From ILLFF's "About Us" section of their website.

If that is indeed the case, then it seems that they are being extremely wise with their money.  What successful business doesn't put away capital reserves for asset and customer growth?  Everyone hears the stories of their local large farm paying Eleventy Bajillion dollars per acre for rent, but I would have to assume that for every rumored high rent, they have 5 fields for which they are paying $150-$250.  In their part of Illinois, with all of that highly-productive dirt, that pencils out nicely at $4 corn and their stated economies of scale on inputs and handling (i.e. trucking, storage, anhydrous, DAP/MAP, potash, seed, etc.) across the whole farm.  Never underestimate the value of scale combined with working capital.  It is entirely probable that ILLFF and many other larger producers actually make better margins per acre than the average producer, due to favorable economics at that size.  30 years ago, managing a big chunk of acres was a nightmare managerially and logistically.  Now, with technology advancing so rapidly, farmers are seeing their abilities to manage greater land more efficiently realized.  My granddaddy often had a bear of a time wrestling with 1,000 acres in his day (itself quite a decent-sized farm at the time), and eventually scaled back.  With technology the way it is now, it is entirely possible to, say, plant a whole section in a day.

I can understand, to a point, some of the anger associated with them, vis-a-vis some of the other major operators in their area.  But why do we not hear grumbling about a Florida tomato grower who might be netting $15000-$20000 per acre?  The answer is simply that they've been turning that trick for so long that it is now commonly accepted wisdom that it can be done.  In a generation, our children will look back at our farms and think, "How quaint. They used to actually have to ride in the tractor and combine."  Change is the only constant, and in a decade or so, these bigger operations will be a simple fact of life, same as larger vegetable and fruit producers are now.  I'm not saying it is right or wrong, just the way it will be.