How much income can be brought in from Farming Crops?

Question

Does anyone know how much money can be made by owning a farm. For example, if I wanted to buy a farm and do all the work by myself...What could I expect to make per acre. For example if I bought 50 acres and planted corn. What kind of income would I make? This question is applied to ANY crop and any amount of ACRAGE.... Thanks

Answer 1

Honestly, to buy any size farm and start framing from scratch, buying all the machinery that you will need to farm, you would have a very hard time just to break even.  Not even to think about how much money that you could make. Some small farmers that have been farming for years and own their land are not able to stay in business these days. It can be a good life, but don't look to make much money starting up a farm.  Good Luck.

Answer 2

Farming corn you will net around $10 to $30 an acre. Farming high end crops like brambles, speciality vegetables, pastured meat animals will net you far higher.  Some crops can net $10K an acre.

Another thing is how you market your crops. if you sell direct to your customers you get 100% of the take and you are a price maker. if you sell to a wholesaler or broker you get only a portion of the take and you are a price taker. But selling to a broker means you do not have to put much time into marketing. When you do direct marketing about 50% of your time will be taken up with marketing.

Answer 3

It all depends on what crops you are growing. Since some will take you more time and effort to grow. as of right now, corn is not the best choice.  You will need more than 50 acres. Corn in these days is too cheap. Try growing crops that will bring you income. However, it also matters what state you are buying the land in. You dont want to have 50 acres in Montana, or some northern state and be raising stawberries. You have to be rational on the question.

But farmers can make pretty decent money, not to mention that when economy goes down or something bad will happen, the jobs that be needed the most will be doctors ( medicine) and farmer( food). I would say 50 grand average per year.

Answer 4

You wont make alot  id stick to your day job why dont you work on a farm to start with and that will get you well tuned in. Very hard work not much family life. Im married to a farmer we milk dairy cows and have some crops which we get about 120 pounds a tonne for but dont forget diesel time machinery etc and you would have to employ someone to help you. We farm because its been in my hubbies family for 60 years our son doesnt want to farm he says its to hard work and long hours.

Answer 5

Too many variables plus the "economics of scale" become important at larger acreages.

Two quick examples from Texas wheat farms (where I grew up)

One year we calculated the cost of planting,  harvesting the wheat and plowing the stubble and compared it to the price we could contract for the delivery of the wheat and our profit was ONE PENNY per bushel which would give us a grand profit of $150 for one thousand acres of wheat.

Not much for nine months work.

A few years earlier there was a year when everything went perfectly and yields were 3 times better than average which meant the extra "2 times" was pure profit -- something like $200 per acre.

But that was a once in a lifetime thing.  There were also years when the yield wasn't high enough to pay the costs of harvesting or when hail wiped it out completely.

Answer 6

Income on 50 acres of corn: given a fair yield of 150 bu/ac, and a pretty good price of 4 dollars/bu, that would give you an income of 600 dollars/acre or $30,000 for your 50 acres. Figure in a payment on your land, machinery, fuel, seed, fertilizer, herbicides, and throw in your labor for free, and you should come out about even.

Answer 7

interesting how many experts there are on here who by their comments OBVIOUSLY aren't involved in production agriculture, glad to see a few that had clue. The thing is that in agriculture there are so many variables such as weather, markets and outlandish land prices, lets see fuel and other inputs. Sadly I think it's next to impossible to start from scratch at least in a traditional farming operation. Now that's not to say that finding a niche market couldn't find itself profitable. There are several small farmers around us would do different things, some examples include one producer who feeds 'grass fed sheep' and markets the meat to the local farmers market, another who has you pick blueberries and still a third who do a pumpkin patch. With soemthign as small as 50 acres, my personal suggestion is to think of it as a hobby farm and enjoy the 'supplemental income' that it provides. Hope this didn't sound pessimistic, wasn't meant that way, just reality of a lifestyle that requires a 365 day a year 'work week' Our cows eat before our kids open their Christmas gifts......... it's a serious thing not something to haphazardly think oh i will do this as it sounds like fun. Just my two cents.