IALTO - 1/17/2026 08:43

Ag has obviously hit a tough time. No need to hash that out any further. Lots of subsidies and lots of opinions about them. Lots of thoughts on what the solution should be.

But what does anyone really want? $5 corn? $6 corn? $12 beans? $15 beans? Its all a zero sum game. If corn rally $2 we will give it away in land and equipment costs as there will be enough people looking to cash in and expand at any cost. Growing generic commodities and not finishing a product is eventually a break even proposal. Eventually we bid all the profit away. Yes there are guys with paid for land and lower costs that really benefit in the early parts of the run up. But eventually their profit is squeezed as costs increase.

The real wealth we create is under our feet. Generational wealth is created by owning land. That separates to a large extent the haves and have nots. And a lot of that is already in place. If you are a have not its hard to break into that caste.

So in these late stages of capitalism, what do we really want. No argument that this current arrangement over over production and government subsidies blows. More demand is the answer. If we get year around E15 and need another billion bushels of corn we solve the problem temporarily until we plant 115 million acres of corn and over supply again. It seems like farmers will continue to be our own worst enemies and bid any profit back into the land.