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| Over 20 years ago, my Grandpa and Dad gave up farming and cash rented out our 100 acres. My Dad is now retired and looking for something to keep him busy. We have decided to start farming our 100 acres again in 2014. The last time our family farmed, it was with a John Deere B, A and 60, 4 row planter and John Deere 45 combine!! Obviously, things have changed ALOT since then so I'm trying to get a grasp on what it will take to make a go of this. To get started, our plan is to do the tilling, planting, pay for the spraying and have our neighbor do the harvesting and hauling. For the last 20 years, the ground has been in a rotation of roughly 50 acres of corn and 50 acres of beans (Eastern Nebraska), there are some hills but nothing crazy, the rows are half mile long, the land is non-irrigated so pretty straight forward stuff. My question is what type of equipment should I look for? We obviously, do not need brand new stuff, but I would like to get some good used stuff that will do the job effectively and efficiently. Recently, we purchased a 4640 so the tractor is covered. I'm more wondering what type of disc and planter I should look for, maybe we don't even need a disc?
Another little twist to the situation, our cousin's ground is coming out of CRP for the first time in 20 years. He has 80 acres which roughly 75 acres of it will be farmable. Our cousin planned on having some neighbors farm his ground, but since we decided to start doing our 100 acres, we are going to discuss cash renting his ground. His ground is located directly North of our ground (same section) so the location is great! His 80 acres has been in a rotation of baling a 1/3rd of it each year for the last few years so it is free of trees, shrubs etc. It is out of the CRP contract this October so we would be free to start working on it then. From what I have read, a guy should bale it all at that point or bale it and then spray it? Also, I have gathered that for the first year, it would be best to drill beans and then come in with corn the second year? The reason that I bring this up is that if we get on this ground, this could influence what type of planter we should purchase.
So basically we will be working with our 100 acres ( 50 acres of corn and 50 acres beans) and possibly working with our cousin's 75 acres of CRP ground. We have the tractor so my question is what type of other equipment should I look into getting....what type of disc (if a disc at all?) and what type of planter would be a good investment for what we are doing.
I know this is kind of an odd post, but like I said, we are just getting into this after 20 years (I was 10 the last time we farmed) so I'm trying to figure out what type of used equipment I should keep an eye out for. We're not trying to get rich by any means, we just want to make a little extra cash and get back on the land that has been farmed by all of our previous generations.
Thanks for any tips and info! | |
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Extreme Newbie......So Bare With Me Please
