In case anybody was worried about land prices...

[Sapcut]

Last week a 100 acre farm in NW Iowa sold for $2.6M. 96.33 tillable with 3.67 acre building site. As of 2021, the average price per acre for Plymouth County farm land was $12,416. This was a 31.4% increase over last year.

Statewide, farmland values are up an average of 29% over last year. Prices are likely to increase further this year as the war in Ukraine constricts global grain supplies, driving up farm revenues and the value of land.

Ironically, grains these days are not good for you and a factor in the common carbohydrate diet causing the current disease epidemic. But if those tillable fields were forested to hold more venison and wild meat instead, there would be no disease epidemic…. and plenty of the best human food available.

 

[tdhanses]

Ironically, grains these days are not good for you and a factor in the common carbohydrate diet causing the current disease epidemic. But if those tillable fields were forested to hold more venison and wild meat instead, there would be no disease epidemic…. and plenty of the best human food available.

Most of the grain grown is made into animal feed, fuel and exported to third worlds.

 

[CorbLand]

Good job deleting your original post before I could roast you on it lmao. If you believe snap benefits truly trickles all the way down into farmers pockets through prices set on boards of trade, than you're even stupider than I thought, and that's saying something.

I deleted it because I decided it’s honestly not worth argueing with you.

I was referring to food stamps, the thing that predated SNAP and used the word “was” as in past tense. Food stamps when created in the 1930s was designed to save American farmers more than it was to help the consumers.

The links I provided states that SNAP does benefit the farmer but not as directly as food stamps did. SNAP benefits transportion companies and food processors more.

It does not change what I have said. You want me to be saying “farmers are just looking for a handout, they are lazy, they don’t work hard, they have things I want, etc.” What I have been saying is that farming is a heavily subsidized and there is a lot of help for farmers that have bad years. That every farmer I know makes a good living, many of which are very wealthy but if you ask them, it’s the worst year they have had since last year, which was worst than the year before, and so on.

When you add in the amount of work the farmers put in to make that living, it doesn’t scratch out. I worked with enough of them to know that. Still doesn’t change the fact that many farmers in the US make good livings.

With that, I truly am done. Thank you for your time. Think on the bright side, you are now that much closer to being able to use the classifieds and PM.

 

[Sapcut]

Most of the grain grown is made into animal feed, fuel and exported to third worlds.

Yea, the ruminant animals they feed aren't designed to eat grains, (nor the third world citizens). But unfortunately in commerce, the cheaper the better.

 

[260madman]

You guys forgot about the farmers that receive government health insurance for free. My dad has 2 neighbors that farm and are worth millions and drive the new stuff and also receive state paid health insurance for nothing. Juggle the books.

 

[JjamesIII]

Last week a 100 acre farm in NW Iowa sold for $2.6M. 96.33 tillable with 3.67 acre building site. As of 2021, the average price per acre for Plymouth County farm land was $12,416. This was a 31.4% increase over last year.

Statewide, farmland values are up an average of 29% over last year. Prices are likely to increase further this year as the war in Ukraine constricts global grain supplies, driving up farm revenues and the value of land.

That whole Ukraine bs is a distraction for obvious reasons why our economy is in the toilet. Ukraine doesn’t produce crap. Russia is Europe’s bread basket for grain, but this little war over in itty bitty Ukraine next door has little effect on their domestic farming production.
Like these gas prices??? The war on Ukraine is a sorry excuse old man is using. We are sitting on more petrol than Saudi and we have viable means of extraction. We have never relied on Russian petrol, nor are we fueling war efforts in this conflict.

 

[Like2hunt]

If farming is so easy and is a bunch of free government money then why doesn’t everyone do it? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, farming and making money sure ain’t easy. I took 90 pair of cows up the mountain yesterday and that permit should be good for 200 pair. They have to keep cutting back because there’s not enough water. When they can’t go up the mountain the ranchers get to feed them and with hay prices at 320-350 a ton it’s way expensive.
With land, equipment, fuel, water, and feed prices high in the sky it makes it pretty hard to make a living ranching. People buying up farm land and developing it doesn’t help either.

 

[Axle]

Lol so you would rather have 50% of the farmers go bankrupt in a bad year rather than get bailed out with insurance. Because that's what most of the "subsidies" are.

Not going to argue on crp as I have many needs with that whole thing, I would vote to end it just as I would vote to get the gov completely out of ag and abolish the USDA.

Lots of people making payments on things, that's how farmers go bankrupt

The number of people that farm has dwindled significantly because lots of people going broke and others not being able to afford to buy out siblings shares etc. If I were to buy my parents farm lock stock and barrel I would need 5-6 million and it's one of the smallest farms in the county.

