If farming is such a good gig, go buy all the equipment, some land, all the inputs and start farmin. You’ll see

The farmers in our area that are doine well are 3rd, 4th, 5th and 6th generation farms and have build equity and leverage for 75-150 years. T say one can go out and buy 200 acres today and stock it with cows, machinery, equipment and feed supply shows that many don't understand the process to be able to pay 12k per acre to expand in todays world. Having worked with farmers from 1975 to to 2016, I was able to work with farmers on both ends of the spectrum and yes some are very profitable and many of those have been profitable for several generations. Margins in todays Ag economy are very slim and thus we see the expansion of those with leverage to do so, and they can become more profitable. With the high cost of health care, familly living, education, saving for retirement etc. it makes smaller farms with lower revenues hard to sustain even if they can produce a product at a lower cost then many of the larger scale operations.

Bryce

Well said Bryce. 4th generation farmer here

Trying to wrap up corn harvest this evening, lost the transmission in an International grain truck. Always something. Neighbor farmer will lend us a truck to finish

People see all the fancy equipment and make a lot of assumptions. You know what they don't see? They don't see the bank note that is owed on all that shinny equipment.

Well they may have a bank note but it has to be paid off plus interest.

Many of the large farms that are growing around here and expanding don't really plan on getting out of debt. They learn and have learned how to manage debt and also which investments have the best returns on their investments. Also many are getting funds from non ag sources where the REAL money is at and those individuals, firms or investment groups can benefit greatly from the tax write offs from depreciation etc. as many of those investors are in the 30 something plus tax brackets. It is easy for many to see a new shiney combine or tractor and think that someone is really rich, but it tells me they know very little about where the real billions are at.

Bryce