# Any northern Kansas, southern Nebraska hay or cattle guys?



## sixtyninegmc (Jul 20, 2011)

Don't know if this is the most appropriate forum for this, but figure it will get the most exposure here.

Wife and I are looking at 320 acres for sale in northern Kansas, Phillips county. Just south of the Nebraska border. We have driven through the area and fallen in love with it. I have family down around Garden City, but ground that is that dependent on irrigation, and trying to play with the BTO's in the big corn and wheat fields doesn't seem smart or fun to me. Phillips county is in the hills, more of a cow-calf area. The place we are looking at is about half pasture and half crop land. I am wondering what the business models look like around there, how many head folks are running on how many acres, whether folks are buying feed or growing their own. Are folks doing strictly cow-calf, feeding their own to finish, buying extra feeders, that kind of thing.

I jumped into my hay operation up north without doing enough research the first time, want to avoid doing that again. We are thinking about driving out to look at the place for sale in the next week or so, if we like it and think it would work we have a couple folks lined up who I think would buy our place up north, and get a good down on this place. I just don't want to do that if we are never going to be able to make a good go of it in Kansas. I have tractors, hay equipment including small square baler, stack wagon, and an old Vermeer 5x6 round baler. Got the semi and high deck, a little single axle grain truck, and a combine I am not sure is worth hauling down. Also have a Massey 760 combine I could probably get ahold of in Montana for very little. So I can pick up a drill for cheap, and be fairly well set for hay and grain. With this equipment, will I be able to make enough money to slowly expand and pick up more land and eventually farm full time?
I am kinda thinking towards staying away from corn for now, high moisture demand, don't have the equipment, and so too low of price to get into right now. My loose idea is pick up enough bred cows to make use of the 155 acres of pasture, and get set up to feed out my own steers, and pick up some more feeders to fatten up. Thinking plant just enough grain to feed out however many steers I am going to do, and put the balance of crop ground in alfalfa. I am setup for doing small squares, and from what I have seen they are petty rare in Kansas and sell for a much better price than rounds or big squares. Probably round bale whatever prairie hay I can for winter feed for the mamas.

Does all of this sound doable? Midwestern agriculture is so totally different economically than what I am used to in Alaska, I don't want to jump in and lose my shorts, or the farm. I have talked to big timers down there who spread doom and gloom that you need 9-10,000 acres or more just to scrape by, and hundreds upon hundreds of head of brood cows. I realize I am going to have to start small and build up, and I may even just cut hay off the place the first year before thinking about getting stock. I figure I will try to get a feel for the area before I think about renting any ground or doing any custom work.

Is any of this way off base? I know there is a million variables, I am trying to figure out the most I can before I jump in. Probably seems weird to move from Alaska to Kansas, but I have always loved the Midwest, it really is paradise for a farmer. Wife fell in love with Kansas on our trip this spring, and figures we should try it while we are still young!


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## Thorim (Jan 19, 2015)

I'd be talking to the smaller to mid operation guys as that is were it sounds your starting out. Remember some 320 acre operations are considered big time in some parts of the country...


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## sixtyninegmc (Jul 20, 2011)

That is what I am hoping to do if we head over there. We are in Washington for the holidays, so in our own weird way it seems like we are right next door to Kansas. At home I work for a friend who farms close to 600 acres of hay and doesn't think you can make a living farming full time up there, and another friend supports his wife and 3 kids on a little under 100 acres. I just need to find some of the smaller scale outfits over there.

From the numbers I see, even if I just look at focusing on alfalfa small squares looks relatively profitable. Land is going for about $1300/acre, and most of those pieces are around half crop land. So $416,000 for a half section, say $25,000/year for the mortgage, and I already own the hay equipment. 150 tillable, county average dry land alfalfa is 3.8t/acre. Fudge by half a ton, 3.2 x 150=480 tons. Figure a third will be top quality squares, 160 tons at $220/ton, $35,000. If I can average $120/ton for the rest of it, $38,400. $73,400 is nothing to sneeze at by my thinking. Should be enough to cover the mortgage, utilities, fuel, and fertilizer. Then I can think about running 10-20 head on the pasture ground, probably tend towards the lower stocking rate to try and make sure I have more than enough grass hay to get them through a winter. All this looks pretty good to me, I just want to make sure I am not missing anything. Not gonna make it rich on a half section, but it looks profitable enough to try.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

And if you have some whitetail habitat in any brushy/timbered draws on the property where you can put out trail cams and get pictures of the quality of deer in your area, you can charge out of state hunters a hefty amount to come onto your land and hunt. Kansas has outstanding trophy whitetail a very long archery season and this would provide for multiple time periods for archery hunters. Typically the amount charged per hunter for a 5 day opportunity is about $1500. If you provide food and lodging that amount will go up by $1000. The prime whitetail rut in that area usually starts about 3-4 days either side of November 8. You could probably take 2 hunters at a time and offer 3-4 5 day hunts....and pick up some handy income and not have to worry about someone using high powered weapons on your place. They grow a lot of Milo in that country also.....for you, it will be all about diversification.

Regards, Mike


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## NebTrac (Aug 12, 2014)

i have a friend that moved up here to central Nebraska from just southeast of Phillipsburg ( I believe) in Kansas. He was farming and ranching around that area. If interested I can ask if he'd be willing to talk to you via phone.

Troy


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## sixtyninegmc (Jul 20, 2011)

Troy, that would be very much appreciated.

Josh


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## Farmerbrown2 (Sep 25, 2018)

As long as your wife is on board I say go for it if the numbers work . Remember happy wife equals happy life without that you ain't got much.


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## sixtyninegmc (Jul 20, 2011)

I figure it can't be any harder than what we are doing now, trying to clear land, build barns, build a house, and do hay and work off the farm. And now that we have our baby girl and are thinking of another, my sweetie doesn't want to raise the kids in such a remote area. Pretty sad when western Kansas seems well populated


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## sixtyninegmc (Jul 20, 2011)

Well, the piece we were looking at has an offer put in on it, but the realtor thinks it might fall through. We are going to keep looking in the same area, and it gives us more time to get our place sold. Might take some looking, lots of bare land for sale around there, but we would like to try and find a place with a livable farmstead, so that could take a little more time.


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## Vol (Jul 5, 2009)

Maybe check out to the East a bit....Jewell Co....maybe even Republic Co.

Regards, Mike


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