Dave Hinz wrote:

On Wed, 29 Jun 2005 07:40:20 -0500, Duane Bozarth wrote:
....

Right. I've got 17 acres of it myself.

Well, as I suspected, your experience "back there" is in the buffer
or wetland programs...we have 6 full quarters of our own plus 4 more we
still rent on shares...that's right at 1600 A. There are another 10
contiguous quarters abutting all this from four separate neighbors who
all chose to retire and start the CRP lay-in at or within a couple of
years of the time Dad started. All except one were at least in their
70's at that time. The one exception had nearly gone under w/ the hog
market disaster and took it as the only way to save the home place at
the time. He was in his early 60s. The same scenario took place over
large areas out here, not just in our county.

....

As for land "exhaustion", if there is any segment that is
concerned w/ maintaining productivity of the land, it is we
producers--after all, that is our direct livelihood, not indirect.

Yes. The days of people being ignorant of crop rotation and soil
quality are long gone. Some may choose not to do any of it, but they're
at lesat not ignorant of it.

I know none that are real production farmers that aren't both aware and
serious practicioners--it is simply not possible to survive economically
otherwise. All those who used to operate that way are long gone, at
least around here.

At 60 bucks an acre per year for CRP contracts, I can't see planting
soybeans any time soon. If fuel goes waaaaaaaaaay up, then maybe.

At 38-40/A, I didn't either. At 28-32/A it starts looking different.
It could be hayed for breakeven most years...w/ the requirements for
mowing, weed control, etc., the operating cost is not trivial. We got
an infestation of sericea lespedeza from the forb seed they required us
to overseed into it for improved wildlife habitat. Now that has been
placed on the noxious weed list and it is incredibly difficult to
eradicate and at $80/gal (including the County Noxious Office kickback),
it costs $20/A just for the chemical, w/o application cost. It just
really chaps me that they made us plant the damn weeds in the grass in
the first place (which incidentally cost us half that cost out of pocket
besides), introducing the stuff in the first place, and now the entire
control cost comes out of our pocket on top of which the new leases are
for 20% or more less than the initial. If that occurs again, it's
almost a given it will not be renewed. It may stay in grass, but it at
least will be able to be hayed and grazed even if it doesn't go back
into grain production.