No gravel under our soil here.  Our A horizon left several generations ago.  The B horizon ranges from less then a foot to maybe 5 feet in good land.  Below that you have either the clay which put Pittsburg in the brick and tile business or limestone....and I mean real limestone that takes blasting and using a crusher to break it up, not that clay stuff they call limestone in some of the western part of KS. 

Yeah, we get 40something inches per year, but the first problem is that we get over half of that outside of the growing season and the second problem is that lack of soil depth and waterholding capacity which makes it hard to weather the three week droughts and makes anything longer then that without rain a crop failure.  Finally we have alot of soil with extremely low permeability.   Less then an inch per hour in some soil types.  That makes the summer time 2" rains that fall in 15 minutes not really contribute as much as they should, unless it is so dry we have cracks in the soil, which we do right now.  Our extension argonomist likes to say that SE KS is never more then 2 weeks away from a drought during the growing season. 

I agree with Brandon that rents will bid up to the value most anywhere.  I think those of us out here in the "worthless" part of the country have a little advantage though because there isn't as much competition so the bidding tends to stop at it's actual value instead of going well beyond.  I don't know about your area but I think there are a lot of guys in places who are ahead of the curve because they are growing more profitible crops then are traditional in their area.   

Corn is losing ground after April 1 here.  Before that will be better unless it has to be replanted.  End of the season is usually considered to be about the 15th but most guys will push it to the 20th unless bean prices look to be more profitible then normal that year.  Corn tends to be our best return but also more money at risk.    If you have replant coverage of some sort, I think the best bet is to be planting full blast the first day you can get the coverage in force....if you don't have to pay to replant it then earlier is better, period.

We plant 100 day hybrids  as a rule.  People have been pushing it out...104 or 105 is pretty common now.  It yields higher, unless it is a failure.  I think this year it might get 'bit.'   Our season is actually about 123 day but you can't get a crop more then about 1 out of 3 years that way due to drought at this time of year.  Hybrid selection is very important also.  We were a dealer for a seed company at one time and we never did find a number of theirs which would come south of zone and work here. 

I don't believe in "wearing out " ground as long as you are maintaining fertility.  Growing a crop is far better for it then sitting there barren.  The former produces organic matter, the latter depletes it. 
 

I'd say $40-50 would cover the vast majority of it here.

Brandon, I don't know how your particular area is, but we cover a whole lot more acres with a piece of equipment then most of the corn belt does.  Our corn is completely done before the beans are even close, both in the spring and in the fall.  Many also have a wheat crop, again at different times, utilizing the same equipment and even the same land (3 crops in two years)   There were a couple years in our past where we put 1000 hours on a combine in one calender year.   We're not going to get rich here anymore then anywhere else but I do not lose sleep worrying about whether or not we can make a profit.  A very big thing we have going for us is that we are the closest corn to a serious corn deficit area.  The markets south of us bid enough to ship a significant amount of corn from your area.  We get to put alot of  the trucking in our pocket