Yep keep bitching about people having a new pickups, I guess we're doing it wrong because I bet 90% of the people on this forum have nicer and newer pickups than we do.

Farming is a complicated world. It varies depending on what part of country you are in, and I will not even come close to explaining it in a forum post. Heck, I have been around it my whole life, and I don't understand half of it.

Are there guys that are struggling to make it every year? Yes.
Are there guys that are making great money? Yes.

I grew up on a farm, my wife grew up on a farm. My Dad farms, brother farms, father-in-law, and brother-in-law farm. Uncles, cousins, etc. Most here run cattle as well, so that is a little different ball game.

In the past, it has not been a glamorous life. Hard work, hot, dirty, long hours, crop failures, livestock dies, etc. The 80's were particularly bad here, with several crop failures and very high interest rates. A number of guys went broke. That was devastating. A lot of other guys were very very close to losing it all.

Government programs:

These are supposed to help keep the poor struggling farmer afloat. What they have really done over time is inflate the cost of land. Here are a few examples of said programs:

-LDP payments
-CRP programs
-subsidized 1st time farmer loans
-artificially low interest rates for the last 12 years (this is not a program specifically for farmers, but it has contributed to higher land prices)
-heavily subsidized crop insurance
-ethanol mandated in fuel-this drives up corn prices and gives us fuel that clogs up carburetors
-large payments for soybeans during the Trump administration for the tariffs
-a ridiculous amount of money during Covid.

Take away all that money, and land prices would not be nearly this high.

As often happens when the government gets involved in markets....things get all screwed up.

Is every farmer rich? No way-not even close. in our area, it is virtually impossible to start farming on your own, without any help. The startup costs are too high. The guys that are just starting out usually have massive amounts of debt, older equipment that is constantly breaking down, etc. That is a tough road.

What about the guys that inherited lots of land that their grandpa or great-grandpa bought? Yeah, those guys are raking it in.

Yes, some of them act like they can't afford to eat at McDonald's, then smile at you when they pull into the field with a $500,000 combine. I don't know what to say about that-it's the culture.

 

[CorbLand]

If farming is so easy and is a bunch of free government money then why doesn’t everyone do it? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, farming and making money sure ain’t easy. I took 90 pair of cows up the mountain yesterday and that permit should be good for 200 pair. They have to keep cutting back because there’s not enough water. When they can’t go up the mountain the ranchers get to feed them and with hay prices at 320-350 a ton it’s way expensive.
With land, equipment, fuel, water, and feed prices high in the sky it makes it pretty hard to make a living ranching. People buying up farm land and developing it doesn’t help either.

Input costs are too high and there are easier ways to make money.

Ranching like you are referring to is a different business than farming is.

Nobody is saying farming is easy. This is the problem. Anytime someone mentions a government program they instantly think that people are saying “ you just sit around and get paid.” Not true, nobody has said that. Farmers work hard, I worked enough harvests to know this. 16 hour days, 6 days a week for three weeks in October, yea it sucked.

Farming sucks, it’s hard work but it doesn’t take away from the fact that most farmers in the US make a good living.

Agriculture is in the top three most subsidized industry in the US. Energy and transportation being the other two.

 

[svivian]

If farming is so easy and is a bunch of free government money then why doesn’t everyone do it? I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, farming and making money sure ain’t easy. I took 90 pair of cows up the mountain yesterday and that permit should be good for 200 pair. They have to keep cutting back because there’s not enough water. When they can’t go up the mountain the ranchers get to feed them and with hay prices at 320-350 a ton it’s way expensive.
With land, equipment, fuel, water, and feed prices high in the sky it makes it pretty hard to make a living ranching. People buying up farm land and developing it doesn’t help either.

That would require land….. land that now costs a fortune. For those who did not grow up in a generational ranching or farming family it’s damn near impossible. This is from someone who grew up in one of the oldest ranching communities in the country.

 

[Like2hunt]

That would require land….. land that now costs a fortune. For those who did not grow up in a generational ranching or farming family it’s damn near impossible. This is from someone who grew up in one of the oldest ranching communities in the country.

Yeah land prices are way high, we’re trying to buy more land right now but having a hard time finding any for a decent price. I’m just trying to show people with my question that if it was easy and free money like some here (not all) seem to think then lots more people would do it.

 

[CorbLand]

Yeah land prices are way high, we’re trying to buy more land right now but having a hard time finding any for a decent price. I’m just trying to show people with my question that if it was easy and free money like some here (not all) seem to think then lots more people would do it.

Where has anyone on here said it’s easy?

 

[Like2hunt]

Where has anyone on here said it’s easy?

Your right it hasn’t been out right said that it’s easy but in my opinion it’s been sorta implied.

