southeast nebraska | Deltamudd - 12/21/2024 15:50
Because small farms don’t work as well as they used to. Economies of scale is a thing.
I rmever when I first farmed over a decade ago there were a lot of 2000 acre farmers around me. Mostly 50yrs or older guys. They’ve all but mostly retired now and there’s a lot of 35-55yr old guys now and they farm 5000+.
A lot of those older guys that farmed 2000 acres have paid for land and decided to retire I guess. Inherited 1000 acre and put together another 1000 over their career. It was a good living.
But these young guys are inheriting less land and putting together even less land. If putting together any land at all. I mean the price of commodities has really not kept up with inflation. It makes it difficult when the name of the game is to ACTUALLY Try and beat inflation
I finance with a decent sized bank and the head guy at the local office told me I was by far his smallest farmer with 500 acres. And then it jumped to 2000 acre and then most falling in that 5000-10000 range.
But Asking why someone wants to expand is like asking
“Why would you want to provide more for your family?”
You want to farm more land so you need to buy bigger equipment, you then need to hire more people, so then you need to farm more land to cover the added costs. Seems like that could be a never ending cycle. How about farming more efficiently and making more money alternate ways. I started farming and farming alone for income. I now have two other businesses and farming is 1/3 my income. I also have ZERO payments on anything. Everything is paid for, I don't owe the bank 1 penny and I don't have to take out crop insurance, I lose a year, I go "awww screw me that sucks" and move on.
But I am sure your way is "providing more for your family" by continuously increasing the complexity of everything is better IF you only have one single way to make money.
Completely agree that a small farm is less profitable than it was, but this solution of "if I am losing money on every acre, I just need to farm more acres", well, better someone else than me
I just never understood that endless mindset of it is "never good enough"
How much is ever enough for someone for someone who thinks like that
There are more IMPORTANT things to provide for your family than just money (my opinion).
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Farming, government payments and return on equity
