I rather doubt that ground would sell for $10 an acre this day in age. I seriously doubt that. Land here in Kansas is running, $1,800-$12,000 an acre. SO i bet that price was $2,000 per acre. If not, the best way to make money would be to by that cheap ground and sell it again the following day for profit.

There is alot of labor involved in growing and making jam. Probably not the best.

You are going to grow sugar beets, process them, then you are going to haul the ethanol to gas stations? You are sitting on a bigger load of cash than I think.

I think the ostrich and alpaca thing is just a dieing fad, I wouldn't get into that.

I would say a vegetable farm would be profitable, more than other types, but do you have the labor?

Jay

Sounds to me, you bought some old Ag. Venture mags. from the 1980's, at a yard sell!

land is cheap when no one can afford to keep it, and few people are willing to buy it.. im suprised the concept of supply and demand and conditions of a poor economy elude you?

If your talking about buying land at the tax auction remember you do not get immediate possession of the land. You are buying the delinquent tax bill from the government then the actual land owner has a period of time to pay you the amount that is due. If they do not then you get title (there will be legal work involved here) and can take years.

Forget about ethanol - fuel is preblended when it is delivered to the stations so they are not going to be a market. The blenders (be they at the pipe head or refinery) are not going to what to mess with small amounts, especially if you do not have quality control procedures in place to insure constant quality.

Bees are a great idea as local honey is a hot ticket right now. With out knowing your local climate,topography and flora I would not want to go out on a limb to say what you potential would be. Bees require a lot of upfront investment and do require a fair amount of work. Keeping is not as simple as it used to be with Verroa mites, Nosema, Small Hive Beatles, all the lettered desease problems (IPV, DWV, CCD) and on and on. I killed a lot of bees in the rather steep learing curve and still after a decade of beekeeping an learning new things all the time. Mead is going to require a lot of requlatory hoops - as well as being a processed item with the USDA, FDA and state/local health regulations your going to be regulated by BATFE as a brewer. Not saying it can not be done but on a small scale your going to have trouble being profitable.

I applaude your looking for a niche for your production - that is a good key to making good money. Just remember the further you get out side the box there is a reason there is noboby else there - the expense curve and the revenue curve are in the wrong allignment.

Tom

Where are you located "Back East".

"land is cheap when no one can afford to keep it, and few people are willing to buy it.. im suprised the concept of supply and demand and conditions of a poor economy elude you?"

I don't understand. Land with the Supply and Demand concept doesn't work. There is a set amount of Land available, PERIOD! In these parts, we have money flowing in from all over to buy land. Our land prices are as high as they have ever been. Many investors are buying ground instead of the stock market. The price of land rarely loses value.

The best way to make a small fortune in farming is to start off with a big fortune!

Best of luck!

Jay

We are at least 2 foreign countries buying land in my area, 1 just for growing walnut trees for THEIR furniture.

different areas of the country land is cheaper, but then again, that land isn't as good to grow things on as other ground. My sister's old farm (adjoining me) now rents for $275/acres, but the farm next to it for $625. the difference, the farmer that we 'thought' was taking care of the land, was actually just doing enough to produce and draining the nutrients. The other farmer was adding enough AND more, and getting more crops.

Marla

there are a lot of farms around here... and even more former farms that people had to sell because what they were farming wasnt very profitable, corn, wheat.. doesnt make much money around here.. not like it did in iowa, and you need such huge fields to make decent enough money on that...

at this point im thinking some kind of fruit that can be made into jam or preserves and sold throughout the year... just trying to sell the fruit alone wouldnt make as much, and would have to be sold rather quickly before it spoils...

if not that, i might plant fields of wildflowers to aid in pollen production and manage a group of bee hives... honey stores rather easily, so i wouldnt have to worry about spoiling and i could get a license to produce meads from it as well...

third main idea is to plant sugar beets, ferment, and distill these into pure ethanol (with a permit to own and run a still for the purpose of ethanol production) and sell it to local gas stations for their gas/ethanol blends

those are my 3 main ideas.. the last two require less maintainence than the first so would probably be the better solution

Of the 3 main ideas, the only one that might make it would be the fruit/jam idea. You would add idea 1 with idea 2, minus the mead could be the most profitable.

You need to realize that most of us have been doing this for years and have seen lots of ideas thrown out there for the idea to go bust.

Any idea will take a lot of time, money and PATIENCE. Most people don't have it.

