re: Farmers of the OB, have a question

where you looking to buy?

No where at the moment, to much times on my hand and trying to figure out how I can retire early and either get into cattle or farming. Very long term goals.

Hoping to start a small cattle operation in 2-3 years, was wondering what kind of end numbers you are looking at in farming. I know the start is fricking out of sight though.

--TL;DR at bottom--

Honestly, I can't say that I would suggest that anyone start row crop farming. The exceptions being 1. Working for someone for a long time and eventually buying them out 2. Taking over family farm (basically same as 1) 3. Having a lot of $$$ and hiring a farm manager

I get the impression your eventual goal is to not have a 5k acre farm, but something smaller, maybe a couple hundred. I don't know how feasible this is.

I'll use soybeans as an example. My experience isn't in line with most of the big soybean players in the state/country, but anyway.

As I'm sure you know, soybeans main key to success or failure is weather. Too wet this year? (we haven't gotten a year in the past 5 or 6 that didn't drown some or most of our beans) Just put them on rows. I know most non-rice guys do this, so this may not be as big of a concern for you. Too dry? Just lay down some poly pipe. IDK if you've ever done that. not fun. Plus you need a well if you don't have one. Diesel is expensive. Depending on where you are, electric ( ) may not be a possibility.

What will you do about equipment? Sure you can hire most of it out, but when the weather threatens or their shite breaks down, you can bet your arse their crop comes first. You don't want this happening with your beans drying out in the field in late October.

So you decide to buy your own. 6 or 8 wheel, spray rig, disk, row hipper, old shitty combine, and all the other miscellaneous crap that goes along with a farm. Okay, no big deal. I had money saved for this very reason. Got my rows up and ready to go with my old JD 7800. Front is headed through, and I need to have these fields sprayed and planted yesterday. Well shite I only have 1 tractor. (only having one tractor to spray and plant rice with is a bitch by the way) Crap. Well I'll buy another shitty tractor just to have 2 during planting season.

Suddenly you need more acres to pay for all this shite. Then you need more reliable equipment to be able to cover all this new ground. Then you're praying for the right weather so you're not stuck at home with a 200k tractor and 3/4 of your crop shriveled up in your fields.

I'm sure none of this is new, and it's just a good idea at this point, i get that. I just think it is incredibly hard to start any kind of crop operation without tons of experience and some luck, or daddy's oil well....and some luck.

TL;DR
-Crop farming is hard.
-$$$
-You need to be micro farming some kind of specialty crop, or running with the big boys (I think something like the top 5% farms in the US make 75% of $)
-Don't do it without experience or be prepared to lose your arse.
-Good luck
-This is making me feel better about dad not letting me farm

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Farm sugarcane you can get paid not to plant

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Yeah ... I farm sugarcane ...

That's not true as much as I wish it was...(it was in the past, over 30-40 years ago, but not now).




I certainly don't want discourage anyone from starting up their own operation but they need to know that it's extremely expensive to start from scratch. Impossible? Not by a long shot but very tough.
You need to be be very energetic, forward thinking, creative, and obviously hard working.

I think you'd have a real chance starting an organic or natural beef operation. Just need to find the right market void and fill it.

I say go for it!

I cant remember, yal own yals property or lease?

Considering yals location your dad is probably right. If yal switched everything to cane or were in the Delta it may be a different story.

Figuring out what you can gross is easy, and that's what gets dicks hard. But, you really need to figure out what you're going to be spending.

I won't post our Breakeven Analysis because it has our farm's name on it, but here's a rundown of things you're going to need to get an idea on:

Rent
Equip costs
Seed, herbicide, pesticides, fungicides, etc
What it will costs to apply this stuff if you don't have your own equipment
Labor costs
Will you have an entemologist?
Cost of harvest and hauling
Fertilizer
Lime/mixed fertilizer
Irrigation costs
Crop insurance
General business expenses (this is where you can really rack it up, or save a little)
Accountant
There's more

Also, just general advice... Always remember the principles of agriculture. Seedbed prep, weed control, timely application, timely harvest, fertilizer in the fall, matching varieties to soil types, etc. If you take care of this, on a normal year, the crop will take care of you.


eta: Our numbers show that cotton is the most stable, but you have to be on top of shite if you're farming cotton. Soybeans have the highest ceiling, but it's a pretty bleak floor also. Corn... frick that shite. We'll continue to grow it for rotation purposes, but we need about 50 cents more/bushel to really make it profitable.

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We rent out 200 acres and have been getting around 7k annually the last few years, beans and corn.

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Without much background info, that's extremely cheap, FWIW.

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Without much background info, that's extremely cheap, FWIW.

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I should have been more clear, that's our half, somebody else gets the other half.

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We rent out 200 acres and have been getting around 7k annually the last few years, beans and corn. I don't know what the farmer's cut is.

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That would bring $20000 in North Alabama cash rent, more if it was 25% share rent. Yea I know me saying this is going to piss some people off (especially the person who is renting your land).