Im thinking about getting serious about buying my first piece of ground and thought Id ask what everyone thought.  A little background, I turned 30 this year, been working with Dad for the last few years and finally got the chance to rent 2 pieces of ground this year. Together we farm about 750 acres of corn, beans and alfalfa, have a 100 hd of cows of which I own 1/4. Both the pieces I rent are long term, I dont have to worry if Im going to lose them every year, and both are at a very fair price.

Im looking at a irrigated 1/4 thats about 5 miles up the road from one of my farms, its not a full irrigated piece, Id guess about 115-120 acres so it has some bigger corners, its pretty decent ground for the area as far as terrain, and like most in that area it has a mostly dry drainage creek through it. I know the guy whos been farming it, its his uncles ground but he has 0 intrest in the piece because its 30 miles from his home area. So I can find out exactly what its been yielding, but 200+ bu corn and 65-70bu beans are pretty attainable. Its got a fairly new Zimmatic and electric well on it, with pretty good water I think.

I ran into the agent yesterday and just out of curiosity I asked about it, he said they were asking $6500/acre but he thought if someone come and offered $5700 or so, theyd take it. Id be getting an FSA loan for it so intrest would be pretty cheap, and thought if a guy could talk them into $5500 I dont think itd be a bad buy. If I ever wanted something a little closer to home I could always sell it and not have any attachments to it. I cant think of a single piece thats near us that would be coming up for sale in the near future anyway.  Basically charging myself the rent would cover the loan payments.