What farms are most profitable?

[Jagfarms]

What farms are most profitable? Is anyone is making enough money farming that they do not have to have a second job. If so tell us how you are doing it.

If you are making a good living on the farm here is list of few questions that you could answer if you wish to show me and other farmers what you are doing right.

#1 How much do you farm? Acres crop land livestock ect pasture?


#2 What kind of crops do you grow?

#3 do you own the land rent it cash rent crop share ect?

#4 do you own your machinery, get custom work done, Lease machinery?

#5 do you farm by yourself or are you in a partnership or coop share machinery with the farmer down the road ect?

#6 Do you seed 100% of your land or 1/3-2/3 or 1/2 and 1/2 or other?

#7 do you chemfollow or cultivate?

#8 Where is your farm located?

#9 do you do custom work on the side? If so what do you do?

#10 What crops are the most profitable for you?

#11 How long have you been farming for?

[grassfarmer]

Harvesting grass with cattle is profitable for us - beyond that I won't say anymore as it's $200 an hour for my consulting time LOL.

[rookie]

I think you forgot to ask if it was dads farm and what did you pay the him for it?.

[silverback]

Or how many gas/oil wells do you have?

Or how much rain do you get in a year?

[Jagfarms]

We have lots of moisture the last few years and some of the best crops we have ever had and it is still hard to make much profit. We have been seeding several different crops and using a fair ammount of fertilzer and chemfollowing.

I wonder if the farmers that cultivate's instead of chemfollow, just grow a couple of crops do not use much fertilizer or chemical are further ahead with less risk and imput costs. I answered the questions but what I am doing is not working to good for me and if things keep up I will not be farming much longer or doing a lot of changes. I really love farming but I think I could make more money working at Mcdonalds flipping bugers than i could on the farm the last few years.


#1 How much do you farm? Acres crop land livestock ect pasture? There are 3 of us that farm together my dad my uncle and myself and we farm 33 quarters between all 3 of us


#2 What kind of crops do you grow?
We have Rye, Maple peas Yellow peas, Red lentils Desi chickpeas, Kabuli Chickpeas, Canola, Wheat, Avonlea Durum, Stongfield Durum and Barley seeded this year. We sometimes seed Large green lentils, Canary seed.

#3 do you own the land rent it cash rent crop share ect?

I own only 2 1/4's and I cash rent some custom work some and crop share some

#4 do you own your machinery, get custom work done, Lease machinery? We own all of our owm machinery

#5 do you farm by yourself or are you in a partnership or coop share machinery with the farmer down the road ect? The 3 of us farm together and my dad and I are in the process of buying my uncles share of the machinery as he is retiring. Just about need to win 6-49 or something.

#6 Do you seed 100% of your land or 1/3-2/3 or 1/2 and 1/2 or other? We seed about 2/3 of our land and 1/2 and 1/2 when it is dry.

#7 do you chemfollow or cultivate? We have been chemfolling but thinking about cultivating

#8 Where is your farm located? We are in SW sask

#9 do you do custom work on the side? If so what do you do? I custom haul grain in the winter time and the odd time in the summer

#10 What crops are the most profitable for you? Not sure have had good luck with red lentils in the past but it does not look to good in the future

#11 How long have you been farming for? I have been farming for 10 years only


#12 how many gas wells on the farm? My dad has 1 gas well and we are hoping for more


#13 How much rain have you had? We have been lucky and have had good moisture for the last 10 years we only had 2 dry years.

[SASKFARMER3]

Well I can relate on the other end of the spectrum.
We have come through frost drought frost large crop no prices and finally this year flood then tap shuts off no rain for last 32 days.
Total payments from CASIP is Zero Crop insurance yes.
Own most of the land except 15 are rented and 31 are owned. their are two of us. no hired men.
Dad gave us each a quarter when we turned 18 and said now go make it on your own you have equity figure it out.. No Gas or Oil wells just a lot of looking around.
Land in eastern Sask is cheap compared to any where else in the world. rent is also reasnable.
Own all equipment will custom work for neighbors, seeding spraying and harvesting.
Direct seeding for 18 years but last 5 have gone to a attitude that to have the best crop in the district is a waste of time and money. Thats not what the chemical and fertilizer companys want you to here but its working. Having an average pays the bills and seems your further ahead. Also when mother nature screws you you dont feel as bad as when you sunk every dime into the crop just to have it taken away in a monments notice.
Still making payments and getting buy with a purty good life.
But shure wish it would change. Oh yes were 42 and 39 and our wives work.

