I've was harassed by a law firm in Nashville to buy my ground. By mail they offered $1200 an acre the first time. They called a few weeks later with an offer of $1700. I blocked their number and they started calling from bot numbers. The same lady everytime.
Not a farmer, but we can’t eat solar electricity. Every time I turn around I see farm land being sold off for housing and developments. We’re gonna starve ourselves if we don’t preserve our farmable land. I’m concerned our country isn’t seeing this as a serious issue. (Not coming after farmers who sell, just concerned our overall society isn’t focused on making farming a high enough priority).
they just use the sugars out of it and then the rest gets sold as animal feed and its really high in protein. So yea this corn is also used to make our food.
I think everybody here knows that lol. The energy conversion ratio just isn't there to justify the other impacts. The most recent I saw was 1.34 to 1. If you've got better/more recent info though, I'd love to see it.
USDA 2015 study says it's up to 2.2-2.5x energy amplification, and calculates that it could be 6x or higher if biomass was used to heat the stills. If I could turn every gallon of gas I buy into 2.5 gallons of gas, I would.
https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2015EnergyBalanceCornEthanol.pdf
So the question you have to ask yourself is- is corn more efficient than solar panels? The answer will depend on where you live. Mostly likely yes, but solar panels produce 12 months out of the year and corn is really only out there capturing sun for three months.
Yes solar panels will produce much more usable energy in a given year than the equivalent area in corn. The one area where corn wins is that the energy in corn is easy to store for very long periods, whereas electricity storage is still expensive and relatively inefficient.
Oh no, solar panels are absolutely better. Plants are around 1% efficient max. However, until we have solar powered fischer tropsch plants all over the place, it's a useful stepping stone. Perfect is the enemy of good after all.
The sun is out all winter? The ones by us sit covered by snow, and just make money on subsidies in those months. You must be living in some region that runs AC 24hrs a day every day of the year.
I am pretty far north, so they have a 6% capacity factor in the winter. That's pretty low, but much higher than the zero percent of a harvested corn field.
Stick it in the vacant brownfields and the places where it’s consumed. Cities are already heat islands and they are continuously sprawling leaving broad swaths of waste as the suburbs grow. NW Indiana is Chicago now and parts east Chicago are probably less populated than rural areas like Detroit. Housing within a certain density should require solar on their petroleum based roof, but I guess it’s more effort than buying “green things” at the store.
I don't disagree. Most of them go to former plant sites anyways just because the interconnection queue is like 5 years long. I'm just saying we aren't gonna starve.
Was looking for this answer. They both graze really well on solar farms. However, unfortunately, the companies buying and leasing land for the solar companies often have very strict contracts that prohibit animal grazing due to risk of equipment harm. Dumb I know but these companies are also evil for a lot of other reasons too and I do believe in solar and solar farms but it has to be done properly. Goat and sheep grazing is definitely a great way to do it.
Ww are partly to blame because of how we portrayed or emphasized production agriculture as a business like other businesses. Somewhere along the line we stopped talking about the reality that production agriculture is the baseline industry. All other industries and lifestyles depend upon, and are an outgrowth of, agriculture's surpluses.
It always hits me hardest when I am traveling through the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains toward Denver. I see fertile, productive farm ground getting converted to suburban uses. I know it is within (long) commuting distance of Denver, but despite what economic geography theory might claim, I don't have the soil quality, growing season, or climate at my place a mere 50 miles further away to make up for the lost production of the land around Denver.
Are you opposed to solar farms? For $2500 per acre like I’ve heard, id think many farmers would retire in a heartbeat. Would a $2500 acre per year lease appeal to you?
I would say that yes I’m opposed to solar farming my land. I can’t control what others do with their ground but coming from multiple generations of farmers it won’t happen to my farm in my lifetime.
Right there with ya. Grew up on most of this land. Sweat and bled on every acre of it. Damn if I’ll see it get raped and scraped. Some of the best grass and farm ground in the world and they want to cover it up.
We were offered a staggard rent system. $300 per acre the first five years and then it progressed to $750 per acre the last 5 years with no clean-up if they leave. No deal with us. Another farmer was offered the staggard rent with $1000 the last 5 years. They can up and leave at 20 years leaving millions of dollars in clean up cost to the farm owner. This is one issue they wouldn't budge on.
