BTOs and i dont pretend to be one

[malleefarmer]

As you guys know I cropped jointly with a friend 27000 acres to wheat barley canola lentils lupins peas chickpeas oats and another 3000 acres for hay.

Had a outstanding year yield wise despite decile 3 prices.

Anyway always pondering anylizing doing it again in 2017 but then re evaluating things, full on, relentless, see less of family and friends etc been a learning curve but enjoyable.

Economies of scale do work but theres more factors so I guess we will decide after 2017 harvest what pans out.

But kinda miss family farm traditional values still got 11800 acres I own,plus 2000 acres of rented ground to play with but sons almost to come home from school after next year even this year and will see what his opinion is.

Hopefully you guys don't think anyless of me and my aussie adventures will still be photographed and posted on here if I decide to go back to what I was doing.

[farmaholic]

Oh my goodness mallee....."think any less of me", are you kidding us? Try owning and farming only 2500 acres and being taken serious while being opinionated and out spoken! I'm not even in some of the AVer's leagues and hardly feel qualified to make comments at times but everyone is entitled to their opinion.

Funny thing is I have NO "ASPIRATIONS" to be the BTO of my area or on AV for that matter. Kinda satisfied with what I have. We're a family operation with one member taking his final step out and another taking his first steps in and me in the thick of it.

Farm size seems to be incremental. I believe we have a wee but of room to expand within the first incremet but the next one would mean way more land, iron and manpower. Increments are also different for the areas we each farm in. Depending where you are located depends on how many acres you can comfortably harvest within the regular harvest window that area provides on an average year. Sometimes you will get more or less than the average.....adjust your sails for the average!

There's guys in this area who have bitten off more than they can chew....I say, "I never bit it off--I'm not chewing it!" Why would I go and "rescue" these guys only to "enable" them to "think" they got done and they go bite off more the following year." There's only one way poor management who makes bad decisions will learn what their limitations are. I realize weather can throw a wrench into best made plans but some of these guys are "chronic".

To each their own. Some operations are "fully" supporting 2 or 3 family members( fathers sons brothers uncles cousins)and maybe even fulltime hired help, so farm size is relative (no pun intended). Synergies are great when they "work".

Let's not judge each other by what we decide is comfortable for ourselves. Good luck with what ever size row you hoe!

[SASKFARMER3]

No why would any one think less of you. its farming and its a very interesting occupation that is based on more luck than brains. Some times you win and some times it takes down the best of men.

Family is important.

[Ache4Acres]

Congrats Malle on your big year and new adventures farming with your mate. It's nice when it works out so well.

Being a BTO only gets you in trouble when you start think that you are better than everyone else. Keep your feet on the ground and head out of the clouds and no matter how big you are nobody should think anything less of you. I for one, admire and appreciate you sharing your stories of success and your challenges.

Cheers!

Oh BTW....you selling any land? I could use a couple 10,000 acre patches..lol

[sumdumguy]

Let the BTO's blow their brains out. When you see them travelling 50-70-100 miles between farms, they can have it. At the end of the day, all that counts is that you are happy, healthy and enjoying what you do. Nowhere in the book of life does it say we all have to do the same thing and sing the same song.

All the best to our AV friends, you are all important to us and we thank you for the good information and advice- well, not all are that great - come to think of it, some are a pain in the sraca. I sure miss a lot of them that dropped off. There are a lot missing.

As for the Mallees, you aren't a lot different than us, excapt that you're down under, haha. Stick with us, if only we could get an even wider variety of farmers on here.👍

[malleefarmer]

A standard operation in our area is lets say 2/3 crop 1/3 livestock mostly sheep for wool and a lot of Suffolk cross lambs now and some cattle.

Average cropping area would be at a guess 4 to 5000 acres yielding 30 to 40 bushels per acre. But yields vary.

As stated in the initial post still have my original acres plus one lease block will be happy with that. Will crop around the 7 maybe 8 .

A lot of guys are concerned with cost of steel which was why we did what we did to get machinery price per acre down but found we were doing 3 even 4 years worth in one year hence I could envisage changing machinery every 2nd year so am I working for myself or machinery companies??

Plus in my opinion we have great staff but there burn out all the time and ofter say to me privately peter "this is just to big and to higher expectations" 10 of us at peak times.

A lot can be said for father son and one workman operations, keeps it simple.

Will keep you updated as time goes on.

Any way of to a cricket semi final under 15s were in the box seat to win a 2 day game into grand final next week. Not sure if you guys know cricket at all but our team made 136 runs and opposition is currently 5 out for 39 have to get another 5 wickets or people out. Rain is threatening.

On weather found a Canadian weather model that's good for us aussies will post tonight or later.

[malleefarmer]

This is what I cook my good wife last night salt and pepper calamari or squid I found I didn't even have time to cook for her I usually do twice a week. And last week I came in for lunch and we had some sausages left over from a birthday party so I cooked them and she said "you know this is the first time you've had lunch with me during the week in 2.5 years" guess you guys are getting the picture

[sumdumguy]

About ten years ago, the trade department asked if they could bring a farmer from Tanzania to our farm. They turned their grain farm into a shrimp farm by dredging their ocean shoreline. They hired about 500 farm labourers and started growing acres of white asparagus, cut flowers and veggies. They bought a jet and make daily deliveries to French and Italian shops and restaurants. Their workers are paid daily with a jar of grain and a bit of oil. They are allowed to raise a goat or two for milk and meat and once a week, they get a pound of hamburger which is worth about $5. They were pretty excited with their new ventures. We took them to the local Hutterite Colony. They said they were impressed but thought they had a better business model. I wish we had kept in touch with them to see how it turned out.

[LEP]

Mallee, I agree there has to be a balance struck. Now that you have good numbers for costs you can accurately assess the trade off of a smaller operation.

We doubled in size and it just meant we trade equipment twice as often. There is a farm size that creates an efficient operation that doesn't have to cause huge stress or family problems. It is easier to reach that by downsizing than trying trying to outbid the neighbors on rented land.

I think it is different for everyone.

[furrowtickler]

Farm size has more to do with how it's managed .
Some guys can manage 20,000 ac or more and do it effectively.
In the same area there are guys who can not manage 2,000ac .
Also many farms in between that are very successful and some that struggle .
Those that run big well managed operations are certainally impressive to watch

BTW , Mallee are you familiar with these ? They are made in Aus

[hobbyfrmr]

I like BTO's. They are competitive, efficent and highly productive. They increase the price of land and the cost of rent. Land that has not been planted to canola for years is going to fetch a big premium in the future. They own elevators, and houses for their employees in small towns. They contribute to the tax base, and employ many local labourers. They buy vehicles and/or recreation items for the employees who need them. Their employee's children attend local schools. The employees get to work with the most modern comfortable farm equipment and the latest technology.
Somebody has to do it!

[malleefarmer]

Farm size has more to do with how it's managed .
Some guys can manage 20,000 ac or more and do it effectively.
In the same area there are guys who can not manage 2,000ac .
Also many farms in between that are very successful and some that struggle .
Those that run big well managed operations are certainally impressive to watch

BTW , Mallee are you familiar with these ? They are made in Aus

not common in our area at the top end of air carts in price most seeders here are dbs,hb, morris ,seedhawk flexicoil, jd and most have corresponding carts

[furrowtickler]

Ok thanks , was just curious.
We did our own set up about 5 years ago and are just looking for ideas on how to up grade our one air seeding tank to 500 bus plus the liquid tank. Just to give us the capacity to seed up to 3 bus ac and do 160 ac per fill.
Thinking of building our own now.