Why Owning Land Slows Down the Farmer Who Wants Land

Look at almost any farm balance sheet and the shape is the same. Somewhere between seventy and ninety percent of the capital sits in land, another ten to fifteen in equipment, and the smallest slice of all sits in working capital.Then look at what each one returns. Land appreciates around five percent a year. Equipment loses value every year it is owned. Working capital, the smallest slice, is the one that returns fifty percent on average and sometimes several hundred on crop inputs.Jonathan Small, an agricultural management consultant who came to Saskatchewan from Britain, spends this conversation asking what a farm looks like if you flip that. Not as a thought experiment. He has watched people do it.What's Inside- The arithmetic that puts the highest returning asset in the smallest position on nearly every farm balance sheet- Why a young operator with a million dollars can farm four or five times the acres by renting, and which of the two gets to a land payment first- The producer who went to five thousand acres in three years owning one quarter section and a sprayer, and what he offered landlords to get first call on their ground- What happened to that same operation when the frost came, and why he walked away from farming afterward- Why working capital is doing two jobs at once, and what happens the year a farm needs it for the second one- How thirty years of that model changes the conversation at the succession table when there are three children and one farmConnect with Growing the FutureWebsite: growingthefuture.caYouTube: Growing the FutureInstagram: @growingthefuturepodcastLinkedIn: Growing the FutureSubscribe to the Growing the Future Podcast wherever you listen, and register for Convergence Conference 2027 at convergence.ag. Register for the Convergence Conference at convergence.ag and stay updated by subscribing to the Growing the Future Podcast at growingthefuturepodcast.ca.