OT What should I do with 25 acres of crop land?

I inherited 62 acres of land of which 25 to 30 acres have been in crops (corn and soybeans). There is not a lot of demand for farmland in the area,(land is near a city and the best use would be development) so it was only getting $1700 in rent for the year. This is about a 1/3 of the property tax. The land is on the market, but in the year it's been listed, no offers have been made on it. Must be the recession.
So, I was thinking of putting in my own crop, but don't have a clue as to what that should be. I would like to make enough to pay the taxes and cost of putting in the crop without my labor. I would also take it off the market.
Keep in mind that my largest tractor is a 1950 John Deere B and I also have a 1952 Ford 8N. I would need to buy or rent most of the impliments for tillage and also harvesting. My thoughts were to put it into hay, as there are alot of people in the area with horses.
Anyone have any thoughts? Your wisdom is much appreciated.

You need to tell people where you are so they wuld have a better idea of "horses in the area" that would need hay.

A general location would help.

Farming for profit is a full time attention needer. Hay is even worse - you gotta cut, rake, bale, and stack _whn_ the crop needs it, not when you feel like it or get around to it. Bale alfalfa 4 hours toolate & it turnds from $6 premium hay to $2.50 stemmy hay.

So, do you have the time & dedication? 25 acres of hay is a lot, where will you store th bales? What are your people-skills for marketing the stuff?

Hay takes a year to establish before you really get a good crop - th first year you only get a small, weedy yield of hay, pretty much garrenteed to go in the hole the first year. You make money off the 2nd through 4th year of hay, and then it starts decining again unless you renovate the fields (be that replanting alfalfa, or fertilizing any type of hay, or dealing with thin weedy wet-compacted areas, etc.)

Hay on more than 5-10 acres or 'waste' land is quite a dedication, requiring time & dedication and a 5 year plan to become profitable.

Not scaring you away from it; just at that size on good farm ground and needing to make more than a rent; you gotta know what you are in for on this!

You're looking to make a $5100 profit on 25 acres, plus seed fuel fert etc. The taxes come to $200 an acre.

That might be 40 bu of corn or 18 bushels of soybeans per acre just to pay the taxes.

Are you planning to farm longer, and keep the fertilizer & lime up; or will this be a one year thing and so you can just mine the soil, not replentish any, and sell the place.... Fert is terribly expensive this year.

Depending on your state, you may have had to notify your renter back in September that you were ending the rental agreement. This is so he didn't add fertilizer, buy seed, sell potential crops, and arrange crop insurance on the ground and now you pul the rug out from under him... Did you do this or is it a non-issue?

Harvest is very difficult to do without a lot of expense. You likely need to hire combining done, might be around $30 an acre - another 6 bu corn, or 3 bu of soybeans.

You can buy an old planter for corn for $500 or so, but top yielding corn needs good fertilizer, and very evn seed placemnt, and very good weed control early in it's life. Can make the difference between 50 bu an acre corn, or 175 bu corn.

Soybeans are less fussy how they are planted, but don't like to be too wet, or too weedy, have insect issues these days, and so forth - kinda easy to plant, fussy to grow. Real easy to grow 30 bu soybeans, real hard to grow 60 bu soybeans.

What crop was planted last year; and what herbicides were used? It could be difficult to plant small grass seeds (hay) if certain chemicals were used.

If it was corn, it's nice to put in soybeans now. If it was soybeans, it's nice to pick up the 40lbs per acre of nitrogen the soybans left in your field...

In short, it would be difficult for you to learn enough to make a good good crop of corn or soybeans, and pay for the equipment to grow them, for just one year.

Hay is always a 4-5 year commitment, and you need to plan to lose money the first year as you establish the crop.

As well, previous renters and the Farm Program at the FSA office (likely in the county seat) need to be handled properly, as to get the lase for the land released properly, and if the land is in the Farm Program it's aboout in the middle of a 5 year deal and you have to meet certain requirements ofr they want all the money back....

Farming is always a risk; crop prices are high _today_ making farming look easy, but you need the weather, world events (which control crop prices), and local weed/ disease events to be good for _only one year_ to be a good one. Farming is more about averaging 5-10 years out, make money some years, lose money other years as these things go up & down.

Can't tell if you want to do this for just one year, or are in it for longer. The longer you want to do it, the more sense it starts to make.

