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all beans?

3K views 15 replies 13 participants last post by  tbone95 
#1 ·
farmin central il with a 50/50 rotation of corn and beans. money is a little tight this year and considering going to all beans to offset input costs. hopefully i can pay off some bills and get back on track, any suggestions
 
#6 ·
Its getting down to short innings, you are behind, and you are swinging for the fences. Rethink your strategy. You have to plan to get several base hits. If one of them turns into a home run you are good, but with base hits you will survive to bat again.

If money is so tight input costs are driving your decision, I wouldn't switch to more than 25/75 or so. Wet July and dry August and you are toast if 100% beans. Same scenario if you are twiddling your thumbs when everyone is planting corn and May/June turns impossibly wet and don't get anything seeded timely. Missouri 2015 anyone?

Is this owned land or are you farming for the 'lord? 'Cause the 'lord may not understand the shift in philosophy, and may get nervous about a tenant short on working capital.

Go back over all your farm records and fields. What fields have the best crop insurance yield guarantees? Are you overplanting population for your yield? Are you researching your seeds, or buying what the dealer is pushing? Are you shopping all your inputs or buying at the local coop because its easy?
 
#7 ·
There are more than two crop choices. sunflowers, green feed barley, oats, millet, milo , flax, lentils, malt barley, look for a contracts to grow seed. I do not know your choices down there, but think outside the box, and diversity. WE are lucky the internet has all kind od advice on how to grow most crops. The world needs more lentils, and eatable beans. There is a drought, in other country's, find out what their main foods are a grow that crop.
 
#8 ·
His area would be similar cropping to ours, unless he's got a dairy nearby that is willing to buy feed (forage) crops at a price he can make money at, he's probably stuck with corn, soybeans, wheat, or oats. (Maybe also hay the above also applies.) Might be too wet of a climate for lentils? Never seen them grown here and we get close to 30" of rain a year.


I would plant some corn, too risky to go all beans IMO. (Same with all corn even though that worked out good for some guys here but I'm more concerned about future pest problems to do it.)


Corn and beans return more than wheat, and oats is pretty far behind most of the time. This year is a total shot in the dark, right now I'm somewhat close to 50% but many of my beans are going to be conventional, seed much cheaper and roundup not killing 3/4 the weeds anymore its a no brainer. Sadly corn belt cropping options are limited by who takes other crops within a reasonable distance from your farm.
 
#9 ·
I believe the all beans thing is kinda scary, I dont know if there is any other crops to consider?

I will still be planting beans this year but I have a fear they could tickle the 6$ area witch takes the wind out of that sail rather quickly for sure

Corn surely don't pencil, it's not good no matter how ya look at it
 
#15 ·
For what's it worth, I have done beans on beans on one field on a farm I rented for 11 straight years in a row, some other fields were beans on beans for up to 9 years in a row. As for a reduced yield, can't say I saw it per say, any reduced yield was due to limited rainfall, certainly not weeds or disease related. As for why I did it, simple, that farm had a history of limited rainfall and it was too risky to put to corn, beans did better with less moisture back then. That was long before the corn companies got drought tolerance bred into the corn genetics like there is today.


As for disease and weed pressure, I never had issues with any bean disease's on that farm ever, and for weeds, I don't combine weedy beans, I could manage to keep the fields clean, beans are far easier than corn and the window to spray is much longer with beans than corn, and my chemical costs were never any higher on beans on beans vs following corn, but that depends on your weeds your fighting on your farms more than averages.


If your concerned with a lower price, forward contract some of the bushels if your farms have a history of yield data behind it that have some sort of consistency.


I have no idea what your rent is, what your land payments are, machinery payments and the list goes on and on, but put a pencil to it, if you can lock in a profit on beans today, before planting, or corn for that matter, contract and plant acres accordingly.


I don't know the acres your talking, but you can rent a combine in the fall or hire someone to help you harvest beans, far cheaper than gambling on corn prices going up enough to provide a profit. Basically come up with a plan, and carry it out, involve your lender and make some hard decisions and worry about next year if it gets here, if your not farming next year its a mute argument.


If it were me, I'd not lose one nights sleep about beans on beans, multiple years in a row for that matter, since I'd done it many times before, despite what the experts say. The thing about experts is this, its never their money they are spending, their risk, their livelihood, their nothing, its only ever your ass hanging out, those experts have a paycheck to pay their bills with............just an observation I've noticed over the years. Best of luck.
 
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