Martin Family Farms

Challenges & Opportunities

“ Real estate cannot be lost or stolen,
nor can it be carried away.
Purchased with common sense, paid for in full,
and managed with reasonable care,
it is about the safest investment in the world.”
--Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882 – 1945)

I recently ran across this quote and thought how true this has been over time.
The only problem with it now is the "paid in full" part. However, this has always been a problem no matter what generation we talk about. My dad still tells me stories of how my grandpa had the chance to buy ground for $800 per acre and turned it down. In today's world that sounds crazy, but is it? With land in Central Illinois selling for over $9,000 per acre acre should we buy it up or wait for prices to fall.  We have taken such a huge jump in appreciation the last 5 years one would think that it would have to have some type of correction.

     However, with the world demand at record levels and lots of cash available to buy land it makes the competition very fierce when a farm comes up for sale.   A 4% return paid on $9,000 land is possible this year, but with input costs already rising for the 2012 crop year it really makes a good return questionable for future years. With that said farmland has historically provided a  3%-5% return and had tremendous appreciation in value which would still lead me to believe that it is a solid investment.   That is one of the things I enjoy the most about farming is the uncertainty and the challenges it presents.  Although it is extremely risky and would probably make most peoples stomach upset there is an  un describable satisfaction knowing that my family and farm is prepared to take on and succeed at these challenges.

Below is a picture of my  grandpa Harry Martin loading a truck the "old fashioned way".

 
 

Can we raise 300 bushels per acre?

300 bushel per acre corn seems to be the new target for corn farmers to try and reach in the near future.  Can we do it?  I think that it is very possible and we are even doing it now in select areas of the field. Right now I think it takes a little extra nurturing to be able to do that on a whole farm.  That will be the focus for our farm this week.  This year we have decided to take 4-5 farms and do our own research and see what it is going to take to get to the next level.  We will be making the plan for nitrogen, fertilizer,fungicide application and seeding recommendations to take that first step toward the magical 300 bpa.  One of the problems that I see with trying to get to that level is a lot of the practices used are not economical or  applicable for a lot of todays larger scale farms. Sometimes the best formula includes several trips across a field for nitrogen or multiple aerial product applications.  Not knowing how these will effect the crop keeps a lot of farmers from experimenting with different practices.

This past weekend we enjoyed some beautiful weather in our area.  It allowed us to spend a lot of time with the kids outside and finally get some fresh air.  We also have spent quite a bit of time looking for deer antlers this week.  For those of you who do not know deer lose their antlers every year about this time. One of our favorite things to do is to look for them and see how many we can find. The kids love it.

That was fast.....

From the winter blahs one week right into spring fever the next week.  That is what we will be having with temps in the 50 and 60 degree range this week.  This is the time of year when we realize that we better start finalizing our plans for the upcoming growing season.  This week we will be getting some of the machinery out that needed some attention when we finished up last fall, and making room for our seed to be delivered.  This time of year is also very busy for meetings which can fill up a week pretty fast.  Grain hauling will be put on hold due to the thawing out of the ground and muddy conditions.  The grain markets continue to be strong with China continuing to show strong demand for wheat, corn, and soybeans and new concern this morning about a drought affecting the Mexican corn crop.

Winter Blahs......

The winter blahs are beginning to set in around the Martin house. With 12 inches of snow on the ground and the kids missing three days of school last week we are ready to move in to spring. That being said it will be here faster than we think. I am hoping that two months from today I am writing this blog from the corn planter telling you that everything is going smooth.  In the meantime we are still trying to figure out what type of crop insurance we will be taking along with trying to get the last two bins of corn empty. This week I sold some corn for $6.70 for April delivery at our local elevator. That gives me over a $3.00 range in price for the corn that I sold from the 2010 crop year.  I remember making sales last summer for $3.50 because we were scared that the price was going to $3.00. Even though we raised a below average crop I am just thankful that I still had crop to sell as the market rallied.