Farm Aid Concert at Huntington

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Word said:
According to their website it is to help/encourage small/family farms. So perhaps not the large, corporate farms that are doing well.

How does Farm Aid help family farmers? - Ask Farm Aid

Ask Farm Aid discusses how Farm Aid helps Family Farmers.
www.farmaid.org www.farmaid.org
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With the price of land and the low prices on corn and soybean it will be very hard for small farms to remain viable. Southwest Minnesota land is running well over 10k per acre.
 

Word said:
According to their website it is to help/encourage small/family farms. So perhaps not the large and/or corporate farms that are doing well.

How does Farm Aid help family farmers? - Ask Farm Aid

Ask Farm Aid discusses how Farm Aid helps Family Farmers.
www.farmaid.org www.farmaid.org
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I work with farmers on a daily basis. The idea of the "family farm" is antiquated. Even small farmers are worth several millions of dollars and while commodity prices are currently low, producers can insure revenue. Frankly, I see farmers that fail and it has nothing to do with size and everything to do with poor decisions.
 

FinnGopher said:
UMN band has woodwinds, which aren't loud. If the band were going for volume they'd be all brass and drums.
The acoustics will be fine. People going will go to support Farmers. That lineup, however, is made up of old men who now yell at clouds. It's just a nostalgia concert to raise money and awareness for farmers.

A problem for farming is that land is being bought up by billionaires and local farmers are becoming hired hands like a fuedal state.
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Literally not true. Only about 5% of US farms are incorporated, and the vast majority of those are family corporations who own and farm the land themselves.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Literally not true. Only about 5% of US farms are incorporated, and the vast majority of those are family corporations who own and farm the land themselves.
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The farms are being owned by big farmers who own thousands and ten thousands of acres. The day of the 80 - 160 acre farm are over. When my uncles farm went up for sale after he died there were local "super farmers" who were very eager to buy the 240 acres he had. Those boys could buy the land with cash. The day of the small farmer is over.
 


FinnGopher said:
The farms are being owned by big farmers who own thousands and ten thousands of acres. The day of the 80 - 160 acre farm are over. When my uncles farm went up for sale after he died there were local "super farmers" who were very eager to buy the 240 acres he had. Those boys could buy the land with cash. The day of the small farmer is over.
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I live in farm country. These small size farms exist all over still,,, but they are not their main revenue source. Mostly hobby farms to supplement.

And yes all full time farmers will snatch up land before it goes on the market whenever they can.
 

FinnGopher said:
The farms are being owned by big farmers who own thousands and ten thousands of acres. The day of the 80 - 160 acre farm are over. When my uncles farm went up for sale after he died there were local "super farmers" who were very eager to buy the 240 acres he had. Those boys could buy the land with cash. The day of the small farmer is over.
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Nice pivot.
 

PMWinSTP said:
Nice pivot.
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I see a lot of hired hands while super farms grow bigger and small farms fade away. I also know that there were super farms and wealthy investors wanted my uncle's land, but the family found smaller farmers who would honor the land and sold to them for a lower price so it wouldn't be gobbled up by the large conglomerates.
Again, the small farmer is fading away.
 

FinnGopher said:
The farms are being owned by big farmers who own thousands and ten thousands of acres. The day of the 80 - 160 acre farm are over. When my uncles farm went up for sale after he died there were local "super farmers" who were very eager to buy the 240 acres he had. Those boys could buy the land with cash. The day of the small farmer is over.
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Farmers who own "thousands of tens of thousands of acres" are just farmers and aren't "conglomerates" or "super farmers" they are farmers. They are just garden variety farmers and sometimes maybe their grandkids in a family farm operation. It's not Unilever, Cargill, Walmart or KraftHeinz buying land. Minnesota and most other ag-centric states have laws against corporate farm ownership. About 50% or less of farm land is owned by owner operators and the other half retired farmers or their heirs. Very little is owned by "investors" (who in local farmer parlance means the winning bidder who wasn't them). When a farm is sold at auction, very newly always it's purchased by a farmer ten miles away or less. 80 and 160 acre farms were antiquated two generations or more ago. Anyone farming 240 acres now is either 1.Part time (with a job in town) with a very expensive hobby, 2. A CSA making their living at farmers markets, or 3. A farmer easing into retirement renting the rest of his land to the son in law.

There are a few exceptions of course. Guys like Phil Sonstegaard and Ron Fagen but a lot of land but they aren't farmers. They rent their land to local farmers. And RDO buys a lot of garbage tree farm land in central Minnesota, and spends a ton of money on drainage and irrigation to grow potatoes. But no one else wants that land.
 



swede2 said:
Farmers who own "thousands of tens of thousands of acres" are just farmers and aren't "conglomerates" or "super farmers" they are farmers. They are just garden variety farmers and sometimes maybe their grandkids in a family farm operation. It's not Unilever, Cargill, Walmart or KraftHeinz buying land. Minnesota and most other ag-centric states have laws against corporate farm ownership. About 50% or less of farm land is owned by owner operators and the other half retired farmers or their heirs. Very little is owned by "investors" (who in local farmer parlance means the winning bidder who wasn't them). When a farm is sold at auction, very newly always it's purchased by a farmer ten miles away or less. 80 and 160 acre farms were antiquated two generations or more ago. Anyone farming 240 acres now is either 1.Part time (with a job in town) with a very expensive hobby, 2. A CSA making their living at farmers markets, or 3. A farmer easing into retirement renting the rest of his land to the son in law.

