Some land around here (irrigated) is taxed at $105/acre. I'm sure it's worse in the Midwest.
Omaha doctors and such own alot of land.

Many not factual info posts on here, but reviewing those can come at a later date and time. Farmers get picked upon a lot here but the vast majority of undocumented workers do not work in agriculture. It is that a lot of agriculture has gravitated to the usage of those labor sources as well as the food processing industries. In WI they estimate roughly 70K of undocumented workers of which about 10% are designated as ag labor.

As to cashflow and or farm financial troubles, yes that is true and one of the reasons the small farms are losing out is the larger farms have the leverage and equity to buy them out, even if they carry a lot of debt. They can work on very slim margins where smaller family sized farms can not continue to exist with narrow margins. Around here many small farmers are leasing their acres to these larger farms and those rental fees are allowing them to hold on to their farms and retire and or live quite a lot better than when they were running a smaller operation. We all want capitalism until it directly hits us. Our farm programs that were established for the most part in 1949 with several modifications works on bushels, tons and acres and that has always benefited those who have better yields and more acres.

Bryce

Farmers in the Sandhills are leasing pivots to Idaho potato farmers.

I have 130ish acres in crp and another 70 not enrolled and it's $3,500 a year in taxes. $105 a acre is brutal.

Bryce and Pawnee have the most accurate answers here.

Grain farmer myself, farm 800 acres of grain in a family operation, partnered with my uncle. We make a living, but have to keep a sharp pencil in a time of slim margins in grain farming.

When input prices increase ( seed, fertilizer, land rent, etc. ) it takes a lot for them to go back down. A bag of seed corn cost $400 +/- to plant 2.8 acres. Nitrogen is .50-.75 per pound of N. It cost a lot of money to plant an acre of corn.

Operating expenses are too high and grain prices aren’t high enough to get the return we need to operate comfortably. Ideally, operating expenses need to come down while grain prices remain relatively the same, because grain priced too high isn’t good for an economy ( trickle down to increase the price of a lot of foods, pork chicken etc.)

Large farmers can absorb a lot more than the smaller acreage farmers, and have the buying power to make them prevail over time.

Factors contributing to a down agricultural economy:
High interest rates
High land prices, most priced for recreation/hunting
High land rent
Low grain prices
Over Regulation
High operating expenses ( labor, equipment, seed , fertilizer)

This is for a new high school that provides charging stations for the cellphones. Yes, really. Crete, Nebraska

All the post on slave labor give me a chuckle. Do you guys realize we have to pay our white or Mexican cowboys from $20-$22 a hour with health insurance and other benefits. That’s $20 a hour for a guy with maybe or maybe not a high school education. And no we are not all going to starve to death if every last illegal is deported. That’s just a communist talking point

Does a high school education make for a better cowboy?

Here they do not farm for what the grain brings. It is the Government money that keeps them going.
https://farm.ewg.org/?fbclid=IwAR33_L1ZOVMFVBDjO0HxscfyNEkJruPQBOSbtfyc2aQzgGhFV2MTfc-YF_w

No I didn’t say it did. College education with a bachelor in Animal science helps tho

Government payments are for the most part nonexistent on growing crops. There are NRCS programs that will pay for enhanced conservation practices.

Any landowner can enroll acres in CRP , CREP . If it’s profitable go buy a bunch of land and get in on it. Sounds so easy

I am in Ward county ND. Look it up and tell that to my neighbors. They farm from the water to the road, it is odd conservation practices. I am told they are paid by the acre, and they farm what will not grow a crop, because it pays. The top 33 farm in my zip code 58718 drew seven digits or more from 1995-2023. That does not include cents, it is dollars. The top drew $1,053,113.15 It is all on there. many are listed more then once. Some in the farms name, some in their name, some in a trust or group, some in the Dads name.
The top drawing farm in ND drew $62,549,552 from 1995-2023, maybe more. I do not know if they are listed in other names, I do not know them.

