Jim Rogers Begins Farm Acquisitions in Australia

Jim Rogers has been saying for at least a couple of years that the future wealthy will be farmers, or at least those that invest in farms in certain strategic places around the world.

Rogers, as usual, is putting his money where his mouth is, recently launching a new rural land fund with approximately $350 million available to acquired farming land.

According to Rogers, because Australia is located so close to the Asian markets, that is the place where farming will grow the quickest and fastest, and so is targeting the northern NSW in the country.

He sees this as the season of time to get into the sector before the price of farmland skyrockets. Rogers says food shortages will get worse, and the price of farmland will jump as a result. General inflation is another factor in the agricultural mix.

How the fund will work, which is a closed, unlisted fund called the Laguna Bay Pastoral Company, is to first attract investors from the Australian domestic market before opening it up to those outside the country.

The fund is different in that it will partner with high quality farmers in the region who are among the top 10 percent in farming earnings in the region.

Those farmers will continue to run the acquired properties and also give suggestions as to other properties that would be worth taking a look at for acquisition purposes.

Overall, the fund is about getting the best farms and farmers. Rogers sees a rise in price of soft commodities in Australia because of the reliance of Asia on the products.

Rogers says it's nowhere near to late to get into the farming sector, as there is a lot of time left before inflation makes it cost prohibitive to invest in the sector.

It's a good example of those interested in investing in farmland in any quality area of the world.

You want to buy up great farms run by great managers. Do that and you've solved most of the efficiencies and profit challenges.

For those wanting a piece of the action without acquiring farms and their managers, most farm-related public companies and/or ETFs should do well, as will a number of futures.

One recent example is the fertilizer industry. When the cost of corn soared in response to the drought in the Midwest of America, the price of fertilizer shot up as well, with fertilizer companies jumping from 10 to 15 percent within a few short months.

That's because farmers whose crops are thriving are going to have much more capital to spend on inputs and farm equipment; or any other vital part of the farming process.

Multiply that with rising inflation and you see the potential in a wide variety of agricultural related segments.

Great Returns on Gold, Farmland

Investing in Farmland

We have heard a lot over the last year or so from the likes of Jim Rogers and Marc Faber concerning the value and profitability of investing in farmland.

Depending on what part of the world you live in, it has been one of the most lucrative investments over the last decade, and only trails gold when taking into consideration safety as part of your investment decisions.

In England, for example, prices have surged by 164 percent in the last decade for farmland prices, and this includes bubbles and a terrible recession. Of course those two events are part of what has driven investors to the rural land to begin with; that and concerns over potential catastrophic failures which could lead to he breakdown of society, which isn't considered that far fetched anymore by a growing number of people and investors.

And while farmland is a good haven, it is becoming far more than that as we enter into what I call a "peak" world, where many raw materials are reaching the point where they can't be extracted at the former low prices, and so it will cost more for them in the years ahead.

Even though food prices are down now, and may be for another year or two, they will start to rise again, and when they do farmland will be an extraordinary investment, as there is no more growing anywhere out there, and it will bring great returns in the years ahead as food demand skyrockets.

This is a great long-term opportunity for investors, with the combination of safety and great returns a hard to beat proposition.

While I see gold as a good investment for years into the future, I think over an even longer term, farmland will far outperform that and most other investments for a long time ahead.

Investing in Farmland

Commodities: EPA Wants to Charge Fees Livestock

Livestock as a commodity will suffer under asinine EPA initiative

The nuts are definitely running the asylum if the proposed, moronic, federal initiative to charge huge fees to farmers or ranchers for each animal they have actually passes.

Parameters for the fees would be farms with over 25 dairy cows, 50 beef cattle or 200hogs. The price tag for each one: $20 for each hog; $87.50 per beef cattle; and $175 for each dairy cow.

A significant number of livestock owners have said if the proposal were to go forward, it would effectively bankrupt them, which is evidently what some of the nutty environmentalists want.

Not only would it bankrupt numerous farmers and ranchers, but the costs would raise consumer prices so high it would be extraordinary.

This is of course of the human-haters and earth worshippers want. They want to ram their vegan/vegetarian lifestyle down the throat of the rest of the citizens in the U.S.

The reason given behind this potential atrocity is the animals pollute the air with the belches and gas. I'm not kidding, that's what's behind this idiocy.

According to Ken Hamilton, executive vice president of the Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, the average cost to just a medium-sized cattle ranch would be from $30,000 to $40,000 a year.

According to EPA spokesman Nick Butterfield, the fee would fall under the federal Clean Air act. With a straight face he added they're reviewing the comments of the public before any further steps are taken.

Comments of the public? Let's see. Do we want to pay higher prices for our meat? Do we want to resort to less safe meat from foreign countries? How about importing our milk from China? No? Ok. The public has spoken.

As a matter of fact, the energy and time I've had to take to waste my time writing about this drivel should be charged to the EPA. Where can I send them my invoice?

It looks like the EPA needs to be abolished if it's going to punish commodites, and ultimately people, through these horrible ideas.