How to get started with agtech and farming investments?

It’s the exact same story over here—I actually made the same mistake once by leaving a bottle of corn herbicide sitting right next to my bell peppers, and now the whole thing is a mess. It’s just lying there, totally broken, and it won't even let me copy anything from the tag anymore.

honestly proud to ask

Look, if you own any old tractor and have about two acres of land, you could try growing beans.

The massive catch? You’re forced to produce them at roughly $1.75 per pound.
Your one saving grace: they're incredibly cheap to store.

For more specifics...

A lot of folks here have started jumping on the bandwagon regarding hazelnut and walnut orchards, but honestly—let’s be real for a second—unless you have endless acres to just throw away, or you don't mind being stuck constantly maintaining them instead of actually growing things like apples or pears, it's a tough sell. I mean, if you aren't running a full-scale commercial farm, you're basically just a hobbyist, and most people won't actually see the payoff from walnuts or hazelnuts before they're long gone.

Hazelnuts and especially walnuts aren't "get rich quick" crops. Anyone who thinks they’ll see a return on their investment by year four is being played. It's a two-sided problem. On one hand, you've got nursery owners spinning fairy tales about yields and prices just to grab some quick cash. On the other, people tend to hear only what they want to hear. They dive into these deals completely unprepared, and then, when they don't see tens of thousands of dollars in profit per acre after five years, they act like the whole world owes them something.
It really just comes down to two things: how much anyone actually expects from this and what kind of information they're working with.
Look, it’s like any other industry. Someone’s going to launch a business, fail miserably, or just quit when things get tough. Meanwhile, someone else will take that exact same concept and actually run it like a professional.
I’ve decided to go with hazelnuts. I’m fully aware that for the first five to seven years, I’ll barely be breaking even. In some other industries, you’d expect to be pulling in a decent profit by then—assuming you were putting in significantly more capital and labor. Personally, I don't expect a 12-acre hazelnut farm to become my primary source of income, even after ten years. Some people, unfortunately, seem to think they can run a commercial operation on just 5 acres. Their math is flawed; they assume a yield of two tons of processed nuts, which isn't the reality, multiplied by whatever retail price a big-box store like Walmart might offer. $27 je $53 Total garbage. $107 Gross minus $20,000 in expenses leaves you with enough for the roof at... $67It’s completely unrealistic. I’d go as far as to say the math is just plain stupid.

mistytinker26 said:Hazelnuts and especially walnuts aren't "get rich quick" crops. Anyone who thinks they’ll see a return on their investment by year four is being played. It's a two-sided problem. On one hand, you've got nursery owners spinning fairy tales about yields and prices just to grab some quick cash. On the other, people tend to hear only what they want to hear. They dive into these deals completely unprepared, and then, when they don't see tens of thousands of dollars in profit per acre after five years, they act like the whole world owes them something.
It really just comes down to two things: how much anyone actually expects from this and what kind of information they're working with.
Look, it’s like any other industry. Someone’s going to launch a business, fail miserably, or just quit when things get tough. Meanwhile, someone else will take that exact same concept and actually run it like a professional.
I’ve decided to go with hazelnuts. I’m fully aware that for the first five to seven years, I’ll barely be breaking even. In some other industries, you’d expect to be pulling in a decent profit by then—assuming you were putting in significantly more capital and labor. Personally, I don't expect a 12-acre hazelnut farm to become my primary source of income, even after ten years. Some people, unfortunately, seem to think they can run a commercial operation on just 5 acres. Their math is flawed; they assume a yield of two tons of processed nuts, which isn't the reality, multiplied by whatever retail price a big-box store like Walmart might offer. $27 je $53 Total garbage. $107 Gross minus $20,000 in expenses leaves you with enough for the roof at... $67It’s completely unrealistic. I’d go as far as to say the math is just plain stupid.

That’s just the kind of math this country runs on.