Marla

I don't know about the jam. I found that it was more profitable to sell the fresh berries - only make jam if you have berries left over the day after picking (I only went to market once a week). You have to figure in the cost of sugar, jars, pectin (I assume you'll use it, get more yield that way), electricity, and if you're paying someone to make it (since you're going into this big-time), labor to make the jam as well as pick the berries. Might look into a copacker to do all that for you but I don't know if you'll make *any* money selling your fruit to a copacker to make into jam for you.

Yes, selling the actual fruit would be more profitable.

just a thought about jam... If it doesn't set, don't remake it... call it ice cream topping and charge extra!!

Ice cream topping or pancake syrup, I've used jelly that didn't set as that.

Jelly that didn't set = syrup

Jam that didn't set = preserves

Pepper jelly that didn't set = glaze

Animus -
Before you go buying land ... who is your market? What do they cook, and what do they buy? What would they buy as seedlings? What grows well in your area? What is expensive because it's labor-intensive (avoid these) and what is expensive because it can't be or isn't grown and shipped in from elsewhere.

Pick your sweet spot, don't grow something and then figure out how to make a profit at it.

Can you get into the restaurant supply growing? Fewer customers, but they buy a lot more, so you spend less time selling and more time growing and harvesting.

One GW member grows tomatoes in a hoop house, dehydrates them, and sells them to her local restaurants. Others have been growing "micro-greens" for their local restaurants.

My SO has a co-worker in Phoenix who grows okra and sells to a couple of Indian restaurants - it's expensive here, doesn't ship well, and a staple in their cuisine.

A farmer here (central NM) who has a couple of large hoophouses was selling cold-resistant microgreens and oriental leafy greens all winter, switched to seedlings of locally popular heirloom chilis and tomatoes at planting time (at a different market, one where the plants would sell well), and after she blows away the competition by having EARLY tomatoes out of her hoophouses, she'll be selling herbs and specialty veggies that are hard for homeowners to grow.

Getting into this, takes A LOT of research BEFORE you decide, I took 1 year (after gardening on large scale for 30+ years) just doing the marketing research.

Marla

Just a suggestion: it would really help if you specify what area of the country you are considering buying.

Crops that you can grow vary by location.

Also, before you set up an ethanol still, I suggest you walk into a dozen or so gas stations and ask the manager if the station will buy ethanol from you.

That's not the way it is sold in my area, but I don't even know what area you are considering.

I'd also like to know where in the US uncontested title for 200 acres went for 2k.

He did say he was looking at TAX AUCTIONS, which can go high or low. And then you have to wait for title. We have a friend that bought some land that way, didn't have a problem with getting title, but the person that lost the property was more of a problem, a bit of a upset fruit-cake.

There is no farmland (that is Avg. or good) at any auction anywhere in the U.S.A that will go for less than $2500 an acre. There are people that scour the countryside just looking for any farmland. Houses are worthless and farmland is precious. Crops are very high and it looks like nothing is going to change. Plus add in all the Govt. subsidies and no wonder farmers are making it big now.
I do not see much help for the small produce grower, other than maybe some help setting up a high tunnel

I'd love to find some land in the $2500/acre range. Two fields went on the market at the home place this spring (one bordering to the north, the other right across the road - both 160 acre plots) with them asking $13,500. Good farm land is a precious resource and is priced accordingly. Needless to say we probably will not be buying them.

My sister sold her portion of my farm for $4,000 per acre and was glad to get that. Most around here, in my county gets less than that. Especially if they're small fields. In the neighboring county, in uncle (3-4 years ago) got $4,400/acre for 80 acres including house that needed to be torn down. Good ground.

I bought my land-- 18 acres woods/5 tillable-- 6 years ago for $2,000/acre. Land around me is now going as high as $6,000/acre. As I noted in another post, I don't regret the 5% interest I paid to obtain this ground when every other investment opportunity has dried up miserably. At my bank the other day, I noticed a 3 mo CD would bring a pathetic 1/4%. I think I'll just invest in my farm.

Unbelievably, the sport of deer hunting here has also driven up the price of what was once cheap land. "Junk ground" which has a history of producing big deer sells for almost as much as good farmland, and people always seem to want more land for recreation. Eventually, you'll see taxes changing drastically on what truly is considered "farmland."

Our farmland is taxed at 2-3% instead of homes at 1%.

if you get the 20 acres for freee and invest$100,000 in equipment, labor, seed, fertilizer, diesel, irrigation, supplies, and marketing you might make 10% on your investment or you might lose 20%. you will not get your $100,000 back the first year. You may qualify for an unearned income tax credit. root crops might work the first year.