Doing the actual field work isn't the problem. The two biggest issues I always had to deal with being by myself was, firstly, getting things moved from one field to another and secondly, dealing with grain off the combine.

I've done the tow bar on more than one truck routine, had a trailer I could haul my Gator on behind anything and even a nice mountain bike one could simply throw on or in something. By yourself, it is a time consuming PITA no matter how you do it. Relying on help from a neighbor is a band aid measure as often they are busy when you need to move.

And the big one is dealing with grain off the combine. I got enough trucks, trailers, cart and other hopper wagons I can put close to 5K on wheels at any time, but sooner or later you run out of room and then you are either dumping on the ground, or the combine is parked while you deal with the grain, either in field storage or to haul it.

Take it from someone who has done it on their own for many years, it can be done, but you are at a built in disadvantage before you even start. I finally had enough and decided I like cows more than running my ass off, so I scaled back cropping and went to more hay and more cows and its a lot easier and I'm a lot happier.
To each your own, do what works for you, just my thoughts.

 

I’ve been farming a couple sections within 3.5 miles for close to 10 years now myself. I use a 56’ drill and JD sts combine. Like buck, I use a quad with trailer and electric mtn bike for shuttling around. Grain bags and grain cart are the key to getting the crop off by myself.
I’ve started floating on 75% of my esn/urea last couple of springs, and I love seeding more acres between fills. 650 bu seed cart. I always am pushing the envelope for seeding early, trying to get the crop off early on the other end.
Using a high clearance sprayer.
I’m a zombie after a week of harvesting 16-18 hour days, but you do what you gotta do. I am keeping my eye out for another bagger, so when I fill a bag midday, I have a spare ready to go, instead of putting a bag on in the heat of the day. Then put one on in the morning when it’s cooler out.
You always have to be thinking 2 or 3 or 4 steps ahead.
I’m not a spring chicken anymore, so will probably let a couple quarters go in a year or two.
I’m sure I’ll think of a few more tips when I’m not so tired. ( will finish combining tomorrow!!)

 

puddles, you saw the year we just had. Even guys with the newest stuff and lots of help got caught with their dick in their hand.

IMO, you are asking for a lot of stress in a business thats already a lot of stress.

For seeding I dont see a problem. Lots of single guy operations doing those kinds of acres at spring time, but harvest is going to be a crunch. You have some big yeild crops there. Bagger is your only hope.

A neighbor of mine ran an operation like that but he had NEW everything and South Country on speed dial.

 

Good luck at trying to do the impossible. 2500-3000 acres requires two people in season. One person can do it if they enjoy lots of stress and no sleep. What is your life and sanity worth? If your married do you want to stay married? You can have the biggest drill or combine in the world but if a second person is not there providing the seed / fertilizer at seeding time and spraying ahead that drill will be sitting a lot of hours. During harvest you need help to haul the grain away from the combine. Sometimes labor is the cheapest solution. Two good people working together are more efficient than two people working by themselves.

 

I personally don't think it would be possible, not in my area any way. We farm around 2000 acres, mostly my brother and I, and dad is somewhat retired.Even with the three of us, we are pushed to the limit most years, and that's with dad doing some swathing (mind you he seems to be avoiding that now since the snow!) and he is the gopher and runs us around. Some days it's a full time job for him just moving us around. If you could evenly space the work out over 12 months, no problem , but we all know most of the work happens in about 4 months. If you are thinking of taking the next step to get you to those kind of acres, I think you will regret it. I know you were looking for ways to be more efficient to be able to work those acres, but honestly I don't think anyone is that efficient.

 

I'm pretty much in the same boat as kevlar... me my brother and dad. Just over 2000 acres.... we have two newer combines, 2 big tractors and we could use another person during harvest... mom sometimes runs a combine. All our land is within 5 miles. Go ahead try to do it your self... stressed tired and something dumb will happen and you'll either be caught under or in a piece of machinery or dead... or so tired you run somebody off the road... IMO that's way too much for one person... sorry, you would be a hazard.

