2025 field work
- Thread starter BCClone
- Start date
The spread in pricing on things across the country always shocks me. I always tell my guys that they should feel fairly lucky to farm in NW Iowa where there's mostly good ground and a competitive landscape. You get into places ruled by just a few coops and things seem to really increase in price, particularly herbicides.
I’m always willing to consider if it makes sense. DM me if you have something serious.
Honestly, you pay me well enough and it works in my situation, I would give it a whirl.
Same reply I always give guys that say why don’t you do a 3rd crop? Pay me enough and I will.
I can do a bunch of other crops but what good is it financially without a market for them?
Back in the day, the better farmers made more money. As seed, chemicals, machinery and technology in general improved the playing field got leveled. Now it's weather and marketing that separates a good year and a bad. There have been niche opportunities along the way but most income potential was garnered in the initial introduction of the new opportunity and lessoned as more people jumped on the bandwagon and margins were tightened.
I raised seed beans and seed corn and each eventually lost their favor due to extra hassle, machinery, storage requirements, chemical restrictions, isolation requirements, etc. that offset income potential advantages for me.
Corn and soybean farmers are good at what they do. Yes, setting aside 20 acres to produce hay for the horse lovers may be profitable but converting 1000 acres of corn ground to hay most likely will not produce the same results. Wheat works well in Kansas and the Dakota's, and vegetables in Michigan, but "corn makes Iowa and Iowa makes corn" or however the saying goes. If there were a profitable alternative, it would already have been implemented.
I understand this but the primary crops are no longer money makers. What do you do? Just keep playing until retiring and cashing out at auction? Wait for the 10k acre farmer from a county over to buy all land?
I'd love to relay Rye or wheat in the soybean rotation. The problem is, by the time I truck wheat the margin is gone in it too. We will see how some of these new food grade plants do. I have some hope for oats and that would be an ideal 3rd crop for us.
I always get a kick our of these comments too. It's as if the markets aren't at all linked and there's some sort of great arbitrage opportunity when corn and soybeans are cheap. It all works together.
The real answer is incorporating livestock and selling to the end user but getting into that industry isn't cheap or easy either. The hog industry figured this out 20 years ago and even though there are laws on the books to prevent it (because it would ruin a meat industry, like it did pork) it been allowed to continue. I'd love to go back to farrowing 30 sows 4 times a year and finishing the pigs out if there's anyone that would pay you to do it and make it make sense when all of our infrastructure really needed rebuilt.
Are they no longer money makers or just not making money at the rate they did at $7 corn? Of course a portion is government subsidized, and I don't know all the ins and outs of economics, but my belief is that this will be the case going forward. Everybody does better when the farmer does better--it starts here. Since we need to feed ourselves (and a share of the world), there will never not be a need for farmers so they will be protected. At some point in time it may convert to large corporations (or even gov't operated farms) rather than individuals but I don't foresee that happening in your kids' lifetime. As imperfect as the system seems at times, it works too well to change it over night.
The days of farmers making a living on 160 acres expired in my lifetime, but the reason had more to do with larger machinery covering more acres per operator than profit margins. We are approaching the end of the spectrum for that to continue--it will probably take a similar number of operators as we have now as we enter the era of self-driving tractors, harvesters, and trucks., but we all still need to eat.
Corteva varieties in central Iowa are getting eaten by GLS as well.
Haven't seen the GLS here, then again we typically choose varieties that are better against it in general.
Seeing southern rust on all 3 of the companies we use. That said, last year it was a couple of DeKalb products that just died early when it came on strong late last year(108-64 being most noticeable)
The Zidua/Sharpen one (forget the name) does great on water hemp. Unsure on Palmer.
Conventional, so steadfast, atrazine, and status. One idea is Storen with Atrazine and Balance Flexx
