Worth Reading

[pastorables]

I am posting the following post (with permission) from an acquaintance of a sports board that I frequent. This man's thoughts are worth reading and reflecting upon.

As a sidebar, I noticed in the grocery store just today that cantaloupes were $4 and apples were $1 each.

pa

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I like to joke around a lot with members on this board, but what I've got to say right now is no laughing matter. This drought and heatwave that has had a stranglehold on the mid section of our country for the past several weeks is now seriously piling on the economical worries for both American farmers and, soon to be, American consumers as well. Soybeans, corn and wheat prices are now at all-time record highs which is not a good thing for most farmers. I have had over 600 acres of corn and almost 300 acres of beans burn up in the field. I'm just one of thousands of small farmers who will not have much of a crop this year, so the high grain prices are pretty meaningless to most of us, unless you bought a bunch of futures and won't have the grain to deliver. Fortunately, I didn't have to buy futures to plant my crops.

Unfortunately, for you the consumer, you are about to be yanked by the short-hairs when you go to the grocery store. Today I was told that my feed prices have gone up almost one hundred $ a ton after already experiencing a $150 per acre increase in my cost of crop production this past spring. Hog lots as well as cattle feed lots are literally drying up as farmers are selling their herds. Anything cattle-related, whether it be dairy or meat, is about to go through the roof. My favorite steakhouse down in Kansas City is already jumping their menu prices in anticipation of what's ahead. A 14 oz. ribeye was $14.00 just 3 years ago. Today, my wife and I stopped in for lunch and that same ribeye is now $24.95. And if all that isn't bad enough, egg farmers have lost over 3 million chickens to the drought and heat and you may soon see $5.00 a dozen eggs. - Rik

[pastorables]

This morning I had coffee with a group of area farmers that I have known for over 30 years who will all lose their crops and either have to sell or have sold their cattle because they can no longer afford to feed them. Over half of these guys say they are done farming. They'll be selling their farms or losing them to the banks and some of these guys are third generation farmers. - Rik

[dolfan]

Saw a news report earlier in the week where more than half the farms in America will change hands by, I think it said, 2025.

Foreclosures, bankruptcies and people just cashing in and leaving will be some part of it, and the continued takeover of farming by large companies is most of it. Now, those companies are controlled more and more by the Chinese and other foreign investors. Chinese companies are buying real estate everywhere in America.

[pastorables]

News from today on rising corn prices:

http://www.cnbc.com/id/48151948