Large Farms

[parsley]

http://www.statcan.gc.ca/pub/21-004-x/21-004-x2007001-eng.pdf

[furrowtickler]

I think they need to catch up with terminology. Average size farms are now in the mill size. We are not a large farm by any means in terms of acres around here and for the most part most of western Canada. I see the trend though all over the place but one thing that will show up next time the survy is the lack of productivity or drop in rev/ac at the very large end of things due to mother nature and inexpeirenced labour - JMO.

[JDGreen]

you are spot on furrow. We see it here already in a big way. This year the biggest operations were not the winners .

[furrowtickler]

They never have here and some are going backwards now. There is a limit to everything it depends on where you are, management and some luck with weather. The sky is not the limit here(maybe litteraly it is) - Growing season is too short and variable - this is not Brazil, never will be. In general we have 10 - 15 days to seed within a good window and 3-4 weeks of good harvest weather for a quality crop - That will nver change. Oh and a very short time frame for weed and disease conrol - alot narrower than most think. All these factors will limit farm size not someones pocket book - ie Sprot,Pike or other investors. Sprott may be diff with the mineral thing but time will tell b/c that "farm" will crash faster than the stock market can/will/has.

[Daylate]

Opposite here, big farms that started by the their wrist watch and not the weather got more seeded and better looking crops than the more experienced smaller farms that were waiting for better seeding conditions.

[furrowtickler]

Most farms here start seeding asap ragardless of size or seeding conditions(to a point) - the trick is what gets done within that window and how much was way outside the window(60 bus canola or 25 bus canola). The size of the seeding window is different for every area. Some in this area with <2000ac cuold not do it yet some with 8000ac did, and the majority above that were not even close - totaly depended on farm management, it is the same result year after year.

[ado089]

From what I've observed the really big farms are trying to operate one really big farm instead of operating several ideal sized farms. You can only pile so much iron in one field before you spend more time moving then farming.

[Klause]

The Government has a weird problem in this country.

They keep lumping farms together by $ of revenue.

A $1,000,000 / year revenue grain farm growing wheat and canola is different than the same revenue coming from corn and soybeans, and again different from one growing lentils and peas.

One farm with $300K in annual sales might be making $100K/year in income.

Another with a million in sales may be making the same.

Size is not as important as matching investment to revenue, being able to market, and being able to efficiently produce.

JMHO.

[bgmb]

What I gleaned from that document;

Large farms are the most profitable and receive less money from the government.

I guess the reason they are big is cause they are good at what they do and have a desire to make more money and probably love working.

There will always be a place for smaller farms, besides bashing their larger counterparts.

[fjlip]

Weather is the almighty limiter, windows of seeding and harvest are variable but short in the prairies. Watching the BTO makes one shudder at the complication of a huge amount of machinery and a dozen hired hands. Got to be super stress to keep all of it going. Super men or just an ego trip? Life too short to try that hard proving what?

[furrowtickler]

bgmb, not bashing just pointing out facts from this area and the fact the data is from 2005? Just looking from a local prospective that is 180 deg from that report.

[cris]

I think even on a really poor year like this past one large farms will still end up better than small farms. If you need 25% of your revenue to live and somebody else only needs 5%, margins will win out.

[cottonpicken]

How do they figure this stuff out when it comes to
corporations,number of shareholders etc etc?

[ado089]

I don't think anyone is bashing them, I admire the large operators that are able to pull it off. But the comment regarding living expenses and margin I would argue is not entirely accurate. Alot of the 1-2 man operations can go a while without pulling any money out of the by using off farm income, where as not paying your 20 man seeding crew and 30 man harvest crew is not really an option. This study becomes alot more relevant when compared to the Alberta sutdy comparing farm size to expenditures and returns per acre.

[furrowtickler]

ado, that a good point many fail to realize.