Ask Steve Dave Farm And Cow And Ranch And Tractor And Truck Related Questions

[ben ji]

SD is right on the gas storage. 

the only way to make money in the farm game today is to farm mafia your ass off. I joke about it, but it's definitely irl.

I'd be a capo

Reminds me of the time we first inherited my grandparents farm and I was running through the numbers with my dad and asked him "How does anyone make any money farming"? And his MAGA ass answered "The government".

Now we have some wind farm mafia money to go with our government money but you know who just happened to get a bagillion wind mills placed directly on his land? This guy whose relative was a former senator from KS. (also we are like 3rd cousins)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-family-farm-bulks-up-1508781895

[ben ji]

SD is right on the gas storage. 

the only way to make money in the farm game today is to farm mafia your ass off. I joke about it, but it's definitely irl.

I'd be a capo

Reminds me of the time we first inherited my grandparents farm and I was running through the numbers with my dad and asked him "How does anyone make any money farming"? And his MAGA ass answered "The government".

Now we have some wind farm mafia money to go with our government money but you know who just happened to a bagillion wind mills placed directly on his land? This guy whose relative was a former senator from KS. (also we are like 3rd cousins)

https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-family-farm-bulks-up-1508781895

Rereading the article he owns like 10% of thomas county so obviously he is going to get a crap ton of windmills on his land and I'm going to recommend my dad lease his land to him instead of trying to farm it himself.

Here is the full article

COLBY, Kan.—Lon Frahm may represent the future of farming. Inside a two-story office building overshadowed by 80-foot steel grain bins, he points to a map showing the patchwork of square and circular fields that make up his operation. It covers nearly 10% of the county’s cropland, and when he climbs into his Cessna Skylane to check crops from the air, he can fly 30 miles before reaching the end of his land. At 30,600 acres, his farm is among the country’s vastest, and it yields enough corn and wheat each year to fill 4,500 semitrailer trucks.

Big operations like Mr. Frahm’s, which he has spent decades building, are prospering despite the deepest farm slump since the 1980s. Years of low prices for corn, wheat and other commodities brought on by a glut of grain world-wide are driving smaller American farmers out of business.

Farms with $1 million or more in annual sales—only 4% of the total—now produce two-thirds of the country’s agricultural output, the largest portion since the U.S. Agriculture Department’s census began tracking the statistic in the ’80s.

The shift means food production is being increasingly handled by larger farms, which can be more financially secure. It also fuels a cycle in which size begets size, further transforming the rural economy. Smaller-scale farmers struggle to expand their operations to become profitable. Work becomes more scarce. Farm-supply retailers and grain companies are pressured, since larger farms use their size to wrangle better deals.

Owners say the big operations—which are still almost entirely run by private farmers and not companies—use machinery and technology more efficiently, get better prices on bulk supplies and manage to keep more of the profits by cutting out middlemen.

Inside an Immense Farm Operation in Kansas
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Inside an Immense Farm Operation in Kansas
Inside an Immense Farm Operation in Kansas
Lon Frahm’s 30,600-acre farm in Colby, Kan., offers a look at the future of farming in the U.S.: in ?huge quantities, using the latest technology and ?fewer people. Photo: Nick Cote for The Wall Street Journal. Video: Madeline Marshall/WSJ
Mr. Frahm, 59 years old, said decisions on his farm are driven by the constant analysis of efficiency and scale—cents per pound or units per acre. “I’m always interested in, how big is too big, how far can this thing go?” he said, clad in bluejeans and a Pioneer seeds ball cap. In more than three decades of running his farm, through droughts and commodity-market swings, he said he had only one losing year.

Mr. Frahm estimated that farms of his size can produce $10 million to $15 million worth of grain in a good year. With that amount of production, well-managed farms can reap $1 million to $3 million in profit, even in times of low crop prices, he said.

A typical smaller farm selling just $500,000 worth of grain annually has over the past three years generated a 5% profit margin, or about $25,000, said Mark Wood, a Colby-based agricultural economist for the Kansas Farm Management Association.

Green Acres
More U.S. farms are becoming giant operations.