[SASKFARMER3]

Also havent bought fathers farm yet and rain fall is 12 inches all in late may to june 20 then nothing.

[Jagfarms]

My Mom is a Nurse and works off farm and has for the last 37 years and my wife is a teacher and she works as well. We are in the process of adopting 2 children from UKraine and my wife is going to stop working for a few years until the kids go to school which will cut down on our net income a lot.

[Jagfarms]

We have had 6 inches of rain from April until now and most of it was in early june. Getting pretty dry here now. We are in the process of desicating lentils started last night and getting ready to swath rye. Hopefully will start combining next week.

[grassfarmer]

I've set up a "back to basics" operation since coming here and it's working for us. Bought land that was said to be capable of pasturing 40 cows per quarter for 5 months - ie 40Auds per acre production. Now producing twice that with potential to go to 3 or 4 times that? Only infrastructure investments are electric fence and water pipelines. Only annual inputs are winter feed for a target of 100 days, salt and minerals. A little diesel for winter feeding and gas for a truck, a little electricity for a few yard cattle (waterers). Real simple, low workload operation. Adding value to some calves by fattening and marketing them as grass-feds at 17-18 months. Returning $1350 per head after processing and delivery costs are paid. Also adding value by selling some purebred cattle.
I would say our operation is management intensive, low workload, low input and reasonable output. More intensive land use on what you already own looks to me to be the best way to get ahead on the prairies, despite the huge areas of land for sale and the temptation to supersize an operation.

[grassfarmer]

This normally wet area has had less than 6 inches rain since April 1st this year. Crops look good but conventional grazing pastures are done now. We have enough lush knee high grass already grown to last until Christmas. Nothing we have grazed since July 1st will be regrazed this year - don't need to as we have enough grass elsewhere. I don't care how dry your area is proper grazing and rest periods will increase your production and make more effective use of moisture. Most peoples lawns stopped growing a while back due to drought, well ahead of areas covered with longer grass. Yet they don't seem to make the connection between over grazing/ inappropriate rest periods in their pastures and weekly mowing of a lawn.

[kpb]

grassfarmer, just catching up on the posts after spending time up north. I agree with you lots of the time but this time we're going to have to disagree I think, mostly because I think the future of the cow-calf operation is in large low-input,low-management operations. Allan Nation is quite clear that these cow-calf outfits are the most profitable.

Not so with grassers where intensive management provides greater returns. You might get more bang for your managment buck with grassers that will pop on well-managed grass.

Are you saying that you're running 80 pairs on a quarter for five months? And think you can go to 120 or 160 pairs for five months on one quarter? Wow. I can't imagine how many paddocks you'd have to run those pairs through nor how often but it just seems like a whole lot of work to me when I can kick my baldies out on rough pasture in the spring and pick up a fat calf and a fat bred cow in the fall. Geez, call me lazy but I like to take a summer break sometimes.

kpb

[kpb]

sorry grassfarmer, upon re-reading your post I see that you are already running 80 pairs for five months on a quarter and are planning to go up to 320 pairs, not 160 as I previously said. I tip my hat to you and your work ethic.

kpb

[rookie]

Ilive next to saudi arabia ( well no, but I think you get it). Quit working a couple of years ago, and get sick everytime my neibours, nephewsd etc, tell what the wages are now, in the patch. You gotta love cows a whole bunch to stick with 'em . Land costs alone have set my fate for size of operation around here.

Jag.....I will stick it out until Jr. goes to school, but don't feel to bad, guys your age out here driving combines are getting rare........

[rookie]

Grass Farmer, I have been setting my cows along the lines of what you have. and wouldn't mind talking with you sometime in the near future over the phone if thats okay, I send a post out in a few weeks.........