Gyroscopic Investing

... I have no interest in working the land, myself.  I'm thinking more along the lines of something adjacent to a working ranch that I can lease out it's use to them.

Ah, a gentleman farmer, I think it's called.
Someone here owns land....FarmerD? Although I think he said he's not actually a farmer.

Like I said: I'm not interested in farming the land myself.  I want to be an absentee landlord and lease it out to local ranchers (or farming operations).

Have a couple family farms.  Renting all comes down to how you structure the deal with the farmer renting your land.  We have done two types of agreements.

1) Half the set rent at planting, half at harvest.
2) 1/3 of the harvest money and/or crop insurance

We also never rented out the government ground that we got paid not to grow anything.  This would typically earn 100-200 an acre above mortgage rates and be crappy land anyways.

My best advice is make your money on the purchase, buy irrigated land if possible, and figure out your cash flow by acre before you sign on the line.

Beware the impending crash in farmland prices and cash rent should the corn lobby lunacy ever be tamed (moronathol mandate).

Also beware irrigated land that draws from an aquifer being depleted. The southwestern Midwest is headed for a water disaster soon.

I raise sheep and hay for personal and family use. I'm waiting for the crash to add another 10 acres to my lot if I can get it.

Coffee wrote: Like I said: I'm not interested in farming the land myself.  I want to be an absentee landlord and lease it out to local ranchers (or farming operations).

Yeah, I know. A gentleman farmer is someone who owns the land without doing the farm work. What I meant was I couldn't remember if Farmer D's name was just a name or if he actually has experience with ownership.

Right now I have 11.3 acres and am only keeping enough ewes to justify (in my mind) a ram. I have 6 ewes and need a new ram this fall. I have about 7 acres in hay that I split with the farmer who works it for me (I don't own the necessary equipment). My half provides more than enough hay to support my sheep through the winter.  If your stocking rate is correct you may only have to feed hay November through March, depending on your growing season.

Buying hay stinks. I encourage anyone wanting to raise livestock to raise their own hay. It's very easy to find farmers eager to provide all the equipment in exchange for a cut of the hay.

The link below may be of some interest to you particularly the part under “Tools and Related Information.”? Here they show farm rental agreement forms as well as discussion of the various types of farm lease arrangements.

http://agecon.unl.edu/realestate.html

FYI though I spent my first 24 years working on our family farm, I do not own any farmland. I have tried to buy farmland twice but got outbid at auction.  My brother still farms.

I avoid store bought meat whenever possible. I like knowing where my food comes from and do my own butchering. Complete self sufficiency is out of my grasp due to time constraints, but the enjoyment I get from raising livestock is incidental.

I'll have 5 Buff Orpington laying hens this spring as well. I'd like to have my own raw milk (which is amazing) but the labor required is a bit steep.

I usually get 40 or 50 lbs per lamb, but it depends on what size you butcher, whether you fully de-bone, etc.

The thing to keep in mind is I can get 1.5 to 2 lambs per birth average and my ewes can have three lambings in two years. Cattle almost always have singles and give birth once per year. A cow is 1.0 animal units and the average ewe is 0.15 which means I can keep 5 to 7 ewes on what a single cow eats (breed matters).

The math at 150% lambing efficiency is around 675 lbs of meat per year. That's better than you'll get from a 1200 pound steer if you de-bone it. However, you don't risk losing your calf and getting nothing. Small livestock are more efficient and less risky. They're a diversified investment, so to speak.

Have you looked into goats?

What State are you in?

I sold my goats (Boer cross) to my father after I failed to get my wife excited about eating them. She loves lamb however. It's cultural because they taste quite similar in many preparations. I will eat anything, however.

Goats are great if your land is more rugged or if you are going to be grazing with cattle. I own no cattle and my pastures are improved/seeded so sheep are a better fit anyway.

I live in central Indiana.