Economy of scale

[freewheat]

To me it is all relative. In my opinion farm size is irrelevent to ones bottom line. I am a rare young guy who has no need or desire to farm half the country. I would rather farm modestly, with good used machinery, and not have to hire losers to run it. LOL. I know a lot of guys who farm 6000 acres and are struggling constantly to pay bills etc. And I know alot who farm 900, 1400, and 2000 who are timely payers, and who are doing fine without new machinery or hiring guys.

I do believe in economies of scale to an extent, but why farm the land for no reason other than to add headaches of stress.

Am I the only guy who feels this way? If the corps come in and farm the big holdings, I will feel no obligation to farm for them or like them as so many feel. Why should I? Is it the famous little big man attitude or what? I'll farm modestly for as long as I am able, and when/if the time comes where it is impossible to make a decent living on less than 3500 acres, (highly unlikely, IMO) as so many suggest, I'm quitting and moving to Comox where you are not ridiculed for farming smaller and more efficiently...

The next thing is if I wanted to farm another 2000 acres it would be VERY hard to find that much more land, let alone 500 acres where I live.

So many talk as though to farm bigger you just walk out and get the land. Not so here. Most guys here far 1500 to 2000 acres, some less some more, and their boys are coming home to farm, so no bigger operations are dissolving in these parts. Land sells/comes up for rent by the quarter or two, not by 1000 acres chunks.

Sorry for my rant, but farm size is a very sensitive issue for me as you can tell, and we farmers as a whole are what is driving the trends upwards, not because of the need of more acres, but because we generally feel we need flashy machinery, a pile of land to pay for it, and the human greed factor of I need to be the biggest, not necessarily the best I can be. I see it all around me, especially in other areas.

When you look at auction catalogues, how many of these monster operations with 2 or three lines of 2 years old equipment are retiring, quitting on their own free will? Precious few I reckon.

Guys, we as an industry are committing suicide. And we wonder why young guys show no interest. Well for years they see their dads fight for more land, fight to make huge payments, stressing about it constantly along the way, and fighting to get the crop in the bin. And then in the end, when these dads tell the boys they made 15000 bucks net after all costs, and payments, complaining the whole way, they honestly expect their boys to farm? Good Grief.

To conclude, I feel it comes down to what you want in life, how mature you are, and having a grasp on what really matters. Some think it is money, constantly searching for happiness, contentment, and satisfaction, never getting there and dying eventually. Now tell me what did they do it for? What was the point. Did they enjoy their family time they never had, did they feel like they contributed to society, or were they self centered for so long, trying to be the biggest Jones for far too long?

Guys, we can never take it with us when we die.

IMO, I beleive we should worry more about what happens to us when we die, or Iran with nuclear weapons, or Russia supplying these weapons to massacre Israel, and what that will cause, than how much we farm, how much money we make, or lose, or how much we can snicker at those who refuse to follow trendlines.

Thanks for your patience, and happy farming!

[countryguy]

Thanks for writing that out for me Freewheat.Couldn't have said it better myself.And May-be,you also hit the nail on the head.

[fjlip]

I feel similarly, Freewheat, you said it well. Life is short. Many seem to think they need a legacy, but they are quickly forgotten. Every year we lose a farmer whose health fails. I'd rather enjoy lower debt and less stress than what the huge farmers are living. Land hardly comes on the market here either. Only if no children want to farm. In this area there are enough younger farmers to take all that has been rented or sold. Most land changes operators with out being advertised. Have a safe harvest.

[Jay-mo]

Good post Freewheat. It's true, in some areas of the country you can choose to pick up 1000 acres, but in my area you hang on to what you have. When land comes up its a bidding war.

It really is a mix, some big operations I see farm every acre like its the only one they have and the next ones look like they are stretching. Same goes for smaller operations.
I agree with Freewheat, working extra land just so you can buy new equipment seems a bit pointless.

[parsley]

Taxation increases will be a crushing blow to larger farms.

*Few farms.
*Few voters and votes
*Public perception of over-accumulation of wealth.
*traditional family farm reputation of good will and family, replaced with reputation of corporate farm greed.

*Tax greedy governments
*Tax-starved harried municipalities
*Targetization of tax dollars towards city bridges and roads and northern communities.

Small farms today have many voices to squawk loudly. And governments listen.

But reduce the farmers and farm families, and there will be little sympathy for large farms. Little support if they are overtaxed. And over assessed. They will be looked upon as greedy bastards. IMHO
And taxation can kills. Pars

[fjlip]

Farmers are only 2% of pop now. Larger farms will mean an even smaller % and yes the correct perception is greed.

[cottonpicken]

Bottom line divided by number of shareholders is the only apples to apples comparison a person can make.

A fifty acre g**** orchard in france makes us all look like poppers.

[parsley]

True, cott, Europe sports a lot of small farms specializing. Value-added. Hands on management.

Should Canadian farms consider the tracks other taxpayers leave in farming's bottom line....for example...capital gains inheritance benefits, "purple gas"concessions, ag subsidies, etc.

Will they will be continued for large corporate operations?

[may-be]

Looking at hogs at farm size and efficiancy I see the mega barns are looseing 30 dallars a pig. I see the guys with the hoop biuldings have them empty waiting for a worth while profit again. My supplier for free range pigs sets his own price and has more demand than supply.

[grefer]

In my area,and I believe in most,farms have continued to get larger ever since the prairies were settled.For any number of reasons,i.e. greed,need,or a natural desire to move forward or that perseption.When I sit back and say to myself,where is the point that things will level off,the only point I can come to is when the food companies,or their friends,that sell to consumers control the majority of the land base.This isn't going to happen tomorrow,but what other conclusion can you come to unless something catastophic happens to change the direction farming has been headed on for decades.I'm not so sure that Government won't listen to these big companies more so than they do us,look ay the recent events in the auto sector.Do you think they won't listen to the people who control our food?This topic deserves alot of attention by all of us and it is about more than whether my son can more acres than I do,if he wanted to.