Could this happen here? Has it?

[Kodiak]

This is a very interesting opinion piece on the state of large acreage farming in [URL="http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/op-ed/richard-rozwadowski-rise-and-fall-of-agricultural-holdings-in-ukraine-russia-361181.html"]Ukraine[/URL]. Perhaps it has some validity with respect to farming anywhere....

[farmaholic]

Part of what I take from this is they said "family farms or "PEASANT" farmers" will work for less. It just tells me modern farms could never survive the financial demands placed on them if they were run like businesses with layers of staff and management, each properly paid for their contribution. Like we didn't already know this...LOL.

[furrowtickler]

Lol - even Sprotts money could not keep one earth alive out on the dirt - the same will happen with other investment backed farms along with smaller time local land sharks - there time will come.
My money is still on the well managed family farm - big or small

[sumdumguy]

Management is key. They pull out to seed and don't know how to take the seeder out of transport. Wheres's the manual? LOL

[hobbyfrmr]

I agree with furrow, a billionaire owned, investor financed agriculture farm in Canada, through the highest commodity price run in 25 years should have been very successful.
Broad acre seems to be hanging in there.

[Hopperbin]

Kodiak that is funny report. There is a chinese company that could take over but they need to look at the numbers. Those numbers are all wrong. 4000 times 2000 hectares farm for example should be able to take 8, 000, 000 loan. Plus ad in well an agronomist. Recipe for disaster.

[Hopperbin]

Kodiak that is funny report. There is a chinese company that could take over but they need to look at the numbers. Those numbers are all wrong. 4000 times 2000 hectares farm for example should be able to take 8, 000, 000 loan. Plus ad in well an agronomist. Recipe for disaster.

[Hopperbin]

Oh their debt level was 4000 per hectar. Mother mother.

[charliep]

For what it is worth, you can't take what you know here and apply it there. Credit non existent or when aquired, 24 % per year for a big farm and 48 % per year for a small farm. You buy inputs with cash. Mostly subsistance farms (less than 30 acres). Some farms around 200 acres. Big farms modelled after the state farms of the communist era. Some bigger corporate farms. On the east side of the Ukraine, you are almost in war zone with all the challenges that brings to both security and getting needed inputs. Ukraine government bankrupt. No government programs such as crop insurance.

Perhaps the big thing, no land ownership/equity. All land state owned and parcels provided to everyone to farm. If you are a corporate farm, you have to put together a sizeable amount of rented land with many landlords who control the land (don't own). Zero ability to build wealth via increased land values or use land as equity.

[charliep]

Hopperbin - you pay for inputs with cash. No cash - no inputs. I was careful not to ask where the money came from in the bigger farms/corporate holdings I visited. Likely something I would prefer not to know.