20 miles west of Indianapolis Indiana | humblefarmer - 1/17/2026 12:55 When do you start farming? I graduated from college in 1987. I’d say 9 out of 10 people that I told I was going to start farming tried to admit me to a psychiatric facility! It’s been tough at times , but I’m happier than most I know that work otherwise.
this is going to be too much info... but idk how else to be open about it and allow advice/constructive criticism...
im 41, born in 1984. started renting my first farm at 16 years old that was offered to my dad that he talked them into renting to me. 32 acres. graduated high school with that 32 acres rented. when i got out of college in 2005 i got offered about 200 more to rent with my brother who was still in HS, and then after a couple years he bowed out of renting and i had it all. i can't remember the exact timeframe but by 2012 i had 250ish acres rented total. in 2014 i bought 60 acres and rented 200ish more. was up to about 500 acres all rented or heavy mortgaged from 2014 till 2022. always has some sort of full time job after college till 2022. worked at a steel mill for like 13 of those years, and for 2 different seed companies in sales and management in one for around 4 or 5 total full time. in 2022 i picked up 700 acres from a neighbor retiring so i was farming 1200 full time. in 2024 i was offered close to 300 acres from 2 different landowners. so up to 1500 for 2025 crop. adding another rental farm for 2026. none of these rental farm with the exception of 12 acres did i get from being the "high bidder in town". they are all rented at different levels of "fair". some fairer the others but i have usually made significant investments of tile on them. but heck, fair now just means breaking even if youre not careful...
thats kinda my farming resume/timeframe.
i'm going to be honest, all the money i made off of the 250-500 acres till 2022 expansion went into infrastructure and machinery. i built a farmstead on the farm i bought in 2014 over time. shop/barn, grain bins and grain dryer. when i just farmed 500 or less dad and i did some swapping of labor on some equipment and i bought a few pieces i brought into the operation to help us then id pay for combine and trucking. when my neighbor retired i bought more of my own equipment and now dad and i help each other in the spring, he plants corn and i plant beans. then once planting is over, we go our separate ways for sidedress and spraying, but help each other when needed. in the fall we harvest separate. but when dad gets done with his harvest (less acres and bigger combine/logistically better setup), he comes and custom harvest for me.
i only add all this because someone will come along and say "you had 15+ years to save up and be more hardened for times like now". and i'll argue that just isn't the case for someone not stepping into a generational operation. there are so many items "supplied" or sold for pennies on the dollar that generational operations pass down that are taken for granted. just the stone at my shop/grain setup would have cost me a years salary + at the steel mill i worked at for years if i wasn't lucky enough to get a lot of asphalt millings at the right place and the right time available. all of my bins are used bins i bought and tore down and put back up. stuff like that i paid good money for that gets rented to kids/grandkids for 10 cents a bushel or nothing. (full disclosure i have a rental farm i get a "grandson deal on")
one financial outlay ive made that takes time to see the gain also is tile, i've done a lot of tile on years it wasn't the best choice economically for my pocket book and i have to get some of that back a little at a time each year... that payback is better at $6 corn than $4 corn too though...
Edited by GrainTrader 1/17/2026 13:46
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What do you really want out of ag?
