Burnt's post on the commodity forum

[ALLFARMER]

Burnt has a post on the commodity forum of land
prices in the 15000 to 20000 an acre range. Just
for fun lets compare. 17000x 160 that 2.7mill for a
quarter. And I bought 3 for 110k and guys on
here said I paid too much. It's gunna cost to much
to clear it. Many guys on here always want to tie
the value of land to what it can produce. If you
have to pay for that land that way maybe that's a
good way to look at it. I don't look at it that way.
What's land value increase been doing in your
area? How much has it gone up on average in the
last 5 ....or last 10 years? When the tide comes in
all boats rise. All you have to do in my view is be
able to hold your acres. Figuring/valueing land by
its productive value will keep you out of the game.
Yes good land is best but it's all going up. It's just
a symptom of the 215,000 more people in the
world every day.

3 things I have found in the last 20 years in
Alberta

1) if you have any skills there is no unemployment
you can always get another job

2) land is always going up in value

3) you can always find someone shocked that
someone paid so much for land. 2 years later this
person says ya I guess it wasn't too much.

Ya don't bother telling me it could go down. Plenty
of money has been made buying and holding
land.

The guy who never took a chance never had a
chance.

[grassfarmer]

I guess you should define your objective in owning
land first. Is it the land-base to earn your living from,
to earn part of your living from, a place in the country
to indulge in your hobby or is it your retirement
investment fund or a means to hold and pass wealth
onto the next generation.
Once you define the objective of ownership then you
can start to talk price/value.

[smcgrath76]

Land price increase is both good and
bad, like most things.
Good - increase in land values allows
you to use your equity to expand, incur
debt, etc.
Bad - increase in land values allows you
to use your equity to expand, and incur
debt.

The issue is really what debt does to
cash flow, not what land increases do to
net worth.
For us, the value of our land from a
bankers perspective is pretty healthy,
and we have a relatively low debt load.
From our perspective the value of our
land might as well be $0 because it is
not for sale and I don't plan to realize
that wealth in the form of dollar bills.
I realize that may change as life throws
its' curves our way, but for the
forseeable future if things go
reasonably as planned, that's the plan.

[ALLFARMER]

I can agree with that. Since I am under 40 I dont
feel I have any business slowing down.

Ordered 18 ton of alfalfa pellets today. $277/ton in
my yard. Feeding 7lb/hd that's $0.88/hd/day plus
the straw which I have lots of. If hay was
40$/bale which here it's certainly not that would
be like $1.11/hd/day Thinking if this goes good I
could add 100 or 150 cows next year fairly easily.
If that happens we'll be buying a 3 point hitch
grain feeder attachment for a tractor. Straw here
is likely 20$/bale. Maybe adversity bring
opportunity.

[ALLFARMER]

So no one to take over ASRG? Is this your nest
egg or your kids lol? Dads the ASRG/RRSP?

[grassfarmer]

If you are feeding 100 cows for 240 days this winter
will you go to a year-round confinement feeding
system if you more than double your cow numbers?
Or will your pasture triple it's production in line with
it's enhanced real estate valuation?

[ALLFARMER]

If we can get the 3 bush quarters cut and piled by
summer that would give us 7 producing grass.
The native grass takes right over once the
trees/willow are gone. Never a shortage of work
around here.

[wd40]

AF - I'd like to chat with you, call me at 780-518-6885