Land dealings

[jazz]

Ya after they bought the 20 plus thousand in The Pas they decided they needed another 30 plus thousand. Must have been a good year around Swift and Phoenix

Not a chance they are making money on that land south of swift in the past few yrs. You can find other farmers who post from the area and all they grew was kochia and grasshoppers.

And the good stuff they farm beside me, took off lentils in the sample grade category and durum for feed.

Now on a year like this, still good money, but on any other year that would be a loser. This operation is playing the standard expand every year, hide the true financials game and using bank and investor money to do it. They havent stood still for any 3 yr period ever so nobody knows whats in the books. Couple other operators like that near me. They have to buy something every year to keep it going, thats why you have land bases 500 or 1000 miles apart and their risk of getting it all done on time and in the money gets exponentially harder.

[shtferbrains]

Might be that the richest man in the world has not run profitable buisnesses but people keep investing money because they like what he is selling.
The investors have done well with it resulting in more investors......




More than one way to get to the high life?

[Marusko]

There's some serious money behind Monette. any rumours as to who? they've expanded into montana and arizona too.

The Pas is an interesting area. shtferbrains that explains all the dikes around there. farming a floodplain comes with its challenges.

[jazz]

There's some serious money behind Monette. any rumours as to who? they've expanded into montana and arizona too..

Bank of NS and Pattison and some outside investors, not likely Canadian domiciled.

Thats the rumor anyway.

Wondering what the end game is though. Like SF said maybe taking restrictions off foreign investment? or big tracks to be bought up for whatever? Bill Gates etc? Chinese? Give away to enviro groups & natives?

But I dont buy the economics of size argument. I see the risk out pacing any efficiencies in such an operation.

Something else in play here.

[Taiga]

And the winery in Kelowna that the locals are fighting at every turn.

Don’t kid yourself, there are zero economies of scale when you are that spread out.

Land investing is all it is.

[Ibleedgreen]

The investors have done well with it resulting in more investors......




More than one way to get to the high life?[/QUOTE]

Sounds like a Ponzi scheme!

[Templeboy]

I hold no grudge to the guys in this post, they are doing things I don't have the skill set to do or the interest. that being said...

I imagine there is some economy to scale in the buying and selling of goods, I imagine the slippage/spillage percentage would saw off the gains.

There is a huge multiple unit discount, but stroking that cheque every year has to hurt a bit. I rarely find brand new equipment ever works as good as second or third year stuff, always has a few bugs.

The alarming part is with continuous growth, the financial picture is never caught up. When you dig through crash and burn farm data, that is always the case. The cost for due diligence would be tremendous if it was done right.

Stamp Farms comes to mind

[Misterjade9]

We can all speculate,but my guess would be that Monette's biggest investor is the US government. When you're farming vegetables in Arizona and wheat in Montana, with the Billions in US farm payments,you would have to think some of that made it north of the border. Then add 25 percent for the exchange. More power to them use your money to make more.