Drought and Flooding Causing Farm Income To Drop

This year's weather patterns may have put, yet another, nail in the coffin of the economy.  No matter how the White House and the MSM spin things, it is rather bleak out here in middle America.  But, I think that's how they want it.  They don't like us country folk much.  Read more here...

Goldman Sachs-Criminal?

You decide.  Read more...  Personally, I think they are all criminals, nuff said.

Frugal Farm Living, Frugal Homesteading

We decided, not long ago, to tell our money what to do instead of our money telling us what to do.  This is a major paradigm shift.

Looking back at history and how homesteaders did things makes me think that we can do it to.  What do I mean?  Historically speaking, homesteaders didn't have much in the way of money or income, something that we have in common with those of yesteryear.  They had to make do with what they had, or make the things they needed with the material available.  What little money they did have, they held on to for emergencies, they didn't just go out a blow it.

Almanzo Wilder is an example.  Instead of buying into the latest chemicals and fertilizers, he used what he had on his apple trees-stove ash.  He had a major problem with his apple trees on Rock Ridge Farm and he spread wood ash around the base of the trees and that solved the problem.  I know that they didn't have chemicals back then, so he couldn't have bought into them if he wanted to.  However, he had to think outside the box and use what he had available-that is the point.  I think I will do the same with my apple trees, the pathetic things they are and see if that helps.

Homesteading doesn't have to cost a lot.  Cut some trees to build a log coop for the chickens, instead of buying lots of lumber and metal.  All that would cost is your time and gas for the chainsaw.  I am going to do this, myself.  Then I will chink it like an old log cabin, the chickens will thrive in style.

Saving money isn't easy, but not impossible.  I am living proof that you don't need a six figure income to survive.  What do you do?

Hotshot Is Home

Well, yesterday we took a trip, east and picked up HotShot.  He is a cute gelding paint that my daughter saved her money to buy.  He is finally home and adjusting well.  Abbie is in love.  I think she has brushed him twice each day he's been here.  He will not lack for attention.

I must say that this turned out to be an excellent homeschool lesson on stewardship, responsability, frugality, diligence and obedience.  Abbie has demonstrated discipline in saving for three years for this moment.  I was very proud to watch her as she handed over the money for some brushes and a halter, then to pay for the horse.  She even has some left over.  So, here is a picture of Hotshot.

Frugal Living

We recently had some friends over for a fun day.  They had wanted to see the farm/homestead and "play" with the animals.  We went out back and shot ALL of our guns and had a general good time.

At one point, after showing off a few neat things we got for christmas, our one friend commented, wow, you have a lot of stuff.  I noticed the sound of envy in his voice.  His wife chuckled, uncomfortably.  It was not my intentioon to create envy in our friends.  They are struggling, financially, so they view our possessions as wealth. 

We are not wealthy, by any standard, let me make that clear.  We struggle, daily.  However, my wife has learned to stretch a dollar bill until the eagle's feathers fall off.  She is just plain good at it.

I responded to our friends with the truth, (which is always the best policy).  The fact is, it may look like we have a lot of neat, cool things, but we don't.  We simply know where we place our priorities.  We purchase things we need and occasionally some fun stuff.  But, here is the point, for all of the things we have, we never pay full retail.

For instance, the nice digital, $120 weather staion with outdoor remote I got for christmas.  My wife paid $20.  Or the brand new Carhartt jeans, two pairs, for $40 I got three years ago and am still wearing.

I could go on, but that would be pointless.  We live frugally, with the intention of being debt free, someday.  We have only the mortgage.  I work a full time job, my wife stays home.  We earn extra monet from our farm.  With this frugal mindset, we have noticed great improvements, over the years.  We have come from totally depraved, poverty, to just poverty.  Sounds funny, I know, but that is the best way I can explain it and it is very true.

There are many things we do without.  We don't eat out much, at all.  We think and pray before we spend, and we try to save.  We work hard at other income opportunities and try to stay within our means.  This is very un-American, really.

A great book for you to read, if you want to learn to make do with less is, The Complete Tightwad Gazette, by Amy Dacyczyn (do not ask me to pronounce that).
This book has everything imaginable for frugal living.  From ideas to generate income to fixing thins yourself to making your own, it's in there.

Frugal living is the way most people lived in the not-so-distant past.  Frugality is also a virtue.  It is not something to be ashamed of, but it is something to be proud of.  Look into it and read this book, you will gain something from it, I promise.  I know times are tough and money is tight, but this book could be the best $15 investment you can make outside of a pound of gold.  And few can afford a pound of gold.  Go for it.

