I'm not a farmer, but a home gardner living in an area where farming is the norm, so to me, listening to these discussions is important. You guys are awesome. I never fail to learn something
Funny how here in the rolling hills of western IL the “crappy ground” is selling north of 7500/acre. Bought our farm around 500/acre in 97. Pretty cashy ground for white dirt, but the recreational side of it and our hunting has added plenty of value. Even if our politics suck.
@DamianMasonChannel I'll have to look that one up. It's nice to see people acknowledge it. Hopefully, your prediction happens then the real market, supply and demand will have a chance. I have some ground of my own I wouldn't put in corn if I couldn't insure it reasonably.
There must be some low return alternative for ( such as CRP) for marginal land, or it will be farmed. The rental prices may go to nothing, but if there's a reasonable chance of covering the variable input cost it will be farmed, or at least that's how it worked when I was a kid: without crop insurance, crp, & less than $1/bu corn farmers took the risk & planted...
I'm walking away from all of it in 25. The field that I am keeping the perimeter that is always low yielding up against trees and swamps and that's where the water runs off the field too is it going to hey production for cows There is zero margin of error on crop ground for 25 so you eliminate the ground that is an error to begin with
I had 30 acres at the far end of my 200 acres dairy farm that was seeded down to a hay crop when I was a young kid. I plowed it up and with the 3 runs through the fields I could never get it planted. It was just waste ground to me.
Not a bad discussion. Not a lot of specifics. What defines crappy ground other than disappointing yields? Low organic matter, soil texture, rocks, drainage, fertility?
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the feedback. We are trying to walk that line between having an interesting conversation and getting "too much" in the weeds on the topics. We will take your thoughts into consideration as we produce more episodes. Also, you might want to check out some of our podcasts where we go into more detail on topics like this. www.xtremeag.farm/podcasts
Even in the black earth top 1/2 of Illinois, we have veins of pure sand here and there. They have silica plants all over the place. I used to fly over Kansas a lot. When I was a kid, you saw wheat and sorghum. They grow a lot of corn and beans out there now. KS, OK was full of DIRT cheap land. I almost started there myself. I saw land selling for $400 / acre. It’s gone up in price more than Illinois ground as far as percentages are concerned. I think finding balance has been the reason for my survival, and don’t ever discount luck. I’ve always had something that was a total home run. This year it’s been calf prices, a really good custom grown organic wheat crop, nothing fancy, just conventional genetics grown according to organic guidelines, and the financial maneuvering of drawing on a huge line of credit at a set rate, and getting twice the interest I was paying by churning it in short term treasuries. In years prior, I was paying debt down, cattle prices sucked, but organic premiums were huge. I’m very fortunate that in 24 yrs, all the holes in the Swiss cheese never lined up at once and sank me. I digress, one tactic I have is putting alternative crops on bad patches. Ancient grains are a prime example if it’s an area out in a field. They do better on those spots. Way less likely to lodge. Along tree lines, I put in Mint, Lavander, tree starts, I’ll line up hoop houses and do early start veg production, my legendary $25k/acre organic luffa plot runs right along a treeline. Unfortunately, the market will only bear 2.5 acres of them. 😂 I do some dairy, and beef on dairy. All my dairy infrastructure is concrete road barriers, metal military surplus runway materials, and tensioned fabric structures. I can move them, and pound an area with animal impact for 3-5 years to bring fertility up. I’m just not big on infrastructure, it will be outdated and useless in 10 yrs. A cement truck made a wrong turn in to my driveway and I had to breath into a paper bag for a while to calm down because I thought my GM snuck a project by me. Of course, always go for the obvious. If you can dig a drainage trench, do a little dirt work, put in a tile, do it.
I like that you are an Ag guy who isn't always bitchin about how a farmer just can't make it anymore blah blah blah. You're inventing new tactics for margin. Crafty!
I thought the I-States didn't have any crappy ground. Anything that isn't tillable can be converted to pasture livestock or be sold off as a building site.
Another point… ground is ground. It might not be where you want it, or do what you want it to, but when you own it, you can sell it and buy those acres that are in closer to a bigger cluster of ground your you are operating in when that land becomes available. You are hedging against price increases by having it. But yes, it does suck roading all over the place. I’m not all on tracks for the traction, the duals are a nightmare to go down the road with around here.
There no crappy ground just crappy farmers i bought a sandy wore out soil tobacco farm and start dairy and within 4 years i wrnt from 80bushel corn to over 200.
I tend to agree with you, but there is a difference between worn out & inherently bad....the wornout can be built back up to its potential, the truly bad hasn't any potential.
I'm not a farmer, but a home gardner living in an area where farming is the norm, so to me, listening to these discussions is important. You guys are awesome. I never fail to learn something
Thanks!
Funny how here in the rolling hills of western IL the “crappy ground” is selling north of 7500/acre.
Bought our farm around 500/acre in 97.
Pretty cashy ground for white dirt, but the recreational side of it and our hunting has added plenty of value.
