Buying a farm?

[Ky cowboy]

Currently lease/share crop 300 acres 1/2 is pasture. And about 30 acres is tillable. My question is can I make the farm make the payments plus daily exspences by leasing the tillable ground and running cattle on winter wheat and stubble thru the winter,and supplementing with hay and on the back pasture thru the summer. The fence needs major tlc and there's 2 lakes. I already have equipment so that's not a problem. Don't really want to make a living from it just make It pay for itself.

 

[Bigfoot]

I don't want to sound nosey at all, but I could run some numbers, with the following info:
Total cost
Total acres
Total crop land
Total pasture
Timber stand
Any buildings?
Approximate feet of fence

 

[Ky cowboy]

Correction on acres it's 250 total with 35-40 tillable and 175?of pasture the rest is woods/thicket that's been cut pretty hard about 5 years ago. It's got two barns that are functional but not great and an older mobile home that's been added in to I think it would make a good rental I know my wife won't move into it

 

[Bigfoot]

Figured it fast, and might have made a mistake. Sorry. I came up with $140,000 as top dollar to pay on relying to leasing the crop ground and running your own cattle on the pasture. The home is income I would figure seperatly. I gave up on rental property, and can't help you there. That's on a 15 year note. Some big gun might figure it differently, but that's my honest opinion.

 

[tom4018]

What you can get for crop ground rent varies quite a bit in different areas of Kentucky. Some of the neighboring counties to me can get $50-75 more than ground in my county.

 

[Son of Butch]

Correction on acres it's 250 total with 35-40 tillable and 175?of pasture the rest is woods/thicket that's been cut pretty hard about 5 years ago. It's got two barns that are functional but not great and an older mobile home that's been added in to I think it would make a good rental I know my wife won't move into it

Seems doubtful to me. But I know nothing about Kentucky land prices, property taxes, or even farming practices in Kentucky.
Sounds like you will be trying to make the rental income from 38 tillable acres and the trailer house carry the debt load and the 2 barns will quickly be depreciated out. 175 acres of fenced pasture? 37 acres of thicket for squirrel hunting? what about a still?
How much income is the trailer house currently generating?
How much cash flow are the tillable acres generating?
What about making sorghum/corn silage for your own use from the tillable acres?

My guess is you are farming it and know the numbers won't work, but are trying to fit a square peg to a round hole.
Will the income you're currently generating from your 1/2 cover 1/2 the payments of the asking price?
You already have the answers, you just need to put a pencil to it and write them all down to see if it will cash flow.
However it comes out, the Best of Luck to ya.

 

[Ky cowboy]

35 acres of corn on today's prices will give me $8352 beans will be less at $4236. I could still run around 30 head of cows and I know cattle are higher than ever and who knows how long it'll stay up but figured that in at a grand a calf and figured I could retain 1/3 of that money giving me $9000 off cattle I may be off on how much of a return you make off of the cattle but I think it's close. The owner is living in the home now and my father in law owns several rental homes and I could easy get 425 month out of it. Figure to be able to retain $200 of it a month the rest used to to pay farm taxes and rental home up keep.

I think I can get it for $265-$270k
Giving me a payment of $1138 month
$13656 a year
The total of EXPECTED income averages out to $17739
My main concern is I'm off on my hoped returns on the cattle what do some of you figure a return from a momma cow excluding land payments. Thanks

 

[Ky cowboy]

And son of a butch if want some good shine come on down. Even tho I live in western ky, it's still ky

 

[Son of Butch]

My main concern is I'm off on my hoped returns on the cattle what do some of you figure a return from a momma cow excluding land payments. Thanks

Sterling beef cow/calf profit tracker [annual revenue - annual direct costs]
2012 $213 per cow
2013 $243
2014 $548
2015 $658 Estimated based on Sterling Marketing revenue and cost of production projections

4 yr average $415 per cow

 

[Stocker Steve]

My main concern is I'm off on my hoped returns on the cattle what do some of you figure a return from a momma cow excluding land payments. Thanks

Sterling beef cow/calf profit tracker [annual revenue - annual direct costs]
2012 $213 per cow
2013 $243
2014 $548
2015 $658 Estimated based on Sterling Marketing revenue and cost of production projections

4 yr average $415 per cow

Sounds like you need to run a couple sets of numbers - - at $200 or $400 gross margin per pair. Buying land and cattle to stock it would be an issue for me.

If you stock a pair on 2 acres -- that is $100 or $200 gross margin per acre. Does corn and beans make this? If not, you should also consider seeding down the crop ground.