They buy the properties in their names, then when they hit their lawfully mandated limit of ten properties(or ten in the name of each spouse) they move the deeds into an LLC, thus freeing them to continue to score government-backed loans on the cheap, giving them healthy cash flow.That's the way I've heard about it being done, and it makes sense if you believe in leveraging other peoples money to build wealth.

Regarding moving into other farming opportunities, the reality is that the current siblings do not really have much knowledge about running a large farm (the family's institutional knowledge on how to grow a successful farm is resident in one man, who is our remarkably healthy but tired 70+ father), and this is part of the reason why the current parcels are being marketed for sale.

Geogrid can go back 10 feet or more into the soil, so perhaps a 20' easement straddling the lot line would be appropriate.

The asbestos roofing and knob and tube wiring are items that would put a healthy scare into me.

The vast majority appear to be on slabs.I speculate it's due to soil composition or water tables, but I wonder if anyone can clarify this for me.

In my opinion, you MUST have a HEALTHY cash reserve to be considered to be using debt wisely.....too often we (myself included) are building a house of cards and don't realize it until times get tight.  

An active discussion on this site that we can direct our legislators to review will be healthy. 

That said make sure your debt coverage ratio is healthy enough to keep you safe.

They dump a lot of rain water making soil at those spots softer.

We broke into the DSM market in 2014, have plowed some serious soil since.