Where would you go?

[malleefarmer]

Seems to me after my years on agriville and my visits since 1983 to canada mixed farming is rare.

Only ever been to montana and a bit of sd and nd mixed farming is a bit more common but still nothing like it is here in australia.

"ley farming" if you know what that the term, is really making a comeback on strength of wool and sheep lamb prices.

basically crop pasture crop pasture

reduces risk somewhat but may miss out on "big" crop years

[farmaholic]

Mallee, every farm in the beginning was mixed...had to be...horses, cattle, pigs and chickens. But it has gone from being necessary to what alot of people would look at as a burden. Our farm was mixed for over 100 years. People made use of everything Mother Nature provided, roadside(ditch) hay, slough hay, pasture land, grainland...seems nothing was wasted.

[Taiga]

It is tough to do it all nowadays on a commercial scale. The never ending equipment needs and costs and replacement are so cost prohibitive to be efficient at it all as funds need to be prioritized.

Grain: seeding, harvesting, handling, storage, transport

Livestock: feed, base herd cost, veterinary, handling, transport

Hay: equipment, maintenance, handling, weather

I realize for the weekend warrior or hobbyist the equipment required can be less a concern, but for a full time farm to support a family it is different. She’s a tough farming environment, without land appreciation for there to be an end game it is hard to justify farming financially beyond the lifestyle.

[bigzee]

I would just like to farm flat ground and no rocks. Heard the Red River Valley offers that!!

[makar]

There is several parcels in gordondale ab to be auctioned off which may go relatively reasonable for someone looking to start out, look at weaver auctions. Bigzee this is not for you.

[iceman]

I would head to wherever Jeff Bezos ex wife is going with the 67 billion!

Iceman

[bgmb]

Say you wanted to start farming, and you had a bit of cash. But couldn't afford to buy cultivated land.

Is there anywhere (in Canada) that has good fertile land, but not populated or cultivated that may be ripe for the picking? If a guy was young and ambitious, wanted to homestead and clear some land.

Question was asked to me, from a recent EU immigrant who wants to "make a go of it".

I suggested, Peace River area or Great Clay belt in northern Ontario. After looking at local real estate prices I see those options may not be as affordable as they once were. Any advise or direction for my new friend would be helpful.

Parkland of saskatchewan and start renting land

[AlbertaFarmer5]

See, now I knew Austranada was going to provide something useful eventually. He just tipped us off about the free land in Vologda Russia. My wife is still a Russian citizen, and I'm quite willing to get my naturalized citizenship, now all we need to do is convince this European friend of Pourfarmer's to buy our existing farm, it is dirt cheap compared to anything in Europe, and nearly on the frontier of the west, so it should be an easy sell.

The only catch is that most of Vologda province is farther north than any farm land in the Peace region of Alberta, some as far north as NWT, and looks like mostly bush. But at least it is close to St. Petersburg, so it should be an easy sell to convince my wife, it is an amazing city. Never visited the Vologda region, have been West of it and just slightly south of it, perhaps will go look next time we are over there and see what we are missing out on.

This is what Wikipedia has to say about Vologda Oblast Agricutlure:
The agriculture in the oblast is essentially cattle breeding with milk and meat production, production of eggs, growing of crops, flax, potatoes, and vegetables. In 2008, 73% of all agricultural products were produced by large-scale farms

Thanks Austranada.

[makar]

I wouldnt trust anything in russia, grampa sold his seven acre estate to his bil to come here, month later the soviets came and even took the scythe away from him.

[furrowtickler]

As far as climate , soil and accesss to tide water ....


1/2 mile deep top soil and 20-40 in rain

We had 4.5 in of rain in the growing season here again this year ... 3rd year in a row .... yet land renting for $100 and selling for $400,000 .... lol
It is what it is I guess ...... apparently land still undervalued here lol lol .
Ohh ya , almost the furthest and most costly grain tansport in the world
Ohh , and inputs higher than virtually anywhere on earth .
Ohh , and will be facing a carbon tax that will strip any remaining income from your farm coming ASAP
Ya , don’t break land here ... go somewhere where they actually appreciate farmers ..

[SASKFARMER3]

Hawaii on the north westside of the Big island a little plot looking down on the West coast ah. perfect.

[ajl]

Reality in Canuckistan today is that there is pretty much zero opportunity every where. Your friend is tooo late. As far as off farm jobs are concerned, there is not much to be had there either is reality as well. Job ads are the biggest source of misleading advertising out there. There are some potential cattle properties with crown lease available in northwest AB like the Edson, Sangudo, Athabasca areas but the the weather is normally awful and you have about 3.5 months of grazing. The cattle boy are going to lose big on 19 calves this year because winter feed costs are over a grand per head.

[bigzee]

At the end of the day I’m happy where I am. I’ve said several times I sure wouldn’t want to farm that land, and some of that land is 10 miles away.

[Sheepwheat]

I like where I am at. Lots of bush, lots of wildlife. At least on my land. Most guys around want every square inch, because we all know that it fits in the 6 foot long box a the end... so it all gets pushed. All that matters is the financial side of it.

Are those values some of you talk about for real? Because I would walk if someone offered me 400 000, let alone 300 000. Probably even 200 000 would do it for me. I cannot fathom having land that valuable, and still fighting to farm it. Nuts to me.

I would choose here. But I certainly wouldn’t choose it for traditional grain farming. Nor would I choose to grain farm anywhere. Boggles my mind someone would want to start up a new operation. Life’s too short to do something stupid like that! Lol.

Tell your friend there are options in farming type. That grain is a drain where you have no control over anything whatsoever. I would encourage them to think outside the box a little. To take some control back with some other farming type.

[jazz]

If you are gungho on actual grains farming in Canada, I would go where I have the most chances for as many crops as the region would support considering climate and the season.

There is a band of better soil in the southern part of the province that angles down across SW sask. It has shorter season, warmer climes but gets rainfall and can support lentils, peas, wheat, canola and probably soy and corn one day. Sort of that Davidson, MJ Regina triangle. Lot of our summer storms angle out of Montana and shoot this gap. The land would be reasonable in that area, couple thousand an acre unless you bump against the major cities. Your family would be reasonable close to a major center and off farm employment possible.