Iowa is seeing a “disappearing middle” due to farm consolidation - small farms are staying about the same but the largest farms are growing in size by eating medium sized farms.
Currently 50% of Iowa farmland is owned by the 8.7% of farms that are large enough it would take between 20 days to 6 months to harvest with a single combine (the 200 very largest farms are 7700 acres on average, a combine harvests 50-75 acres of corn per day). Some of these farms you’d likely want 10+ combines to harvest corn in the peak window.
So these farms are looking at $10-100 million in farmland alone, and another $1-10 million in combines.
An acre of Iowa cornfield costs $11,400 and yields $170-350 profit per acre depending on the year. Profits are on the low end right now. So the smaller “large farms” that start at 1,000 acres would be expected to earn a profit of $170,000-350,000 per year on $10 million of land.
Currently 50% of Iowa farmland is owned by the 8.7% of farms that are large enough it would take between 20 days to 6 months to harvest with a single combine (the 200 very largest farms are 7700 acres on average, a combine harvests 50-75 acres of corn per day). Some of these farms you’d likely want 10+ combines to harvest corn in the peak window.
So these farms are looking at $10-100 million in farmland alone, and another $1-10 million in combines.
An acre of Iowa cornfield costs $11,400 and yields $170-350 profit per acre depending on the year. Profits are on the low end right now. So the smaller “large farms” that start at 1,000 acres would be expected to earn a profit of $170,000-350,000 per year on $10 million of land.
https://www.thegazette.com/agriculture/2022-ag-census-five-t...
https://www.nass.usda.gov/Publications/AgCensus/2022/Full_Re...
https://www.farmprogress.com/crops/iowa-farm-margins-tighten