OT farm advice needed

I just acquired 40 acres of land to farm for a neighbor. My dad who is 64 and his two older brothers farm together. I work in ag retail until there is room for me on the farm. The problem is family wants to rush and "mud in" my part because they are caught up, while I am at work. Tillage and anhydrous were done because they had nothing else to do. I know 40 acres is nothing to a 1500 acre farm, but give me a break. I can"t aggrivate them too much because I will need to soon buy out their share of the equipment and supplies for a 1500 acre farm. What do I do? Thanks for the advice.

Not clear what you have? Are you renting 40 acres from a neighbor? Do you have long term lease? Or renewable at your discretion?

All I can say is tread lightly with family.
One of the two biggest mistakes I've made in my life was to sell a 40 to my brother. The other was I didn't go see Elvis when I had a chance.

I am renting at a VERY reasonable cash rent. Neighbor came to me because they knew I would take care of them, they really have no clue about farming, but have had this land for some time now.

In your first post you say you "just aquired" the land, Now you say you have had it "for some time now". Usually that means several growing seasons. Do not understand what you have going on but it seems like you need family advice, not farm advice.

Chris,
He said the folks he is renting from has had it for some time, not him

What do you mean the family wants to "mud in" your part? Did they just go in and do it and you wanted to wait till you had time do it yourself? Are they trying to take over your part or help you out? It sounds like maybe they just had time to help you out? The first thing you need to do is make it a little clearer what's going on. If you rented the 40 by yourself and want to work it by yourself, make that clear with your family. If they're trying to take over your 40, you should have some say if you're paying the rent.

Uncle doesn't want to tie up a tractor and hook up field cultivator again for my little jag of ground. I guess I should dig out the 13 ft field cultivator and use my 730 and 930 case tractors. I need to sneak out the 16 row planter on a Sunday night and pray they calm down before harvest. I am not picking it with a Case 1 row picker, I'm using the CR960.

Thats why my dad and I farmed 8 miles apart and each of us had duplicate sets of everything. We could get along as family or get along in business together, not both. He's gone now, I've got it all, and all of it to do. Wish it had been different but it wasnt and there's ntohing that I can change about it now.

Take the help thats offered or make it clear you appreciate being able to borrow the equipment but really want the experiences of doing it yourself. Lifes short, dont stress it, them, or your relationship with them.

Got it, but he also says that it has been fertilized by his dad and uncles. I suspect they are going to get it planted soon. I farm 4 places 17 miles apart, it takes time to hit them all. The guy says he has a 930 Case and a 13 foot cultivator. If he is concerned it will not get planted, around here workable 10' trip rope grain drill can be bought for $200 and he could always rent the no till drill from NRCS for about $10 an acre. My guess is dad and the uncles are looking out for him. It is probably time for him to listed, and appricate what they are doing for him.

I would further suggest that the owners no more about farming than he thinks they do, and he got it, not because they think he will do such a good job, but because of the reputation of dad and the uncles.

As someone who has a family member with a little patch of land that we farm for him, I'll give some advice. When we are all hooked up to equipment and make time to do your farm, let us do it. If you want to drive the tractor, fine, but make the time in your schedule to be there at that time. I don't want to unhook the planter so you can do your fieldwork 3 weeks later than we did whatever job needed done at the time. I hope they didn't "mud it in" too much, that's not good either but if they did it for you and it wasn"t too muddy, at least it is done. If you came and took my planter without asking, to plant in the middle of the night, that would not do much to put me in a good mood. My family member never has to pay a dollar in machinery rent, and rarely chips in for fuel, but sometimes helps with labor on other jobs, which does go a long way if we need some help. The less labor he helps with later, the more cranky we get about providing machinery for free. Sometimes we have the tractor ready and waiting for the family member to work his own ground after work, but then there is a fun activity to go to or there is something else more urgent that needs done so the farm work doesn't get done then either. I'm sure you are busy with a real job, too, and that can make it hard to work in your 40 acres at a time when you can borrow whatever you need at the exact time you want to do the job. Maybe if they are willing to farm your acres when it works for them, you can do some of their farming on their ground when you have time to help them. I like to do the farming on my own acres, too, but sometimes it works out that someone else is running the tractors at that time. You just have to be thankful for the equipment you are running that you don't have to pay for and the help of getting your farm done when it can be worked in the schedule.

I guess I just needed to vent. One of my uncles just has to be one day ahead of everyone else. I think I could see a 5 bu. yeild bump by just having patience to wait for the ground to dry a day longer than him. I understand part of the rush is so he has weekends free to see grandkids. Also, the landlord told me knows our farm does good work, but picked me to get around my "hot headed uncle". I just have to be patient and work for them when I can until they are ready to get out. I just want to get every penny out of every acre and get a bonus when the year gives one.

Are you willing to wait 20 years or more? Unless you Dad has some serious health issues or some accident hewon't let go of the reins until he is at least 84.

depending what your planting?

I would be very grateful and thankful if I were you for whatever help they are willing to offer. I don"t see anything to complain about here.

It's sounds like you've got more serious problems than the 40 acre problem. If you have to "sneak out" the bigger planter from your own family, there's something wrong there. I think you need to have a serious talk with all your family or it's just going to get worse. You need to speak up if you want to be heard. If they don't respect that, at least you'll know where you stand. Good luck

my opinion. let em have at it!unless of course you just wanted to do it yourself or think you can do a better job.I followed my dad around the last fifteen years of his life fixing things,several times I wanted to tell him to just leave something alone.Then I'd think of how much he really enjoyed it and that he really was just trying to help,he couldnt hear,could barely see at all,barely even walk but he was always willing so i let him go.

Sign the lease over to them now as you aren't going to make any management decisions on that piece of ground.

Nice try on going on your own but it appears it isn't going to work.

Sometimes it is a GOOD thing to "mud it in". A situation like we are having here now, moisture every day, some people are thinking maybe they should have mudded in some of there spring crops. Every day it rains/snows is a day later that it gets planted. And USUALLY, not always, but usually the later we plant spring wheat here the poorer it does. So maybe it is good just to get it done. We mudded in some winter wheat one year, only had about 15 acres left to do and we were going to be done planting for the year. Tractor and drills were in the field which was about 12 miles away from home and we needed the tractor at home. Finished it up, in the rain, and it was a good thing since it did not get dry enough to plant for about a month and a half after that.