Even if our politics suck.
as always valuable insight from top notched host and farmers
Thanks for pulling up a chair!!
Without subsidized crop insurance, truly crappy ground would no longer be row crop farmed.
I recorded a video about that in November. Predicting that marginal acres will revert in mass quantity in the next 5-10 years.
@DamianMasonChannel I'll have to look that one up. It's nice to see people acknowledge it.
Hopefully, your prediction happens then the real market, supply and demand will have a chance. I have some ground of my own I wouldn't put in corn if I couldn't insure it reasonably.
There must be some low return alternative for ( such as CRP) for marginal land, or it will be farmed. The rental prices may go to nothing, but if there's a reasonable chance of covering the variable input cost it will be farmed, or at least that's how it worked when I was a kid: without crop insurance, crp, & less than $1/bu corn farmers took the risk & planted...
I'm walking away from all of it in 25. The field that I am keeping the perimeter that is always low yielding up against trees and swamps and that's where the water runs off the field too is it going to hey production for cows
There is zero margin of error on crop ground for 25 so you eliminate the ground that is an error to begin with
We have what's called 12 00 ground in my part of northern Ohio. Before 12 is too wet, then after 12 it's too hard.
I had 30 acres at the far end of my 200 acres dairy farm that was seeded down to a hay crop when I was a young kid. I plowed it up and with the 3 runs through the fields I could never get it planted. It was just waste ground to me.
Not a bad discussion. Not a lot of specifics. What defines crappy ground other than disappointing yields? Low organic matter, soil texture, rocks, drainage, fertility?
Glad you enjoyed it and thanks for the feedback. We are trying to walk that line between having an interesting conversation and getting "too much" in the weeds on the topics. We will take your thoughts into consideration as we produce more episodes. Also, you might want to check out some of our podcasts where we go into more detail on topics like this. www.xtremeag.farm/podcasts
Even in the black earth top 1/2 of Illinois, we have veins of pure sand here and there. They have silica plants all over the place. I used to fly over Kansas a lot. When I was a kid, you saw wheat and sorghum. They grow a lot of corn and beans out there now. KS, OK was full of DIRT cheap land. I almost started there myself. I saw land selling for $400 / acre. It’s gone up in price more than Illinois ground as far as percentages are concerned.
I think finding balance has been the reason for my survival, and don’t ever discount luck. I’ve always had something that was a total home run. This year it’s been calf prices, a really good custom grown organic wheat crop, nothing fancy, just conventional genetics grown according to organic guidelines, and the financial maneuvering of drawing on a huge line of credit at a set rate, and getting twice the interest I was paying by churning it in short term treasuries. In years prior, I was paying debt down, cattle prices sucked, but organic premiums were huge. I’m very fortunate that in 24 yrs, all the holes in the Swiss cheese never lined up at once and sank me.
I digress, one tactic I have is putting alternative crops on bad patches. Ancient grains are a prime example if it’s an area out in a field. They do better on those spots. Way less likely to lodge. Along tree lines, I put in Mint, Lavander, tree starts, I’ll line up hoop houses and do early start veg production, my legendary $25k/acre organic luffa plot runs right along a treeline. Unfortunately, the market will only bear 2.5 acres of them. 😂
I do some dairy, and beef on dairy. All my dairy infrastructure is concrete road barriers, metal military surplus runway materials, and tensioned fabric structures. I can move them, and pound an area with animal impact for 3-5 years to bring fertility up. I’m just not big on infrastructure, it will be outdated and useless in 10 yrs. A cement truck made a wrong turn in to my driveway and I had to breath into a paper bag for a while to calm down because I thought my GM snuck a project by me.
Of course, always go for the obvious. If you can dig a drainage trench, do a little dirt work, put in a tile, do it.
I like that you are an Ag guy who isn't always bitchin about how a farmer just can't make it anymore blah blah blah. You're inventing new tactics for margin. Crafty!
I thought the I-States didn't have any crappy ground. Anything that isn't tillable can be converted to pasture livestock or be sold off as a building site.
That statistical term is referred to as regression to the mean.
Another point… ground is ground. It might not be where you want it, or do what you want it to, but when you own it, you can sell it and buy those acres that are in closer to a bigger cluster of ground your you are operating in when that land becomes available. You are hedging against price increases by having it. But yes, it does suck roading all over the place. I’m not all on tracks for the traction, the duals are a nightmare to go down the road with around here.
There no crappy ground just crappy farmers i bought a sandy wore out soil tobacco farm and start dairy and within 4 years i wrnt from 80bushel corn to over 200.
I tend to agree with you, but there is a difference between worn out & inherently bad....the wornout can be built back up to its potential, the truly bad hasn't any potential.
@davidkottman3440 sound almost holy good new man that of those who are made of bad have no hope for sure thank-you jesus
@@DanielProsek-xw6dg lol, yeah , it is about the same...right
Alkaline ground seeps are not producing anything- good luck growing anything!
35 minutes of arguing what the meaning of bad ground is?
That farmer with the constant negativity. Crappy was used way too much.
🤢