One thing I have observed since a pretty young guy (pre-teenager). There have always been farmers that have said that land did not pay, and that a person could make more money investing in machinery and renting. I can remember one person in particular saying that when I was about 8-10 years old and he hired me to rake hay in the summer for his custom hay baling business. My dad always bought land, with cash, as he could afford it. Never owned a huge amount but significant, enough to raise a big family. The guy that I worked for and said land would not pay eventually went out of farming. My dad never did. I can think of several situations over the many years where renter only ended up being forced out for one reason or another. The guys that bought some land along the way (unless they over leveraged and bought too much at the peak) just seem to have more staying power. Maybe the land is a forced savings account.......don't know. But the guys that buy some land along tend to stay in the farming business better than the guys who didn't. Not saying that is a 100% thing and don't even have any numbers to back it up, it just seems that is the way it has worked out around here anyway. Not too many "renters only" around here unless they are pretty young. Lots of renters but most have at least some land base owned. Seems to add stability to an operation.

John