East Arkansas | John Burns - 1/17/2026 14:44
One of the main reasons my wife and I decided to pull the plug and get out of the active side of farming was because we were no longer low cost producers.
We had the best employees we ever had. We had a modern comfortable line of equipment, we had a daughter actively involved in the business. We had a great bunch of landlords on the rented ground.
But we spent millions putting a crop in with single digit percentage returns, varying of course on the year and weather.
I along with her decided I didn't want to see 50 years work go slowly down the drain should we have multiple years drought or low prices.
Have not regretted it at all. And gave my nephews a major boost up to a level size of farming they are now a substantial player. Worked out great all around.
Single digit returns while spending millions…
John, I think a lot about this. The single digit returns might not be so bad if it weren’t for the labor and risk involved. I do wonder when most should thin about transitioning to a different business or retiring? I had double digit returns on investments before I started getting assets paid off…now the returns look horrible but working harder than ever! |
What do you really want out of ag?
