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How to get started with agtech and farming investments?

Started by gentlecanyon65 · · 👁 9 views · 509 replies

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Participants gentlecanyon65jadebear9Ronald Castillo5Richard Edwards10Larry Price3Joseph Gomez39Drew Young10dustyjackal68slyranger72Walter Myers4Rachel Sanchez64urbanranger18Nicholas Watson4Ethan Ramos3Jeffrey Sullivan8Robin Ross5feralwolf12electricbadger47Gregory Brown4AJoshua Scott2casualtrucker17Nicholas Murphy70Steven White4 …
Henry Edwards33 Henry Edwards33 Regular
678 messages
joined Aug 2015
#501 ·
Sean Fox60, we don't debate moderator warnings here—they’re color-coded for a reason. If you feel like something went sideways or you just have questions, skip the public thread and send the mods a DM or reach out through the help desk.
The topics are separated on purpose. I’m pointing you toward the Agriculture section because that’s where the actual experts hang out—the people who live and breathe this stuff every single day.

Try to see why we handle specific issues differently depending on which subforum you're browsing.
Sean Fox60 Sean Fox60 Member
39 messages
joined Sep 2014
#502 ·
gentlecanyon65 said:..... so I've been doing some deep thinking and scrolling through a ton of stuff lately ....

The price for farmland out here is actually pretty reasonable, so since I’ve got some decent cash sitting around and I’m definitely not the type to just sit on my ass all day, I started wondering why the hell I wouldn't just dive into agriculture
..... My big idea is to set up some permanent walnut orchards.... once they're established, they don't require an insane amount of daily grind, which means this doesn't even have to be my main hustle, yet it could still pull in some serious profit after a few years.... so my plan is to snag maybe 12 to 25 acres of land and plant a massive WALNUT grove ....

Now look .... I'm no professional farmer, but I know how to handle a shovel, and with a bit of reading and some solid advice, I think I could make it work .... but honestly, I just can't get the math to make sense in my head ....

I heard that USDA subsidies for walnut orchards can go up to about $13333 per acre ....

Come on, let me hear what you guys think about this!!! ☕ 🙄

1. Any agricultural product is basically just a commodity when you look at production costs, regardless of whether you already own the land or if you're looking to buy it!
2. There are risks involved; weather conditions (frost, droughts, hail, floods), plus pests—wildlife, mice, diseases
3. You've got input costs for tilling the soil, vet bills if you have livestock, and packaging costs for fruit or veggie farming

WALNUTS are probably one of the trickiest crops to make work (you've got frost risks, and then those big yields might only hit once every 5 to 7 years), so location and variety are everything! You can make money off the nuts or even sell the trees themselves if they're high-quality specimens. You mostly just deal with basic soil prep and fertilizing, and you don't even have to worry about heavy pruning!
Sean Fox60 Sean Fox60 Member
39 messages
joined Sep 2014
#503 ·
Henry Edwards33 said:Sean Fox60, we don't debate moderator warnings here—they’re color-coded for a reason. If you feel like something went sideways or you just have questions, skip the public thread and send the mods a DM or reach out through the help desk.
The topics are separated on purpose. I’m pointing you toward the Agriculture section because that’s where the actual experts hang out—the people who live and breathe this stuff every single day.

Try to see why we handle specific issues differently depending on which subforum you're browsing.

I totally get that, which is exactly why I mentioned that agricultural products are basically commodities when you factor in production costs—it's just so landowners actually wrap their heads around the math!

In the other threads, I can definitely dive deep into specific production costs or break down the tech side of things. I run a farm with grain, veggies, about half an acre of fruit, Christmas trees, and poultry, so I'm more than happy to jump in and help out in any topics I know my way around.
shadowgardener3 shadowgardener3 Newcomer
1 message
joined Mar 2014
#504 ·
Carl Taylor said:Does anyone here actually run their own orchards? My dad’s got a small setup—about 100 trees that are roughly 18 to 20 years old now. I'm curious to hear what your experiences have been like...
Specifically, I'm trying to figure out the best timing for pruning and what kind of gear or methods actually work. Any advice would be appreciated.


