors/4wd_and_track_tractors

Same or a little less for the big combines and sprayers. So you better have enough acres to use that depreciating piece of equipment PDQ.

What a lot of the bigger guys do is buy new machinery and then roll it every two years into new equipment. I don't see the math but they say the numbers work.