How about an Eastern US hunting issue?

[westbranch]

Most farmers are pushed by insane property taxes ($100+ an acre) to farm every square inch they can,

Wow! My in-laws farm/own land in NW IA/Sioux county and I just looked up taxes on a few of their parcels and its ~$35/acre. That's for some of the most expensive corn and soybean ground in the US.

 

[Stocker]

Wow! My in-laws farm/own land in NW IA/Sioux county and I just looked up taxes on a few of their parcels and its ~$35/acre. That's for some of the most expensive corn and soybean ground in the US.

Yeah, Nebraska is insane, but we have crumbling roads and failing schools to show for our high taxes. So we have that going for us.

 

[Wild Bill]

If I were to ever go criminal, my list of crimes would be all in efforts destroying tilling equipment.

Every time I drive past a tiling operation I try and image how much black smoke would billow into the atmosphere if I poured a can of gas on a single roll and flicked a camel onto it.

 

[seeth07]

Every time I drive past a tiling operation I try and image how much black smoke would billow into the atmosphere if I poured a can of gas on a single roll and flicked a camel onto it.

The environmental harm from that black smoke would be a grain of sand on a beach compared to what that tile going into the ground does to our planet.

 

[CowboyLeroy]

Have a look at what I have for neighbors. A ladder stand sitting over a corn feeder, and a cell camera 25 feet off the line.

 

[Steiny77]

Most farmers are pushed by insane property taxes ($100+ an acre) to farm every square inch they can,.

$100 Per acre taxes are not the case around here. I've got farms in both IN and IL, both good farm ground and pay $20-30 / acre taxes.
Only places I've seen the high tax rates like mentioned are where farmers are still farming parcels of ground on town fringes, in industrial park areas, etc.

Farming is a tough business. They handle a lot of $$, have lots of expensive equipment and generally have very high net worth which is all tied up in ground and equipment, but the actual income produced by all that investment is marginal. So, yes they are pushed to try to pick up an extra dollar off every acre, any way they can.

As an avid midwestern deer hunter, I saw how the habitat was getting wiped out years ago and realized that the only way to assure long term quality hunting was to buy ground and develop it for such. Just so happens, it's been a really good long term investment too, appreciating considerably in value while spitting out a little income each year.

 

[Stocker]

$100 Per acre taxes are not the case around here. I've got farms in both IN and IL, both good farm ground and pay $20-30 / acre taxes.
Only places I've seen the high tax rates like mentioned are where farmers are still farming parcels of ground on town fringes, in industrial park areas, etc.

Farming is a tough business. They handle a lot of $$, have lots of expensive equipment and generally have very high net worth which is all tied up in ground and equipment, but the actual income produced by all that investment is marginal. So, yes they are pushed to try to pick up an extra dollar off every acre, any way they can.

As an avid midwestern deer hunter, I saw how the habitat was getting wiped out years ago and realized that the only way to assure long term quality hunting was to buy ground and develop it for such. Just so happens, it's been a really good long term investment too, appreciating considerably in value while spitting out a little income each year.

I’m stuck, I mean I farm the ground so I need to maximize profits, but I love hunting and want my kids to be able to enjoy it, so I keep Timber, draws, etc.

But I sit and think especially now when margins are so tight about the 97 acres of timber, creek, grass pockets and swamp out of 320 acres on my home farm that I’m paying taxes on just to hunt. It’s an easy decision for me because I grew up wandering it and hunting it, but if I had no connection to it looking at the bottom line would be much easier. That’s why as much as I hate to see trees cleared, swamps drained, waterways tiled, at the end of the day farmers are just doing what the consumer wants.

I have tried to kind of push my vision of agriculture on others, but the corn/soybean mentality is hard to break

 

[seeth07]

But I sit and think especially now when margins are so tight about the 97 acres of timber, creek, grass pockets and swamp out of 320 acres on my home farm that I’m paying taxes on just to hunt. It’s an easy decision for me because I grew up wandering it and hunting it, but if I had no connection to it looking at the bottom line would be much easier. That’s why as much as I hate to see trees cleared, swamps drained, waterways tiled, at the end of the day farmers are just doing what the consumer wants.

Man this hits right at home and you nailed it.

Personal connection to the land and appreciation for habitat as well as probably some expenses that also prohibit you from doing the work to make tillable acreage keeps that habitat going. If a corporate farmer comes in and offers you more than market value for your property and you sell, they have the hired hands and equipment to clear cut, move earth and install tile to make the agricultural land at a way cheaper rate than what you can.

That is what is happening - these corporate farms are businesses looking at bottom lines to make money and whatever it takes. At the end of the year they don't want to huge profit and pay taxes on it to lose a 1/3rd of it so they instead reinvest that into more acreage so their profits go up the next year. Rinse and repeat. They just offer whatever it takes to get the land from the stubborn folks like you and me that don't want to let go but eventually that offer price is high enough.

 

[44hunter45]

Well per person is 2 bucks and its unlimited does.

The property is not hunted by the father much but mostly his 3 sons ages 14 to 22. Two of them had their GF's in there this year during gun deer. 13 deer were shot opening weekend by the two boys and their girlfriends

They are accessing through your place? Put up some signs on the road saying "Hey Bobby, Hey Jimmy, Hey Sammy! I miss those hunky butts of yours. Call me, Trini"
That will solve the GF problem. Include a Madison phone number.