rumor mill

[Hobbyfarmer]

Has it that one large farmer (20,000ish)
Pulled the bankruptcy string here in Iowa.

More waiting their turn. Wonder who bites the bullet? Bank or suppliers. Bigger is better...right?

[elcheapo]

Me. Mee meee

(Fat lady getting warmed up)

[hardnox]

Although I expect those to cause a general tightening of credit.

That's part of why I was ruminating recently over whether it was time to roll debt to the long end and take some cash out (If I was interested in growing).

Any opportunities that arise are only going to the folks who have the financing.

[elcheapo]

Hardnox. IMO if in the blessed part of
the country, (Iowa, ill, Ind), things might
Get softer, but there is always the outfits
That either buy or pay in, and will
keep the market artificially high.
As for being able.to grow by renting
More ground, I would sure push a pencil
pretty hard.
There are a number of people in Chicago
And new York that have did the same, got
A loan with cheap money
Most of their names are printed in the
Bankruptcy list a couple years later.

If you had another "business" that
Pencils out good, and 180 degress from
What you do now (investment diversity)

[hardnox]

That's a decision some younger farmers are going to have to make- when to step in.

In my view probably a little early- still plenty of money and credit out there.

But whenever it is, as they say, they won't ring a bell.

[Hobbyfarmer]

We will not hear about all the average sized farms that are in trouble 

All I see coming out  of this is more non landowner renters. 

It is just the the big ones are the  headline grabbers.

Makes no difference the  size if not built on a sound foundation. 

There are definitely advantages in size. We are rapidly losing  

our base of young people that are capable of taking over the farm.

[hardnox]

There is a simple answer for that.

Quit subsidzing old farmers.

[Shaggy98]

Quit subsidizing old farmers? Seems as if they're "Old Farmers" they've still got it together. I'd question giving subsidies to extremely large and unproven operations. Why burden the veteran if he's made it work all these years?

If an operation is successful at 5000 acres and expands to say 15 or 20 thousand acres, is it still the same operation?

[hardnox]

I'm halfway kidding. Harking back to the time I was at a Farm Bureau policy confab and there were some older guys talking about how we need programs for young farmers. I asked if it wouldn't be simpler to just not subsidize old farmers and almost got run out of the place.

The current crop insurance and programs setup does present some barriers to entry and expansion for younger farmers, which is what it is, but don't anybody who's on the sweet side of the deal start whining to me about the lack of young farmers.

I didn't get a single enthusiastic taker here in regards to discussion of capping crop insurance subsidies.

The "Industry's" argument is that big operations wouldn't participate then. To which I say, godspeed. The guy farming 10K and up is the one who really needs it- one bad year and he's toast.  And in the environemtn we're now in, many couldn't borrow enough without it, whether or not there's an extra $25/acre on their budget.

[roarintiger1]

"quit subsidizing old farmers."   hardnox,  I'll gladly give up all of mine, if you give up all of yours.    You go first.   Yes........that's what I thought.