What was your most profitable crop this year?

[MBgrower]

rent at $120/acre

[the big wheel]

2019 will be

1. Hail insurance
2. Crop insurance
3. Gars
4. Bareback

You forgot
5. Input capital
6. Ritchie brothers
7. Old folks home

[SASKFARMER3]

Ah, input Viagra for when you know you can't do it anymore they help you out and into a hard situation.

Crops list from top to bottom for most profit after costs per acre.

Wheat
Barley malt
Canola




Peas.

[grassfarmer]

Have a source that is 2.10 a lb inoculated for alfalfa, and 3.20 a lb for grass. 8 lbs Alf and a few lbs grass is right around 25 bucks. Certified seed. Common is cheaper. Independent guy.

Shoot me a message where you're getting that if you don't mind. We've been paying more like $3.50 on Alfalfa and $4.50 on orchard grass and that's only getting common seed. Big name seed companies are quite a bit more than what i'm quoting too.

[jimmy]

rent at $120/acre

I like but how do you get your daily dose of stress?

[bigzee]

Friend of mine told me the other day a friend of his .... not giving the location paid $3200 ac for some new property. Would like to se this guys list of crops where those numbers will work.
One word of advise if you are paying this or in this range or $100 or more cash rent quit bitching about high inputs, machinery costs, commodity prices, etc those are the least of your worries.
It’s getting to the point where a person should think seriously about exiting.

[bucket]

Friend of mine told me the other day a friend of his .... not giving the location paid $3200 ac for some new property. Would like to se this guys list of crops where those numbers will work.
One word of advise if you are paying this or in this range or $100 or more cash rent quit bitching about high inputs, machinery costs, commodity prices, etc those are the least of your worries.
It’s getting to the point where a person should think seriously about exiting.

If you are paying that for land ...its not their worry....its the lenders worry....and the guys that end up taking the write down....

But if you have cash to spend ....not sure there is a return on that....3200 cash earns 128 bucks at 4 percent interest for doing nothing..... for a return on the farm you are making yourself work for no guarantee...

Years ago a neighbours wife said as they were expanding....""'we are are just making more work...""""....they did OK but there was more work...

[SASKFARMER3]

Oh I wonder why I don’t exit every day

[Sheepwheat]

Friend of mine told me the other day a friend of his .... not giving the location paid $3200 ac for some new property. Would like to se this guys list of crops where those numbers will work.
One word of advise if you are paying this or in this range or $100 or more cash rent quit bitching about high inputs, machinery costs, commodity prices, etc those are the least of your worries.
It’s getting to the point where a person should think seriously about exiting.

Probably a seed growers preparing for the seed royalty bonanza!!!!

[hobbyfrmr]

I am in a pretty easy 50 bushel canola area. Trouble is in the wet years I over time lost my yield guarantees, and 6 bushel canola ain’t good when the costs are so extreme. There is also this thing called net return. Oats at 140 vs canola at 50. Pretty clear winner when you talk NET RETURN.

I frankly have no idea the infatuation with canola either, and this from a good canola area. Seed costs are just sick. Fertility needs are extreme. And there are about seven million bugs and diseases that attack it ruthlessly.

Maybe everyone is closet input capital men?

I think I will order more alfalfa and orchard grass, brome. Can seed it for 25 bucks an acre, or around 4 bucks for seed per year, and have it produce well for 6 years or so. Once established, it sure doesn’t cost much, and the soil building is insane. A few bales an acre, even at 60 bucks a bale is pretty fair actually, let alone 120 bucks on a year like this. Rotate out and do organic 40 buck a bushel flax, a couple other crops like faba then oats, and then back to hay. Graze the sheep after baking for a bit of cheap lamb gain, and nutrient recycling.

Maybe I am as insane as the price of canola seed. ... lol There has got to be a better way.

There is not a better way. Stay the course, add more canola to the rotation and rent more land. Do not stifle progress.

[jazz]

Like that lotto winner farmer years back said when they interviewed him. I am gonna farm until its all gone.

Guess I could call up Jimmy Pattison to rent mine. He is all in like a dirty shirt around me. Of course helps he bought out all the machine dealerships too. I don't know what he knows about ag that I don't. Are there fortunes to be made in Canadian ag yet?

[Sheepwheat]

There is not a better way. Stay the course, add more canola to the rotation and rent more land. Do not stifle progress.

I plan to do just that. Progress is the best for all. And so sustainable.

[oldjim]

Like that lotto winner farmer years back said when they interviewed him. I am gonna farm until its all gone.

Guess I could call up Jimmy Pattison to rent mine. He is all in like a dirty shirt around me. Of course helps he bought out all the machine dealerships too. I don't know what he knows about ag that I don't. Are there fortunes to be made in Canadian ag yet?

Jazz, can you elaborate on Pattison being around here? I haven't heard of this before.

[WiltonRanch]

I bought 4400lb for $1.75 (alfalfa). I don’t bother with any grasses and seed straight alfalfa, the smooth brome is hard to kill and comes back naturally here. Also have a lot of natural birdsfoot trefoil everywhere. It grows short but is a fine plant (with nice yellow flowers almost all summer). Alsike clover natural too. The seed bank must be just littered with these types. Grey wooded soil type. I seed 14lbs total by seeding two passes perpendicular to each other at 7lbs each. I use a BG 5710 and just pull the drill in the raised position and then roll the field. Works well. Could probably dial the seed rate back to 5lbs per pass.
My fields are 6 years as hay and then cycle out for two years of annual crops, then back to alfalfa. Every field the same, though on different schedules so there is always hay and grain and fields being turned over. I don’t buy nitrogen fertilizer.

I like how you farm. I’ve thought about doing this too. If you could graze alfalfa safely I’d do it in a heartbeat.

[jimmy]

Not to hard to pay over 120 acre if you crop share. 20% share of a good crop of chickpeas will get you very close to 200$ acre when prices where good. Same with lentils or mustard. I would rather pay that than only 30$ acre under the same scenario. Cash rent totally different.