08/14/2018
This is a little different post than my usual. There have been quite a few posts lately about the plight of the American farmer, most of it concerning the dairy industry, while those of us who row crop have been holding our own. I got my daily marketing report yesterday and saw that the local price on soybeans was around $7.90 per bushel. In mid 1986, I delivered a load of soybeans locally for $7.75. Then diesel fuel was less than $1 a gallon, and a new tractor was less than $30,000. In 1986 I paid $10-12.00 for 60 lbs of soybean seed, this year I paid $53.00 for 50 lbs of soybean seed. My entire w**d control cost per acre in 1986 would have been about $25, now it can be $100 an acre. We didn't get cursed out for driving slow on a tractor, nor did we worry about a neighbor suing us for the smell of our animals. A friend of mine has had nasty notes left on his sprayer saying he is killing the bees and going to cause us to starve. Another was flipped off because the dust from harvesting soybeans was drifting across a road and getting someone's car dirty. But as American Farmers, we get out of bed, climb on a tractor and go to work, knowing that we can't make a profit unless things beyond our control change, knowing that many of us will dip into our savings if we haven't already used them up, or we will have to add our personal living expenses to what we borrow to plant next years crop. Remember when you don't like the smell of that chicken house up the road, or the dust that tractor is stirring up, how cheap food is in this country. If you make the American Farmer quit growing food, other countries will have power and ability to dominate this great country.
