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Latimer Iowa | Crop prices vary constantly, but attaching a spreadsheet from July. Numbers can be argued, of course. It doesn't take much looking, even on this site, to see the economics of ag are not working well for the actual producer. On my small farm in northern Iowa, a change in the way we farm from conventional ways has allowed a significant change in our profitability, our communities profitability, and long term, I think, in our overall health. Commodity agriculture is currently operating as a "value negative" sucking dollars from our farms and communities, consolidating those dollars into a few conglomerates that do not give a **** about Latimer Iowa, or Albert Lea, Mn, or......
Overview of the numbers is we can can have a $250 an acre change increase in profitability with practice change. On my 4,000 acres, started with our name on 350, currently have our name on 1100, this amounts to a 1 million a year difference. I would much rather make $250,000 than lose $750,000. We have been able to upgrade our farm equipment and purchase land. This has also allowed us to do things in our town of 500 people like; buildout and run a community service grocery store for 8 years, (sold/donated it to the community as I work more on the oat mill project about a year ago), spearhead the demolition of multiple dilapidated structures in town and make a shovel ready lot for a new medical clinic that was built, remodel the main street office building with new siding roof and other repairs to make it viable for the future, to be a large supporter/customer of a new bank branch in town after the previous bank consolidated, to remove and clean up a large abandoned hog farm in city limits, and likely the biggest is the oat mill project. Our group of farmers is investing 68.5 million in a new facility that will allow us to move further down the supply chain. We are a pretty average sized operation, think if all of us had the ability to support our communities.
This facility will support our farms but also our communities and overall health. A investment of this size that would not be happening if we allow the current muti-national to remove all the "value" not only from ag, our agriculture products, and our communities. The current system is "value negative" for us farmers.
When you look at your community do you like what you see? How vibrant is your main street, your schools, your churches, your hospital? Who is benefiting in rural America from the current system? Think of the 50-100 years ago when we had communities, threshing rings, worked together, played together, and supported our communities together. We can have a better system then yield at all cost commodities. Why do farmer line up to out do each other?
Edit: Spreadsheet is attached as a file.
To quote Pee-Wee Herman, "Everyone in life has such big butts, lets talk about you and your big but" Meant in the best way possible to stimulate discussion, I am not altruistic enough to think it will work for everyone or even most.
Edited by Green Acres Guy 12/7/2025 10:00
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Attachments
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 millLandA(full) (full).jpg (134KB - 48 downloads)
7-12-25 Green Acres Northern Iowa Crop Rotation Profit Per Acre.xlsx (17KB - 181 downloads)
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Your yield and your underwear.
