Quote:This may be a stupid question, but from reading this thread it sounds like there are very large operations in this area. What in the world has lead to this, cheap rent, knowone else wants to farm? Think i'll move to kentucky, shelling corn in august would be better then in the snow!
Well, since I live in Western Ky., I think that I will comment on this. I live around Fulton, Ky. about 20 miles east of the Mississippi river and Hickman, Ky. Farmers around here seem to not care about what it takes to be the top farmer(or most talked about). Keepin' up with the Jones' is more the phrase that you probably are familiar with. One farming operation farms around 20,000 acres here in W. Ky and in W. Tenn. and then another 10 -15,000 acres in Louisiana and Arkansas. What are they trying to prove? I am not sure, but little guys like my family are really being hurt by those that seem to have to 'one up' the next farmer. Earlier this year they traded for 7 or 8 NEW bullet rotor 9760 and 9860's. New grain heads, tractors, sprayers, new planters, etc... One day their top hand was in the Deere store where I worked at the time, and I asked him how many planters they had. He said 17. With several DB bars in the 60' range, I think I remember him saying 5 of them. Not sure. Could be wrong. But they have to have lots of equipment to cover that much ground. Not that they couldn't do it with less, but the ground they farm could be 50 miles or more apart. So there is a great deal of travel time involved around here. More equipment = less travel time.
The rent for acreage I have heard can be from $100 to $145-$150 per acre. THIS ISN'T IOWA OR ILLINOIS FLAT GROUND WHERE YOU CAN SEE FOR MILES AND MILES. Hills, hollers, bottoms, creeks, 20 acre patches, etc......
Another operation around here farms 10-15,000 acres. A customer came in the store one day that lives across the road from these guys and rents his land to them. He said that he was told that the local Ag credit cut off their loans(maxed out), the local country bank cut them off(same reason), and now they have to go 40 miles away to get operating money from some other loan institution. That's ridiculous to say the least. Swapping, trading, buying, renting, ....... just to keep up or pass the next guy.
My brother told me yesterday that a guy he sits next to at church has around 50 acres in CRP that will come out in Jan. 2008 and he said that he asked him about possibly renting it. He said that he's already been asked by 3 or 4 already. Competition is stiff around here.
That's just 2 of them that I mentioned. There are PLENTY more around here. If you aren't farming 5, 6, 7 thousand acres or more, your a small timer. Everybody seems to be trying to stay ahead of that avalanche. A drought would nip a bunch in the rear pretty hard. REAL HARD.