Posted 12/21/2024 15:27 (#11020259) Subject: Farming, government payments and return on equity
East Arkansas
Been much discussion on here about the latest proposed government payments and and I won’t rehash that. I will say that government has chosen to involve itself in our business through land use directives, information and foreign policy. Like it or not we are in business with the government.
I have been having discussions with employees regarding year end bonuses which I normally provide to everyone. This year tho bonuses will be limited because the farms profits were fairly low…
My employees along with several on this board don’t seem to understand that even though a farmer may not be broke or even at negative cash flow their returns are not where they should be and I expect a decent return on my invested capital. I’m invested in a couple of other businesses outside of ag and the returns expected in these other industries are well above what we expect in production ag.
My family’s farm means a lot to me personally and I don’t see ever getting out of it completely but when returns are this poor I wonder if continued expansion is a good idea…. Farming has been good to me and my family but if I didn’t have my original family investment involved it might not look so good.
When some of you guys that have 10-20 million net worth on here look at your return on investment and are honest with yourself it might make you want to puke.