Rural America is dieing off , small towns are dead , schools consolidating . The bigger is better approach has killed rural America . Hard to be a family farm or ranch when competing with farmers living large on govt subsidies , programs and the big one - federal crop insurance which is raped and abused with wild abandon . Theft by pen is still theft . And to top it off . Alot of these joker's get there debt forgiven when they completely overspend there selves into oblivion . Instead of being sold out to let a young producer get a opportunity they keep rolling , only to do it again . We need a major overhaul in the govt grain farming sector

I'll just comment on the labor side of this though I suspect it is a small drop in the bucket of bigger farming issues like land availability/costs, fuel and other chemical inputs.

I've got a fair amount of experience with the legalities of processing multiple types of visa paperwork. What PF states is basically a reference to the H2A visa that includes the ag arena. Most of us, myself included, often think that ag is extensively run on the labor of illegal immigrants and at one time it definitely was in many circumstances. But that isnt necessarily the current state of affairs at least depending where you are located and the particular ag sector. One reason is that over the last couple of decades migrants found more lucrative places to work and lots of the hard work required by ag sector was left high and dry. H2A visas provided a relief valve and they are about the simplest thing there is in the visa world. Every large ag employer in these parts utilizes the system. Those big mega farms that you think are running on illegal labor are likely not. Their staff will have legal papers and are fairly well compensated and staying in decent housing to boot. There are even businesses dedicated to processing migrants and visas specifically to contract them out to ag businesses. Around these parts they've been wondering when ICE is going to show up. What you are going to find when they arrive is that the big places sorta chuckle and shrug while pointing them down the road to the much smaller farms that they know are the ones actually using illegal migrants .

MJM I personally report and sign for over 10,000 acres plus my own. It maybe different in other states but I’ve been doing this for 30 years and our farm is lucky to get a check for $300 from the government. There were big payments under Trump in his first administration for the trade wars and yes there are CRP payments and NRCS payments. The last CRP I put in paid $30 an acre which covers the taxes and upkeep. I believe most folks confuse the amounts you posted with farmers getting paid per acre on crops. That’s not true! There are two programs at the FSA (farm service agency) PLC AND ARK they haven’t paid jack as long as I’ve been enrolled. I’d also point out the hundreds of non landowners I see hunting and trapping CRP acres so sportsmen should be careful on what they say on the web. I don’t belong to any farming forms and I always hope they don’t see threads like this.

Around here CRP is pretty good. Hill ground pays $120-$180 per acre. Bottom ground that is deemed wetlands pays $290. Just cannot believe the crop insurance scamming isn't cracked down upon. Maybe DOGE?

Another factor many don't realize is that in some if not many cases the amount one sees as federal subsidies includes all the federal crop insurance payments that the farmer recieved and are not direct subsidies but payments made do to lower crop prices, lower yields, drought emergencies etc. and the farmer does pay crop insurance premiums for those crop insurance dollars. Yes those premiums are subsidized at a certain percentage, Interestingly the federal crop insurance plans are sold in the private sector, so government workers are not hired to write the insurance plans. These types of programs were started about 3-4 farm bills ago to start to privatize the insuring of the crops and commodities. Somewhat like the advantage plans for Medicare that are actually private coverage plans.

Bryce

Farming is like any other business in that if you sell your product to someone who dictates the price to you your going to only make as much money as they let you.

Many farmers have figured out that selling direct to consumers and diversifying what you plant/grow is a solid way to make it in farming.



We buy all our Beef, pork and some chicken locally. It costs more but the quality is better and I like knowing I am supporting the farmer just down the road from me.

You’re right Dirty D, diversification has kept a lot of farms going. Growing barley or rye for a local brewery, growing grain for local cattle/hog/chicken growers , u-pick, selling on farm products etc. These are niche and don’t utilize a lot of acres.

We’re lucky to have a strong poultry presence in our area. So our corn basis is strong, usually .60-1.00 over. This helps support our corn price.

Hopefully the “farmers in trouble” pull through. A lot of hunting, trapping, fishing happen on farmers property. When they sell to housing development, solar companies, etc - all that recreation will come to a halt.