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| The 200 year old house restoration is a bit sad until you consider during the first 100 years of its existence there was manure smell everywhere (see kooiker's comments below). There were no good ol' days when it comes to manure. Frankly a lot of the deep pit buildings use fans that help dilute the smell somewhat. (disclaimer - I have hog buildings with deep pits and I live 1 mile directly north - it's in the middle of nowhere since the IL DOA tries to keep site locations where they get fewest complaints). This issue is certainly worth money and lots of folks are working on ways to reduce odor. I would imagine there will be improvements, especially when it's a deep pit where all the manure can be treated vs a big outside lot.
It appears that some folks growing grain forget that a big chunk of it goes to animals (before ethanal, almost half). We don't grow a direct to consumer product (corn, soybeans, wheat). When folks start raising livestock, it creates a local demand for grains (and lots of other things). In other words we grain farmers need pig, chicken, cattle farmers otherwise we growing grains just for yuks.
The root of the problem is caused by ourselves. Folks bemoan the dairy situation, but it wasn't just a few corporate dairies that ruined for everyone. Lots of folks decided to get larger to make more money and because they could handle the extra volume due to better equipment. It's the same way in grains with guys willing to lose money on rent deals just to grow and somehow make it up when prices go up (though many of these guys went bankrupt with record high prices). In both cases the damage was done - rents all higher, smaller dairies long gone after large one comes and goes, etc.
We also beg for government assistance which feels nice at times (I don't refuse any $), but typically comes with "a kicker" and often just encourages more folks to 'grow their business'. I'm not sure how passing along more money helps a business that's already losing money but I'm just not that sort of smart. Right now guys are suggesting we need to get a better deal from the gov't and I'm asking why? Tough times really clean up a lot of bad business practices and provide a challenge. If a guy wants a steady paycheck, this isn't the right business.
Hey just a word of caution on the retail outlet - IF YOU THINK THE PRICE A CONSUMER PAYS HAS ANY RELATION TO THE COST OF PRODUCTION, YOU ARE MISTAKEN (said by a official at a DAP plant). Walmart pays whatever for milk and sells it for a price to get customers in the door - yes even at a significant loss. The prices we see in the market are based on what the market will bare not production costs. We should understand this by now - the cme is under no obligation to maintain a grain price that meets or exceeds our cost of production. | |
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Apply this logic and see if it flies
