Absentee Farming (bit lengthy)

Hello all!

My wife and I have kinda reached an impasse. No, we're doing fine, and so is our daughter (2 yrs in Oct.) The issue is, where are we gonna
live and farm? Right now, we live in Ulen, MN, which is beautiful, black, open farmland. Wife is from Shevlin, MN, which is mostly wooded
and sandy and best suited for beef cattle operations. Think "Minnesota Northwoods". We currently own a small herd of nice beef cattle, and
are expanding. We pasture them in Shevlin for the summer, which is about 70 miles away from home. An hour and a half drive. We rely on her
sorta inexperienced family to check on things when we aren't visiting and at least twice this summer we've had to drop everything and run
over there in an emergency.

On the other hand, we really want to start farming row crops full-time. The goal is to quit my full-time job. There is a possibility of
some land coming available for me to rent. Wife isn't quite as consumed by this dream as I am, but she DOES want me to be happy and
fulfilled. Farming will accomplish that. HOWEVER, she gets homesick sometimes, and we BOTH would like to live in Shevlin and be closer to
family. I understand the homesick thing, cause when I moved from Illinois crop land to the Minnesota pines, I wasn't always happy, either.

Our current little farm is just too little and too muddy in the spring for the beefs. We absolutely LOVE the house and the yard and we've
put lots of money and lots and lots of our own hard work into it. It would be very sad to move. We have two married couples that we're
pretty close friends with, oddly enough one couple is in their 80's and the other in their 60's. We would miss them dearly, but they both
want us to buy their farms one day.

The crazy idea is this: We could sell our current farm and use the proceeds to build a new home and farm on land we own in Shevlin. That
would solve the homesick issues and we could spend more time with family. Gotten to be good buds with her brother-in-law. This is near
Bemidji, MN, and there are no jobs for a farmboy like me, nor do either of us want me to punch a #$&@^&$*^ time clock anymore. So, the
solution would be, rent farmland out in Ulen area, and operate that farm from a distance, and live with the cattle.

I know it's not ideal, being spread out, but it's the best solution that we've come up with thus far. All the equipment would stay in Ulen,
and when it's fieldwork time, or equipment maintenance and repair time, or just driving around checking crops time, we'd spend however many
days out there we needed to. I'd have all my tools and stuff in a trailer behind the pickup and could drag it to whatever needs fixin'. We
could possibly base out of the older couple's farm. He has sheds and a small shop and some grain bins.

Oh, currently I work full-time on a very busy wheat, corn, soybean, hay, and straw farm. I don't want to attempt part-time farming my stuff
while full-timing his. There just aren't enough hours in a day and we have pretty small time windows in N. MN. My wife stays home and
raises Little Minnesota and manages our money VERY well. We live very simply and downright cheaply sometimes.

So, what do you think? Move to Shevlin and keep growing the cow herd and finally have time to put up decent fence...and farm 500 to 1000
acres out in Ulen and do a good job and make some money.

I'm sorry if I don't reply much, as I'm not on the computer often, but I'm really looking forward to your responses, if you feel like
responding. My email is open, too. Thank you for your time!

Well with a family I would NOT jump into grain farming right now!!!! There is ZERO margin on grain right at the moment. You have a job right now that you get paid regardless of what the grain prices are. I can guarantee that you will not make that much clear money farming grain right now. 500-1000 acres WILL NOT support a family right now raising grain. The margins are just not there.

Also do you have a line of credit in the half million dollar range right now????? That is what it would take to farm a 1000 acres of grain with rent included.

There also is not much money in cattle if you do not own them RIGHT now. The cost of feeders or even brood cows is out of proportion to what they will earn you right now.

It sounds like your making SOME money right now being a small farmer with an outside income. Your wife is able to stay home and raise your kid(s). I would just keeping doing that for the next several years. If you jump in to the grain farming like your talking, right now, I can just about bet that your wife or you will have to have an outside job in less than two years just to meet living expenses.

I would love for you to jump into farming full time BUT right now is NOT the time to do it.

I say this for two reasons:

1) The next few years are going to break a lot of established grain farmers. The margins are in the negative range for just about all grain crops right now.

2) The age of your child. Your wife needs to be home with her in a STABLE environment. You moving all around and loading up with debt will make keeping the stable/peaceful environment hard to do.

