Michigan - Saginaw County | interesting discussion.
I note some envy. Some of the young ones on here seem to feel they are entitled to have MY land at some low price they can afford.
Well son. the real world is that it is my land. it will remain my land until I am gone and THEN it will be the land of someone else. It still will not fall into your hands.
And if it goes up for sale it will go to the highest bidder (same way i had to buy it) The guy who is already working a 1000 acres it far better positioned to outbid the new guy for the ground - simple truth.
The idea that if all us fossils would just retire then affordable land would be suddenly available to you young guys is just wishful thinking, or envy, or sheet for brains.
If a fossil like me drops over today my owned land is already willed to my heirs. Any rented land I was working will go off to the highest bidder for next year. The young guy probably cannot match the rent offers of bigger operators so he is still SOL.
As was posted above, life is not fair - get used to it.
My best advice is for 2 or 3 young fellas is to form an LLC partnership, to continue to work jobs in town to support their families, and to pool their machinery and available money/credit in order to go to the bankers and borrow to buy that first piece of ground.
Also bankers who might hesitate to loan the money for putting the crop in, to one borrower, might be willing to do it for 2 or 3.
As was mentioned above farming has become a capital intensive business. My corn inputs for this year are well to the North of $400 an acre. My expected market price is roughly $4. So the first 110-120 bushels off the ground have to go to cover the planting expenses. In a state with a 125 bushel average, it is a thin margin.
Another point is that 2 men working together can do the work of 3 men working separately. And 3 cooperating can do the work of 4 or 5. separately. Just like working in town AND farming multiplies your ability to build capital, working together multiplies your ability to increase cash flow. 3 guys working hard can accumulate land and capital many times faster than one man.
No matter how it ends up you will be running a tractor across that piece of ground in the future.
Whether it is as an owner or a hired hand is totally up to you and the decisions you make now. |
bright future for young farmers
