Im with Gary on his figures. Never, ever have I hit 75 bushel beans. 55 occassionally, 61 once, 42 normally. I've also never sold for more than 8.00 a bushel. No matter what the futures price in June, come harvest with no storage of my own I take my licks on price and I've sold a lot more 5.00 beans than 8. Some people like row cropping, and thats great if its your thing. Its not mine personally, thats why I dont do much of it any more.
As to what to do starting out, find what you like, then figure out how to make it pay. When I was 15 I liked driving tractors, so I did custom work, and lots of it. When I turned 20 I decided I wanted to put the part of the crop the landlord kept into building equity and started doing it on my own land. What I realized really quickly is the less time I sit on the tractor the better off I am financially. I'm the manager and the time I spend shopping for inputs and working with customers more than pays for all the mechanics and tractor drivers I'll ever need. But, I still like driving tractors. So, I still do it, but with the knowledge I'm no longer a 30 dollar an hour owner/manager but a 10 dollar and hour driver.
For the income stream you are looking for, and Gary's figures that looks like you want 800 to 1000 acres. Just based on what I see that seems in line with what most people are doing who are doing it full time. Also, dont forget that as someone self employed that 30K in gross income is a far stretch from net. You have to take off state, fed, local, and social sec taxes, health and disability insurance, life insurance if you have a family, and all the other good stuff.
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Today's Featured Article - Chores - by Frank Young. The ceaseless passing of time! It is at once our friend and our enemy. It measures our progress and it makes us old. Like most features of our life, few things are all good or all bad, and most such judgments depend on our own perspective or viewpoint. In our particular hobby, we enjoy the nostalgic return to the days of our youth as we recreate many of the scenes that took place on the family farm that served as the stage for the first few acts of the play that is our live
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