Need opinions on beginning farmer.

Its sad, but it seems the most profitable crop is houses.

First, get sell off all of your toys. Motorcycle, snowmobile, boat, etc. You will be working to much to use them anyhow. Own your own sprayer, about 500 gallon tank should do. Custom operaters will not always come to us small farmers when we need them. You will also need a great planter. Look a finger pickup Kinze. They are easy to set up and run and give few problems. If you are thinking it would be fun to farm with an Allis tractor, look for a 7045 or 7060 PS. You need a cab for spraying todays chems. Some will say you don't need that much power, but for the money try to beat them. You can't.

ACFarmer wrote: He cant make it on 500 acres? I farm 250 acres and I started farming about 4 years ago. I pay farm payments on 200 acres of ground that I've bought and rent about 67 acres. If you can get a reasonable rent and its good ground. Go out and get a decent 150 horse tractor and some older equipment and go after it. I dont have an off the farm job, and if I didnt have to make farm payment every year my wife wouldnt need a job either and thats only on 250 acres. 9 times out of 10 the guys that say you cant do it are the guys farming 2000 acres paying huge rent and farming with new equipment.

I dont know about where you are from, but here, crop production is the only "business" that can be insured for minimum income. As part of your plan, include crop insurance as an expense. Keeps bad years from hurting so much, Trev.

You can make it on 500 acres, but it just depends on what kind of life you want to live. You won't be buying new equipment and pickups on 500 acres, but you could make it work. Like IG said, lately farmers are making money, but with a year where you don't make a crop such as this year it won't matter how high the prices are. Crop insurance will save you on a bad year, but you can't expect it to every year. I know people who live farming less acres but thats not their only income. There are no 2 people who manage a farm the same. One man may go broke on the same 500 acres another man makes a living on.

The most important thing is to get a good business plan in place. It's good your wife has an outside job especially if she carry's the health insurance for the family. Don't get too hung up on equipment brand just yet. I know this is an AC forum, but if there is not a implement dealer/repair shop that has experience on a certain brand you want within a reasonable distance to you that brand of equipment is useless to you.  Also be mindful of the current tenant's of the land right now. Depending on the contract they have, it may require a clause that requires a length of time to notify the tenant of 'non-renewal' of the contract. This may be be a full growing season in advance of the termination of contract. The current tenant may very well omit any fertilizer, crop rotation, or delay harvest till late in fall of the last year of the term, harvest during the muddy season tearing up the fields. In other words, the current tenant could throw as many hurdles in front of you as possible out of spite.

It can be done. There are a lot of variables. Your wifes atitude, her grandfathers and the rest of he families can make or break you.

If you plant corn you will have about a 10 day window for the best time to get the seed in the ground. I'd want to be able to plant all 500 acres in half that time if all goes well. The reason is, because it won't always go well. Your harvest window is some larger but a custom harvester won't want to spend nearly a week on your 500 acres. That is going to leave you something around 340 days a year to do other things. Some of those things will need to be getting and keeping equipment in good working condition, but it still gives lots of time to keep another job.

MACK wrote: It will never work unless you and your wife both have a out side job. MACK

ACFarmer wrote: He cant make it on 500 acres? I farm 250 acres and I started farming about 4 years ago. I pay farm payments on 200 acres of ground that I've bought and rent about 67 acres. If you can get a reasonable rent and its good ground. Go out and get a decent 150 horse tractor and some older equipment and go after it. I dont have an off the farm job, and if I didnt have to make farm payment every year my wife wouldnt need a job either and thats only on 250 acres. 9 times out of 10 the guys that say you cant do it are the guys farming 2000 acres paying huge rent and farming with new equipment.

Yep that last line of the statement is the truth. Also, about that many live the other parts of their lives in the same manner. Then, when it all comes crashing down, its farming that was the problem, not their behavior, Behave well, and farming will treat you better than any other lifestyle in the world.

Smallfarmer83, I've been reading the posts trying to keep up with commentary. The first thing you need to do is decide whether you want to farm, or play at farming. If the answer is that you are only going to be partially committed, keep the drainage business going and keep putting money in the bank. If farmiing is truly your life's goal, don't let naysayers tell you how to farm or, not farm. It's a tuff life, but a very rewarding life when you see work(and I mean hard committed work) turned into gains, both in selfesteem and cash in the bank! You must priorize your life for success. Family first, self second, farming third. Of course, there will be times when you will need to shift values slightly to "git er done". At age 29, you are in an excellent time and position in your life. Meaning a lot of the "kid" has been worked out of your system.