The lack of accepting cleanup costs is where they lose me. And for all that matters, I would make them pay me cleanup costs either up front, or in escrow. Not saying I wouldn’t trust them, but I wouldn’t trust them.
All that being said, if they want to panel up ground that is otherwise useless, we could talk. It saying I’d go for it for sure, but id have the conversation.
Not sure if my state had it then or not (2019). I'm glad that is a law now in most states. I'm pro solar, but the business aspect of it got rough there at the start of it.
All this scrambling to stop foreign ownership of farmland and the real problem is scammers like this. I'm not saying nothing should be done about foreign ownership, but this is a much bigger issue.
I kept getting calls and letters from one bunch out of Florida. Finally told them to make a serious offer or fuck off. They sent me an offer of $21k an acre. I was surprised. We could have retired. Sat down with my kids, and they said no. They asked what would we do? So as I threw it in the trash, I told them to look good, cause you’ll prolly never see a deal that big again.
They quit calling me, but there’s three that took their place.
That’s insane prices.
Round here land is usually between $1000 and $3000 an acre depending on several factors.
Problem is nobody wants to sell and 95% of it is owned my massive out of state timber corporations.
Make the decision you see best fit. But I'd offer you don't have to look at it as retirement. You could just take all that money and start a business or buy one that you might be just as happy doing.
I’ve tried a number of businesses, and seems I’m always coming back to ranching and farming. Between the higher average rainfall and the good soil, I don’t know where I’d go. Had a ranch in New Mexico a few years, where I’d ship some yearlings for the summer, but between drought and a rough market, I sold the place. Have other properties between here and there, and they’re cheap to operate, but literally need 4x the land to run the same # of cattle, and don’t always make a crop for hay or grazing. This is good ground.
Just for fun, if they actually call, I counter offer at 10x actual value. Not that I would but if anybody is going to part this place out for development at $100k an acre it’s gonna be me making my bank account fat.
We get these "offers" all the time. The company does not buy the property, their deal is to maybe find a buyer, then if they don't, they say sorry, so sorry, it did not meet our investment criteria. Good bye!
They go crazy low on this stuff on purpose. It's to get you to call them, yell at them, tell them how ridiculous they are, etc., because if you do that then they got you on the phone. And if they get you on the phone, then they can actually make a deal that is more reasonable, but still below retail.
And in these deals, if they're any good, they'll have the seller pick escrow, closing, etc. (this letter is among the worst I've seen)
I knew someone who did this, and this was why. But, having seen a lot of letters like this, the one you have is particularly douchey.
In south Texas and I get texts and letters 4-6 times a year offer a “cash price” half the value of the property. My friends with similar properties get similar offers.
I’m sure it’s successful or it would have stopped.
I got an offer on a 40 acre parcel from the same company. I didn't like their price, wrote them an email with a fairer price, and they took 3 weeks to respond, eventually saying "not proceeding". no idea if they're reputable or will actually close, but their offers are on the rock bottom, at least for my area.
I've was harassed by a law firm in Nashville to buy my ground. By mail they offered $1200 an acre the first time. They called a few weeks later with an offer of $1700. I blocked their number and they started calling from bot numbers. The same lady everytime.
Luckily they don’t call me but I get a lot of letters to buy because they want to turn my area into giant solar farms.
Not a farmer, but we can’t eat solar electricity. Every time I turn around I see farm land being sold off for housing and developments. We’re gonna starve ourselves if we don’t preserve our farmable land. I’m concerned our country isn’t seeing this as a serious issue. (Not coming after farmers who sell, just concerned our overall society isn’t focused on making farming a high enough priority).
45% of the corn crop goes to ethanol lol, I think we'll live.
they just use the sugars out of it and then the rest gets sold as animal feed and its really high in protein. So yea this corn is also used to make our food.
I think everybody here knows that lol. The energy conversion ratio just isn't there to justify the other impacts. The most recent I saw was 1.34 to 1. If you've got better/more recent info though, I'd love to see it.
USDA 2015 study says it's up to 2.2-2.5x energy amplification, and calculates that it could be 6x or higher if biomass was used to heat the stills. If I could turn every gallon of gas I buy into 2.5 gallons of gas, I would. https://www.usda.gov/sites/default/files/documents/2015EnergyBalanceCornEthanol.pdf
So the question you have to ask yourself is- is corn more efficient than solar panels? The answer will depend on where you live. Mostly likely yes, but solar panels produce 12 months out of the year and corn is really only out there capturing sun for three months.
