Transplanted to New Mexico | This is a semi rant and a heart filled question all in one... yes I can multi task...lol
So I have a very good friend that left his family farm to work in the other world for the last 20 years, For the last 5 he has wanted to get back into farming, but does not live where the family farms. Where is the days when a person could start out with 400 acres of rented land and make a small living off it.. There is no land to be had that is not 6000 plus per acre, there is none to be rented for less than 300 an acre cash up front... What has happen to farming? I am getting really worried with the new farm bill that we will have less and less sub 3000 acres farmers, the risk is just going to be to high for allot of people, but then they will want to rent their land for 300 or more an acre cash.
I remember when one land owner came up to me in 2000, not that long ago, and all but begged us to farm his 100 acres, it was on crop shares.. I was not really interested in to to be honest, had major draining issues, but one of the guys that worked for us was.. We help him the one year, then he got 140 more the next year and then 200 more the next year( he left working for us then) and is now at 3000 acres around us... he did it all by the seat of his pants like the old days.. We talked about it today and both agreed that there was no way it would happen today with the way some of these land owners are acting.. By the way the guy with the first 100 he got, he wanted 300 an acre rent this season. There was always a good job done on his land, it is setting empty right now we will not touch it and the only other guy close turned it down. The owner now wanted to do crop rent again...lol |
Where has the American Dream gone..