 

puddles I did those acres alone except for had a man run combine in fall other than that it can be done have a man from spring to fall now harvest would be when it's real inneficiant

 

Be exceptionally organized. Have all your inputs in place before planting begins, service all equipment long before the season starts. Maybe work some cows, grassland and hay into the mix. I’m adding in fall crops, and starting to add in more diverse crops with differing maturity to help spread things out a bit during harvest. Harvesting alone just plain sucks, but it is possible. So does moving equipment around.

Look into the possibility of hiring a retired fellow to help out part time

You’d be biting off a big chunk, be prepared to work like a dog, no matter what equipment you chose.

 

I do half the total acres you are proposing, and then do half hay and half grain of that, by myself. As has already been said, I don’t think that many acres all in crop by yourself is feasible. Or necessary. That is a freaking lot of work. And involves walking back to the yard on many occasion because you are stuck or broken or need another vehicle or tool or need seed delivered or a myriad of reasons.

 

Puddles there are two types of farmer:
>Those that work to live.
>Those that live to work.

There are a lot more of the first type around and that's totally fine, probably best to be honest. But if you are the second type then I have a few suggestions having run way over those acres basically by myself(caveat coming in a bit:wink.

>Get the biggest of everything. Wide sprayer, big water truck, wide seeder with good size tank, wide swather, etc. These items need not cost a lot more than a smaller one, and in many cases are sold at discount because the big guys seem to want new.
>Big fields and plan your rotation carefully.
>Be organized, have a plan in place before you hit the field. Make notes on seeding rates and have all your product on hand before the rush hits.
>Apply fertilizer in fall to make seeding easier.
>Bin all crop and haul to elevator in winter when not doing field work.
>Have large bins to avoid moving auger all the time.
>Apply simple fertilizer blends. For example I put the same blend of 11-52 and Tiger 90 on every field every year, no cleaning out.
>Examine every operation as you do it, thinking how it could be made more efficient.
>Say thank you at every possible opportunity to the businesses you deal with because chances are they are going to be critical to making things work.
>If it won't move swing the hammer harder.

Here is the caveat....don't even try to do harvest by yourself! I had retired farmers helping in harvest and they were great. Simply too much going on at harvest time, especially if the crop was good. Too much on the line with mature crop as well, getting it off quick is risk mitigation. Hire someone to run the combine or do some trucking.

I used to put over a thousand hours myself on the main tractor every year plus all the other seat time, but that sort of pace can only be kept up for so long. Main thing is that you never have to sacrifice the quality of what you are doing simply to achieve quantity. I would say it is surprising how much a guy can get done by himself with nobody else to worry about though.

 

I know you didn't want to hear it but you could spend alot less on equipment if ya have some help, dont need alot but you are going to need help. Even if it's your wife or a high school kid.

The other thing is are you up to it? How creative are you when you get behind and things go wrong?
Life isnt always peachy and big new equipment isnt a solve all.
It's just the story of life, you can only do so much, metal breaks, and margins are minimal.

 

In my opinion that would practically be impossible with the realatively short growing season we have and adverse weather we have to get a good job done. Timing is huge. In the area your from and yield potential anyway. Lot more arid place with a lot less inputs and production to move around maybe?

 

Something that I heard years ago that always sticks with me.

“One guy can farm 1000 acres. Two guys can farm 4000 acres because you have someone to move the truck.”

You are going to have to invest your money into one of two things. Technology or labor. As was said before you’ll have to buy and run new equipment with full product support or you are going to have to hire labor. I don’t think there is any other way. I’ve been in the situation you are proposing yourself by working those acres alone. It is not possible to keep that pace up. You will burn out. In reality paying someone wages is pretty cheap compared to running new iron all the time. I know the issue is trying to find good help but they are out there.

 

Get your fertilizer applied in the fall, it’s a big job out of the way. 5 miles each way from the yard can still be a lot of moving. Moving is one of your biggest challenges. Much more likely to be doable if you had 3000 acres in a block with your yard in the middle vs. A bunch of random quarters even if they are close.

