With how heavily subsidised corn is in the US it would an achievement to fail at turning a profit.
AG 101 “How to lose money on corn”
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Rent more land than you own.
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Buy the cheapest seed you can find to “save money”
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Grow the corn non-irrigated
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Use custom operators to fertilize, plant, spray, and harvest but minimize what you put down to “save money”.
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Gamble the entire year on the commodities market selling your crop.
Even with subsidies this is a recipe for losing money. These “farmers” tend to consistently lose money until they eventually go under after all the equity in the land they own is gone.
My dude, what lemmies are you subbed to? I want to discuss these things somewhere, can’t find anything reasonable.
It’s so common that entire generations have grown corn at a loss. Why, entire states built their economies on the losses they found from corn. It’s such an unprofitable crop that only half of the United States grows it, and it’s a pretty poor country.
You are looking at survivorship bias. Look at the number of farms statistics. It’s been steadily declining for a very long time. Every year thousands of farms go bankrupt or sell out mostly following the above steps. Because of the large amount of equity in the land value and the relatively small net return or loss it takes a long time for them to go bankrupt. On average around 15-20 years of poor management.
Now the ones that survive follow AG 102 “How to make money growing corn.”
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Own the land outright without any mortgage.
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Do research plots to evaluate corn varieties and purchase the seed with the highest potential net return. Do not be loyal to any brand/supplier.
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Invest in irrigation, even in areas that usually get enough rainfall. Running a pivot 1-2 times at the right time can equal 100+ bu higher yield.
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Purchase and maintain your own equipment. Replace equipment on the good years, repair it on the bad one.
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Open bid on your inputs. Offer no loyalty to any one supplier, do your own application when possible. Buy generics and cheaper equivalent inputs when possible.
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Manage your risk when selling. Contract the bulk of your sales early to guarantee a return ad cover your costs.
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Do not get on the debt cycle of paying for inputs by taking short term loans. Maintain a healthy reserve from good years to cover the bad ones
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…I should start growing corn
First you need a lot of land and some heavy farm equipment. Then a contract with Monsanto…
If anyone thinks farming is for simpletons, come fucking try it. Bring your tickets in heavy duty mechanics, welding, fitting, instrumentation, and millwrighting. An accounting degree with minors in veterinary science, commerce, soil biology, animal science and mychorrizhal studies will be an asset. Also, you’re going to need a CDL and the ability to operate about 30 types of heavy equipment without dying because there aren’t a lot of safeties on anything. If you’re slow, you’re dead.
Now take all that and add a credit score sufficient to borrow about $2 million for operating line, inputs, salaries, land rent, equipment maintenance and leasing and custom work. Then come talk to me about talents.
On the accounting, I’ve done taxes for a few cattle ranches. They do their bookkeeping with literal pencil and paper. The handwriting can be difficult to read, but lemme tell ya, they are always accurate to the penny and absolutely no nonsense. Far better than most of the urban small businesses out there.
I tried growing a bed of veggies during the pandemic and miserably failed lol. I’m someone who has been growing 100+ houseplants for years so I’m not a novice.
I have deep respect for farmers, not just because of the talent and hard work but also because of the courage it takes to do it (like your life can be ruined if there isn’t enough rain one year).
I have been growing beds of veggies for years and I don’t have a fucking PhD in whatever the fuck dude said above. Large scale farming is a whole lot different than a backyard garden. Behold the fruits of my labors as a simpleton
like your life can be ruined if there isn’t enough rain one year
Part of the calculation and you have some buffer crops. At least here. Are still a lot of US farms monoculture?
Are still a lot of US farms monoculture?
Of course not! They uh… Plant several varieties of corn! :p
Check out “Clarksons Farm”. I’ve only watched the first few episodes but it’s a comical look at “real” farm life (that is, the less glamorous side…but it’s still reality TV).
The “Clarkson” is Jeremy Clarkson. From Top Gear. He bought a farm. And has absolutely no idea what to do with it. But he hired a couple seasoned farmers who know the area exceptionally well to help him out.
And this is the argument I give people who complain that we give farmers subsidizes…food is cheap and plentiful for a reason.
Yep. And throwing away food isn’t totally a bad thing (though they could do better things with it, ultimately giving it away has rippling effects in the economy of food, the portion of people willing to hold out for less-fresh free food increases, lowering the demand for fresh food and thus raising its price).
The point is, it’s far better to have a surplus of food than a deficit, or even “just enough”. You don’t want a well-placed cold-snap, a drought, wildfires, fungus, insects, bird flu, barges stuck in a canal, or who knows what else happens in a grow season to be the difference between most the country being “fed” or “not fed”.
We don’t even really toss out much of the food we grow, it gets turned into grain for cattle 99% of the time. Stalks/roots of the plants get turned into feed for pigs/cows. Our system while it could be better is still very efficient.
Most of the food we grow goes to cattle (and other livestock. Mostly cattle tho). They consume far more than humans.
No we do not. 85+% of the grain/food they eat is leftovers from what we grow to eat. They eat what you cannot. Stems/stalks/roots. They also drink non-potable water.
There is a reason a 50lb bag of sweet feed is $10 and drops to around $6 for bulk purchase.
