New in Floyd Iowa

my boyfriend and i decided to ask his father who owns a huge acreage how much hes renting out his seven acres. He says he's renting it to his neighbor for three hundred and fifty dollars a year, A YEAR!! anyway, we decided that we'd like to take the seven acres and pay him six hundred and fifty a year, planting corn. but we want to figure out what is the best to replant the next year so we can alternate. and we are doing each acre by hand. we don't own any farm equipment and we're against it. itll take a long time i agree but hard work is what us young people are all about. we're just looking for more information. thanks

Hi Mammabear2, welcome to the forum. I'm in Iowa too:D .

Are you wanting to do the corn using square foot gardening methods? If you are, you might want to repost this using a different subject in the title to attract more attention.

To do it on a large scale would cost a lot of money. Plus, corn can blow over easily, so you'd have to use some thing to brace it up. In the book, Mel says you can make a cage of sorts to fit over the top of your box and the corn will grow through that. It will then keep the corn from blowing over as easily.

Anyway, the deal you got on the rent for the land is great. I would love to have that much land to do things with.

Welcome Mammabear2 I live just east of you on hwy 18. I see the cash rental for tillable land in NE Iowa this year averages $223/acre so still you have a very good deal. If you want to raise sweet corn in SFG ok but for that much land you mite need to see Warren Buffett for financially backing start up costs. Down near Nashua Harringtons have a huge sweet corn operation with a lot of distribution thru numerous small truck vendors. If using SFG methods you would be producing organic corn which would bring a hefty price to you but that much land would grow a lot making a really good distribution network necessary. Oneota Coop in Decorah mite have a few pointers about organic distribution. Winneshiek county has an awful lot of small specialty producers of honey, apples, grass fed animals, milk, veggies all organic. A great success story would be near Madison. Wi where a young couple started a garlic farm on a smaller homestead. Their website and full story are at. www.wegrowgarlic.com also at Bedford, Ia is a small family garlic operation called www.2sistersgarlic.com . Not saying to go garlic at all but these folks are examples of small ag business success. Lease or rental on a long term proposition mite get difficult and now days rent contracts are becoming a legal necessity to protect both parties from misuse or misrepresentation of intent. If you can make it work in the short term and enjoy what you are doing you mite best consider land ownership especially if you can get a good contract purchase deal. Best wishes with your plans.