Something else not mentioned is in finding a mentor, what we used to call a "dutch uncle", and in this case I would advise your grandfather -in-law. He has farmed that ground and knows the history of every acre, and every crop. Some have advised 8 & 12 row equipment, but my question is why? If you put time and hours in it's possible to plant 80-100 acres in a long hard day(dark to dark) with a 4 row. BTDT. My advice though is a good used 6-8 row planter, a 100-150 hp tractor,probably a disc, for chopping up trash, and a chisel plow. If you get a disc-chisel, maybe you would need a good field cultivator instead, to incorporate nitrogen and chemicals.

Several have mentioned having your own sprayer, but I wouldn't advise that at first, unless you get a small trailer sprayer for doing spot spraying. Don't buy more machinery than you absolutely need, grow into your operation caerfully. The commercial sprayers due excellent work, and if for some reason there is a problem, they are insured, and licensed, and certified. There is follow up schooling that must be attended here in Indiana as with most states to keep their certification. Also, it stops you from having to attend classes to be able to buy and used restricted chemicals. This is often overlooked, but some of the chemicals in use today are  NASTY, and dangerous for a beginner.

When the crop is matured, is there a possibility you could trade hours with a neighbor for harvesting your crop? Sometimes, when the kids leave high school and start college there's a vacumn as far as help goes. If you must buy your own combine, I would reccomend a Gleaner for the capacity, and the simplicity of repairing it.  An F would do that size acreage, but it would be nicer if you could find a nice M or L, and of course the later designations like II and III offer more refinement and creature comfort. When I still had my Mack, I hauled grain from the combines to the elevators, and that is a real good deal. Here around Remington, Rensselaer, and Goodland, they furnish augers to load in the field. All you need is the wagons or small trucks to catch and hold 1000-1200 bu.  That way you keep that machine going. OOOPPPss! you said you had storage and drying on farm.

Another reccomendation I would suggest is in splitting that 500 acres in half and planting half in corn and half beans. There is a simple reason for that, you minumize your input costs, spread your work load out, and reduce potential crop failure. In a year like this, corn is taking a real beating, and so are beans, but, beans can wait on a rain a lot better than corn. Granted, there are many times when corn will return better returns, but year after year and on the average I maintained profitablity, and that's the name of the gain.

I am just curious what part of the Hoosier that you live in.   joe

To make sure you can keep it in the family, you've got to get it legal today. You don't know what tomorrow could bring. People die every day and many many of them couldn't have guessed the day to within 10 years. Do not trust that there will not be family coming from all over looking for some part of an estate.

I think you could do it, you just have to keep you job that you have. Try not to invest to much of your money that you have saved up. FSA have really cheap operating loans. I think they are under 2% intrest, or thats what it was when i got my last one. A good 8050 FWA and a eight row would probably be a good match. You can do about 60 to 70 acres in a good day with one. You probably need a field cultivator and a disc if the ground needs smoothing. There are lots of choices to have, i can say have your spraying custom done in the begining and maybe have your combining custom done. Of course you never know what prices are going to be in two years. Good luck to you and know that you are not the only starting farmer out there. I am one two and can say some dumb choices that I have made.

i know several people that farm (full time) on 200 acres and less around here, they make a good living! they don't have jobs in town. they've purchased new equipment through the years and some used. i have big equipment for no more than i farm, but i want to get done faster as i do have a job in town! but after this year, when i retire...i'll be in it full time! i've had some set backs...but who hasn't? i'm still paying off "living money" from the last 2 years  when i was in the hosp so much! i make as much (net) on the farm as i do from the job in town. i replace 1-2 pieces of equipment every year because of either update, or have to from a major break down! and am able to pay cash! i buy alot of my equipment out of iowa, as they don't charge sales tax on farm equipment! that quite a saving right there...if your good with looking around...you can save alot of money and still get good equipment to farm with! new is not always better....no matter how much you farm! as i also know of some local farmers that farm thousands of acres an have never bought a new piece of equpment in their lives!