jumpinfarmer

It would be nice to think it was that simple but it is not. To begin with farmers for the most part are price takers and not price setters. Meaning that we don't have much if any controle over the price we recieve for what we sell. the exception is for people who can direct market to the consumer as with a road side stand. It is hard to say how it would effect the prices of comodities if there were no more government checks. My thought is it wouldn't change much if at all. Comodity prices are mostly set by the Chicago Board of Trade and some other futures markets. You may not know it but you probably own corn or wheat as part of your retirment plan/ 401k or what ever. These funds can make big swings, both good and bad, in the prices we recieve and have little to do with weather or crop production. Another thing is foreign compition. China and South America compete on the world market with us which has an effect on prices recieved at home. It is hard to compete with a farmer from a third world country that works for pennies a day and has almost no life but his crops and family. In this country that would not be a very attractive way to live. In all this conversation you should all remember that in the USA you have the safest most abundant and affordable supply of food and fiber in the world. It only takes about 40 to 45 days for the average American to earn enough to buy all the food they will consume in a whole year. In many other countries it takes more than twice that long. This is part of the reason why we have the largest economy in the world. We have extra money to spend on things other than food. (I wish a couple of the other farmers that are on here would help me out here.)

I just read that blurb from The Heritage Society and if I had time could shoot that all to hell. What a bunch of slanted bullshit.

There is a demand, but when you take the cut in production and the increase in labour you realy don't make out any better. Just for your info. organic program crops are eligable for subsities as well.

What do you think would happen if subsidies were eliminated while, simultaneously, domestic demand increased? If a new domestic market were introduced, wouldn't that be beneficial, at least in the long term? Just curious, and would appreciate your opinion. The way the current program is set up if a great demand was created and prices went through the roof then we would get very little from the government. And yes it is a real benifit the bio fuel industry.

Most small farmers are doing it for a hobbie, and not there sole source of income. Actually I'm probably in the top 15% to 20% of farms and I can't totaly make it without some off farm income. This year is a good example. Fuel cost has almost trippled in the last three years.Fertilizer, steel, and many other inputs have also seen a drastic increase in price. However most crops have seen a price decline for a number of reasons. Over production realy isn't one of them. Without the subsity kicking in most farms would be in trouble, myself included. It should also be noted that most of the 10% are still family farms, they just have several people that live off the same farm insted of all having seperate operatios.

Here we go let the shit storm begin. To start off, yes I get money from Uncle Sam. This year it quite a bit more than last year. I am not a large farmer but I am above average for land worked and gross sales. As someone stated the reason 10% get 70% of the money is because that is about how the production is 10% grow around 70% of the subsidised crops. Many groups including the government consider a farm anyone who grosses $1000 in sales, not a hard thing to do. However most of these very small farms don't produce the main subsidised crops. They are grain corn, wheat, oats, soybeans, barley, cotton, rice, sorgum and milk. The reasons for small farms not producing many of these crops is they just can't justify the cost of todays machinery. Also the proffit per acre from these crops is reletivly small so you need to have a large acreage to make a decent living. As for how the programs work, well it makes my head hurt trying to think how to explane that. I can say for myself that our main crop and the one that nationaly gets the biggest subsity is corn. This year the government will pay out more than other years because of the low price and large crop. If the price was high we would get very little from Uncle Sam. The same goes for wheat, oats, soybeans, and many other comodity crops. The government is for the most part out of the land idleing programs of the past, with the exception of some conservation programs. This means nearly all the cropland is planted every year. The government also is out of the grain storage buisness, wich means that any surpluss of grain is held mostly by the farmers. As far as eliminating subsities in my opinion it would probably bring most farmers to there knees or even put them out of buisness. This is because we don't compete on a totaly level playing field with the rest of the world, and since almost half of our production is exported we need to compete. Agriculture is one of the only industries that has a positive trade ballance in this country. I could go on but I'll let you toss this around first. ( turnning to run and hide)

Looks like you had a beutiful day. I hope the rest of your lives are as happy as your wedding day. Congradulations Dave and Morgan

I sent a check off to them about a month ago and was wondering how long it takes before I start getting it.

Volunteering for the position.

A bar of soap and a bottle of shampoo thats it.

SDC spring expo Batavia Boogie Couch Freaks Hope to go to them again next year and maybe a couple more.

I've been on a powered parachute before and it was awesome. If I didn't skydive I'd probably be buying one for myself.

I didn't know PETA was off the terrorist list now. We still regularly get warnings from the extension service as to when and were PETA is holding meetings or planning there next attack. They are truly a menace to society

I've never been able to have all my insurance combined into one company. Those that I know who do don't seem to have any big complaints until they have a problem and then have the hassle of changing all there insurance at the same time. As for me I would look to a local company for the home ins. Most places have a co. operative insurance company they are normally very competitive on price and have excellent service. For auto I'm not much help, there is only a few companies in NY that will insure me since I have a lot of Ag plated trucks. For life you may be limited to only a few as well because of the skydiving riders. I hope some of this makes sense.

Actually the land idling programs have gone by the wayside. Todays farm programs actually encourage production if anything.

Interesting. How does that break down by acre? About 420 gallons of ethanol and around four and a half tons feed per acre using the national average yield for grain corn. An interesting fact is that the oil in the corn adds nothing to the production of ethanol and in the neer future will be used to produce bio diesel. For the record corn contains about 7% oil.

We shouldn't have any such problem in the US since we can produce all the soybeans and corn we need and more with the land we already have in production.

Actually Bio diesel production has almost no effect on the food supply. The oil is removed from the beans and the meal is left for animal feed. This has been going on for decades but now there is a valuable use for the oil as fuel. The same applies to ehanol production. The left overs, about 25% are dried out and sold as feed. DDGs as they are called are actually a better feed than whole ground corn. With ehanol you get about 2.8 gallons fuel and 15 lbs of feed from every 56lb bushel of corn. In both cases shortages should not be worried about last year the US produced record corn and soybean crops and this seasons while not a record should be more than adequate. It must be the price of corn and beans SUCKS now.

Scuba with regular air below the recomended depth. It's been a long time since I dove last so I'm not sure what that depth is anymore.

The John Deere Story, the October Parachutist, a copy of the SIM and a brochure for a new grain dryer.

Skydive Chicago.

Don't look for it in the near future like next 10-15 years. However prices paid by consumers should start to rise. However if fuel prices stay where they are (I don't think they will come down) and crop prices stay in the tank where they are, I will be having a skydiving shortage next season.

When I win the mega millions jack pot I'll buy one for my DZ so we can jump year round.

Minnesota also is proposing to require that 20% of all fuel used in the state come from renewable sources. That doesn't mean that they will require E-20 gasoline or B-20 diesel fuel but just that at least 20% of the total fuel would have to be from a renewable source.

It won't have any afect on the refineries. Bio-Diesel is added at the distribution point. Regular diesel is sent to a tank farm/distribution area and bio diesel is blended as needed. The same goes with ethanol. Anyone saying that adding a bio fuel such as Bio diesel or ethanol will increase fuel prices is just doing so to scare people away from using them, or has a vested interest in BIG OIL. Ethanol and bio diesel production adds to the total domestic production of all motor fuels which is what really drives the market.