Cut to the Chase -- Warning! Don't Buy a Farm and Buy THE Farm

I spotted a headline for an article in a recent issue of Time Magazine that caught my attention; it read, “Want to Make More Than a Banker? Become a Farmer!” The article quotes a Wall Street investment advisor who foresees a serious problem in producing the necessary future food supply for our growing world population. His conclusion is the world does not need more bankers, it needs more farmers.

Before you sell your home in the ’burbs and quit your job to become a farmer, let me give a word of caution; don’t buy a farm and buy the farm. When I became an employee for the Missouri Farm Bureau in 1976, times were good for farmers. A few years later saw many entering bankruptcy – and these were not newcomers to farming, but folks who knew a lot about raising crops and livestock.

In the early 70s, my wife and I were seriously considering investing in a small farm, and even came close to buying one before someone else outbid our offer. We were devastated at the time, but after going to work for farmers it dawned on me our emotional devastation would have been financial devastation if we actually had been able to buy that farm. We would not have lasted a year.

Farming is capital-intensive. When you price a tractor big enough to do the job, you’ll wonder if it shouldn’t have a Mercedes Benz grill, and the combine a Rolls Royce ‘Spirit of Ecstasy’ hood ornament. When shopping for fertile farmland, consider how much of our best farmland is covered with asphalt and shopping malls and, probably, your house in the ’burbs. Wall Street investors are speculating in rich farmland, so if you are in the market you need plenty of ammunition in your wallet.

I hope the rosy projections for dramatic rises in farm income in the next few decades come to fruition – our farmers deserve it. They invest all of their money (plus what they can borrow), work long hours without benefits, and bet it all on beating Mother Nature and getting a good crop – odds and risks enough to cause a professional gambler to fold.

I am not trying to discourage you from becoming a farmer if that is your dream, far from it. If your dream is to become a farmer just so you can get rich, however, beware – you probably need to be rich first. It reminds me of the old joke where a farmer won the lottery, and was asked what he was going to do with his millions. His response was, “I’m going to keep on farming until the money’s all gone.”

Denny Banister, of Jefferson City, Mo., is the Assistant Director of Public Affairs for the Missouri Farm Bureau, the state’s largest farm organization.