Startup farm

[Gabe L]

Hey all, I am 15 and i am trying to start up a farm to continue upgrading and living through my farm as i get older. I am looking at a plot of land that i am trying to rent it is 11.3 acres with roughly 10 of them farmable and it has been farmed on in the past, but is not currently. I already have an idea of what i want to do for year one starting in spring. I want to plow and disc all of the land then spread nitrogen heavy mineral fertilizer and possibly lime depending on soil p.h. levels, then plant sweet corn and weed it a little later on with a natural herbicide and/or a corn cultivator. I will harvest the disc and plant winter wheat and harvest in spring and bale straw with a small square baler, then repeat process with sweet corn or soybeans.

Equipment i would get
28 PTO Horse Ford 1910 tractor (already own)
Ford 2 bottom plow and 5' disc (already own)
JD 2 row planter
MF13' grain drill
international 4 row corn cultivator
25' PTO sprayer
3pt cone spreader
327 New idea 2 row corn picker
corn wagon
JD model 30 pull type combine
JD 14T small square baler
8' x 16' hay wagon with rack

total equipment cost: $9,700
gross profit: $11,400
Net profit: $1,900 (before seed, fert and possible repair costs)

Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks

 

[Tony in SD]

You will have a problem with a 4 row cultivator and a 2 row planter. The slightest variation between rounds with the 2 row planter will cause the 4 row cultivator to take out 2 of the corn rows. You can plant with a 4 row and cultivate with a 2 row but not the other way unless you use a GPS guidance, which I did not see on you list of equipment.

 

[Gabe L]

You will have a problem with a 4 row cultivator and a 2 row planter. The slightest variation between rounds with the 2 row planter will cause the 4 row cultivator to take out 2 of the corn rows. You can plant with a 4 row and cultivate with a 2 row but not the other way unless you use a GPS guidance, which I did not see on you list of equipment.

i could cut down the cultivator if needed but i will look for a larger planter

 

[Absent Minded Farmer]

Hey all, I am 15 and i am trying to start up a farm to continue upgrading and living through my farm as i get older. I am looking at a plot of land that i am trying to rent it is 11.3 acres with roughly 10 of them farmable and it has been farmed on in the past, but is not currently. I already have an idea of what i want to do for year one starting in spring. I want to plow and disc all of the land then spread nitrogen heavy mineral fertilizer and possibly lime depending on soil p.h. levels, then plant sweet corn and weed it a little later on with a natural herbicide and/or a corn cultivator. I will harvest the disc and plant winter wheat and harvest in spring and bale straw with a small square baler, then repeat process with sweet corn or soybeans.

Equipment i would get
28 PTO Horse Ford 1910 tractor (already own)
Ford 2 bottom plow and 5' disc (already own)
JD 2 row planter
JD 8' grain drill
international 4 row corn cultivator
25' PTO sprayer
3pt cone spreader
327 New idea 2 row corn picker
corn wagon
JD model 30 pull type combine
JD 14T small square baler
8' x 16' hay wagon with rack

total equipment cost: $9,700
gross profit: $11,400
Net profit: $1,900 (before seed, fert and possible repair costs)

Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks

Looks like a good start. You may want to figure in a tractor that's about 15 - 20 more HP to operate the cultivator, picker & combine comfortably. You could upgrade that planter to 4 row too then. Don't think you'll be picking sweet corn with that picker, either, unless someone knows how to set one up so it doesn't strip the husks or damage the cob.

Mike

 

[Case/Chev]

Tongue in cheek......find a local 3rd or 4th generation childless farm couple and let them adopt you.....that will lead to 100% success in farming. In all seriousness.....I love your dreams and ideas. Little off topic, but you will need a real serious off the farm career to help you achieve bigger things. Do all you can to learn a trade right now at 15.....if you can farm, you can weld....be an electrician.....plumber.....cnc machinist. Then you will enjoy your time on the land even more. Find someone who can help you with financial literacy if you are not getting it in school. Learn to have a local bank that you can walk into and build a relationship with the humans inside......then get a small loan and build a reputation. All the tractor and machinery things can be fun......but learn the building blocks that will keep you in the dirt for years to come if that is what you want.

 

[Gabe L]

Tongue in cheek......find a local 3rd or 4th generation childless farm couple and let them adopt you.....that will lead to 100% success in farming. In all seriousness.....I love your dreams and ideas. Little off topic, but you will need a real serious off the farm career to help you achieve bigger things. Do all you can to learn a trade right now at 15.....if you can farm, you can weld....be an electrician.....plumber.....cnc machinist. Then you will enjoy your time on the land even more. Find someone who can help you with financial literacy if you are not getting it in school. Learn to have a local bank that you can walk into and build a relationship with the humans inside......then get a small loan and build a reputation. All the tractor and machinery things can be fun......but learn the building blocks that will keep you in the dirt for years to come if that is what you want.