Hi there,

I noticed you have some walnut trees that are about 18 to 20 years old. I was hoping you could help me out with a quick question.
Are your walnuts grafted?
If they are, do you notice a significant difference in tree size depending on the variety? Back in 2012, I planted an orchard with about 50 trees covering five different varieties. I'm trying to figure out if there will be major differences in height and spread between types like Chandler, Franquette, or similar cultivars.

Thanks,

Best regards,
Morgan Brown4 Morgan Brown4 Active Member
106 messages
joined Dec 2024
#505 ·
I’ve got about $3,500 sitting around. My grandparents used to live in a little town just outside of Kansas City. They had a massive yard—everything you see in those old movies, a veggie garden, chickens, even a pig pen. But things changed recently. My grandpa passed away, and honestly, they’d already moved closer to the coast a few years back to be near my aunt because of health issues and getting older.

Look, I know I'm being pretty vague here, but given the starting cash and where the property is located, is there anything actually worth investing in? It’s not some massive ranch or anything; it’s more like a big backyard with a garden rather than actual farmland. I'll try to dig up the exact acreage and soil quality soon—I haven't asked yet because, frankly, some of my relatives might take it personally if I start poking around too much. 🙄
rustywalker42 rustywalker42 Active Member
244 messages
joined Oct 2012
#506 ·
Morgan Brown4 said:I’ve got about $3,500 sitting around. My grandparents used to live in a little town just outside of Kansas City. They had a massive yard—everything you see in those old movies, a veggie garden, chickens, even a pig pen. But things changed recently. My grandpa passed away, and honestly, they’d already moved closer to the coast a few years back to be near my aunt because of health issues and getting older.

Look, I know I'm being pretty vague here, but given the starting cash and where the property is located, is there anything actually worth investing in? It’s not some massive ranch or anything; it’s more like a big backyard with a garden rather than actual farmland. I'll try to dig up the exact acreage and soil quality soon—I haven't asked yet because, frankly, some of my relatives might take it personally if I start poking around too much. 🙄

Just go to arkod.com and check it yourself. Hard to say. I assume you aren't planning on living there? How far away from the place are you?
shadowskipper85 shadowskipper85 Newcomer
3 messages
joined Mar 2018
#507 ·
Investing in Agriculture: Where to Begin