Number of farms, by agricultural sales

$100,000-$499,999

$500,000 or more

300,000

250,000

200,000

150,000

100,000

50,000

0

’87

’92

’97

2002

’07

1982

’12

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Mr. Frahm said his farm provides steady, well-paying jobs and helps fund Colby’s hospital and community college. But he has stepped in at the last moment to place the winning bid at land auctions, and he knows that rankles other farmers. Some landowners see him as more of a corporate manager than a grower and have avoided renting their fields to him, looking instead for smaller farmers, he said. “I run into that resentment—‘haven’t you got enough by now?’ ” he said.

Mr. Frahm’s family settled and began farming near Colby, which now has a population of 5,419, in the 1880s. In 1986, after a heart attack killed his father, Mr. Frahm took over the family’s 5,600 acres. The farm was large but not unheard-of in Kansas at that time.

He said he looked for opportunities to expand, persuading relatives to lease him fields and plowing profits from good years into buying land. In 2013 he negotiated his biggest-ever expansion, adding 7,000 acres when an uncle retired, boosting his total land by nearly one-third. This spring, Mr. Frahm rented another 480 acres, and he said he is negotiating this fall to buy more.




The corn harvest at Mr. Frahm's farm in Colby this month. Workers take a dinner break, and Robert Turkington jumps down from the cab of a combine.
Rural demographics are moving in Mr. Frahm’s favor. The average age of a U.S. farmer is 58. Younger people are moving away, and over time more fields wind up owned by heirs in towns or cities hundreds of miles away.

In Kansas’ Thomas County, where agricultural economists estimate that more than half the land now is absentee-owned, Mr. Frahm can make an attractive tenant. Some landlords have approached him to rent their fields, knowing he has a good reputation for making lease payments and maintaining the land.

That makes it tough for farmers like Michael Juenemann. He grew up on a family farm near Colby, but his parents’ 160 acres don’t produce enough crops to support the two of them, let alone Mr. Juenemann and his own family. For the past five years Mr. Juenemann, 29, has been renting small parcels of land to farm himself, borrowing machinery and rolling out of bed to bale his own hay in the dark.

To make ends meet he works for other farmers, and said the hours mean he missed much of his son’s first years. Still, he said, “for as long as I can remember, it’s been what I wanted to do.”

Mr. Juenemann needs more land if he is to farm full time for himself. But buying enough acres requires a down payment he can’t afford.




Michael Juenemann is a small farmer in Colby. He puts in long hours on his own land, but his acreage isn't enough to support his family, so he also works for other farmers.
This spring, a few good fields became available for rent just up the road from his in-laws’ farm—but Mr. Juenemann only found out after Mr. Frahm began farming them.

“That’s aggravating—opportunities like that where I could get some more land, but [landowners] will go directly to the big guys,” said Mr. Juenemann, adding he doesn’t blame Mr. Frahm.

Many large farmers pay cash on leases, versus the crop-sharing deals that smaller farmers have often used and which add risk for the landowner. Some large farmers provide more comprehensive data on how the property is cared for and used. Mr. Frahm offers a mobile app that shows his landowners how much moisture their fields are getting.

Three-quarters of America’s farmed cropland is controlled by 12% of farms, USDA data show. The number of million-dollar-plus revenue farms more than doubled between 1992 and 2015, while the ranks of smaller farms, with revenue between $350,000 and $999,999, fell by 5%, as farmers get older and have a hard time making consistent profits. USDA researchers, in a December report, said consolidation is likely to continue.

An average farm household in the Colby area needs income of at least $50,000 annually to get by, said Mr. Wood, the agricultural economist, which has become harder to generate from a smaller farm. “The big guys can cover their costs and have money left over to grow,” Mr. Wood said. Smaller farms, he said, “are going to struggle.”



Mr. Frahm flies a Cessna to check his fields from the air. He can fly 30 miles before reaching the end of his land.
Bill Miller, 65, who farms about 10,000 acres around Colby, has absorbed other farms from neighbors who retired or moved on. He said the younger generation will have a hard time growing big enough to compete with large, entrenched farms. “If you don’t have family in it, you’re probably not going to get into it, because of the expense” of acquiring land, he said.

