Absolutely fantastic guys! I've definitely spent some time downtown at the bar w/ both of them, have met a lot of their friends up there. Can I ask your first name?
Exactly.
Now my wife is telling me we should consider moving up by Cody Wyoming around where her parents live because I do not get along with my dad and the farming is not going well.
Her mom has been asking her if we want to move up by them every single week since we moved back home to farm with my dad and brothers a few years ago.
Her parents are farmers and ranchers but are not in debt and also own part of a phone company in their local area. Her mom says that I can work for them either at the phone company, their bean mill, or on their farm has a hired hand.
Luckily I married up into a good family and have that option in case things do go south here on the farm. Personally, I would rather I live in Nebraska and be around my brothers.
At the same time though, my wife has been living in Nebraska for the last 14 years away from her family, so if it came down to it I would move for her so she could be close to her family.
Become a seed dealer... input costs dont seem to be going the way the market is... im sort of kidding man i deal with a lot of farmers as well and they are all echoing the same thing.. that price of corn 5-6 years ago is probably the worst thing to ever happen imho.. hope it gets better sooner rather than laterIf we had prices right now that were the same as 5 years ago my family would not be going bankrupt.
The way prices are right now and how bad our crops have been are only putting us in over our heads in debt.
A couple of my brothers and I bought 300ish acres from my dad (to help him out with his debt) and we paid $2,325 an acre. Each of us have a $12,000 land payment every year for this.
45 bushel corn at $3.11 at our local elevator is not going to cut it.
My share: 45x100x3.11=$14,000
$14,000 - $12,000 (land) - $2,000 (taxes) - $5,000 (seed) - $4,500 (chemical/fertilizer) = $-9,500
Now if corn was at $5.25 (my break-even in this limited expense example), then my crappy crop would bring in $23,500.
So corn prices from 2012 ($6 - $7) would actually save our farm. Unfortunately the prices aren't looking to go back to that for awhile, so we are in a no-win situation.
Also unfortunately I cannot just sell my land because the land prices have dropped in the last three or four years so now my land is only worth about $1600 per acre. So if I sold out I would owe roughly $70,000 to pay off my loan for the land
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anon_umk0ifu6vj6zi
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Now to get through the work day. Gotta make sure and mail off my check to the NRA and shoot random gunfire in the air in celebration! God I hope my rifles are still in my safe, and have not went on a rampage.... which reminds me, I need to finish building my current AR!!! Lol
May I ask you a question? I watch the corn prices with great interest, as my wife and I have inherited her late parents' farm west of David City. We lease it to wonderful neighbors, long-time family friends. They never miss a lease payment, but I know they are struggling. My wife and I are fortunate enough that we don't have to depend on those payments to make ends meet. We have talked about having the tenants just forego this year's rent payments. Serious question: is there a protocol for that? Is it ever done? Would it be perceived as an insult? We are fortunate to have these people as tenants, and we want to help if we can. Thank you.
Talk with your tenant first it could be just lowering the cash rent for a year remember you still have to pay real estate taxes which suck, if you have a legal document probably at least both of you should go to his banker and sign amendment saying you intentions so he doesn't have to worry about you coming back on him two years from now and his baker would be a witness no lawyer fees
You should have a creek farm along a highway those crazy bastards will shoot off the highway not fun if you in the field or checking cattle the ground is even posted we have it reserved for two great guys. Several years ago we really considered closing all ground to hunters it was just nuts someone was going to get hurt and this was after the hunter was accidentally shot and killed around Chester Ne, it's has calmed down quite a bit now
Good advice from Baxter48:
I have never personally heard of landlords foregoing a year's rent (but I haven't dealt with renting land myself yet so it may be somewhat common and I just haven't dealt with it), but sitting down and discussing the situation listening to the tenant, etc.
On farm talk radio, they talk about a lot of farmers needing to restructure their rent contracts due to low prices. Then they say some land owners don't care and will just lease to the next farmer that will pay a high price.
Like Baxter48 said, you still have land taxes to pay. Your tenant is using your cash rent as a deductible as well.
Cash rent prices are high in a lot of areas.
In southwest Nebraska where I live and farm, dryland rent is in the $60-80/acre while irrigated is $150-210/acre. I assume this is very cheap compared to your area though since our crop prices are generally $.50 - $1.25 under the basis prices and our land valies are much less (less favorable conditions, namely much less rain).
Sit down with your tenant, talk expenses, discuss yields, discuss future plans. Ask them how things are going for them. Maybe things aren't as bad as you think (or its worse than you think). Adjusting your lease rent on a year-by-year (or every other year) basis is not a horrible idea since crop prices can fluctuate so much.
My brothers are talking about foregoing a payment to the FSA this year because of the crop prices and poor yields. We are allowed to forego one payment. Your idea about foregoing a payment is not that crazy of an idea by any means. Times are truly hard for many farmers (not all) and crop.prices have been very poor going on 5 or 6 years now and many of us are really struggling, so I would definitely appreciate a landlord that is as understanding as you seem to be.
Some landlords in our area have given a break on cash rent. Mainly it's when a family member is involved but it all depends on your situation and how you feel about the renter. That said, some operators are still able to make a little money on 180 bushel corn at $3.00 corn. It doesn't pay your for your time but at least you're not upside down. I've been talking about renting out my land with a young guy who's still offering $220+ for reasonably good dryland ground in eastern South Dakota. I've got other business interests and have trouble finding good custom operators to do some of the things I don't want to mess with so I'm considering letting somebody else deal with the headaches. The bottomline on farming is you HOPE to have one really good year out of 5 to make it worthwhile. Lots of years are break even. My best year ever was the drought year a few years ago where we didn't raise anything. Got paid for 7$ corn and didn't have to haul it.
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