I thought I’d share a bit about our own journey. Right now, we’re right in the middle of getting a blueberry plantation off the ground. For about a year, we just bounced ideas back and forth, trying to figure out if this was actually worth it. We went through every cliché scenario—from selling everything off to move to the coast and manage vacation rentals, to buying a condo in New York City to flip on the short-term market, or even leasing out a sailboat. The problem with all those paths was the massive upfront capital required and the painfully slow timeline for seeing any real return.
Eventually, we landed on the blueberry farm idea. If things go according to plan, we're looking at yields of about 13,000 to 22,000 pounds per hectare, which should allow us to break even after three to five years.
We picked up an old farmhouse near a small town in the Midwest and spent this past fall planting 2,500 blueberry seedlings. I’m planning to document the whole process here on the blog so you can see how it unfolds:
shadowskipper85 shadowskipper85 Newcomer
3 messages
joined Mar 2018
#508 ·
Registering a business entity!? It’s a heavy topic that stays on my mind, especially since our first move involves setting up an agricultural payment agency and filing everything with Accenture. I’m still weighing whether to start as a sole proprietorship or a family farm setup—though if things actually take off, we'll inevitably transition into an LLC. There are still so many moving parts and unknowns regarding how things work in our neck of the woods. We can't even apply for those government grants or start recouping our initial investments until the paperwork is officially filed. Since we aren't expecting any massive harvests this year, there’s at least a little breathing room to make these decisions carefully.
http://borovnicee.blogspot.com/
Benjamin Taylor6 Benjamin Taylor6 Regular
577 messages
joined Apr 2017
#509 ·
I was reading through some recent reports regarding geothermal energy—specifically how we might be tapping into that deep-earth heat here in the States—and it got me thinking about the sheer scale of the infrastructure required to actually make this a viable cornerstone of our grid. It’s one thing to talk about "clean energy" in a vacuum during a political rally, but it’s an entirely different beast when you start looking at the drilling requirements and the geological surveys needed to find those high-enthalpy reservoirs. I remember back when I was working a consulting gig near Denver—nothing fancy, just a lot of spreadsheets and lukewarm coffee—and even then, the conversation around renewables felt like it was stuck in a loop. People want the green benefits, sure, but nobody wants to deal with the reality of what it takes to actually puncture the crust and manage the steam pressure. It’s messy work. It’s real work. There’s this constant tug-of-war between the theoretical potential of geothermal and the actual capital expenditure needed to get a plant online. You can’t just plug a turbine into the ground and call it a day; you need massive investment, specialized equipment, and a level of regulatory patience that most American companies simply don't possess anymore. We've become so accustomed to quick wins and quarterly returns that the long-game approach of geothermal feels almost alien to the modern corporate mindset. It’s a marathon, not a sprint—though, given how much red tape we deal with in this country, it feels more like an obstacle course. Benjamin Taylor6 says:
Registering a business—man, what a headache. It’s still an open question for me, but the first move has to be setting up that agricultural payment agency and getting everything filed with Deloitte. I’m still wrestling with the whole "sole proprietorship versus small family farm" dilemma—it’s one of those things where you feel like you're staring into a fog. I mean, let's be real: if the business actually takes off, I’ll eventually have to pivot to an LLC anyway. But right now? There are just so many unknowns regarding how things work here in the States. It feels like you need a law degree just to pick a tax structure. The catch is that you can't even touch those government grants or start recouping any of your initial investments until the registration is official. You're essentially stuck in limbo. Luckily, since we aren't expecting a massive harvest this year, I’ve got a little breathing room to weigh my options before making a final call. No sense in rushing into a legal mess if I don't have to.
I stumbled upon this blog today—it’s one of those niche little corners of the internet that feels like it belongs in a different era entirely. It’s essentially just a collection of thoughts and observations, floating out there in the digital ether without much fanfare or direction. It reminds me of those old-school forums we used to frequent back in the day—you know, before everything became hyper-optimized and driven by algorithms designed to tell you what you want to hear. There was a certain... let's call it a "raw" quality to them. You’d read something, maybe disagree, maybe find it insightful, but at least you knew a real person was sitting behind the keyboard, probably nursing a lukewarm cup of coffee and typing away in their pajamas. Of course, most modern platforms feel like they've been scrubbed clean by a corporate committee in Silicon Valley until all the personality has been bleached out. Everything is so polished now, so curated, so incredibly *bland*. This blog, though? It doesn't care about being "on brand." It just exists. It’s a bit messy, a bit aimless, and honestly, in an age where everyone is trying to be a "content creator," there’s something almost refreshing about someone just... writing. Even if it’s just a digital scrapbook of random musings.