Hey JD, I should've mentioned this isn't a right this second kinda thing. More of a someday kinda thing. Thinking in years, not months. Thanks!

Well then I would slowly build a foundation in farming and then when things are more positive then jump an go. Keep dreaming and working toward what you want to do. JUST be careful!!! It is no fun working hard and barely having money for groceries.

I"ve followed your journey since you went up "nort, and it seems like you"ve made remarkable progress in a short time. I agree, grain farming is in the dumps now and for the near future. It"s good to maintain your relationships with the older couples- that is likely the start that you need.

It sounds like you are in a very good position to jump in at the right time on the Ulen land. The only thing you need to do is to somehow get a contract in place on those two farms so that when the time is right they will still be available.

Somebody should tell you this right at the beginning.. if you do not have lots of capital you will fail at farming or almost any business. There is no way that a beginner farmer can afford to buy the imputs to plant a big crop and I am not talking about the cost of seed and fertilizer but also fuel, machinery repairs, labor and land rent or payments. You have a big dream but I can not see it becoming anything more. As JD Seller states below you are trying to start a crop farm when the most experienced farmers are not even able to break even.
And I do not see how you are going to expand your beef herd when a feeder calf sells for $2.00 a pound. Raising beef is not a free operation and even though beef is bringing good prices now the profit margin is still pretty tight. Think of it this way, if you have 50 brood cows and each has a calf that you sell for $1000 your income is just $50,000. Now subtract the cost of feed, medical care, land costs, machinery cost and then there is the mortality factor. Do you get the picture?

I, and many others worked for many years at jobs punching that time clock before we had the means to pursue our dream of working with the land and animals. Very few of us could have afforded to pursue our farm dreams if our wives were not working outside the home and earning money to help improve our financial future. I wonder if you just do not like to work for others!

You current job is one you enjoy working for a large farm? You will probably be running newer equipment, enjoy a wider range of farming, and use more updated technology at that large farm than you will striking out on your own. Are your most important goals to be closer to family, to enjoy farm work, or to start your own business? To be profitable you may need to find a niche with little competition (do something other farmers don't do), start a side business or take a part-time job in the off-seasons.

How often will you need to drive between the two locations (three trips a week during the growing season)? Would you need to setup two households so you can stay several days in a row at one farm? If you quit your job, plan to have your wife work off-farm to bring in benefits like health insurance, life insurance, dental, eye glasses, paid vacation, maturnity leave, retirement plan and a steady income. Take a good look at all your expenses and pencil out how to meet farm expenses, pay off the farm and house mortgages, and still pay yourself a decent living for your family, even with one year out of four being a breakeven (zero income) year for the farm. Be realistic about row-crop yields, profits, and off-farm wages in the Northwoods. Consider your marketing strategy. Can you survive storing a crop for 6 months to sell at better market prices or will you need to sell at harvest regardless of price.

What are your long term prospects to do custom row-crop farming, custom haying, custom livestock farming, or manage farms for other people at each location? The benefits would be less risk, less capital investment and a steady income possibly with some paid benefits.

You might try taking your plans to an Ag lender at each location to find out what you need to get started, how well similar farms have done at each location, and the long term outlooks.

Good luck.

I agree. Also the next Farm Bill from Congress might have big changes for the Ag industry or it might not.

A couple thoughts for you, not necessarily related or in any order..

Does the farm you work for have the machinery capacity to handle more land? I am in your general area, and know a few farmers that the hired help have a quarter or two that they farm as their own, they rent equipment from the farm they work for, and it is managed as part of the overall operation. It can be a good way to build some equity, and business relationships, and you only need to outlay todays expenses now, not pay for future asset equity you may or may not need. The farmer doesn't gain much from the arrangement other than keeping their good help around and happy.

A couple of my neighbors commute to the farm everyday. 55 miles one way, distance doesn't mean as much here as it does in some places.

10 years ago you would have gotten the same responses about no one able to enter farming for the cost of it. Some of the young guys that got in then are sitting pretty decent these days after the run they have had the last few years. Today may not be the time to start farming, but it is a lot better to get in at the bottom, and ride the wave up, than the other way around. Anybody who claims to know what the market will do in the next couple years, is lying to you.

The only people that are guaranteed to do nothing in life are those that don't try anything.

And last, learn all you can about commodity marketing. The best producer in the world will go broke if he can't sell his crop!