![]() In recent years, farmland has attracted bigger investors, many living far from farm country. In large part, prized Minnesota farmland remains off-limits for many small producers who aren't able to cashflow bids exceeding millions of dollars to buy in the heart of productive agriculture country, where corn and soybean are king. The Vermillion Township land has allowed them to avoid "some of the obstacles that Hmong farmers have encountered over the last 30 years," said Hang, including abuses resembling the sharecropping era. "Without long-term land access, you're always at the mercy of the landowner," Hang said. Nearly a decade later, after years of renting, they're finalizing the land purchase. 52 to help them kickstart 150-plus acres of vegetable farms. ![]() Over a decade ago, the cooperative received good news when an anonymous donor stepped forward to purchase farmland right along Hwy. It was a similar story for Janssen Hang at the Hmong American Farmers Association - often called the HAFA Farm - in Dakota County. We wanted to do it different with more sustainable ag." But we weren't setting out to do conventional beef. "We got really lucky undoubtedly, we are atypical," Bryan Simon said. Five years after that, they owned the place. ![]() Two years later, the Simons were working the farm. In 2010, he and his wife, Jessie, were approached at a sustainable agriculture conference by a couple willing to buy up farmland for others to work. More than a decade ago, Bryan Simon, who pastures goats on 217 acres of what he calls "one of the most beautiful farms in Grant County" in western Minnesota, had an angel investor. Mentally, you need it."īut how to get that farmland - especially for first-time, beginner farmers - is next to impossible, and often takes help from outside, sometimes anonymous, benefactors. "I always say, 'Mom, we should stop farming!' But the minute we stop farming, you gain weight, you have bad cholesterol. "We're the married people who could never divorce," said Mhonpaj Lee, a Washington County farmer summing up her relationship to farming, which has been her career for the last 15 years. It can require tedious book-keeping and test one's nerves in the winter.Īnd it's about the most rewarding job you can find, if you can keep it. It's back-breaking work that's hot and uncomfortable in the summer. "It'll probably be their parents who buy the farmland."īut for the rest of us outsiders, the first step toward buying farmland is, probably, deciding you're bold enough to get into farming itself. "You aren't going to find a lot of young farmers buying land themselves," said David Bau, agriculture business management educator with the University of Minnesota Extension, speaking from his office in Worthington in mid-August. The land there is known for its rich, black, productive soil and doesn't come cheaply. It's expensive and difficult, making the threshold for entry too high and risky for many.Įspecially if you're looking at the swath of fertile acres south of the Minnesota River, the growing fields that have spawned household names such as Green Giant. The first step to buying farmland in Minnesota is probably, well, already owning farmland.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
AuthorWrite something about yourself. No need to be fancy, just an overview. ArchivesCategories |