Thanks for the tip. That’s actually exactly what I have in mind for my own plan. Though, honestly—I think I’m going to lean more into that laid-back, coastal West Coast vibe instead.
I’ve been sitting here staring at my screen, nursing this lukewarm coffee—which, honestly, is more depressing than the topic at hand—and I can't help but feel like we're all just circling the drain when it comes to how people discuss these things online. It’s the same old pattern, isn't it? A little bit of news breaks, a tiny ripple in the pond, and suddenly everyone thinks they’re a seasoned expert with a PhD in everything under the sun. I was reading through some of the comments earlier—and yes, I know, I spend far too much time lurking in these digital rabbit holes—and I noticed Benjamin Taylor6 making a point that really struck a chord with me. There’s this pervasive sense of entitlement regarding information. People don't just want the facts; they want the facts to fit the specific, narrow little worldview they’ve spent years constructing. It’s exhausting. It’s like trying to have a conversation with a brick wall that occasionally shouts back at you with poorly researched statistics. Take the recent discussions about the economic shifts we’re seeing in the States right now. You have one group claiming everything is perfect because their local Starbucks is still open, while another group is convinced the entire financial system is going to collapse by Tuesday. Neither side seems interested in the actual nuance of the situation—the messy, complicated middle ground where reality actually lives. It reminds me of a time back when I was working a junior analyst role at a firm in Chicago—nothing fancy, just a mid-sized outfit—where we’d spend three hours debating a single decimal point in a report, only to realize later that the entire premise of our data was flawed. We wasted so much energy on the wrong things. That’s exactly what’s happening here. We lose the forest for the trees. We get so caught up in the "he said, she said" of political rhetoric or the immediate outrage of a headline that we forget to step back and ask: *Wait, does any of this actually matter in the long run?* It’s a bit cynical of me, perhaps. Or maybe I’m just tired of the noise. But there’s a certain dignity in being willing to say, "I don't know enough about this to have an opinion yet." Instead, we get this endless stream of certainty from people who couldn't find their way out of a paper bag if the instructions were printed in neon lights. Anyway, that’s my rant for the day. I'll probably regret posting this once the inevitable wave of disagreement hits my inbox, but someone had to say it.
So, you’ve finally got your hands on some acreage—maybe a quiet patch out in rural Iowa or some rolling hills in Georgia—and now you're staring at it wondering how to actually make it do something besides grow weeds and collect property taxes. It’s one thing to own the dirt; it’s an entirely different beast to make that dirt work for you. First off, don't just go out there with a plow and hope for the best. That’s how you end up broke and frustrated within a single season. You have to look at the soil itself—I'm talking deep, scientific testing, not just "it looks dark enough" guesswork. You need to know exactly what nutrients you're working with before you even think about planting a single seed. Then there's the logistics. People always underestimate the sheer amount of infrastructure required. You can't just plant corn and expect a harvest to magically appear. You need irrigation, you need equipment—and let me tell you, buying a tractor is a rabbit hole that will swallow your life savings if you aren't careful—and you need a way to get whatever you grow to market. Whether you're looking at small-scale organic veggies for a local farmers market or trying to scale up for something bigger, the supply chain is where most folks trip up. And honestly? Regulation. Oh boy. Depending on which state you're in, you might be dealing with anything from local zoning boards to the USDA. It’s a bureaucratic nightmare sometimes—I remember a buddy of mine trying to start a small orchard out near Austin, and he spent more time filling out paperwork than he did actually pruning trees. Just... be prepared for the red tape. In short: test the soil, plan your infrastructure, figure out your buyers, and brace yourself for the paperwork. It’s a marathon, not a sprint.

So, I recently came into this inheritance—about 25 acres of land back on my home island. It’s mostly just rugged, rocky grazing land that’s probably more trouble than it's worth—though, honestly, sometimes those wild patches have a certain charm, don't they? But there is a decent stretch of tillable soil in there too... maybe enough to plant somewhere between 250 and 500 olive trees if I can actually get the irrigation sorted out. I've been staring at the maps for days, weighing the costs against the sheer physical exhaustion of working that kind of terrain. It's quite the puzzle.
Look, you have to understand how things work around here—this country actually has these massive stretches of land, some over seven acres, right along the coast. And under the current zoning laws and regulations we're dealing with, you can actually develop those plots into high-end boutique farm villas. It’s all perfectly legal, provided you play by the rules.
Morgan Brown4 Morgan Brown4 Active Member
106 messages
joined Dec 2024
#510 ·
rustywalker42 said:Just go to arkod.com and check it yourself. Hard to say. I assume you aren't planning on living there? How far away from the place are you?

Finally getting back to this after disappearing for three years. 🤣

Spot on—I definitely wouldn't want to live there. My plan right now is to stay in Washington, D.C.—though, honestly, I’m also looking at moving abroad in a year or two, maybe even becoming a full-time nomad... I just have no clue how much work would actually be doable alongside that. And, you know, whether it even makes sense to hire someone to handle the heavy lifting (with my current bank account, probably not anytime soon).

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