None of us have shed our mortal coils, but we have bought the farm. A particular farm anyway. One field to be exact. We made an offer on an 88 acre tract Saturday, and it was accepted on Monday. So we’ll be farming just a bit more in 2014!
This farm was put up for sale instead of auction. The realtor was good enough to have the owners accept or reject our offer by Monday noon which helped us out because there was an auction for another farm on Monday night. Our interest in the auction decreased with the acquistition of the new land. The owners must have wanted quite a lot for that farm since the auction ended after less than 30 minutes with no accepted bids to buy any tracts. I’d say we got a better farm that is pretty square as compared to the auction farm which had about 35 more tillable acres, but commanded a higher price for likely less productive ground broken up by tree lines and fence rows. Those things add up to more work for more money and potentially less yield. That’s not to say we aren’t still interested if the owners want to sell for a more reasonable price!
Bought This Farm
These are our new acres. They occupy the L-shaped area East of the houses and within the lines of trees which border all but the skinny far North end. One odd characteristic of the property is no roads border any side. A wide grass land accesses one entrance, and an easement exists allowing passage to the farm in the upper right of the photo. Smart local readers can probably figure out where this farm is located. And before you ask I’m not going to tell you how much we paid for the land. None of your bee’s wax! Ha ha!
So what happens now with our new found property? Do we just plant some seed next spring and see how things go? Certainly not. Right now we have to wait until the current tenant removes his crop before we can start any work out there. Once he’s done we have quite a bit to do before planting time.
The first order of business will be to have some soil testing done. An array of samples will be taken to give us an idea of what this land needs to bring the fertility up to par. We’ll also see if the field needs any lime. Lime adjusts a soil’s pH which is a critical component of helping crops get the nutrients they want. We may do some fall tillage which will manage the wheat and soybean residue out there now, but it should help us start to get to know the farm better too.
From the photo the trees don’t look like much, but the tree/fence row gets to be 20-30′ wide at points. We may end up hiring a dozer to clear some of the smaller trees and their roots. The North end has some really nice, tall trees that I’d like to leave in place. We would just be cleaning up the field edges a bit, and going around with a saw to prune branches hanging out over the field. There is a fence or at least the remains of a fence in the trees. We’ll only mess with the trees on our side of course.
I’m excited to get on some new ground and plant more crops than last season!
Why Do We Say Bought the Farm?
I searched the phrase bought the farm and found some interesting links readers might enjoy.
Snopes.com offers a few possible origin stories for bought farm all of which are tied to military events. Urban Dictionary provides a similar etymology.
Tell me what you think of us having bought the farm in the comment setion.
Congratulations! My Hoosier ancesors were happy with their 40 or usually 80 acres in the horse and plow days. Your new purchase is just a drop in the bucket compared to the land you already own. Over 2,000 acres, right? I can’t imagine farming on such a scale. But then I have a mere four raised vegetable beds and five chickens. I am an urban “micro-farmer.” Good luck with your new plot. Lou
Thanks, Lou. We’re just over 2100 now, owning most but not all of it. We were right around 2300 until this year as we lost some rental ground we’d farmed since the mid 1980s. In my neck of the woods are feel we are about average size, but since the average US farm is about 400 acres I probably seem quite large to others.
When we went to the county surveyor last year to better locator a county tile under our 280 acre field the aerial photo didn’t have a date, but whenever the picture was taken I counted at least 14 fenced off sections in what is now one field.
Congrats! I’m small too, although not as small as Lou. There are bigger tracts of land all around me growing hops, grains, ornamental trees, hazelnuts, grain and grass seed. It’s amazing to watch what people farm on large open tracts of land and how they go about their business.
As a college student who wants to start farming in the future, I’m really excited to see what happens with land prices and availability in the next 40 years. America’s farmland is going to go through a transition in the next generation and I’m excited to be a part of it!
It’s going to be interesting to see what happens as the average US farmer is over 55, and rental ground is often in the hands of heirs who are one or two generations removed from farming.
Yea. On land and rabbits. Would also like ingormation on fiber for dale
Yea. On land and rabbits. Would also like information on fiber for sale
Great feeling, huh? Our last purchase was Nov 2012. Made the first payment last month. 9 more to go! To own the land is a blessing in many ways.
I enjoy following you on twitter. Think I’ll check out one if those UAVs.
Thanks for following, Dennis.
Congratulations Brian…so happy for you!
I bought my fist farm an old run down cattle farm half tillable. It’s a start someday I’ll buy another couple patches. It’s always exciting when younger generations get a chance to buy ground.