Less the profitable farm field

The land I live on and own is nothing less than a nightmare for renting to farmers. I own 60 acres and approx. 20 of it is tillable. This land is full of ROCKS that surface every year. When I purchased the property it was all Hay/alfalfa. I went through local guys year to year dealing with no payment, left over broken equipment, left bales. I didnt feel as if this type of ground really kept the deer there all season. A needle in a haystack showed up one day and a new farmer came in and wanted to plant crops! This started my next set of trouble. The land had been hay for so long no oxygen was getting to the soil. They tilled the land. That surfaced every rock in the world with it but the crop grew, kinda. They attempted to pick rocks but just ran out of steam. They continued to plant NO-Till bean up until this year. They were attempting to raise the combine high enough to not engage in rocks but pick beans. This is no good for final yield. At the end of this year they said no more… I don’t blame them… The crops were the BOMB for my deer population!

What do I do now? I personally have “0” intentions of farming myself. I could go back to hay land? Find a way to get rid of the rocks? Plant trees? Has anyone had a tree farm use there land as rental?

Ooooh what to do…

How about an orchard? That would benefit the deer. Don’t need to plant the whole 20 acres, but 1/4 or 1/2 of it…

Thats a good thought!

Im pretty certain that when I showed up at home with the new skidster my wife would be giving me the bullhead on the road….

Kids, or grandkids? That’ll fix your rock issue.

What are your goals for this property? To me, that’s the key question.

Are you trying to find ideas to generate rental income?

Or are you looking to turn this into a much better hunting property?

Last question is do you have any equipment of your own? The acerage you are talking about is likely going to need sweat equity either way. There’s a lot less sweat involved if you have at least some of your own equipment.

Grouse

I lived on this property since 1997. It is hunting property to me. I like the rental part because it helps with taxes and keeps me from being a farmer. I have fish to catch in the summer not corn/beans or hay. This isnt picking a weekends worth of rocks and being done. That is why they went with No-til beans. They just work there way out.

Equipment to do what? There is getting a tractor to plant.. not prepaired to spend the doe to become the farmer.
I have a wheeler/chainsaws/sprayer can put in small food plots.
Just nothing to tackle that large of area.

I have a skid steer track machine and grapple bucket I could pull your rocks and dump then somewhere off the field. I do work everywhere within 2 hours of Cambridge PM me if you want to discuss this option.

Put it in CRP. Deer love to bed in it. And put smaller food plots in the CRP. Just a thought. I don’t know if government pays for CRP anymore.

Plant 10 apple trees and put some fencing around them for a few years to keep the animals from eating them before they take off and start growing. Dump a bunch of seed on the rest of it and let it go.

Dutchboy might have the right answer…

Frustrating to say the least…

I was 3 years of picking rocks on a 90 that I own, worked with a local farmer to till a couple times a year.
Each time the field was tilled I picked more rocks. Sold the rocks for 20.00 a ton about 8000 ton came off, that paid for the used skid steer and fuel. Long story but I currently rent it out for 5k a year and have the ability to put the ground into CRP , because it has been cropped for 3 years.

CRP route is best option.. I had a similar piece of ground that I had difficulties finding people to farm a small chunk.

When people think CRP.. everyone thinks GRASS and UPLAND BIRDS.. But there are alot of CRP programs that cost share planting things like filter strips, erosion control plants, wind breaks, shelter-belts, clover/alfalfa and other forbs. All things which deer love more than CRP GRASS. You can split the cost of implementation, get yearly payment for letting your trees grow for 15 years, and also there are some programs that allow for food plots in parts of your CRP contract. All these things can be done with little to no “farming” equipment on your end.
Next spring I have contracted 16,000 trees to be put in on my 16 acres…

This would be a great option to investigate…

Contact your local FSA and see if there’s any CRP programs available. IF you put 20 acres into CRP, you can plant 10% of that into food plots legally. Best of both worlds if there are CRP acres still available.

whitetails4ever wrote:

Contact your local FSA and see if there’s any CRP programs available. IF you put 20 acres into CRP, you can plant 10% of that into food plots legally. Best of both worlds if there are CRP acres still available.

This, contact your local FSA or SWCD office. Depending on how many years you had beans planted in the field you may be eligible for CRP. Acres are limited due to being right at the acreage cap but you can get on a “wait list”. I don’t believe any tree practices are available right now.

Sounds like you actually have the perfect soil for a vineyard

All great ideas!
Interested in who you contracted with for the trees?