West Union, IOWA FLOLO Farm 52175 | Very good post PoFarmer, I think this is what abunch of us are seeing and trying to prepare for.Do we have a place in the future of AG
I remeber last year When IllFF had the "family picture"(all the employees and such) on their website,I counted them up 28 guys for at that time 27000 acres......Basically penciled out the 28-1000 acre farmers with the biggest difference being a small fraction of them bearing the risk/reward scenerio. Around "here" I see dairies doing the same thing cept its 50-60 cow per guys involved.
My belief is when a guy truely figures out how to go efficiently go to the next level (say 3-5000 acres per man on row crop and say a couple hundred cows per person invololved) that is when we will see things happen. Basically if you look at things from the manufacturing prospective and Implement the in agriculture(this has heppened in swine and puoltry as you say). With the advent of autosteer and other tech,we've all been taking baby steeps towards this.
Our ancesistors saw the mechanization of AG and I think we have front row seats to the industrialization of it. Do I like it heck no, but I'm not going to sit idle and gut some of the frontleaders in the process, I'm going to try to utilize some of their tatics that I'd veiw to be working.
But I'm also going to take some of the thing I'm learning from a neighbor or 2.....
#1-He farms 3500acres solo (Plants/sprays/harvest/dries his own grain) the only time he gets extra help is pulling wagons.
#2-Husband wife team farm about the same, and do it all solo and the only thing they hire done is trucking
Both operations amaze me more then a Mega operation cause they have a level of efficiency figured out. I think the Mega operation that figures out the ManHour/per Unit deal will be when row crop ranks join poultry,swine Then the biggest variable will be Mother Nature unless the MEGA's start building some dang big GreenHouses
Long Story short we're all trying to make a better MouseTrap..... |
Farm Consolidation. Trends and endpoints.