I can’t remember if this was against your rules so sorry if it is but get some custom help if you get behind. They bring there own stuff, fix it if it’s broke and only get paid while they are productive. Can seem expensive if you have the same equipment sitting but if you hire some yahoo for short term and they break stuf and require a lot of training it’s often just as quick to do it yourself.

Grain bagger would probably be a good addition as well.

 

**** no way I would even try


Just be running in circles. Seeding and I get stuck I’m screwed for the day. Everthing seems to take twice as long. I would get your wife involved. With out mine we would be screwed

 

If you have family, make sure they know they won’t see you.

 

Great point and not worth it imo. I have done those acres seeding and spraying by myself (almost by myself, have wife to help move and help if we can send the kids somewhere) and nothing is new. Always get harvest help. Add in haying and cows and maybe that’s why I don’t want to do it all myself.

The work got done and the crops were good and money was made. Not much sleep though which is ok for a while. Never seeing wife and kids (if you don’t have wife and kids it’s not a consideration) is not ok. You miss your kids growing up and good chance your wife will leave eventually. Then you probably lose the farm and wonder what it was all for.

That isn’t directed to op just how things work for people in general. Some wives want a man who works non stop and provide nice things. A lot want one they see every once in a while. And never seeing your kids is not good no matter who you are.

 

At the very minimum, you need somebody to help move between fields. Your wife or kids can help with that. You would lose an entire half day trying to move everything yourself out to land 5 miles away. Towing a quad out, riding back, hooking up again etc. This would be a frustrating way to work.


I think there is a better solution. You seem determined to try this on your own. Thats fine. What I would do is rent a section out to the local BTO. Some of the farthest land. Make a side deal with him that if you get in trouble he has a combine and crew to bail you out of needed.

 

Seeding with a big drill with anhydrous and coulters frees up a lot of hauling fertilzer. Nitrogen is the bulkiest and most painful. I use NH3 here and tow a 4000 gal tank behind a 54' bourgault 5710 with a 4300 leading cart. The acres fly by. Spraying with todays sprayers isnt that difficult with that amount of acres. Preburn at 5 gal and have a large water truck. Get the largest grain cart you can afford. Put grain in bags in the field tough or dry. Deal with them after harvest. You can move the grain to bins or dryer afterwards if you choose. Own a continueous flow dryer. A grain bagger just increases production on a scale I never thought possible with no help. You can just leave the bagger tractor running at idle all day and feed it with the combine until your to far and use the cart. I heard an older gentleman spent all his cash on the biggest cart made and uses it to haul his grain to his yard. By Kinistino. 2500 bu cart. Bigger than any truck and has all his grain at home if you farm close to your yard. I thought of this as well with all these dam deer, elk, bears and crows looking for a free meal. Patched a few holes in the bags but nothing too serious. I farm 2500 and have my dad helping me and it is a lot of work especially on a yr like this. Good dry long falls are a breeze but that rarely happens here.

 

Interesting comments, I will elaborate a little more.

Currently farming those acres now, I have my dad helping at present and it does help because he sits in the grain cart or takes over the combine when I go dump the super b, and in the spring he does some spraying and rolling. but he is slowing down and at some point wont be able to help any more, I also have kids but they are off to university or heading off, so they cant really be relied upon, my wife is available for moving vehicles to fields but has her own job so cant rely on her for running equipment.

I have to say my biggest concern is harvest, at present seeding is not a huge deal I head out with a full tank and full super b of fertilizer and seed in the morning and fill at night, and by the time I spray in the morning or during the day that is enough. So for seeding the only thing that really concerns me about being on my own is the rock picking and rolling which I can still get done without to much trouble. but harvest I have been thinking about buying another set or two of super bees, given one combine and if I average 100 acres per day at 60 bushels per acres I could basically put it all on 3 super bees and then dump in the morning.

Hiring someone is something I have thought about, and it may happen but finding someone that I can trust is not easy because good help around here is often looking for full time employment and I dont feel that my acres can justify that, so for now i was just putting it out there for ideas, because at present I am not in this situation but as I continue to upgrade equipment I might as well plan for the future, and that is why I pose my question the way I did.

