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Windom, MN | I feel I am young yet, in my 30s but pretty much just working for my dad yet. Farming is what I want to do, but haven't had the opportunity to get some land of my own yet. Have tried, but nothing has worked out. There is some negativity with high prices. When corn was 8 bucks, everyone was wanting to farm. Guys were not retiring, and a lot of land was/is up for sale. The landscape changed around here, a lot of farms changed hands and operators. We lost a little to a young guy, neighbors did too. It's business, when you rent land, you don't get a say in who gets to farm it. But there has still been some hard feelings between neighbors, there are a couple I really don't want to talk to anymore, but I tend to hod grudges, which probably isn't a good thing.
We will see if these newcomers hang around with 3 dollar corn. I have been looking and waiting. Things have been crazy these past few years, and the drought in 2012 is still being felt. Look at the livestock prices. Meat is still high, and corn has gotten cheap so unless they are hedged, someone is making a lot of money. Ethanol has to be doing well too. But the grain guys had their time, so it's time for livestock to do well now. I kind of wish we still had hogs. But it seems diversity, which saved my dad a few times in his early years, has gone away and farmers are more specialized. We still have some guys in the area with a few cattle, but the hog farmers are huge, and we couldn't keep up with them.
So with farming being easier (see roundup, comfortable tractors, auto steer, etc) and high prices, guys could keep farming for many more years than they could in the past. And it would be hard to hang it up when you are making record profits. I see a lot more opportunities coming in the future, unfortunately grain prices may be at or below production cost. So the efficient people will pick up ground and the inefficient people might be out. Usually efficient means large, so yeah, the big guys may grow.
I hope to grow with lower prices. We don't have a ton of debt, and I have saved so I could weather a few years of bad prices. Yeah, My dad owns the majority of the equipment and I don't have much, but I will use his stuff because that's what he wants. He wants me to take over someday, and I want to take it over too. I have been working on my marketing and management skills, and hope to learn quick. Since we aren't large, we have to be more skilled at marketing our grain.
It will be interesting to see what 2015 and beyond holds for grain farmers. Maybe one opportunity will finally work out for me. It will also be interesting to see what happens to a lot of guys just starting out or who expanded quickly these last couple of years. | |
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Young Farmer wanting to rent ground
