How many acres does it take for one guy to just farm these days?

[Caleb Linke]

I am wanting to get started in farming and i was wondering how many acres it would take.

[Andy Pulk]

I farm about 1500 acres of small grains, soybeans, and corn. We also cut 200 acres of meadow grass for our 25 beef cows and sell the excess. I am mostly on my own other than hiring trucking and some help baling if time is short. I do need help in the spring and fall and usually have one if not two guys helping me then. I do all of my own spraying and harvesting. Usually I do a few hundred acres of custom work for some of the neighbors, either haying, combining, or tillage. We (wife, baby, and I) are trying to figure out how to make a living doing it but it is tough. Where we farm the gross dollars per acre are not high, but the return (%) on your actual investment is decent. My wife presently still has a full time job do to health insurance. Presently we rent all of our ground but am looking into buying a quarter or two. Here, the rent payment is almost the same as the land payment would be. But good farm ground is usually locked up by the large established families. Overall we are making it work, I do not run any new equipment, not junk, but not new. I try to keep equipment payments to a minimum to weather bad years. If I was heavy in payments this year we would be done. My equipment line is enough to farm 2000+ acres and cost me under $70 an acre. I owe very little on it, but it has hurt my balance sheet. The banker says I need more long term debt to establish credit. I say I don't.... I've put as much money back into the farming operation to pay cash for equipment. I can always update equipment as money permits. Moral of the story.... Don't let anyone say it can't be done, but very large sacrifices must be made to do it.

[Ryan D. Rhoades]

If you coming into farming from absolutely now family farming background it is virtually impossible and that is unfortunate. It takes such an extreme amount of capital investment either for land, equipment or even input expenses to put out the crop that banks, credit unions or other lending institutions refuse to lend the money with proper collateral. My wife and I recently bought our first farm (outside of taking over farms from the family) in Ohio and it is going to take every we have to make it work. That is also considering receiving a tremendous amount of help from my father and mother in the way of equipment and labor. So unless money is not the ultimate issue for concern and just a willingness to farm there are other avenues one can pursue such as working for another established farmer or family in hopes to taking on some for your own. However, to start "cold turkey" into farming is nearly fantasy. At least I haven't found a good way without sacrificing my faith, family, or sanity.

[Caleb Linke]

Thanks for the reply's. I am going to put an ad in the local paper for land to rent. Any good ideas that would help?

[Brian Hough II]

Caleb,

I am in pretty much the same position that you are in. You could try Craigslist. I found an ad on there and got ground in exchange for brush hogging two horse pastures twice a year.
Brian