 

[CorbLand]

Your right it hasn’t been out right said that it’s easy but in my opinion it’s been sorta implied.

I think you would have to make some pretty big stretches to believe that based on this thread.

Farming is hard. The living that they make is justified for the work they put in. My point and the point of many in this thread is that farming is heavily subsidized, with out those subsidies it would be impossible and yet the large majority of farmers still cry poverty. It doesn’t make sense and it’s common across the industry. I have never met a farmer that will say they make a good living or that has ever had a good year.

Not to pick on you or the other guy that was “arguing” with me but you have both proved the point I am trying to make. If you make one comment about farmers being subsidized or making a good living they jump in and think that people are saying it’s easy and they sit around. I work in education, literally funded directly by the government and government grants. There a 10 times the posts on here complaining about that and I or the others that work in that industry have never denied it.

 

[mossyoak52]

My place in Idaho is 1900 sf on 5+ acres. Nobody is offering millions for it. Let me know if you have anybody looking to spend 2 mil and I'll gladly sell them my place.

its not in the right location

 

[WeiserBucks]

its not in the right location

Depends on who you ask, it's the perfect location for me!

 

[mossyoak52]

Depends on who you ask, it's the perfect location for me!

then thats all that counts

 

[Like2hunt]

I think you would have to make some pretty big stretches to believe that based on this thread.

Farming is hard. The living that they make is justified for the work they put in. My point and the point of many in this thread is that farming is heavily subsidized, with out those subsidies it would be impossible and yet the large majority of farmers still cry poverty. It doesn’t make sense and it’s common across the industry. I have never met a farmer that will say they make a good living or that has ever had a good year.

Not to pick on you or the other guy that was “arguing” with me but you have both proved the point I am trying to make. If you make one comment about farmers being subsidized or making a good living they jump in and think that people are saying it’s easy and they sit around. I work in education, literally funded directly by the government and government grants. There a 10 times the posts on here complaining about that and I or the others that work in that industry have never denied it.

I wouldn’t say arguing, just sharing thoughts and opinions. If you wanted to meet some ranchers that will tell you they’ve had a good year, I can help ya out in that area. I know there’s people (you included) who know some about farming, I’m trying to help the people who don’t know about it see both sides of the picture. Yes there is government money given, but it’s not just lolly pops and rainbows either. The money is needed and it can be hard to break even, let alone make a good living on some of the rough years even when you do everything right. I know ranchers on both sides of it who will honestly say if they’re having a good or bad year, and some that have a bad year every year. Your right there are farmers who cry poverty all the time but I’d imagine it’s the ones who don’t work their land right, sit around, or just want people to feel bad for them.

 

[CorbLand]

I wouldn’t say arguing, just sharing thoughts and opinions. If you wanted to meet some ranchers that will tell you they’ve had a good year, I can help ya out in that area. I know there’s people (you included) who know some about farming, I’m trying to help the people who don’t know about it see both sides of the picture. Yes there is government money given, but it’s not just lolly pops and rainbows either. The money is needed and it can be hard to break even, let alone make a good living on some of the rough years even when you do everything right. I know ranchers on both sides of it who will honestly say if they’re having a good or bad year, and some that have a bad year every year. Your right there are farmers who cry poverty all the time but I’d imagine it’s the ones who don’t work their land right, sit around, or just want people to feel bad for them.

That’s why I put argue in quotes. I couldn’t think of a better word.

Ranching and farmers while similar are also different. I dont know as many ranchers as I do farmers.

Trust me it’s not just the ones that don’t know what they are doing that cry poverty. Take a trip through the town I spent a good portion of my life in and you would be amazed, make sure you swing by the high school parking lot too.

I love each and everyone of them. I just don’t understand why they are the way they are.

Direct experience of one that doesn’t make sense. His brother in law made a joke about how much money he made and the farmers response was “I am the richest poor person you will ever meet.” We were sitting in his 3/4 million dollar cabin, that we drove to in a 80,000 dollar pickup pulling 75,000 dollars worth of snowmobiles in an 80,000 dollar trailer. I know the guy well enough to know that the only thing he had a payment on was the cabin.

I try to chalk it up to him just being humble but I have heard it from so many that the odds of that many being that humble just doesn’t add up.

It’s not easy money, it’s hard work. Their income is justified and deserved. I just don’t understand how farming is the only profession that they lose so much money every year they can manage to keep the business for 4 generations.

 

[Crghss]

Agriculture is in the top three most subsidized industry in the US. Oil and transportation being the other two.

I hear this often in relation to Oil. That it is subsidized. But can find not evidence of it. I’d like to know because how can we change something if in fact we don’t understand how it’s done. I absolutely don’t want oil to be subsidized.