The local school district has lost more than one-fourth of its students over the past 20 years, he said. “The young people are moving away, because the farmers need less help,” Mr. Miller said. The big machinery and technology used on large farms—such as remote sensors for irrigation systems—mean fewer workers are needed.

About 20 miles away, Bill Dible has raised crops near Rexford, Kan.—which has a population of about 230—for more than half a century. For many years, he bought groceries at the town’s supermarkets, sipped coffee at its cafes and shot pool at its billiards halls. As farms and related companies consolidated, nearly all those businesses have closed.

“This mega farmer deal, it’s killing all the communities,” said Mr. Dible, 84. “They make it tough on other people.”


Many businesses have closed in Rexford, Kan., a town of 230 not far from Colby.
At Colby’s Farm Credit of Western Kansas, chief credit officer Mark Winger said the bank over the past decade has reduced the number of loan officers that deal with farmers. As large farms absorb smaller ones, he said, that leaves fewer farmers to finance, and more concentration of risk in larger loans.

Some area farm-supply retailers, which sell seed and chemicals, have trimmed head count. Local grain companies, such as Winona Feed and Grain and Rexford Grain, which buy grain from farmers and sell it on to exporters, livestock operations and ethanol plants, have been absorbed by larger regional players, including Frontier Ag Inc. Large farmers often seek to buy chemicals and materials from suppliers with direct links to manufacturers, and increasingly handle grain storage and sales themselves.

Farmer-owned cooperatives, which handle grain and supplies and share profits among member-owners, are working to adjust.

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Jeff Kahle, who grew up near Colby and now manages eight regional facilities under farm cooperative company CHS Inc., has watched area farms consolidate.

Two decades ago, around the time Mr. Kahle started working at the co-op, it wasn’t uncommon for 120 farmers to turn up at a planting seminar hosted by Kansas State researchers. These days, he figures 20 farmers might show up, even though they still represent the same number of acres. As a result, he said his operation has shed about one-fifth of its staff over the past 10 years.

“The larger [the big farms] get, the more difficult they are to do business with on a retail level,” Mr. Kahle said. Over time he said he aims to provide more advisory and technology services to farmers.

Mr. Frahm said he largely stopped dealing with local co-ops around 15 years ago, when he started finding better prices by scouring the internet for deals on seed and chemicals. Now he orders seed and pesticides by the truckload.


Mr. Frahm holds an ear of corn recently picked for inspection.
When it comes to selling crops, he prefers dealing with brokers that match up his crops with area feedlots and ethanol plants, which can fetch him higher prices. He stores nearly all his grain in his own bins and runs his own loading station, saving on transport costs and giving him more flexibility on when to sell based on grain prices.

Cooperatives are becoming “just a place to drink coffee,” Mr. Frahm said. “They can’t change quickly enough to keep up with competition that can turn on a dime.”

Shift to Greater Size
The largest U.S. farms are growing in number and size, and commanding more of the country's food production, while smaller farms shrink.

Number of farms, by size of farm

Percentage of acres harvested, by size of farm

1,000–1,999 acres

1,000–1,999 acres

500–999 acres

500–999 acres

2,000 or more acres

2,000 or more acres

%

50

250,000

40

200,000

30

150,000

20

100,000

10

50,000

0

0

’92

’97

’78

’87

1974

’12

’07

’82

2002

’87

’92

’97

2002

’07

’12

1982

Percentage of market of agricultural

products sold by farms with revenue

of $1 million or more

Midpoint farm size*

80

%

  acres

1,200

60

900

40

600

20

300

0

0

2002

’97

’07

’92

1987

’12

’07

’87

’92

2002

’97

’12

1982

*Harvested cropland

Source: U.S. Department of Agriculture
Mr. Frahm, who holds three degrees in business and agricultural economics, said his operation thrives by pushing efficiency at every turn.

His nine-person team totes tablet computers that control sprinkler systems miles away, switching them off when sensors report adequate moisture. When his tractors are rolling, automated systems monitor the number and type of seeds being sown in each row, to maximize planting on fertile ground and avoid wasting seed on poor soil.