As for bagging given how close I am to my yard and the fact that I hate grain bags, I would be hard pressed to be convinced to use them in my situation they might speed things up a bit but I dont think for me they would increase efficiency enough to justify it.

 

Would be nice for the original poster to comment why he wants to do this ??
Are you expanding ? Are you sick of employees ? Are you downsizing ?

he did....

 

Doing 10 quarters myself right now, could add a couple more if i really want to make life interesting but going to 3000 would require changing everything. I work with what many consider old and small equipment these days.

My biggest headache, as others pointed out, is getting things moved around. A second pair of hands would be nice even fixing something, but going from 2000ac to 3000ac i would say it is necessity because time is that much more critical. Seeding isn't bad, 40ft disc drill and 300bu cart @ 6.5 mph. Going bigger would help but everything on the input side has to adjust accordingly - on farm fert storage, larger trucks to get it to field, etc. All do able. Its nice to talk of fall fertilizer applications but harvesting 3000ac alone may cut into that possibility. There is already alot to organize getting the crop off as one man and now you want to throw in the idea of running a seeding rig/operation when the combine is idle. If you like stress that is a good recipe.

Harvest pressure is staggered by choosing crop maturity. I haul everything to the farm. Need to add some more holding capacity on wheels like AB says so i can combine a full day in low yielding crops or stop once per day for an hour or two in barley to empty out the storage. The wife can help move grain the way i have things setup, it cheap and easy using wagons. 3000ac means that second person is more important.

I personally think 2000 to 2200ac is manageable for me if i really wanted to push things and upgrade a few places. 3000ac means lots of big equipment, newer stuff and more dealer support instead of fixing myself. And at that point am I really working for myself or working to pay bills on stuff I bought to farm 3000ac instead of 2000ac.

Perhaps the more important question is how much are you doing now and how much are you willing to change. My thought is for me to add +50% acres i need to basically change out everything i have now and start from scratch so i can't really say there are any small tweaks.

 

Guess you aren’t gonna miss your kids grow up if they are heading to university. I know you said your wife isn’t an option and maybe she isn’t interested in farming but my dream is when the kids are older farming with just my wife for help.

I think it’s a great way to spend time together but there is enough apart time it wouldn’t get to be too much.

One of the biggest advantages i think is training. Training new people is time consuming and often things go wrong, you need to babysit a bit and probably fix some stuff that gets broken unnecessarily. Why not put that investment into your wife who will Be with you forever. Won’t work if your wife doesn’t like farming or working with you though.

Another big plus is you don’t have to pay ei and workers comp etc. that you do with arms length employees. It adds up could easily give your wife $5 an hour more and still come out ahead.

 

I band urea in the fall. That eliminates alot of work in spring. I move myself with my quadand a set of ramps in my truck. Have noproblem crop spraying. Hire my desicating done in the fall. Have a guy hired to drive truck for harvest. Not sure what i will do when he shuts er down. Working alone requires alot of pre thought and working smart. Farmers with a crew have no idea what its like getting things done alone
. Little things like having to shut down seeding to roll , spray ,harrow or pick stones is hard to take!

 

I do about 1500 by myself. I would like to get to about 2000. I think I could still handle that. 3000 would be pushing it. Harvest is the biggest problem. You could hire custom combiners. Then you could concentrate on running trucks/moving augers etc. I know several big farmers that don't own a combine. I couldn't do that personally. I guess I'm kind of a control freak. You would have to find a crew you could count on to be there when you need them. (again, not for me). I have much larger equipment than would normally be needed for my acres, but I can get enough done while I'm running that I can afford to park it for awhile while doing other stuff.

 

Put it into perspective on what labour cost would be to hire somebody.

Now take that number and compare it to what you could lose by not getting the crop in fast enough, sprayed when it needed to be or harvested in a timely manner. And don't forget the cost of your sanity and or missing out on all family time.

The cost of labour is pretty small.

 

Like you suggested, enough b-trains in the field to harvest for the day dump in the morning.

30 -100 acre days seems plausible to me.