Good Farm land in Texas

[augiedogie]

75007. Thanks for the advice, and I do mean that. All the farming I've seen to this point is pretty much row crops. In Illinois, a lot of those farmers have full time jobs. They plant their corn in spring and harvest in fall, and not much else. Last spring I met an Iowa corn farmer in Florida. He spends winter in Florida and goes back to farm in summer.

But watching the cotton farmers was an eye opener. I've never seen farmers have to work so much work into getting a crop, listing, then the fertilizer, the week killer, then the planting, the sandfighting, then fighting to keep the irrigation equipment running, or having to physically move the row water equipment, then comes fall spraying, the harvest, and still there's no guarantee from hail,(and we get a lot of hail) or drought. I even know one farmer that lost a bunch of his crop when a furious wind storm came up and tore up the modules, and spread the cotton all over the place. Really makes you wonder why anyone wants to farm. To work all year and then be told by your insurance agent to plow it all up because its not worth harvesting has got to be a killer.

But the old time 100 cow a farm dairy farmers were the craziest. 365 days, twice a day milking plus all the other work. I guess if you're a workaholic, that's the place for you.

Your statement about not knowing what your doing half the time makes sense. I knew an elderly cotton farmer I knew had a hard time asking my questions. I finally figured out, its a lot of guessing. I'd ask him how he knew it was time to plant. His answer: When my neighbor starts planting.

[TX75007]

Originally Posted by Prairieparson

Really makes you wonder why anyone wants to farm. To work all year and then be told by your insurance agent to plow it all up because its not worth harvesting has got to be a killer.
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Its fun and you get to work outside and see the majesty of nature.

And if your break even for corn is 2$ and its at 8$ and you have 2000 acres at 200 bushels to the acre, then you make a pile of $$. My relatives in the Panhandle have six irrigated sections in corn every year.

As for droughts. The best rowcrop in NE Texas is hay. A barn full of rounds filled during a wet year can net you 3x what you usually make. And your market is mostly the "gentlemen farmers" with day jobs who will pay $80 a roll.

If you wanted to go that route, then two good sets of tractors/cutters/balers plus trucks to haul them and some good HS kids to run them is another route to clean up some $$ in NE TX. A lot of rowcrop operators will contract you to help them as well. Is another option.

[TexasVines]

there are plenty of vegetables around Lubbock

Hamilton Farms is just north of Lubbock right near Shallowater

the TAMU Experiment Station Lubbock has a vegetable specialist on staff

Texas High Plains Vegetable Program

Melons of all types are grown around Lubbock and the vegetable guy I linked to is experimenting with strawberries in high tunnels

Floydada is the pumpkin capital of Texas and all around closer to Lubbock has them as well

Apple Country east of town has vegetables

Peppers are grown all around Lubbock and the TAMU Station also has a pea and bean breeder that conducts research there out of College Station.....Spring Lake up to Dalhart is huge potato country with the same pea and bean breeder being the potato specialist as well

Okra is close to being the same type of plant as cotton so it does very well around Lubbock

both Texas Tech and TAMU do some onion breeding and there is a large amount of onions grown in the area

Tree Grace Farms

the above is a large organic farm owned by an Asian doctor that feels west Texans get cancer from the ag chemicals....I happen to think a lot of it is from the sun, but hey it is her money and the people that run it are very nice people and will give plenty of knowledge for free

South Plains Food Bank has a vegetable farm and an apple orchard (also linked on their page)

SPFB farm - South Plains Food Bank

if you get in contact with any of them you will be able to get in contact with many many more

and cotton farming is so intense because you need to spray growth regulators possibly a couple of times a season, weed control is very important especially on dry land, and because you also have to spray defoliants most years

and you know when to plant by watching the weather and the soil temp......depending on where you are and what system you go by a soil temp of 60 to 68 degrees + for a 10 day average at the 2" or 8" soil level and no predicted cold weather coming means plant and the average last frost in the Lubbock area is April 15th so you keep that in mind as well

there are still plenty of people that do their farming based on watching what their larger more established neighbor does...they roll by with the planter well get to planting.....they roll by with a weeder or a sprayer well get to that....they start to look at harvesting then you start checking your crops as well

and as for profitability as stated just above me generally in west Texas cotton will far and away be the most profitable, but at the same time if you have 2,000 acres and you have $1,000 per acre in planting and growing cost and you get 2 bales per acre (a bale being 450 to 500 pounds, but talked about as 500 pounds) and cotton is .70 cents per pound before any grading well you just lost $300 per acre X 2000 acres

if cotton gets you 3 bales to the acre and the price is .79 cents per pound then you are making $185 per acre

growing cost can vary wildly with irrigation and number of sprays needed ect.

hay is generally not that profitable because of the cost of transport makes it a local crop usually and when you have a good hay crop so does everyone else so you have to have the resources and infrastructure to sit on that baled hay until the price moves in your favor when everyone else has a bad crop

sorghum is a reliable crop because heat does not effect seed set as much as with corn and sorghum will go into "pause" while waiting for water to put on grain fill while corn will not and sorghum needs less water overall and less chemicals and fert for a lower growing cost

[GayleTX]

TX75007 mentioned Fannin County. If that area interests you, I just 'happen' to know of 98 acres of good farmland you can buy for a decent price....near Red River.

[TX75007]

Originally Posted by TexasVines

hay is generally not that profitable because of the cost of transport makes it a local crop usually and when you have a good hay crop so does everyone else so you have to have the resources and infrastructure to sit on that baled hay until the price moves in your favor when everyone else has a bad crop
t

Hay stored in a large barn has been my most profitable crop in North Texas. A dry year on made dirt sees 3 rolls per acre and a wet year can see ten or more. One year in three hay triples in price. Net cost including fertilizer and barn amortization averages out to $29 a roll. I fill up the barns first. Then sell the rest. True that its a local crop and we all know that weight makes freight. But when you are surrounded by small ranches, most of which do not raise hay, it will start to sell the moment it has not rained for a month and it will sell out if it has not rained for 4 months.

Right now our most profitable row crop in the Panhandle is chopped corn for dairies. But it has to be close to a dairy.