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EC SoDak | The interesting part of grain farming in ag, and this exists through most businesses in their own form, is when a niche is found to make more money and is relatively easily repeatable, more people join in and that advantage goes away for the most part.
A few instances here as example. Worked with dairies to supply silage. Many were worried about losing the cover, but the value of not having harvesting costs and the manure got more people willing to do it, so with more competition, the value starts getting bid away. Probably 6 or 7 years ago I started using conventional corn to save on seed costs, now I have a handful of neighbors that have started using that strategy. At the same time, I started growing non gmo beans to get a premium bid. Now, multiple folks in the area are growing them, basis bids over the last few years have ranged from -.10 to +3.25, now sitting around +1.00 for basis after the $3.25 last year.
Those are just some of my more recent examples of how you can do things to make more on the same acres, but is rather quickly pulled back to reality as others adapt to your niche. Bigger equipment, buying sprayers vs using the coop, high speed planters, and sooner than most think autonomous equipment. You get a brief edge, but quickly goes away as neighbors, regions, industry adapts. | |
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