I didnt mention this but i have plans of going to tech school for heavy equipment operating and working with my dads small heavy equipment business until i get a heavy equipment job outside of that

 

[Case/Chev]

I didnt mention this but i have plans of going to tech school for heavy equipment operating and working with my dads small heavy equipment business until i get a heavy equipment job outside of that

Yes......you get it ! And ask you dad for a little schooling on how to talk to bankers......how to accumulate working capital.......and.....maybe work with your dad to trade heavy equipment work for more and more pieces of land that you can own. Help clear 100 acres if the landowner will give you a deal on buying 50 acres. Go for it

 

[E.B. Haymakin']

Hey all, I am 15 and i am trying to start up a farm to continue upgrading and living through my farm as i get older. I am looking at a plot of land that i am trying to rent it is 11.3 acres with roughly 10 of them farmable and it has been farmed on in the past, but is not currently. I already have an idea of what i want to do for year one starting in spring. I want to plow and disc all of the land then spread nitrogen heavy mineral fertilizer and possibly lime depending on soil p.h. levels, then plant sweet corn and weed it a little later on with a natural herbicide and/or a corn cultivator. I will harvest the disc and plant winter wheat and harvest in spring and bale straw with a small square baler, then repeat process with sweet corn or soybeans.

Equipment i would get
28 PTO Horse Ford 1910 tractor (already own)
Ford 2 bottom plow and 5' disc (already own)
JD 2 row planter
MF13' grain drill
international 4 row corn cultivator
25' PTO sprayer
3pt cone spreader
327 New idea 2 row corn picker
corn wagon
JD model 30 pull type combine
JD 14T small square baler
8' x 16' hay wagon with rack

total equipment cost: $9,700
gross profit: $11,400
Net profit: $1,900 (before seed, fert and possible repair costs)

Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks

Your going to hear some negativity about your goal of a micro farm. The vast majority of agriculture is in some form of government subsidy program. If it's not it's being utilized as a tax loss for someone that's making a ton of money somehow and is hiding it. As said on these forums before....farmers pay full retail for their input costs, and sell their own products wholesale, usually. Those statements are insurmountable roadblocks to a profitable agricultural operation. Our country will pay the price.
Now, how I would approach what you have asset wise now would be a growing season cash vegetable operation. Do your corn, but I wouldn't to carried away with a picker, just ask friends for help. I would avoid planting all your acreage in one crop. Fungus and insects could mail you. Find out what's moving locally and when tomatoes, watermelon etc. Roadside sell. Don't know about you pick....if you can make that business model cover your costs, and return some cash then you can look at scaling it up or venturing into other ag. A part time job may be unavoidable.
Where your at you need to be as opportunistic as allowable. Greens in winter, corn in summer, and hey let's do some pumpkins.....if family property is available consider greenhouse bedding plants to roadside sell in spring. Keep it small, greenhouse operations are expensive to start but drap some plastic sheets from barn rafters. Wish you luck in your endeavors. On the greenhouse stuff plastic pots are online. For soil mix look locally for someone like Longleaf Mulch in Semmes, Al that bulk sells media to the public.

 

[E.B. Haymakin']

Hey all, I am 15 and i am trying to start up a farm to continue upgrading and living through my farm as i get older. I am looking at a plot of land that i am trying to rent it is 11.3 acres with roughly 10 of them farmable and it has been farmed on in the past, but is not currently. I already have an idea of what i want to do for year one starting in spring. I want to plow and disc all of the land then spread nitrogen heavy mineral fertilizer and possibly lime depending on soil p.h. levels, then plant sweet corn and weed it a little later on with a natural herbicide and/or a corn cultivator. I will harvest the disc and plant winter wheat and harvest in spring and bale straw with a small square baler, then repeat process with sweet corn or soybeans.

Equipment i would get
28 PTO Horse Ford 1910 tractor (already own)
Ford 2 bottom plow and 5' disc (already own)
JD 2 row planter
MF13' grain drill
international 4 row corn cultivator
25' PTO sprayer
3pt cone spreader
327 New idea 2 row corn picker
corn wagon
JD model 30 pull type combine
JD 14T small square baler
8' x 16' hay wagon with rack

total equipment cost: $9,700
gross profit: $11,400
Net profit: $1,900 (before seed, fert and possible repair costs)

Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks

I just don't know how cropping ten acres would pencil unless your partnered up with a larger operator.....wish you well

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

I have a question: What's the corn picker for? A New Idea corn picker is meant for picking field corn which is dry and hard. It will turn sweet corn into creamed corn.

Something you haven't factored in is TIME. Plowing and discing 10 acres with a compact tractor and a 2-bottom plow will take multiple full days. To give you an idea it took me approximately 7 hours to plow 11 acres with a 100HP tractor and a 4-bottom plow. I had to fit it in after work so it took me three evenings. Getting three evenings when it wasn't raining was difficult this spring.