Sitting back and sipping a beverage on the weekend and cashing the $1700 check no matter what the weathr is sometimes starts to look better and better.

If I've discouraged you, that's cool.

If you are thinking 'I don't care what he says, I wanna farm it' then that is cool too, and I'd wish you well on it, ask more questions.

--->Paul

I'm thinking if you can rent it for cash that's till your best bet. But why take it off the market? If the rent won't pay the taxes it's way too valuable to farm.

I would think it might be a better idea to find an area farmer that grows what you might be interested in. Maybe try helping him out for a year or two.
I know taxes are high. But if you have no experience farming; they might end up being the least of your expensive. Bottom line is not to count on a regular income when starting a farming enterprise no matter what size.

a area would be nice like the others say, but this is my opinion..row cropping is way expensive to get into,especially if you dont have the implements needed ,and have to puchases new.hay is just as expensive,as far as equipment goes. but pasture on the other hand is relativly, after the initial investment of seed etc , inexpensive.( whats that old saying,you can take care of 300 acres of pasture for the same expense and effort as you can row crop 25 acres)I'm not talking hay, just pasture.a lot would depend on your fences etc and if there were any restrictions in the area but one way of making it pay is to simply raise your own beef for your personal use,and enough garden to feed your family.If you live there, you could even buy some baby calves ,bottle feed them and then turn them on grass pasture.There is an increasing interest in grass fed beef,and that may be a market for you.goats or sheep are an option also.It just depends on your circumstances.You dont have to lose land tax money,if theres a fishing pond charge folks a couple of dollars a day to fish,lots of things you can do,just depends on what you are willing or have the time to do.Just feeding your family alone is more of an expense than what most realize when you figure it over a years time and its getting higher every day.That expense could pay the taxes,or even more, if you could raise most of what you eat.With your n and b you could easily grow a large garden, and you could probably get by with just a disc and a one row cultivator to start. You say your close to town,so you could sell your excess locally.Theres lady here has put two or three children through college,with just a few acres of okra and thats her sole source of income besides!. she just simply sells to local resturants.

Well, I am sure you have a good idea what you want to do with it, but if it were mine, they could not pry it outta my hands.
Let some of the locals around know if you want to lease it for crops. Make a little off that.
The rest would be a get away retreat. Get away from the noise and the crazys.
In a few years you can sell it. It will be worth more down the road the way things are right now.
You might find you want to keep it after you have had it awhile.
Just my 2 cents....

You could do hay with those tractors if you don't have a lot of big hills. You could probably get good equipment for under 10k, but I'd upgrade to a bigger tractor with a live pto. If you are working by yourself, get a bale basket wagon, it's a real worksaver, and relatively cheap. You could get by with a good Moco, baler, rake and some wagons. You could hire someone to plant for you so you don't have to buy that equipment.

$1700.00 equates to 56.66 per acre lease. That is awful low. I don't know want land leases are running in your area, but around here ranges between 230.00-285.00 per acre. That would cover your taxes.

I checked some of Soder33's prevoius posts and he lives 20 miles east of Minneapolis, St Paul

Gene

Ah, almost a neighbor, only maybe 80 miles north of me. I bought a Ford 5000 at an auction up thataway a couple years ago.

In the SE it's good farm land up there, tho yea dvelopment has taken over. in the NE it does turn pretty sandy and dry, som of that land is better suited for houses than corn! Hard to believe you can rent farm land in MN for that cheap tho, down here a bit it's all $200+ an acre right now.

--->Paul

My son lives in Minneapolis and is want to buy some land. Want to sell it?

Gene

Gonna loose your azz on trying to farm it. Ask more rent or have someone else put the crop in on shares.

I am trying to wrap my head around the idea that no one wants to rent it. Around here any advertised land for rent will get 100 calls. If nothing else let the weeds grow and rent it to hunters. If I had land in the way of development (where I am is the last place in the world that will be developed, we are going the other way) I would suffer the taxes and wait out the next building boom. Other than the farm land what is the rest of the 62 acres ?

First go talk to your county agent. He can line you out on rent, share cropping, and how to get started. Then go visit with the FSA to see what program you are in and if any is in crp. You need to register it as a new owner with the FSA anyway. Don't know if that is you and your daughter in the pic but farming is a dirty business and I know lots of farmers and can't think of any that wears shorts to work.

Apparently you haven"t met my neighbor. Farms 500 acres and is in shorts all summer long. Sort of a indicatation of when it"s officially summer.