Steven Ruiz13 said:A pound of beans at the grocery store? Forget about it. Prices are through the roof. Honestly, your best bet is just to plant a few pounds in your own garden. That way you can actually eat like a human being instead of some starving soldier in a 1950s infantry unit.

I don't know where you're shopping, but around here, cherries have been at least $4.75 a pound for the last few months; usually, they were closer to $3.25. If you go to the local farmers' market, the prices are even more insane 👎
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stormyangler12 said:Look, if you own any old tractor and have about two acres of land, you could try growing beans.

The massive catch? You’re forced to produce them at roughly $1.75 per pound.
Your one saving grace: they're incredibly cheap to store.

For more specifics...

Fine, beans. Just make sure you don't end up with an infestation of slugs. Those little things are ruthless. Also, you really need to know which specific variety is in demand. About fifteen years ago, someone advised me to plant some "miracle" bean, and I had a nightmare trying to sell it later.

Nobody even bothered to ask. They just wandered through, thinning out my rows of young apple trees. I guess someone needed them for a test plot or something. They could have at least asked me first 😢 then I might have given them a few saplings for free.

🤣 Yeah 🙂

And nobody even noticed that in my sentence "$107 gross minus $20,000 in costs leaves enough cash to cover everything up to $67" I'm missing a hundred thousand. It's funny how you can just $33 slip through the cracks unnoticed 😂

Those dairy farms are going to be the gold mine in a few years... I’m betting my bottom dollar that by next year, the European Union will actually be subsidizing farmers to cull their herds because there's just an absurd surplus of milk out there. And then? Then comes the inevitable—they'll have to start buying up the stock again because we'll hit a massive shortage a year or two down the line—all because they slaughtered the cattle last year, obviously. 😂
It's all about playing the counter-cyclical game! 😁
The fact that everyone is rushing to raise them at once? That’s hardly a coincidence. 😍

Just a quick observation here—we should probably be focusing on buying up live cattle, rather than waiting until after they've been shot. Just so nobody completely screws this up.

I’m stepping into this fray myself, armed with about a thousand questions—please forgive me if any of them come across as misplaced or entirely foolish.

To lay out the situation: we have roughly 12 acres of flat land, plenty of sunlight, and for the last decade, it’s just been a mown meadow with nothing actually planted on it.
We want to finally do something productive with this soil, though frankly, we haven't even decided what that might be.
The core dilemma is whether such a small plot is even worth the effort; can one actually plant something here and turn it into a viable side hustle, or is the whole endeavor fundamentally misguided?
We live near 19 miles relative to the property, which means while we could commute there daily if pushed, our ideal scenario would involve something much less demanding on our time.

We will likely need to secure a loan to get things off the ground, but I assume that necessitates setting up an LLC or some kind of formal business entity—though I couldn't say for certain.
It feels somewhat absurd to go through the bureaucracy of registering a business when all I currently possess is a patch of dirt and no actual operation.

On another note—I was reading some of the advice from Robert Hall7, who strongly advises against going into small fruits like raspberries, blackberries, or blueberries, which happens to be exactly what we were considering.

Robert Hall7, would you mind providing some clarification on that reasoning, or perhaps we could discuss it via private message if that's easier?

Thank you.

No need for DMs; that’s why we have this subforum.

Look, don't just take my word for it. My bitter experience with strawberries comes from the fact that I planted two acres all at once, which was way too much. Half were field-grown, half were under plastic. To make matters worse, I had six acres of apples in full harvest at the same time. A total nightmare.

Strawberries are sensitive. They demand constant attention. When it came time to weed and lay down the mulch, the apple trees got hit. Weeding, irrigation, fertilizing—everything is expensive. High-end fertilizer costs a fortune, the pump ran daily, diesel is pricey, calcium nitrate is pricey. Then the weeds get thick and you're stuck out there hacking away. You spray herbicide, but strawberries hate weeds. Harvest would stretch from late May until mid-July. Then the extreme heat hits, and the berries just cook under the plastic. I'd pull two tons and couldn't even move them because the market was flooded. If you try autumn planting, Americans aren't in the habit of buying off-season strawberries. Then you get hit with Botrytis and other disasters. I'm done with strawberries.

