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| Anyone farming for a length of time or just in business understands cycles and the point is to make the best of them. I fully admit that I got lulled to sleep by the counter cyclical markets (rallys during harvest, etc) and slowed way down on my forward pricing and other 'profit conserving' measures. It appears it's just that time in the cycle where we have to cut costs drastically. It's not the first time and it won't be the last.
We all have rents that are on the too high side because one or two guys were smarter than everyone else and bid rents to the sky. Our choice was to either take a cut in pay and keep farming or walk away. Not that it's a purely great business decision, but you can see why those of us that were fortunate enough to pile up some cash bought way too expensive land just to get out of the rat race (almost pay any price to get out it seems).
The market doesn't owe us anything and neither does the government, but we seem to elect folks that want their hands in our business so that's the way it is. There will be no shortage of 'high flyers' that get clipped really hard and hopefully they had an exit plan. Land prices, rents and inputs will eventually adjust and in some ways the longer 'they' hold out for more, the harder it will drop when the non-farm investors start running for the door. It would be great if folks on the expense side of farming would be a little proactive to 'conserve profit' but that hasn't been super popular the last few years. Of course there will always be farmers falling over themselves to farm one more acre, but the penalty for that 'business plan' appears to be increasing.
None of this is abnormal, it's just business and there are things we can control and things beyond our control. I'd suggest we all vote and participate in politics where appropriate, but there will always be things we just have to deal with rather than complain about. | |
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With all the doom and gloom.............
