Silver_Bullet
Guest
The first thought that came to mind is, "a fool and his money shall soon part". Seriously, I expected this run up in rents and land values with strong prices this spring. If the marketing was done right, a farmer could have sold last years crop this spring at good prices and forward contracted this years crop at good prices. If that was done, then I can see where the extra money is comming from. The problem I see is those prices are not there now and may not be for a few years. You have to be pretty bullish to be willing to pay higher rents, now. Another trend I see is farmers willing to accept a lot of risk to make just a few dollars per acre. I know with crop insurance and some proper marketing, a lot of risk can be handled, but I don't see the point in farming land just to make 10 or 20 dollars per acre. Maybe I can see it, I just don't like it. It's getting like a lot of big businesses, a return of 1 or 2% is acceptable. I guess if you had $350_acre invested in a crop and made a 5% return which alot of businesses would be more than happy with, that would give you a profit of $17.50_acre. When you look at it that way, maybe it would be acceptable. But it sure isn't a lot of fun!