You can't pick them overripe, you can't pick them ripe, and you can't pick them green. It's a lose-lose.

Anyway, if you guys have 500 plants, you can experiment with strawberries since it's a small area. You'll have work and responsibilities, but nothing compared to the mess I dealt with. First and foremost—get an irrigation system. Without water, you have nothing. And do your homework to find high-quality seedlings. Map out your varieties from earliest to latest—maybe start with something like Albion, then move to later varieties like Rauna. And remember, this is a demanding plant.

Good luck.

If you have questions, fire away.

I can confirm this experience, word for word.

Honestly, I don't see why people bother playing these games. My last one was just plain gross—disgusting, really. I worked myself to the bone like an idiot, and when you tally everything up? Absolutely nothing to show for it. You have to pay the women who actually put in the work, right?

I would be immensely grateful if someone could suggest some worthwhile reading material regarding the cultivation of almonds. Any titles on almond farming would be most appreciated. Thanks!

I don't have much experience investing in agriculture, but I was hoping someone here could point me toward where to find high-quality farmland with real growth potential.
Specifically, does it make sense to invest in smaller plots—say, about an acre—or does a serious investment typically require several dozen acres?
I’ve been browsing some listings, but I'm worried I lack the necessary expertise to make a sound purchase. I would appreciate any advice on what to look out for or perhaps a helpful resource. For instance, how much of a drawback is land situated right against a forest due to wildlife or shade? How significant are slope and terrain, or the general location, when evaluating soil quality? I realize this is a specialized field, but maybe there is a guide that summarizes these factors.

Also, could anyone provide a realistic idea of current market prices for small parcels near a major hub like Indianapolis (roughly an acre, road access, flat)? I am also curious about the pricing for larger tracts of several dozen acres. My plan is to bring in a professional for a formal appraisal before closing, but I want to be able to perform some initial screening myself.

........ sure, if you say so.

You can get land classification at any local county assessor's office. Don't go looking for "Class 1" or "Class 2" soil—we don't use that system here in the States.

A 5,000 square meter plot is slightly smaller than a typical farm field. I don't see why buying a piece like that wouldn't make sense, though, from an efficiency standpoint, having everything in one contiguous block is much better for equipment handling, costs, and transport time. I've always been amazed by how some places in the Midwest just have these massive, endless stretches of farmland.

Yes, if you’re moving toward serious production, a single contiguous tract of several acres is the gold standard. When buying, always demand to see the deed to verify the actual owner and ensure there aren't any liens or mortgages on the property. Never hand over cash under the table. Don't sign anything without a lawyer present. Get everything notarized and file the paperwork for recording immediately. No second-guessing.

If the land sits right up against a forest, fencing is your first priority. Go with the heavy-duty wire. Make sure you bury the fence line at least 8 inches into the ground and reinforce it with barbed wire. If you decide on orchards, flowers, or vegetables, digging a well is a must. But before you start digging, you need to secure water rights from the state. The fines for unauthorized water use are brutal, expensive, and completely pointless. I can't even remember how much I ended up paying.

Terrain slope? For certain crops, a slight incline is actually beneficial. Soil quality? Just send samples off for a chemical analysis. You tell them what you want to plant, and they give you a roadmap on how to amend any nutrient deficiencies. Also, don't let thick woods block your sunlight; stay clear of the tree line to avoid pest issues—insects, wildlife, that sort of thing. If you can't avoid the woods, study the local hunting regulations. They're online. Be prepared to deal with the local hunting clubs or game wardens, depending on who holds the lease.

You need reliable access roads. You'll need paths for tractors and for your car, because you'll likely be driving out to check your crops more often than you think.

As for evaluating the specific plot you've set your sights on, leave it to a certified agricultural appraiser. Pay the fee, get it in writing, and then nobody can pull any fast ones on you. Of course, there's always room to negotiate and try to drive the price down.

Good luck.