The equipment beams the data to remote servers, where Mr. Frahm and his team analyze it to determine how machinery can be run more efficiently, or where they can spray fewer chemicals. This year Mr. Frahm has been testing automated insect traps that deliver updates on the number and type of bugs killed to help time pesticide spraying.




Mr. Frahm, in plaid shirt, with his workers at the farm office as they prepare for the day. They use tablet computers and other technology to monitor processes such as irrigation, seed distribution and pesticide use.
Mr. Frahm acknowledges big farms have brought changes to the community. But he sees his operation as an economic engine for Colby. His employees hold year-round, salaried positions with health care and four weeks of vacation. His longest-tenured employee started working for Mr. Frahm’s father on the farm 43 years ago.

He brings them on ocean cruises as bonuses and outfits them with matching white Ford pickups for work. He said he gives each one $1,000 each year to donate to charity. “These jobs offer a higher quality of life than if you were out trying to [farm] on your own,” he said.

The farmer’s Colby office is outfitted with flat-screen TVs and a grand piano where he sometimes plinks out jazz standards. Before Mr. Frahm bought the building, it housed the bank that lent him money. He owns a sprawling house on the town’s edge, and vacation houses in Denver and Arizona and a cabin on a nearby lake.

Wheeling his own white Ford truck around Colby, where rows of corn march up to the edge of the town’s main thoroughfare, Mr. Frahm notes the farm’s sponsorship of the annual county fair, and support for the historical society and public radio station.

Mr. Frahm said he has no heirs, and after he dies he plans to have a foundation own his property, with the goal of maintaining jobs for his employees and funding his community charities.

“There’s a reason behind continuing to accumulate,” Mr. Frahm said. “My main concern is that everything carries on.”

[michigancat]

I bet a Rav 4 would be pretty good for just driving around a farm. I knew a farmer who used a Suzuki Sidekick to check cattle because it was super light and had 4WD. obviously you can't pull a trailer or hay or anything but pretty good for just cruisin

[steve dave]

I'm headed back to the big city on sunday for at least one week (maybe more). My brother is currently unemployed and will probably stay out here all summer and I will probably go back and forth until I can no longer work from home.

Here are some random thoughts/notes that have not warranted a whole post.

1. Hot/Electric fences, most are pud but I recently brushed against the one by the butler building that has power sockets that power the whole fence and OMG it was alot stronger.

2. I bought a 2016 rav4 with AWD last year but it is definitely not a full time farm vehicle.
2A- I drove it through the windbreaks and the dam cedar tree's kind of scratched the paint on one side (barely noticeable)
2B- I typically take a cruise through the pasture in the evening after WFH and I ran over a tree limb buried in grass that knocked loose a plastic cover that protects the exhaust. (It started dragging but I managed to put it back in place)
2C- We moved alot of dead limbs next to the road to throw in the burn pit and one time when I was pulling out of the driveway and looking at my phone I hit a limb and did some minor cosmetic damage to my front right bumper.
2D- Yesterday I had the low tire pressure light come on and my back right tire may have a metal spike embedded in it. Fun times.

3. When I realized how much my vehicle was getting F'd up driving around the farm I started looking at used polaris etc on craigslist and holy crap these things are about as expensive as a toyota corolla. I think we will just stick with our 1993 EZ GO golf cart my brother got for free.

1. I have gotten shocked by an electric fence like 50 times and 0 times was it "pud". feels like someone wailing on your lower back with a baseball bat.
2. be careful about brush/weeds/etc. getting caught up under it. they'll get hot and start it and you and the field on fire.
3. good call on the golf cart imo.

[ben ji]

I bet a Rav 4 would be pretty good for just driving around a farm. I knew a farmer who used a Suzuki Sidekick to check cattle because it was super light and had 4WD. obviously you can't pull a trailer or hay or anything but pretty good for just cruisin

Just googled this and now I really really want one to keep on the farm.

[steve dave]

one time sd dad bought a new F150 and it was like some off road package or some crap. anyway, part of that was skid plates underneath it. after like two months he torched them off because weeds and tumble weeds and crap kept getting lodged underneath them. now he never buys the stupid off road options that are 100% designed for non-actual-off-road stuff according to him.

