I'm new and I'm just going to jump right in up to my neck and see what happens.
I'm going to retire in about 5 years. My wife inherited about 220 acres in Southern Illinois that is currently share cropped. When we retire we'll plant the double wide on about 5 acres leaving about 210 very well taken care of tillable acres. I grew up on farms around horses but eventually went to college and became a computer programmer. I have often thought about farming the 200 acres myself after retirement but when I look at the price of equipment for a combine with a bean head, a corn head and possibly a wheat head...well... 200 acres isn't worth it. I don't really thing of 200 acres as a hobby but it's probably just a better idea to continue the share crop agreement if I can't just use a tractor and some implements the way my grandpa did. I would get a new tractor and the implements to use it with but all the pickers are really getting to the point of finding parts being difficult... Is no one making a new one anywhere?
There are some small SP pickers (and combines for that matter) being made in China, but I have yet to see any imported here. The last attempt at new pickers in the US was by Vermeer around 1990, but nothing ever came of it.
