How to get started with agtech and farming investments?
in Business, Accounting & Taxes ·
Anonymous said:God. This is my first time posting on this forum, so sorry in advance if I mess anything up. This topic caught my eye, so I figured I'd jump in. I've been working in orchards for a few years now, and I have a walnut grove of my own. I've got 200 trees that are about 9 years old and another 300 that are 4 years old. I actually planted these back before there were any government grants or subsidies available for this kind of investment. I spaced the walnuts at 8x8 meters, though looking back, I probably could have gone even wider. I also planted some plum trees in between the walnuts. I plan to harvest those plums for about 15 years until they start competing with the walnuts for space, then I'll clear them out. Last year, I sold a few pounds of walnuts at $12/lb. It seems like small change at first, but it becomes pretty lucrative over time. A price of $12/lb is basically the floor for shelled walnuts on the market, but you can see prices climb as high as $20/lb. It doesn't take much math to see the potential. If 500 trees yield just 1 lb each, that’s 500 lbs times $12/lb, which comes out to $5833. Keep in mind, that's only after the tenth year—it gets way better than that later on. Even if you have a bad year and nothing grows, you still have the value of the timber. A cubic meter of walnut timber goes for about $850, and if you mill it into boards, you can get up to $1,000/m3. With 500 trees at $850 per cubic meter, you're looking at $425,000. I have a steady job, so I have plenty of patience to wait for the trees to mature and pay off. Those 500 trees are spread across about 3 acres.
I'm actually interested in growing walnuts specifically for the timber. What do you think—are your 9-year-old trees mature enough to harvest, or should you hold off a bit longer?