If you've got nothing else to do, you can run all day when the sun shines, but most jobs, and school, don't care about the weather or your crops. They expect you to be there. There will be many days when you should be in the field, but you're stuck in the office, and by the time you're done with work/school, it's raining.

This is not to say don't do it, but to give you an idea of what to expect.

 

[DPittman]

I have no advice but I do appreciate a young man with some ambition and a plan. Good luck with your plan

 

[Loosehandle]

Hey all, I am 15 and i am trying to start up a farm to continue upgrading and living through my farm as i get older. I am looking at a plot of land that i am trying to rent it is 11.3 acres with roughly 10 of them farmable and it has been farmed on in the past, but is not currently. I already have an idea of what i want to do for year one starting in spring. I want to plow and disc all of the land then spread nitrogen heavy mineral fertilizer and possibly lime depending on soil p.h. levels, then plant sweet corn and weed it a little later on with a natural herbicide and/or a corn cultivator. I will harvest the disc and plant winter wheat and harvest in spring and bale straw with a small square baler, then repeat process with sweet corn or soybeans.

Equipment i would get
28 PTO Horse Ford 1910 tractor (already own)
Ford 2 bottom plow and 5' disc (already own)
JD 2 row planter
MF13' grain drill
international 4 row corn cultivator
25' PTO sprayer
3pt cone spreader
327 New idea 2 row corn picker
corn wagon
JD model 30 pull type combine
JD 14T small square baler
8' x 16' hay wagon with rack

total equipment cost: $9,700
gross profit: $11,400
Net profit: $1,900 (before seed, fert and possible repair costs)

Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks

I would work towards getting my own excavator instead.

 

[RJKeith]

If you are going to farm produce, 10 acres of sweet corn is a lot of sweet corn. How do you plan to sell it? Direct to customer of with a contract to a store. You might consider planting some in tomatoes, peppers, squash/zucchini, or melons. Talk to another local farmer doing produce.

 

[shaun wallace]

Double cropping doesnt always work out, its better to do one then let land lay out a season.

 

[Gabe L]

I have no advice but I do appreciate a young man with some ambition and a plan. Good luck with your plan

Thank you!

 

[bc]

Good luck. Why not ditch the plow and go no till?

 

[BarnyardEngineering]

Good luck. Why not ditch the plow and go no till?

If the land hasn't been worked in years, it really needs to be turned over.

No till equipment is a whole other level of cost and HP requirements, not to mention weed control is done chemically, and the OP has already stated their intention of using a "natural herbicide" whatever that is, or cultivating. An old 2-row trip lift JD plate style corn planter isn't going to do no-till.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

Mixing 2 and 4 row planters and cultivators is less than ideal, but doable. One problem is if the field isn’t fit good (rough) you can loose sight of the market furrow and veer off. If you’re careful you won’t have any trouble at all… you only have 10 acres, take your time.

I don’t see any finishing tool in your equipment list, invest in a couple railroad ties to pull behind the disk, this will help level the ground so your marker can be better seen.

Don’t try to plow when it’s too wet in the spring… once the furrow slices dry out it will be very hard to work down the soil. Best bet is fall plow and let nature break it down for you , the field will work down with minimum passes in the spring.

 

[Fritz Maurer]

That’s another reason to fall plow… you have less work load in the spring.

Now is the time to max that tractor out with the moldboard and fix whatever bugs crop up. Then all you have is light loads come spring.

 

[NY 986]

Hey all, I am 15 and i am trying to start up a farm to continue upgrading and living through my farm as i get older. I am looking at a plot of land that i am trying to rent it is 11.3 acres with roughly 10 of them farmable and it has been farmed on in the past, but is not currently. I already have an idea of what i want to do for year one starting in spring. I want to plow and disc all of the land then spread nitrogen heavy mineral fertilizer and possibly lime depending on soil p.h. levels, then plant sweet corn and weed it a little later on with a natural herbicide and/or a corn cultivator. I will harvest the disc and plant winter wheat and harvest in spring and bale straw with a small square baler, then repeat process with sweet corn or soybeans.

Equipment i would get
28 PTO Horse Ford 1910 tractor (already own)
Ford 2 bottom plow and 5' disc (already own)
JD 2 row planter
MF13' grain drill
international 4 row corn cultivator
25' PTO sprayer
3pt cone spreader
327 New idea 2 row corn picker
corn wagon
JD model 30 pull type combine
JD 14T small square baler
8' x 16' hay wagon with rack

total equipment cost: $9,700
gross profit: $11,400
Net profit: $1,900 (before seed, fert and possible repair costs)

Any advice is greatly appreciated!
Thanks

You need to see if the land in question is subject to any government programs meaning something the current owner has signed up that you may have an obligation to. If highly erodible as classified by the government you may not be allowed to till the soil with conventional tools such as a moldboard plow. Your prospective landlord or county FSA can tell you for sure.