re: say you had 200k to invest today

Vanguard Admiral shares are the standard for low fees, so I don't think fees would be an issue. A Boglehead wouldn't buy an actively managed fund, it's just throwing away money.

Put 20% down on a used round-bale cotton picker and the rest on parts/labor/tools. Then start chasing the cotton harvest from Texas up through Louisiana and Mississippi. If the crop is half decent you’ll pay for everything in a year.

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Put 20% down on a used round-bale cotton picker and the rest on parts/labor/tools. Then start chasing the cotton harvest from Texas up through Louisiana and Mississippi. If the crop is half decent you’ll pay for everything in a year.

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This sounds crazy but he’s right. My in-laws do this and one of my best friends does it as well.

I’m strongly considering it in the next couple of years.

Roughly $110/acre picked with the ones I know picking 2500 acres per picker. They have to turn away people every year as that’s all they can handle.

Yeah, but if you go to Texas or Georgia like the above guy suggests then you can pick double that as harvest times are different in each area. I haven’t done it yet because the future of Ag is concerning to me. I don’t farm so I don’t have much security or fall back if cotton goes to shite or corn/beans improves. My in laws farm and pick several thousand of their own acres before custom harvesting so they have a lot less risk.

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By my math that would take several years to pay off and who knows what future of ag holds.

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What math are you using?

I can’t dispute the ag uncertainty aspect (in this case only due to weather, not market price), but assume you could pick from August through November. That’s 16 weeks of picking. On average we can pick a little over 1,000 acres in three weeks, so in 16 I should do around 5,500. If you assumed an average yield of 900 lbs at 11 cents per pound picking that comes out to $544,500.

Your averaged used picker can be bought for less than 500k. Maybe even as little as 400k. After a 20% down payment you’d have still had at least 100k to start with for parts/labor/etc.

So assuming you could lay with it all fall you just made a huge return, completely paying off your machine and perhaps even then some.

Admittedly I know nothing about cotton farming and was just using the numbers posted by the previous poster. But my experience in rice farming would lead me to believe issues would be 1) biggest: being able to bill your equipment full time from the get go (have to build a client base) and 2) chit always happens during harvest that you never expect that adds up $. Especially with used equipment
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But I’m willing to have my mind changed. Love the ag industry.

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biggest: being able to bill your equipment full time from the get go (have to build a client base)

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Generally I would agree with this statement. Most years cotton picking capacity vs. planted acres are relatively well aligned and it would be hard to break in.

But not this year.

Louisiana ALONE is projected to add around 60k acres, with Mississippi and Arkansas also seeing similar bumps. Texas has a full moisture profile and will likely have another large planted acreage. All you’d need to do is drive around to the gins and ask who’s short on pickers. It wouldn’t take long to find more than you wanted.

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chit always happens during harvest that you never expect that adds up $. Especially with used equipment

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Certainly can be the case. My three weeks to pick 1000 acres takes the time uncertainty into account, as with ideal circumstances you could likely cover that ground in only two weeks, but as for the rest that’s where a keen eye in equipment evaluation comes into play.

Ideally you want to know the farm the piece came from and buy according to their reputation of maintenance. I’d pay a premium for a piece I KNEW was well kept.

they have money "set aside" for that

Oh a little west of Natchez. One of those tiny towns in the delta that no one’s ever heard of.

If you ever want to talk shop just email me.