| emtbd1979 - 3/23/2015 21:35
It's simple economics. Fringe acres need to go. But nobody wants to stop because corn and bean farming is easy so lets run it in the ground and go back to the 90's.
We don't need the acres it's that simple.
To me it seemed like you were saying fringe acres need to stop growing corn and beans, that they should grow something harder to grow (what's harder to grow by the way?) because if they kept growing corn and beans, prices would be low enough your cost structure could not handle the results.
I would think I'd be considered the extreme fringe. We used to grow wheat and sorghum a lot more out here until notill came along (better water use efficiency) corn genetics improved (better drought tolerance) and corn prices came up relative to wheat prices (ethanol).
We grew a lot of acres of corn when the first two happened and especially after the third happened. Now we know how to grow corn in our area pretty well and we know what to expect. If we find something that pays better (or loses less) we'll do that in a heartbeat. It has nothing (zero, zip, zilch, nada) to do with what's easiest. It has everything to do with what will lose the least money or make the most money. If that's corn, and at some points in our rotation it most certainly will be, then we'll grow corn.
The bottom line is exactly what Tara says. Unless any given farmer gets his cost structure inline with revenue potential, he will eventually have a farm sale, simple as that. Part of that cost structure is land cost and in the current environment it needs to come down. |