Pasture Leasing Trends ?

[Stocker Steve]

You see reports where 50 to 75% of the crop ground in some areas is leased, and the percentage of leased ground is continuing to increase. One effect of this is the preference of off farm owners for cash rent.

What trends are you seeing for pasture ground?

 

[Banjo]

I talked to a guy recently that owns a farm equipment place and he has got about half of his farm in a set aside program...either 5 or 10 years and they(givermint) are paying like 150 bucks an acre and he said they are fixin to start paying more. He said you could bushhog half of it once a year.

 

[Stocker Steve]

If a government set aside program pays $150 per acre, vs. losing $150 growing surplus grain, why is there not more land being signed up?

 

[fenceman]

The trend I've been seeing is the farmers ranching. Past few years we've been fencing a lot of the strips ,corners and drains between fields. Often only a few acres. The farmers are farming like they always have but raising cattle in these little unworkable areas. They can stock quite a few on a few acres by feeding lots of crop residue.

 

[Stocker Steve]

The trend I've been seeing is the farmers ranching. Past few years we've been fencing a lot of the strips ,corners and drains between fields. Often only a few acres. The farmers are farming like they always have but raising cattle in these little unworkable areas. They can stock quite a few on a few acres by feeding lots of crop residue.

I did some of this until I decided there was no money in grain farming the type of soil we have. The challenge then become funding enough livestock to harvest the forage.

Either way - - there should be alot of business for the fence man!

 

[Banjo]

If a government set aside program pays $150 per acre, vs. losing $150 growing surplus grain, why is there not more land being signed up?

Don't know, maybe people don't know about it.

 

[tnwalkingred]

Seems like I looked into this once before and there was a government program where you cut hay and raise cattle on land as long as you agreed not to crop it. You were paid so much per acre to this but the contract terms were plenty long. You were paid so much per acre but if I remember correctly there were very limited number of acres that they supported and it was very hard to get approved. I actually thought about buying a farm to do this on before I found my leased cattle farms. If a person had land that qualified it wouldn't hurt to apply every year. Seems like it would be a way to gain additional income for a person who knew they didn't want to be in the crop business.

KW

 

[tnwalkingred]

Below is a link to the program I had looked into.

http://www.fsa.usda.gov/programs-and-se ... erve/index

KW

 

[Brute 23]

That is very common. Places that were farmed for quite a few years can be planted in grass and they bring in revenue from the govt to not be farmed. Forgot the name of it. They teach it in real estate classes as a source of income to factor in when buying or selling acreage.

The trend around here is people renting land have more money than sense. You have to find land owners that value their property being maintained over putting cash in their pockets.

 

[Bigfoot]

There must be a ton of catches to the grassland reserve program. If not, more people would be in it. I know for sure, cattle is all I'll ever raise. I always figured you had to fence the cows off the slopes, and away from the water. Probably have to let briars and brambles claim your bottoms to.

 

[littletom]

Called crep (locals call it crap) here $ based on county. I think it is around a 100 in my county. Limit on acres per person. Native grass you have to bush hog every other year or strip mow it each year. Keep weeds trees sprayed. 15 year contract. If you want out you have to pay back the money you have received. Only other way out is to die. If goes with farm if sold unless owner died. No new sign ups now, but they let the ones in renew. In a drought they release it to be hayed. Don't have any my mom is on that board. 15 years is a long time to tie something up. Here it has to be in green river watershed, all ground is not eligible.

 

[tnwalkingred]

Bigfoot,

I'm sure there are are plenty of catches to the Grassland Reserve Program just as there are in most government programs. Having borrowed money from the FSA when I started farming I can assure you that it's not always the best route but also not the worst. I've found that 90% of the headaches will/can be avoided with a good loan officer. I've had both and it was night and day.

If I read the article correctly it says they only allow for 2 million acres per year to be in the program. That's really not that many acres across the US unless that's figured per year not counting acres already enrolled. If I owned any farm land I would seriously consider signing up every year. A 10 year lease wouldn't be bad at all and if you received even an $100 per acre it would really benefit the bottom line. Would at least pay the fertilizer costs IMO.

KW

 

[ddd75]

when i bought my place they paid that guy not to put it in corn. fsa has it at 120 crop acres and they paid him 1200 / yr I'm pretty sure. of course as soon as I bought it the program ended.

 

[Bigfoot]

My place has not been row cropped ever. Subsequently, it doesn't qualify for CRP. I would sign it up in a split second if I could. Id keep a few acres around my house and barns out, and buy a few steers in the spring, and sell them in the fall. IMHO, the CRP program is a gravy train on biscuit wheels. Not spoiling for an arguement, just saying what I would do.

 

[ram]

I see it as welfare and we receive some payments. I also bought some land that I purchased out of CRP. Because it's my home place and I don't want or need the government on my property.

 

[JSCATTLE]

Rice farmers get payments here not to farm .. Dcp is the initials .. I was at the ag lenders office in my area a while back and saw a guys application for a loan to purchase cows . His dcp payment was 32k a year .. His payroll statement said 52k a year . He made over have his annual income in government payments . I ask the lender how that works and he said you can still run cows and cut hay just can't farm rice . Sounds like bs to me ..

 

[Tim/South]

This year FSA is allowing pastures and hay ground to be eligible for a type of CRP.
The hay part does not look good because you can not cut until ground nesting birds have finished.
I believe the pasture here is paying $30 per acre.

 

[WalnutCrest]

Interesting ...

... following.