Home Forums Hunting & Shooting Hunter's Campfire The outlook for the agricuiture economy.

In my 60+ years of being around farming, I have seen farmers start with nothing and do well over a long period of time and I have seen them start with a good farm, and equipment and go broke. And everything in between. You explain it differently than being both a good farmer and a good manager on the ones that succeed. miles

I'm not saying that they aren"t one and the same. But one cannot control weather and or price. I got lucky this year and my grain didn't have much deasease. I lost some money but not like some neighbors. You tell me how manag
ement has to do with selling wheat for for 1.50 to 2.00 dollars er bushel. ED K

That must have been some pretty bad wheat. Not management but farm practices. Maybe your land would be better off in something other than wheat. Farming has to figured for longer than a year or two. There will be good times, you just have to make it there. miles

Miles, it was a freak weather related reason for the extreme dockage.


$6-7 wheat turned into hog feed.

Beautiful crops, not poor farm practices.

but will any of this matter once we consume the urth?

My grandfather came from Germany in 1892. He bought land farmed it and and nearly lost it all in the early 30s.
My father inherited 320 acre from him in the 1950s. My father worked that land and had one and at times two outside jobs to help support the family and grow the land.
Our neighbors bought boats, cruises and other things that had no long term financial value. At the same time my dad was working all these jobs and buying land.
Today, virtually all of the neighbors are out of the farming business, working low wage jobs or retired and living on a string.
The size of my grandfathers 320 acres is well over 2000 acres and is operated by my brother. He and my father were/are good marketers of their crops and livestock and diversified into selling seed, and other revenue producing activities, etc. They understood how to make money and they don't spend it on non productive things, or land that on average cant produce enough revenue to pay for it self. But they picked up a lot of land from people that didn't understand that or let their egos run their business.
That's not to say every year profits were great, but in total, they have been very successful.
I think the prospects in agriculture are very positive for people that want to work hard and run a business. Its not so positive for those that expect the business to run itself.

Lot of truth in that Dale.

We farm some land that has been in the family for close to 100 years, back when the homesteaders first moved into this country.


My dad was always interested in cattle though and he started that side of the 'farm' on his own back in the 1970's.

That and a fairly brief stint in hogs. I don't miss those things....grin



Long story short there were an awful lot of lean years but he's in a comfortable spot now. Of course my mom and us kids pitched in and worked to make it happen as well.


The main thing I've been taught is try not to buy anything that doesn't increase your net worth.

Lots of cows but we're pretty short on snow mobiles, jet ski's and chit like that.....grin


And a vacation?!

Actually now that I'm back my folks have got to go on a couple short trips but nothing crazy.


My brother has been married for a couple years now and I still haven't met his wife and my only nephew.

In NW Iowa, the land of livestock confinements and the $20k/acre farmland there is a lot of affluence. Many farmers have become multi-millionaires through hard work, good business, and yes, government subsidies too. A government spun tax code that would confuse a spider has helped.

I'm not a farmer and this is not true of everybody of course but the small family crop and livestock farm is becoming extinct. There are very large family spreads yet and corporate farms and sprawling confinements are common place. Farmers now have to be pretty shrewd business men and there are many here judging from the looks of things.

Folks here are generally fiscally conservative though and unlike the high interest rate period of the early eighties (Carter) when many lost land and farms, most here weather normal commodity ups and downs in good order.

And Obama's fabricated economic figures aside, generally, I see many middle class and below in for more challenging times.

George, some of the big, fancy farmers around here got in trouble years back.

Not Iowa 'fancy' but they had the new equipment, built nice heated shops and were paying top dollar for land.

Then they hit a couple rough years.


Got their loans written off/reduced and still managed to keep everything.

Tough to compete against guys that are willing to go that far just to get ahead.


Same guys play the 'farm game' and have figured out how maximize everything regarding payments.

I believe in crop insurance if you have a legitimate disaster but some of the payments are lame.

Of course we run cows on public land and a lot of people don't like that. And right now the grass seems like a good deal but it wasn't always this way.

Somebody said that if Dolly Parton was a farmer, she would be flat busted too.

Crops are a crap shoot due to precip. Cattle prices great if one has some to sell.

Speaking of Dolly - She is one of my recurring nightmares. She was my mom, and I was a bottle baby.

There are about 9 grains that North Dakota produces more bushels of than any other state.Year in year out since the first ground was farmed here wheat is THE crop.You experiment and raise some others but wheat is literally the bread and butter here. We average 14 inches total percipitation per year including snow. That dictates a lot of crops. ED

You need a little rain to grow grass for the cows but I know what you mean. Feel terrible for the ranchers down in Texas that had to sell out because of the drought. And right now a rain in Texas should help the falling cattle market. I'm not up to date on drought conditions but moisture should increase demand.



As for farmers, they tie up big $$$ planting and spraying and fertilizing and(watering) a crop and one storm could take it out in a minute or two.

Of course a wildfire or wicked weather could take out a herd of cattle but that is a lot more rare.
(and try buying insurance for that)

The farmers here quit raising anything in the way of summer crops that they can't irrigate. The 1980's put a lot of dry land farmers out. Winter wheat and oats are still planted on land with no water. We get plenty of rain but not much in the hot summer. Tail water irrigation has become a big thing in the past few years because they have pumped out so much of the underground water. And too the Feds are helping pay for it. miles