MONETTE FARMS land parcels for sale

[rodd]

Monette Farms and Broadacre should be written about and studied in AgEcon classes. Show what was done right, the vision, the backing and then what went wrong also. See who won and who lost after it finished.
If you don't study history, you are doomed to repeat it.
It has been interesting to watch these 2 operations expand, operate then wind down.
213000 acres is a lot, but small in percentage of the 30 million acres in Western Canada. Interesting to see if it affects the land market.

[bucket]

Monette Farms and Broadacre should be written about and studied in AgEcon classes. Show what was done right, the vision, the backing and then what went wrong also. See who won and who lost after it finished.
If you don't study history, you are doomed to repeat it.
It has been interesting to watch these 2 operations expand, operate then wind down.
213000 acres is a lot, but small in percentage of the 30 million acres in Western Canada. Interesting to see if it affects the land market.

There are plenty of examples of this happening. It's not the same as no one to take over a smaller family operation so the guy sells out and enjoys a few years or leaves his kids in good shape financially.



Don't forget One Earth Farms in the mix of what not to do.

Farming is a marathon not a sprint.

"A horse that shits fast doesn't shit for long" saying comes to mind.

Now everyone's balance sheet will be fine tooth combed.

That is the end result.

My wife and I were talking about an employee based operation vs a family farm. We can get pissed off at each other but the work gets done because there is skin in the game.

An employee might just walk away and find something better.

[AlbertaFarmer5]

If this was what it appears to be. Then it has done a repairable harm to Canadian Farmers balance sheets which will take decades to rectify.
In an attempt to stay relevant, how many farms have taken on multi decade mortgages to buy farmland, unaware that they are competing against someone who had no intention of paying for the farmland with its own productivity.
Those legacy costs will add to our COP long after this flash in the pan debacle is over with.

Have outside investors semi permanently raised our cost of production well we should have been cutting costs to be more competitive with our actual competition in South America and FSU?

[bucket]

If this was what it appears to be. Then it has done a repairable harm to Canadian Farmers balance sheets which will take decades to rectify.
In an attempt to stay relevant, how many farms have taken on multi decade mortgages to buy farmland, unaware that they are competing against someone who had no intention of paying for the farmland with its own productivity.
Those legacy costs will add to our COP long after this flash in the pan debacle is over with.

Have outside investors semi permanently raised our cost of production well we should have been cutting costs to be more competitive with our actual competition in South America and FSU?

Of course you cant forget that our friendly competitors to the south have also received the ECAP payment last year and the Farmer Bridge Assistance.

In Canadian dollars
The FBA is paying $57 for wheat per acre, $40 for canola per acre

The ECAP last year $42 for wheat per acre $44 for canola per acre

Our grain is priced on US markets , anyone who doesn't think those USA payments don't affect our prices , is living in lala land.

And more than likely , Monette accessed some of those payments.

[jamesb]

In the history of western Canadian agriculture there has been different times where large farms came and went, there was huge cattle operations in what is now Saskatchewan pre 1900's , they disappeared very quicky for various reasons. It has been the talk of "coffee row" for some years as to how these big guys did it with the average guy stumbling along. Maybe they couldn't do what they wanted. If grain prices has continued on a upwards trajectory things may have been different. It has been said of those that win the outstanding young farmer award and then the farm being done within a relatively short time. Timing is everything, if they bought land at the right price and sold for a profit, they are sitting pretty. I think of guys that started farming in the late 60's and were able to buy reasonably priced land versus guys that started in the early 80's that took it on the chin for 25 years. Young people that started farming around 2008 have never seen real bad. It is going to be a wake up call for some.

[agstar77]

Its all a game of musical chairs. There has to be a reckoning eventually when ROI matches land values . It will be a sad day when you are sitting on land that no one wants to farm because there is not a realistic ROI.

[FarmJunkie]

Its all a game of musical chairs. There has to be a reckoning eventually when ROI matches land values . It will be a sad day when you are sitting on land that no one wants to farm because there is not a realistic ROI.

We are here now. Hence the fire sales beginning. Operations like this hurt us all and in all honesty u can’t blame the entrepreneur he’s just playing the game by the rules set out in front of him. If it wasn’t for the 2008 bail outs and xeroxing of money this would never have takin off. The blame once again begins with the government for medaling where it shouldn’t. Anytime u rely on them to do the right thing u are gonna be sorely disappointed. They set up the rules and u play by them but then they decide to change something and it’s usually to or for the benefit of that generation. Time for the baby boomers to get the hell out of leadership roles and let the next generation take over.

[Old Cowzilla]

Package 13 was just cow pasture covered with scrub bush and rocks 10 years ago and 2 in. topsoil. Don't think that's gonna crash land values in western Canada. Good time to sell it when its snowcovered! Now if it had a new 4 strand fence around then you would have something.

[shtferbrains]

DarrellAccording to the many lists to sort through the top 3 owners of productive farmable land in N America:

1 Bill Gates 275,000 acres

2 Robert Andjelic 240,000 acres

3 Darrell Monette 213,880 acres

There are some much larger acres that include Rangeland and timber but this is farmable.
Monette might might drop a lot if the BC ranchland is part of his number.

Interesting to have 2 Saskatchewan buyers in the top ten if subsidies are richer in the US?
I think it shows that after the terrible farm economics in the 80's and 90's when you could at times rent land for taxes because ROI was negative for many who had no outside income, Sask farmland was the best buy in North America.
I'm sure most of us wish we had adopted Darrell's philosophy that it never penciled out at time of purchase.

[wrongway]

They set up the rules and u play by them but then they decide to change something and it’s usually to or for the benefit of that generation. Time for the baby boomers to get the hell out of leadership roles and let the next generation take over.

Don,t be in too much of a hurry to take over and then be blamed by the generation you raised for screwing everything up.