There are a few exceptions of course. Guys like Phil Sonstegaard and Ron Fagen but a lot of land but they aren't farmers. They rent their land to local farmers. And RDO buys a lot of garbage tree farm land in central Minnesota, and spends a ton of money on drainage and irrigation to grow potatoes. But no one else wants that land.
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Couldn't agree more. Where I grew up an small farm was like 400 acres. Most were at least 1000 acres.
 

swede2 said:
Farmers who own "thousands of tens of thousands of acres" are just farmers and aren't "conglomerates" or "super farmers" they are farmers. They are just garden variety farmers and sometimes maybe their grandkids in a family farm operation. It's not Unilever, Cargill, Walmart or KraftHeinz buying land. Minnesota and most other ag-centric states have laws against corporate farm ownership. About 50% or less of farm land is owned by owner operators and the other half retired farmers or their heirs. Very little is owned by "investors" (who in local farmer parlance means the winning bidder who wasn't them). When a farm is sold at auction, very newly always it's purchased by a farmer ten miles away or less. 80 and 160 acre farms were antiquated two generations or more ago. Anyone farming 240 acres now is either 1.Part time (with a job in town) with a very expensive hobby, 2. A CSA making their living at farmers markets, or 3. A farmer easing into retirement renting the rest of his land to the son in law.

There are a few exceptions of course. Guys like Phil Sonstegaard and Ron Fagen but a lot of land but they aren't farmers. They rent their land to local farmers. And RDO buys a lot of garbage tree farm land in central Minnesota, and spends a ton of money on drainage and irrigation to grow potatoes. But no one else wants that land.
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You prove my point that the small farmer has faded away. Only the big farmer exists and the rest of the folks are serfs. Welcome to the return of the feudal system.
 






mggoph said:
Aue contraire!

Willie is old (92, and still an icon).
Neil is (79 and still an icon)
John Mellenkamp is 73
Dave Matthews is 58 (my fave)
Rest of line up is younger.
Yes, I hope some of this does go to help farmers? Who knows how much? Surely not enough.

As far as farm land being bought up by billionaires (and foreigners), take that to the other board.
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What a great lineup- Have a great time!!

Saw Willie in 98 and he played less than an hour, but it was amazing. Mellenkamp is great live as well. Always wanted to see Young!!!
 

FinnGopher said:
You prove my point that the small farmer has faded away. Only the big farmer exists and the rest of the folks are serfs. Welcome to the return of the feudal system.
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Farms have been getting bigger since farming began. The size of farms has never been static. Old McDonald style farming is inefficient and impractical.
 

swede2 said:
Farms have been getting bigger since farming began. The size of farms has never been static. Old McDonald style farming is inefficient and impractical.
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I believe someone at the U of M did a good study that showed that the initial homestead type farm grants were often impossible to last on long term ... even at the time.

Farming has always been an ever increasing farm size game and not a consistent money maker.

Growing up in the rural lands I couldn't help but look around and think "best thing for a lot of these people is just to get out of the game".

I think there's an ideal about family farming that maybe has never been sustainable outside some brief golden ages. Let alone situations with subsidies and so on.
 
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FinnGopher said:
With the price of land and the low prices on corn and soybean it will be very hard for small farms to remain viable. Southwest Minnesota land is running well over 10k per acre.
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Yeah, but that is how much of small business works. You make an okay living, but cash out on the sale of the business/land when you are done.
 

mggoph said:
The average farm size in Minnesota is 388 acres, according to the USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service. This is based on the 2022 Census of Agriculture. The number of farms in Minnesota has decreased in recent years, while the average farm size has increased.
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This statistic is skewed by the inability to factor in the large farmers who are renting acreage from families that no longer work the farm. For example, the last 15 years of my uncle's life, he could no longer work the farm and, instead, rented the acres out to another farmer.
 

FinnGopher said:
This statistic is skewed by the inability to factor in the large farmers who are renting acreage from families that no longer work the farm. For example, the last 15 years of my uncle's life, he could no longer work the farm and, instead, rented the acres out to another farmer.
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He's still a individual farmer who owns land that is being farmed by another individual farmer. You are not helping your argument, at all.
 

FinnGopher said:
This statistic is skewed by the inability to factor in the large farmers who are renting acreage from families that no longer work the farm. For example, the last 15 years of my uncle's life, he could no longer work the farm and, instead, rented the acres out to another farmer.
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Doesn't factor farmers wgo make their wife a farmer for purposes of doubling the already generous farm subsidies to circumvent the AGI limits ($900,000 per producer!).
 

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