i really dont see how a commercial farmer makes it.[ expenses ]

[Chicken]

i have a check sitting on the dash of my truck given to me by a cotton farmer yesterday for 4 loads of fertilizer...about 80 tons worth.

the check is for $43,920.00

...if hes spending that kind of money on fertilizer. just how much is he gonna make on his cotton,?

i met a hay farmer who told me they fertilize every time after they cut the hay...thats $10,000.00 if hes dropping that kind of cash... then just how much is he gonna make off that hay.?

all i can say. is the price to farm commercially is very expensive. not to mention the price for fuel they use. and all the pesticides. e.t.c.

i wonder what the gross profit is after deducting all the expenses.

 

[istanbulin]

I found this page "Cotton Production, Costs and Returns". The table is not very clear for me so you - or other guys - may interpret it.

https://www.cotton.org/econ/cropinfo/costsreturns/usa.cfm

 

[webmost]

I remember many years ago, there was an old farmer and his wife who won the lottery for like three million, which was a helluva big lottery back then. TV reporter asks the old coot: "So, what are you going to do, now that you're a millionaire?" Old feller replies: "Wal... I spose we'll just go on farming until it's all gone."

 

[USHOG]

That's not even a lot for fertilizer but imagine you spend all that money on fuel and fertilizer and then it doesn't rain so you wasted the money for that year. Or even worse you grow a great crop and the stupid hogs destroy it all in a night. But when everything goes good the farmers squeak by.

 

[rustycase]

I is possible most small farmers have not made it, financially.
The ones remaining are increasingly in debt.

I would be a very thin fellow if I was a farmer.
We would starve if dependent upon what is grown in our garden.

Indeed, something is wrong with this scenario.
rc

 

[forumdotabaco]

Some say that kind of farming is not sustainable in the future

 

[Michibacy]

As most of my customers are in fact farmers. Remember, there are subsidies, the (generally) free market to dictate price, hybrid crops that don't need as much attention (fertilizer, watering etc). One of the biggest thing is this: the more land you have, the more you have to pay, but the more you can produce. Don't grow only 1 thing meaning don't be a monoculture, be diverse so that if say Corn markets crash, grains (oats, wheat, rye) may just go up a bit.

Farming is lottery, gardening is a hobby.