If the crop land is terrace or lays nice and not cut up in little patches, think you would not have a problem renting it. Watch your renter farm it a few years before you jump in and try it.

Set it up with 100X50 foot plots and rent it to city folk for food plots. Set aside 3 acres or so for parking and use a gate system not your driveway to allow entry. Limit 50% to organic """farmers""" and 50% for those using conventional methods. Run the numbers at 50 bucks a plot! Jim

My place is just west of the Mpls metro area, but close enough that the tax assessor has written us a letter a couple of years ago that our land is worth $200K/acre (guess what the crystal ball is showing for property taxes). (But nobody is buying it at that price). We have farmed here since the early 70's, and have learned a bit about survival in the changing community.

First off, be sure that you have the Green Acres ag exemption for land taxes. Recent laws may have affected your eligibility. This has to be renewed every year, along with proof (schedule F, 1040) of having generated a certain amount of $$/acre. The $$/acre is not high, but if you let one year go by without generating those $$, you lose your Ag tax exemption. This is all according to MN state law, but is interpreted somewhat differently by each county, and again by each different tax assessor. So the rules I live under in Hennepin county are not the same as where you are (Washington county?). Your rental income qualifies as income for the Green Acres, and the $1700 may be all you need to provide the exemption on the entire place.

Do you or your wife know anything about horses? That is where the money is in small acreages. Your county may have some formula about the number of horses you can keep (maybe 1 horse/acre max), or there may be no regulation. My son and I have made a business of growing specialty hay for horse stables, and we made and sold about 23,000 bales this past year. But the money is in the boarding of horses, if you are close enough to the metro. If you get into the boarding business, you can expect to gross a minimum of $200/horse/month with only basic shelter, water, and fences. If you go the full ammenities route with investment in great buildings, stalls, indoor riding arena, on site trainers, etc, we have seen stables with an $800/month fee. I see you have the basic buildings needed for hay storage. With a boarding operation, you need to feed 2X per day, clean up "horse apples", and have the equipment to do both. You need good fences and a good water supply, and the insurance to cover that business. We have done some boarding, but at the low end of the $$ scale, providing the basic needs, and no frills. In a tight economy, that is where the market is anyway.

If you let the horses out to pasture (where they are happiest), then you can plan on needing about 150 bales/year/ horse. It would be best to get the advice from some old gnarly geezer cowboy who has done this, as you get started.

And then there is $$$ in specialty crops like pumpkins. 3 to 5 acres of pumpkins paid most of the expenses for 2 of my kids going through the U of M. Most of that field work was done with the 8N, but the fall plowing required some bigger equipment.

Good Luck,

Paul in MN

Hey Paul, Thanks for the advice, as you are dealing with the same type of problem and live in the same metro area. I know some of what is going on in the western part of the Cities. My cousin bought 30 acres in Maple Grove along Weaver Creek in the early 80's for about $1500 an acre. He sold it to a developer a few years ago and when I asked what he got, he just smiled. He hasn't worked a day since though.

My land is northeast of the Twin Cities, north of Stillwater. The tax value is high, but no one is willing to pay that for it. It is near the St. Croix River and has a 1/4 mile of access to a state highway. It was my Father's land and he has rented it out since he quite farming in the 1970's. The problem is that there is only one large farmer in the area renting land, so he can tell us what he will pay.
I have applied for Green Acres in Washington County and that is where the 25 or so acres comes from. They took away the homesite, a low area and the easement for a town road. They also took away the area of a small pond and the trees that grow around it. You are right in the fact that the rental income keeps us qulified for the exception. I was just trying to think of a way to generate more income from the land.
Everyone living around there, with their 5 acres, thinks they are farmers. They all seem to have a couple of horses, a new tractor with a loader, a few acres of pasture and a new out bulding for the horses. Hay seemed to be the best way to go, since most of the "farmers" don't have any to havest themselfs. What type of hay do you put in? Do you go with small, square bales? There are alot of farm auctions in the area and haying equipment is not too hard to find.
Here's my other tractor. Too bad most of my Father's equipment was sold at an auction.

Thanks all for the comments. Selling it would be hard, but the taxes are high, I live 35 miles away from it and my wife doesn't want to move anytime soon.

So, as someone put it, I do kinda know what I want to do. I grew up on this farm and would like to get back to farming it.