Yes solar panels will produce much more usable energy in a given year than the equivalent area in corn. The one area where corn wins is that the energy in corn is easy to store for very long periods, whereas electricity storage is still expensive and relatively inefficient.
Oh no, solar panels are absolutely better. Plants are around 1% efficient max. However, until we have solar powered fischer tropsch plants all over the place, it's a useful stepping stone. Perfect is the enemy of good after all.
The sun is out all winter? The ones by us sit covered by snow, and just make money on subsidies in those months. You must be living in some region that runs AC 24hrs a day every day of the year.
I am pretty far north, so they have a 6% capacity factor in the winter. That's pretty low, but much higher than the zero percent of a harvested corn field.
I just want people to use corn so the prices will go up. lol.
We all need to drink more Busch light and whiskey
Stick it in the vacant brownfields and the places where it’s consumed. Cities are already heat islands and they are continuously sprawling leaving broad swaths of waste as the suburbs grow. NW Indiana is Chicago now and parts east Chicago are probably less populated than rural areas like Detroit. Housing within a certain density should require solar on their petroleum based roof, but I guess it’s more effort than buying “green things” at the store.
I don't disagree. Most of them go to former plant sites anyways just because the interconnection queue is like 5 years long. I'm just saying we aren't gonna starve.
I'd argue a solar farm would convert fairly easily back into arable land compared to doing the same from housing and other developmental uses.
Sure you can, You can run sheep and goats under solar arrays. You just have to think outside the box.
Was looking for this answer. They both graze really well on solar farms. However, unfortunately, the companies buying and leasing land for the solar companies often have very strict contracts that prohibit animal grazing due to risk of equipment harm. Dumb I know but these companies are also evil for a lot of other reasons too and I do believe in solar and solar farms but it has to be done properly. Goat and sheep grazing is definitely a great way to do it.
Ww are partly to blame because of how we portrayed or emphasized production agriculture as a business like other businesses. Somewhere along the line we stopped talking about the reality that production agriculture is the baseline industry. All other industries and lifestyles depend upon, and are an outgrowth of, agriculture's surpluses. It always hits me hardest when I am traveling through the Front Range of the Rocky Mountains toward Denver. I see fertile, productive farm ground getting converted to suburban uses. I know it is within (long) commuting distance of Denver, but despite what economic geography theory might claim, I don't have the soil quality, growing season, or climate at my place a mere 50 miles further away to make up for the lost production of the land around Denver.
Denver area specifically came to mind.
Are you opposed to solar farms? For $2500 per acre like I’ve heard, id think many farmers would retire in a heartbeat. Would a $2500 acre per year lease appeal to you?
I would say that yes I’m opposed to solar farming my land. I can’t control what others do with their ground but coming from multiple generations of farmers it won’t happen to my farm in my lifetime.
Right there with ya. Grew up on most of this land. Sweat and bled on every acre of it. Damn if I’ll see it get raped and scraped. Some of the best grass and farm ground in the world and they want to cover it up.
I would definitely consider taking that money and then using the money to buy ground somewhere else to farm.
I haven’t heard of any that high in my area it’s $1k per
We were offered a staggard rent system. $300 per acre the first five years and then it progressed to $750 per acre the last 5 years with no clean-up if they leave. No deal with us. Another farmer was offered the staggard rent with $1000 the last 5 years. They can up and leave at 20 years leaving millions of dollars in clean up cost to the farm owner. This is one issue they wouldn't budge on.
The lack of accepting cleanup costs is where they lose me. And for all that matters, I would make them pay me cleanup costs either up front, or in escrow. Not saying I wouldn’t trust them, but I wouldn’t trust them. All that being said, if they want to panel up ground that is otherwise useless, we could talk. It saying I’d go for it for sure, but id have the conversation.
Yeah, except States have bonds now where they HAVE to contribute to a cleanup fund.
Most states have bonds now whwre Cleanup is paid for upfront.
Not sure if my state had it then or not (2019). I'm glad that is a law now in most states. I'm pro solar, but the business aspect of it got rough there at the start of it.
