Chillicothe
Platinum Member
- Feb 14, 2021
- 10,453
- 6,699
- 938
Well, good morning!
The following is kinda sorta why I open up this gossipboard over my early coffee.
Sorta kinda like going to the zoo.
So, let's throw some food into the cages:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Fertilizer is readily available in my area.
Prices ARE higher than last year.
However, most of us contract for it the previous fall.
Hence, the impact this year is not all that alarming.
If it stays high when the contract rolls around for renewal .......we'll see.
On the other hand, the turmoil in Ukraine & Russia (btw, Russia is the world's largest exporter of fertilizer)....anyway, that turmoil has boosted crop prices. If you hadn't already sold last year's crop and it is in the bin and uncontracted.....well, you are experiencing a BINGO!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
It has been ever thus.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Farming, just like everything else in America is one giant scam.
I'm not so sure about that, poster 'skews'.
For one thing I know single-family operators that are doing very well.
They are bright, alert, have tremendous work-ethic, and......most importantly, they produce an immense amount of food, with milk, pork, corn, soys, wheat. And are clearly, ever so clearly, providing a great service to America. Our food is cheap. We eat well.
Hell, we eat too much.
Haven't you noticed the strain so many yoga-pants are experiencing?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Well, not wholly. Monsanto owned by the German company, Bayer (the aspirin maker)....does have any number of patents. For a whole variety of reasons, but foremost was their work to 'make-safe' the crops that were subject to be sprayed by their herbicide, Round-Up. Work on that led to developing proprietary seed for other herbicides, other reasons, and Monsanto patented those seeds, long before Bayer bought 'em. Dow is also in the game, along with others. It is a competitive marketplace among ag suppliers.
Anyway, back to the charge that "You can't really start a farm these days".
I demur.
It happens all the time. But it depends upon what the poster means by 'start a farm'.
All existing farms in my area have long been farms. They've been passed down generation to generation or they have been outright purchased by neighboring farmers.
The land.....nearly every inch of tillable.....has been farmed locally since about the 1860's/'70's.
So, if you 'start' a farm.....you gotta do it with old land. Land that has been an old farm for decades.
You can 'start' a family that will farm -----with loans, inheritances, rent-to-own contracts, etc. ---- you can start your own corporation to to be the legal/financial/liability entity to be the operator of that old dirt, that previous farm.
I see it happen....I've watched it happen.....for years and years.
The following is kinda sorta why I open up this gossipboard over my early coffee.
Sorta kinda like going to the zoo.
So, let's throw some food into the cages:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I am. We've been growing only soys and corn on rotation.
Fertilizer is readily available in my area.
Prices ARE higher than last year.
However, most of us contract for it the previous fall.
Hence, the impact this year is not all that alarming.
If it stays high when the contract rolls around for renewal .......we'll see.
On the other hand, the turmoil in Ukraine & Russia (btw, Russia is the world's largest exporter of fertilizer)....anyway, that turmoil has boosted crop prices. If you hadn't already sold last year's crop and it is in the bin and uncontracted.....well, you are experiencing a BINGO!
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Yes, there is enough fertilizer to maintain production. But for those who have needs that haven't been covered by a contract......your input costs will be higher.
It has been ever thus.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------
Farming, just like everything else in America is one giant scam.
I'm not so sure about that, poster 'skews'.
For one thing I know single-family operators that are doing very well.
They are bright, alert, have tremendous work-ethic, and......most importantly, they produce an immense amount of food, with milk, pork, corn, soys, wheat. And are clearly, ever so clearly, providing a great service to America. Our food is cheap. We eat well.
Hell, we eat too much.
Haven't you noticed the strain so many yoga-pants are experiencing?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I think the poster means Monsanto owns the "patents" on 'engineered' seed.
Well, not wholly. Monsanto owned by the German company, Bayer (the aspirin maker)....does have any number of patents. For a whole variety of reasons, but foremost was their work to 'make-safe' the crops that were subject to be sprayed by their herbicide, Round-Up. Work on that led to developing proprietary seed for other herbicides, other reasons, and Monsanto patented those seeds, long before Bayer bought 'em. Dow is also in the game, along with others. It is a competitive marketplace among ag suppliers.
Anyway, back to the charge that "You can't really start a farm these days".
I demur.
It happens all the time. But it depends upon what the poster means by 'start a farm'.
All existing farms in my area have long been farms. They've been passed down generation to generation or they have been outright purchased by neighboring farmers.
The land.....nearly every inch of tillable.....has been farmed locally since about the 1860's/'70's.
So, if you 'start' a farm.....you gotta do it with old land. Land that has been an old farm for decades.
You can 'start' a family that will farm -----with loans, inheritances, rent-to-own contracts, etc. ---- you can start your own corporation to to be the legal/financial/liability entity to be the operator of that old dirt, that previous farm.
I see it happen....I've watched it happen.....for years and years.
