DG N. AL - 1/22/2007 19:11

First of all, let me say that my background is in cost account and I have experience in that field in the corporate world.  Now with that behind us let me say that the cost of equipment is so vastly more expensive today as compared to the 70's that we have to crank every drop of production out of that equipment that we can to get the cost per unit back down to a level where we can make a profit.  Margins per unit are so much lower now than they were in the 70's.  That is why it takes so many more acres and bushels to make a profit.  Cost per unit are definitely higher (on a real scale) than they were 40 years ago.  That is why a family can not make a living on a 200 acre grain farm today as they might have done in the 70's.

I went to college also and I had many professors that did not have a clue what conditions were in the real world.  I don't think they had any motive to mislead, it was just that they did not know anything more than what they had read in a book.