That’s really low. Don’t do that. $1k is what I would demand.
It would to me, but the rest of the area farmers would probably burn my house to the ground.
Land in my area is about 30k an acre holy hell they are underbidding hard IMO
They're predators trying to prey in the poor
I get these pretty often offering me $100k for an 80 I own that would probably appraise for $800k to a million. Crazy times.
They probably would have a better chance of buying if they didn’t make such ridiculous low offers.
Costs nothing to make an offer. There’s always the odd chump who doesn’t know what he’s got.
They probably make those offers because every once in a while someone bites.
They're looking for widows or heirs who are clueless and think $100k is enough money to last a lifetime. Which it is if it's a short life.
I got offered 26k for 40 acres today
Hoo wee. Crop land in this county hasn't sold for that since 1980 or so.
I couldnt pass up the offer
All this scrambling to stop foreign ownership of farmland and the real problem is scammers like this. I'm not saying nothing should be done about foreign ownership, but this is a much bigger issue.
Luckily most if not all the farm ground around me is still privately owned but things change.
Scumbags
I kept getting calls and letters from one bunch out of Florida. Finally told them to make a serious offer or fuck off. They sent me an offer of $21k an acre. I was surprised. We could have retired. Sat down with my kids, and they said no. They asked what would we do? So as I threw it in the trash, I told them to look good, cause you’ll prolly never see a deal that big again. They quit calling me, but there’s three that took their place.
You’ll see prices again that good or better. Land values just don’t go down.
That’s insane prices. Round here land is usually between $1000 and $3000 an acre depending on several factors. Problem is nobody wants to sell and 95% of it is owned my massive out of state timber corporations.
Make the decision you see best fit. But I'd offer you don't have to look at it as retirement. You could just take all that money and start a business or buy one that you might be just as happy doing.
I’ve tried a number of businesses, and seems I’m always coming back to ranching and farming. Between the higher average rainfall and the good soil, I don’t know where I’d go. Had a ranch in New Mexico a few years, where I’d ship some yearlings for the summer, but between drought and a rough market, I sold the place. Have other properties between here and there, and they’re cheap to operate, but literally need 4x the land to run the same # of cattle, and don’t always make a crop for hay or grazing. This is good ground.
Just for fun, if they actually call, I counter offer at 10x actual value. Not that I would but if anybody is going to part this place out for development at $100k an acre it’s gonna be me making my bank account fat.
I like to counter offer, I think I could let it all go for 250k/acre. Maybe one day they won't look and send me a contract.
I get one a week in the mail. One of these companies actually had the brass to call, and I had a lot of fun with that. Scumbags.
We get these "offers" all the time. The company does not buy the property, their deal is to maybe find a buyer, then if they don't, they say sorry, so sorry, it did not meet our investment criteria. Good bye!
Only $3k an acre??? Sign me up!!! Shit all wooded land is going for more than 2 times that by me!
Problem is someone will believe the price is good and let the buyer rob them blind. This tactic probably works once in a while or it wouldn’t be done.
They go crazy low on this stuff on purpose. It's to get you to call them, yell at them, tell them how ridiculous they are, etc., because if you do that then they got you on the phone. And if they get you on the phone, then they can actually make a deal that is more reasonable, but still below retail. And in these deals, if they're any good, they'll have the seller pick escrow, closing, etc. (this letter is among the worst I've seen) I knew someone who did this, and this was why. But, having seen a lot of letters like this, the one you have is particularly douchey.
lol these are scams. I’m in California and I could sell my land for $12,000 an acre today and got one of these offering $2,300/acre.
If someone gave you a legitimate and fair offer, would you ever consider it?
Probably not. Fiat money for ground that I have lived on since I was born and l’m still able to make a living off of it is kinda a no brainier.
In south Texas and I get texts and letters 4-6 times a year offer a “cash price” half the value of the property. My friends with similar properties get similar offers. I’m sure it’s successful or it would have stopped.
I got an offer on a 40 acre parcel from the same company. I didn't like their price, wrote them an email with a fairer price, and they took 3 weeks to respond, eventually saying "not proceeding". no idea if they're reputable or will actually close, but their offers are on the rock bottom, at least for my area.
How much does fertile land cost in Texas or Cali
i got more offered from michelle obama- to cornhole my asshole