Leasing government farmland: Is it worth it?

Starting a new thread here just because I’ve got some things on my mind and was feeling curious,
is there any way to actually lease farmland from the government for a set number of years to plant crops—say, apple orchards—specifically for the purpose of
making natural juice, sparkling cider, or maybe an apple syrup?

If anyone knows the deal, how much acreage would I realistically need for a serious operation like that, and where in the States is the soil best for this kind of thing? Honestly, if anyone has more info, please drop it, because I'm basically starting from zero here.

The idea hit me yesterday while I was walking through a shopping mall and saw one of those little kiosks selling organic juices, and I figured, why not ask?

It exists... the USDA keeps putting out these calls for agricultural land applications every single time.
http://www.usda.gov/grants/archive

Thanks for the heads-up on those concessions, but now I'm realizing just how little I actually know about the whole situation.

I'm currently in the learning phase, and honestly, I’m just leaning on the idea that some things are smarter than I am—hopefully this thread can help bridge that gap.🙂

I mean—it's going to be quite an uphill battle to secure that land

Henry Hernandez7 said:Starting a new thread here just because I’ve got some things on my mind and was feeling curious,
is there any way to actually lease farmland from the government for a set number of years to plant crops—say, apple orchards—specifically for the purpose of
making natural juice, sparkling cider, or maybe an apple syrup?

If anyone knows the deal, how much acreage would I realistically need for a serious operation like that, and where in the States is the soil best for this kind of thing? Honestly, if anyone has more info, please drop it, because I'm basically starting from zero here.

The idea hit me yesterday while I was walking through a shopping mall and saw one of those little kiosks selling organic juices, and I figured, why not ask?

Look, as things stand right now, it’s way cheaper to just buy apples and make juice than it is to grow them yourself.

http://www.craigslist.com/fruit-veg/apples-ad-9012562

See, this guy would probably sell them to you for $0.50 per pound, or even less for second grade. For juice, you can even use industrial grade stuff, which goes for only $0.17 a kilo.

I heard they have lower grades going for pennies over in the Midwest...

And this one is driving me crazy: http://www.craigslist.com/fruit-veg/apple-deal-9071502

Top tier quality: http://www.craigslist.com/fruit-veg/apples-ad-9409686

Look, if you actually sit down and crunch the numbers, you're looking at roughly $45,000 in startup costs per acre for a modern orchard.

With that kind of investment, you might pull in about 600 tons of industrial-grade apples—which, if you're doing the math, gives you enough juice to fill about 120,000 gallons of apple cider.

And that’s just the "welcome to the business" part. Once the trees are actually in the ground, you've still got to deal with the endless cycle of pesticides, seasonal labor, fertilizing... the list goes on forever.

So you're saying it'd be smarter for me to just drop the cash on some high-tech machinery to handle the apple processing and then just buy up the harvest from local growers?

Anyway, thanks for the links, I'm about to dive headfirst into digging through all this stuff🙂

I was wondering—if you actually manage to get a juice or something similar produced, how do you even get onto supermarket shelves? It feels like there are way more brands out there than there is actual shelf space.🤔

Charles Ramos7 said:I was wondering—if you actually manage to get a juice or something similar produced, how do you even get onto supermarket shelves? It feels like there are way more brands out there than there is actual shelf space.🤔

Supermarkets aren't the only game in town. I mean, look, we can always export to the USA. And honestly, who knows? That product might end up being seen as this incredibly healthy, high-quality, and affordable optiondamn fine
.
You brought up hotels in that other thread, so why not here?

Henry Hernandez7 said:Supermarkets aren't the only game in town. I mean, look, we can always export to the USA. And honestly, who knows? That product might end up being seen as this incredibly healthy, high-quality, and affordable optiondamn fine
.
You brought up hotels in that other thread, so why not here?

The USA has even more manufacturers, so breaking onto those shelves would be a real challenge🤷. Plus, if you were thinking about organic goods, I think that’d be even tougher—especially if you're trying to source apples from a bunch of different growers.

Sure, hotels over there offer it and people drink it, but mostly just because it's free.😁 I'm not sure how much interest there would actually be from American or US hotels.🤔

Honestly, I was thinking more along the lines of organic stuff—which is why I mentioned I’d rather grow my own than just buy whatever’s on the shelf—but then that guy on the forum brought up industrial apples for the sake of the whole thing, which pretty much flies in the face of eating healthy, organic food. Maybe I'm just misreading the situation, though.🤷

I don't think it's actually easy to snag those official UN certifications for a legitimate eco-friendly product, though I bet a "healthy" item with no added sugar would probably pass the test anyway. 🤷

Miky0, if I were you, I’d just go ahead and buy those one or two acres—whatever size you need for your orchard—right now. I think land goes for about 20-$10000 per acre out here, and then it's yours for good. As for financing, you should probably check in with the Farm Credit System or a major commercial bank like Chase. You might be able to snag a decent interest rate, though I'm not entirely sure what the current market looks like. It all depends on your credit score—unless, of course, Janis decides to start a small business or a farm LLC. If that happens, you'll have to deal with the whole tax system—paying monthly for Social Security, Medicare, and so on.

I don't have any text to rewrite yet! Please provide the posts you want me to transform, and I'll get to work applying Jerry Clark72's dry, sarcastic, and punchy voice while making sure everything feels 100% American. kaže:
Honestly, I was thinking about going all organic and healthy—which is why I mentioned I’d rather grow my own stuff than buy it from a store. But then that guy jumped in talking about industrial apples just to get the whole fruit, which completely kills the idea of a clean, organic diet. Maybe I'm just overthinking it, though.🤷

If you’re going to play the "eco-friendly" card, you might as well own an orchard. Honestly, I think everyone should have at least a tiny little plot of land just for the marketing perks. It looks good on camera.

The ecological side of things is a mess, but honestly? The massive drop in crop yields is what’s really killing us.

Here’s my math on the juice situation. I throw in about 18 pounds of apples and end up with a single gallon of that boxed stuff—you know, the kind with the little plastic spout. I’m paying for both the production and the packaging too. $8.75The guy’s basically telling me there's no way to go any lower on the price. He’s dead set on it.

I'm selling this stuff. $13I mean, basically, I’ve got around... $0.67 Apples by the pound. That’s it. No side hustles, no extra cash, just the standard rate.

I also grabbed some juice from the old family orchard—unfiltered, straight from the source. Honestly? It was incredible.

The only real question left is how high of a price tag I can actually pull off... honestly, that's still anyone's guess.