cant pencil this out.....

coffee shop talk about a big farm operation near us, farming 10k + acres. they have been combining corn the past couple weeks. coming in at 32-34% moisture. running it thru the dryers, prolly run 45 cents a bushel to dry it down. i would have waited a couple weeks before combining. mine wont be ready for another week or or so. i hate too run the dryers unless absolutely necessary. maybe they know something i dont.

They run too many acres to wait and they get way better deals on everything they buy like about 50% better than you in many cases and they get better deals on everything they sell. Is that more efficient? Money wise yes. Energy wise no.

They made more money than I did by waiting two weeks because the corn market has dropped more than .45 cents that is if they are going to sale on the cash market

could be because they sold $7.00 corn for Septemember or October delivery and got to get it out and dried to meet contract deadlines?

Economy of scale?.........or not. There were only 2 'real' farmers in my community. The other operation (couple of brothers) worked thousands of acres in 3 or 4 counties. I only had about 1000 acres of row crop. Back when we 'plowed' (before no-til), I could judge when the soil was dry enough to work in the Spring by what they did. If they started on Monday, I knew it would be dry enough by Wednesday afternoon or Thursday.

Sheer size... I spose they're running those acres through as few combines as possible. They've probably deduced, as most people do, that combines are expensive. Gas not so much. Run the corn through the combine a bit wetter than they'd like and dry it. More acres through fewer combines, fewer trucks to haul off the field, less gear to go around generally, along with manpower because they're getting more use from each one... and that's where they make their money.

Rod

Well heres a way to look at it. Don't know where you are but we have the same thing that happens here every year. They have 10,000 acres to get across. Its get'n late enough here that it can get wet and ugly at any time. $.50/bu ain't a bad price to pay to be done before mud gets belly deep and they half to spend half the spring working down the ruts and all fall and half the winter pulling stuff out of seep holes. Also, if you have been watching prices, anyone here who started a month ago, spent $.50 to dry it down and take it to town. They would be way ahead of taking cash price now.

Maybe they have alot of it down like we have here. We have had an inch of rain after the 70+ mph winds 3 weeks ago. Even if the have is sold for Jan at over $6, half a doller to dry it is pretty cheap when a little more rain is going to make it start sprout'n.

Most of the time people don't get to 10,000 acres with out some one in the bunch have'n some money sense about them, thats not to say they have lost it, but some where along the line was pretty sharp.

Dave

Many of those 10,000 acre or so farmers around me if not all have been belly up at least once. They come back bigger and better each time. There is something wrong with that. You know my Dad back in the 1970s tried to get a small loan to put up a silo and feed bunk. The bank said they wouldn't go for that cause it wasn't a viable operation. They wanted him to put up 2 silos and add 60 feet to the dairy barn and then upgrade the equipment to add a much larger tractor and combine and silage equipment. He got cold feet and backed out. Every one of our neighbors went for that kind of deal and were belly up, and I mean every one, in the 1980s. They got refinanced and slowly gobbled each other up over the years. Dad was almost forced out. The banks wanted to sell him out because, and I quote, "he owed too little". According to the banker (who was being replaced by an axe man) Dad's farm was worth more than his debt so they could easily get their money but the neighbors all owed much more than their worth so the bank kept stringing them along. The only thing that saved Dad was the bank had done the loan papers correctly and first mortgage had been granted to a much smaller bank which Dad had taken a tiny loan with and as long as he kept them happy the other banks had to wait. Eventually he got caught up on all the loans without filing bankruptcy and the farm is still in the family because of luck only. All the neighboring ground is being run by a large farm that has filed for bankruptcy at least twice that I know of over the past 30 years. I guess they did it right and Dad was wrong cause they still drive fancy new pickups and brand new tractors and have large new houses and park in the front row at church. Something Dad has never done.

Glenmaster - Would it be too impolite to just ask the big farmer how it pens out? bob f.