Rant: Farmers

[Diddy]

There are some that will do quite well, if you paid up and got revenue insurance youll probably come out alright. I dont know what percent go with that over a cat policy but id bet its low. This will be the second year that ill be drawing more in crop insurance then in sales, if next year is the same ill probably be out of farming. Ive been farming on my own for 10 years and these have been the first two years ive drawn anything, but without it id have been out of business after last year. Insurance pays the bills but doesnt leave much to live on. As we stand our corn yields were about 1/3 of our average yield, we also have 1000 acres of beans out and we need some good rains soon or we wont have one acre to harvest. Even with insurance well lose money on them.

There are deff fortunate people that will make a killing this year, but its a low percentage. Working your ass off and having nothing to show for it is quite depressing.

[Hudler]

Seriously Luke? If you're basing your opinion of farming off an NPR article, then your opinion is worth even less than I already thought it was worth.

[TimeForGuinness]

I'm lost on why this is a rant

[lukethedrifter]

Seriously Luke? If you're basing your opinion of farming off an NPR article, then your opinion is worth even less than I already thought it was worth.

I'm not basing my opinion off of the NPR article. I'm sharing the article, which does state that this windfall does not apply to all or even most farmers.

Now, it's worth remembering that this average masks a huge amount of variation. Some crop growers — those in hard-hit areas without irrigation or crop insurance — really could be ruined. Others, who are probably banging themselves on the head right now, won't ever see these high prices because they sold their crop back in the spring, when no one saw the drought coming.

Maybe you should set aside your low opinion of me and read the article. Then you should google farmers drought NPR to see what that lefty news org says about the subject.

[Hudler]

I did read the article. This quote of yours made me reply, sounds a lot like you think all farmers are greedy people.

"But how's this for a surprising fact? On average, corn growers actually will rake in a record amount of cash from their harvest this year. And that's not even counting the payments that many of them will receive from their crop insurance."

[lukethedrifter]

How is that for a surprising fact? Is it a fact? If you are disputing it, show some numbers.

[IMADreamer]

There are some that will do quite well, if you paid up and got revenue insurance youll probably come out alright. I dont know what percent go with that over a cat policy but id bet its low. This will be the second year that ill be drawing more in crop insurance then in sales, if next year is the same ill probably be out of farming. Ive been farming on my own for 10 years and these have been the first two years ive drawn anything, but without it id have been out of business after last year. Insurance pays the bills but doesnt leave much to live on. As we stand our corn yields were about 1/3 of our average yield, we also have 1000 acres of beans out and we need some good rains soon or we wont have one acre to harvest. Even with insurance well lose money on them.

There are deff fortunate people that will make a killing this year, but its a low percentage. Working your ass off and having nothing to show for it is quite depressing.

Hope you get some rain for those beans. Ours are toast. We've walked some fields and can't find a single pod. It's odd because they still look great from the road.

For fun, here's a view from my office for the next couple months.

[cpebbles]

I'm lost on why this is a rant

Because thunderstorms suck for everyone except those smug goddamn farmers.

[Hudler]

How is that for a surprising fact? Is it a fact? If you are disputing it, show some numbers.

I thought someone already did earlier but can't find it now. It is simple enough though.

You have 100 acres of corn.
Good year = 10 bushels per acre = lower price, say $5 per bushel = $5,000.00 for your crop.
Bad year = 5 bushels per acre = higher price, say $8 per bushel = $4000.00 for your crop.

Farmers also have some ungodly overhead, i.e. tractors,insurance,fertilizer,seed,etc,etc.

So even if you were getting subsidies, and not all farmers do, you're not gonna be raking in a ton of cash in a year like this.

[Diddy]

Hope you get some rain for those beans. Ours are toast. We've walked some fields and can't find a single pod. It's odd because they still look great from the road.

For fun, here's a view from my office for the next couple months.

Looks like my view. The next ten days will tell us alot on the beans. We're forecast for rain tomorrow and next week, if we get those I think they still have the potential to be average. If we miss them we won't have anything.