55 Years And Counting From The Tractor Seat

By bill whitman 

With harvest nearing the end, we received good news with grain prices going up recently and followed up with a trade deal with China buying soybeans again. I had a Vo-Ag teacher in high school who told us to act on facts rather than be moved by headlines and emotion.

In an earlier article I suggested holding on to beans by renting bins rather than selling at sub $10 a bushel. This wasn’t because I had any inside information or crystal ball, it is because the facts led me to believe that the market would have to react positively when China came back into the market. China must buy beans to meet its population’s needs.

I suggest that corn will follow as ethanal demands increase. This brings me to the topic I want us to think about. There is growing coverage of upcoming changes in agriculture. All the evidence points in that direction. Since the 1980s, we haven’t seen the stage set for such significant changes in the way farms, both livestock and cereals, are run. If we aren’t very careful, the family farm will be a thing of the past.

Many times, I have pondered whether we should have continued the Granges or Co-ops in the traditional sense. Where we would pull together for the common good. It’s my suggestion that we need a way to hold our suppliers and the buyers of our commodities accountable. While our suppliers continue to hold firm the percentage of their business margins, generating larger profits than ever before, we continue to bear the weight of the entire house of cards.

A for-instance is how equipment dealerships are encouraged by their respective manufacturers to pay all of the dealership expenses including labor from parts sales and this assures them that new/used sales, service and warranty are profitable, even when we’re underwater. That’s why a $26 bearing is $186, and windshield wipers are $150. That said, we’re seeing staff reductions at the dealerships because our well has run dry. We are looking at all other options for parts, working to make our equipment last longer and yet it’s not enough.

In agriculture, we often don’t feel the full effects of losses until the next year or maybe the second. I am told that it takes three years of profitable farming to make up for one year of losses at the level we experienced last year and even this year. Even adjusting loans for interest only still leaves an unpaid principal balance in addition to the next years. So, we’re now seeing generational farms forced to recognize that their equity will no longer absorb losses.

What are our options? The first thing I believe to be essential is that we reason for ourselves. We look at the facts and stop, yes STOP, listening to the headlines and make our decisions solely on the facts and what’s best for our operations. I further suggest that we will find that the majority of the 1.8 million farmers and ranchers left in this country share a common goal, to protect a way of life that this country is founded on. Work ethic, morals and integrity in everything we do.

IndianaAg@bluemarble.net

Horse Sense: Even my horse knows, “wrong is wrong.”