[KST8FAN]

Suzuki Samari is another option.  #1 had one for a while.  Pretty much a road legal ATV.


Tom

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[steve dave]

Geo Tracker


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[michigancat]

Suzuki Samari is another option.  #1 had one for a while.  Pretty much a road legal ATV.


Tom

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it may have been a samurai and not a sidekick. And yes I think the geo tracker is basically the same thing and yes pretty much an ATV. Either way you could get one for probably pretty cheap and bonus you could probably spend lots of time working on it when you visit

[star seed 7]

My dad has a huge diesel dodge farm truck, two 4-wheelers, a deere gator, and a golf cart all to cruise his 80 or whatever hobby acres. Seems like overkill.

I'm going to suggest a samari, that looks awesome.

[ben ji]

My dad has a huge diesel dodge farm truck, two 4-wheelers, a deere gator, and a golf cart all to cruise his 80 or whatever hobby acres. Seems like overkill.

I'm going to suggest a samari, that looks awesome.

Definitely overkill but I'm jealous.

[steve dave]

Make sure you wear your seatbelt. They will roll over in a 20mph+ side wind.


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[ben ji]

Suzuki Samari is another option.  #1 had one for a while.  Pretty much a road legal ATV.


Tom

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I've spent way to much time today looking at suzuki's for sale, had no idea these things existed until today. They appear to be popular "beach" vehicles as most of the ones for sale are in California.

[ben ji]

Went into town today to get my tire patched but it was no nail that was causing the air leak. Any guess on what this curved old metal piece that they pulled out of my tire is?

[steve dave]

Piece of a hay rake


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[steve dave]

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[michigancat]

Suzuki Samari is another option.  #1 had one for a while.  Pretty much a road legal ATV.


Tom

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I've spent way to much time today looking at suzuki's for sale, had no idea these things existed until today. They appear to be popular "beach" vehicles as most of the ones for sale are in California.

I'm glad I inspired this

[ben ji]

Piece of a hay rake


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You are pretty good at this.

[steve dave]

Piece of a hay rake


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You are pretty good at this.

I irl know a lot about cow farms and cow farm related things

[yoga-like_abana]

Suzuki Samari is another option.  #1 had one for a while.  Pretty much a road legal ATV.


Tom

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I've spent way to much time today looking at suzuki's for sale, had no idea these things existed until today. They appear to be popular "beach" vehicles as most of the ones for sale are in California.

I'm glad I inspired this

what cracks me up about those is that they have a 3 cylinder engine

[steve dave]

Today's random mystery farm tool...


Tom

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Tom,

What if I told you I had multiple buildings (half falling down) full of old timey farm tools. Would you like it if I took pictures of these old timey tools and we could have a contest on who could identify the tools/implements?

next time it's safe to travel I'm going to gather terabytes of farm porn for this thread and we'll farm our entire asses and balls off.

[steve dave]

Another thing as dad does when he buys a new ford truck is torch off the spare tire holder thing and throw the spare in the back.


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[KST8FAN]

Benji

I can't take credit for these strong AF beads,  but couisn welded hooks on the skid steer a couple of weeks ago.  I tend to push the limit of where I think I can go.  These held up nicely when he pulled me out of a ravine, and a mud hole.

Tom

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[ben ji]

Benji

I can't take credit for these strong AF beads,  but couisn welded hooks on the skid steer a couple of weeks ago.  I tend to push the limit of where I think I can go.  These held up nicely when he pulled me out of a ravine, and a mud hole.

Tom

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Tom, I'm not going to dig these hit n miss motors out before I head back to KC tomorrow but I'll probably be out at the cat ranch again in a couple weeks. I have no mechanical inclination and just send emails/talk on the phone to make money so send me a PM if you want to buy them on on cheap and fix them up and I can drop them off at your farm in like a month or two.

(part of this deal is I get to fish your flint hills farm ponds when I drop off the motors)

[ben ji]

My cousin and uncle were doing farm stuff today while I was working on my golf game and ended up chatting with my cousin for a bit.