Farming help and opinions needed

**ISUAgronomist** · 12-20-2011, 07:44 PM

Originally Posted by rebecacy

Resistance is evolution at work. It is to be expected. Good problem to have. Technology will continue to stay a step ahead. The sky is not falling. A little bit of knowledge is a dangerous thing. Go Cyclones.

**balken** · 12-20-2011, 07:48 PM

Originally Posted by bringmagicback

every farmer who rents lands worse nightmare, the family member of the landlords want to take over the land!

And farm management companies.

**rebecacy** · 12-20-2011, 07:51 PM

Originally Posted by ISUAgronomist

It forces concern and then funding in the right direction to fix the problem. Progress has done this since the beginning of time.

**BigBake** · 12-20-2011, 07:52 PM

ISU provides the perfect resource for anyone wanting to get in to farming:

About the BFC

**thatguy** · 12-20-2011, 08:02 PM

just take your government subsidies and be quiet.

**ISUAgronomist** · 12-20-2011, 08:04 PM

Originally Posted by thatguy

just take your government subsidies and be quite.

Quite...quite what?

**cowboycurtis** · 12-20-2011, 08:23 PM

Originally Posted by thatguy

just take your government subsidies and be quite.

If you want Iowa State University to keep performing at a high level (academically and athletically) then you might want to keep your ignorant mouth shut.

**JDDCy** · 12-20-2011, 08:26 PM

Rebecacy,
You mentioned that misuse is what causes weed resistance. I am curious as to what form of RU misuse you are talking about? For years Monsanto reps told farmers there was very little risk of resistance developing due to it's unique mode of action. Since resistance was unlikely there was no need to worry about using a pre-emerge product. They claimed in farmer meetings don't worry about mixing up modes of action from year to year just up the rate of glyphosate and you will be fine. Somehow they convinced a large portion of the industry this would be ok even after we had just seen what water hemp did to the ALS chemistry. They milked that as long as they could even though some of their more knowledgable individuals knew that was un-true. I just find it ironic that now they blame the problem on misuse by farmers and custom applicators.

**Cyclonesrule91** · 12-20-2011, 08:42 PM

I work in the grain marketing / risk management / Financial analysis business with farmers and also help a friend farm. I have worked with some guys in the past that would be in your shoes. Here is my 2 cents.......and it might not be worth that.

By the original post it appears that you have helped on the farm but don't really know a lot about the business end of farming. If you are going to get in to a crop share arrangement then I would highly advise to either go with the guy who is a family friend or you can trust or have someone who knows farming to back you up and help you get your feet wet. Whether it is a friend / family member who is farming or an adviser you pay something to help, this can be crucial.

I am working with someone now who lives on the east coast but decided to buy ground and go crop share with a farmer in the area. He went up and looked at the farm 2-3 times per year and and thought he knew what he was doing. The crop share farmer kept telling him he figured the corn would go 160 bu/acre so not knowing any better he went out and sold 160 bu/acre at $4-5 / bushel. It yielded 109 and the market went up to $6-7 / bushel and he was forced to buy $6-7 corn to offset the corn he sold for $4-5. Someone who knows what they're doing knows the most you sell is your crop insurance guaranteed bushels and no more until you know how many bushels you have. He didn't know that and it cost him a bunch.

The crop share tenant also decided combine all his crop share ground first way too early at 28-29% moisture. Hauled it to his own drying setup and charged the landowner drying that was commercial elevator drying rates or even a little higher and shrunk his corn bushels 2% / point removed. So if he had 100 bushels at 28% after the tenant got done with him he had 74 bushels at 15% after shrink was taken. If you know what you're doing drying corn shrink should be 1.18% shrink which is taking only the water out and would have given him 84 bu at 15%. Most elevators are 1.35%-1.45% shrink per point and they are always long bushels the end of the year. So in the end, the landowner had 2,500 bushels less to sell because the tenant screwed him over. The tenant also got to sell 2,500 bushels more because essentially he stole the bushels from the land owner. Until he had me look over stuff he had no clue what was happening to him.

I am not trying to scare you out of doing it because I hope to have the opportunity to have control over land my grandfather farmed. I just want to make sure you have someone who knows the business help you get your feet wet so in case you get one of the tenants like the one in the example above, you can stop it before it's done.

**Let's Go State** · 12-20-2011, 08:44 PM

Call hertz farm management or farmers national. They will help you with your options.

**Cyclonesrule91** · 12-20-2011, 08:47 PM

Originally Posted by thatguy

just take your government subsidies and be quite.

Examply of an idiot that don't know nothing..^^^^^

**cowboycurtis** · 12-20-2011, 08:48 PM

Originally Posted by Cyclonesrule91

I work in the grain marketing / risk management / Financial analysis business with farmers and also help a friend farm. I have worked with some guys in the past that would be in your shoes. Here is my 2 cents.......and it might not be worth that.

By the original post it appears that you have helped on the farm but don't really know a lot about the business end of farming. If you are going to get in to a crop share arrangement then I would highly advise to either go with the guy who is a family friend or you can trust or have someone who knows farming to back you up and help you get your feet wet. Whether it is a friend / family member who is farming or an adviser you pay something to help, this can be crucial.

I am working with someone now who lives on the east coast but decided to buy ground and go crop share with a farmer in the area. He went up and looked at the farm 2-3 times per year and and thought he knew what he was doing. The crop share farmer kept telling him he figured the corn would go 160 bu/acre so not knowing any better he went out and sold 160 bu/acre at $4-5 / bushel. It yielded 109 and the market went up to $6-7 / bushel and he was forced to buy $6-7 corn to offset the corn he sold for $4-5. Someone who knows what they're doing knows the most you sell is your crop insurance guaranteed bushels and no more until you know how many bushels you have. He didn't know that and it cost him a bunch.

The crop share tenant also decided combine all his crop share ground first way too early at 28-29% moisture. Hauled it to his own drying setup and charged the landowner drying that was commercial elevator drying rates or even a little higher and shrunk his corn bushels 2% / point removed. So if he had 100 bushels at 28% after the tenant got done with him he had 74 bushels at 15% after shrink was taken. If you know what you're doing drying corn shrink should be 1.18% shrink which is taking only the water out. Most elevators are 1.35%-1.45% shrink per point and they are always long bushels the end of the year. So in the end, the landowner had 2,500 bushels less to sell because the tenant screwed him over. The tenant also got to sell 2,500 bushels more because essentially he stole the bushels from the land owner. Until he had me look over stuff he had no clue what was happening to him.

I am not trying to scare you out of doing it because I hope to have the opportunity to have control over land my grandfather farmed. I just want to make sure you have someone who knows the business help you get your feet wet so in case you get one of the tenants like the one in the example above, you can stop it before it's done.

Sounds like he needs to find an honest tenant.

Another thing; never, ever, hire a farm manager. Most honest decent farmers can make you more money (without the fees) over a farm manager. If you decide to go crop share.

**Cyclonesrule91** · 12-20-2011, 08:53 PM

Originally Posted by Let's Go State

Call hertz farm management or farmers national. They will help you with your options.

My experience with Hertz and even farmers national leads me to believe if they are involved, they will make more money than the land owner or the tenant. Between taking a flat fee of all sales and then pooling all their farm accts under one name at the input suppliers so they get huge discounts and then they charge the landowner the full retail price of the inputs is not right either. I know this from working in the input supplier business and seeing all this stuff going on dealing with these guys.