The Story Of Warren Buffet

Warren Buffet is the world's second richest man. I don't write about him in regard to his wealth, per say, but because he has a fascinating story. Some look to Mr. Buffet for investing advice, some admire him for his fame and fortune. Other's feel that he has an uncanny "feel" for the market and the economy. Myself, I think his is the story of hard work and that is what I find fascinating. However, it must be said, that I don't know Mr. Buffet's beliefs and his success doesn't amount to a hill of beans if he is not saved. I do think that there is a lesson of hard work. The bible says, "Look to the ant, you sluggard...", and, "He who doesn't work, neither shall he eat...".

Warren Buffet wasn't handed a fortune to start with. He grew up in the depression era, we may be facing a worse one, but he knew how to be creative and survived. Here is a part of his story.

Mr. Buffet began as a door to door Coca Cola salesman, at the age of six, during the depression in Omaha, Nebraska. He wound his way through a series of different ventures, like retrieving lost golf balls to sell. He sifted discarded race track tickets looking for throw away winners. Then he moved on to a kind of mass production newspaper delivery with a route of 1500 deliveries. He even rented pinball machines to barber shops and all of this was done before the age of 18.

At the age of 18, he had accumulated the modern equivalent of $100,000.00 in the bank. The point here is that nothing he did is beyond anyone. It wasn't luck, it wasn't brilliant, it wasn't a positive outlook, it was because he wasn't afraid of hard work.

Now, here is my point. I believe there are some seriously trying times ahead. If survival is to be obtained, it will take hard work and now. I think that we need to look to God for provision and His provision is from the ground up. How is your garden? Are you putting up food? Most importantly, how is your spiritual life? Do you know Christ?

Like I said, I have no clue about Warren Buffet's spiritual well being, but this is one example of hard work that some life lessons can be gleaned. Not about the pursuit of wealth, for true wealth is from above, but about recognising the times and making an effort to survive.

I've Said It Before, It's All About Relationships

Let me start off by saying that this information can be helpful to men, as well as women. It helps to know the habits of those you talk to and the way they are "wired". Face it, men and women are different, and that is OK.

So here are a few things to key in on when marketing your farm fresh products. This is a lesson for me, as well. I'm a guy, what can I say. But I do work in a retail environment and can attest to what is about to be said. So, here goes...

Women develop bonds through talking to others. Men bond by doing things together.

Women rarely buy impulsively, early on in the decision. Men know what they want before they buy shop.

Don't worry how long it takes to make that first sale to a woman. It is the bond that takes place that will mean more to you and your business than anything. It will mean a bunch in terms of repeat sales and sales to all of her friends.

Some things to consider as y'all get ready for the farmer's market season.

Adapted from the Stockman Grassfarmer form author Mart Barletta "Marketing to women, How to Increase Your Share of the World's Largest Market."

What's The Beef?

Here is an interesting little blog entry on Alan Nation's blog over at the Stockman Grassfarmer's website. (You can find a link to the Grassfarmer's website at the right).

It is entitled, "What happened to the cattle cycle?" and questions what happened to the usual down period in price. The conclusion being drawn is that even though there are less producers in this country than there were 20 years ago, there is more beef being produced. This is because of the continued trend toward bigger, beefier animals. Less farmers are producing more beef.

The conundrum is that these bigger animals aren't necessarily conducive to grass finishing. Food for thought. Use the link above to read the article in full.

Wylie Coyote Wheat

What kind of a title is this? You'll understand more after reading this post on Alan Nation's blog. To put it into my own words, I would have to say that wheat farmers should have been wealthy, but they missed the boat. Mr. Nation has been writing about the coming of this catastrophe in the Stockman Grassfarmer for some time with a fair degree of prophetic accuracy.

No man has ever thrown a brick so high that it didn't come back down. Commoditiy prices went sky high last summer, and, it seems, farmers tended to store their commodities waiting for an even higher price. Unfortunately, the prices fell quicker than they had hoped.

Many farmers even spent the new wealth before they had it on new machinery and upgrades. With the prices falling, it will be difficult to pay the piper.

Click the link and read the above article to learn more about the Wylie Coyote moment.

Well, I almost hate to say this, but, news is slow on the farm these days. We are beginning the slowdown into the winter months, scaling back on just the bare essentials. We have around 40 broilers left to butcher, which should happen next week, unless we decide one group is not yet ready. This group of birds had an illness, early on, and their growth was stunted because of it. So, that group is about three weks behind. We have been pouring the food into them, hoping that they might catch up, somewhat, but they still seem to be lagging. They are healthy, for sure, and are growing again, they just lost so much time from the rest of the batch. We'll see.

I just read a good article on Alan Nation's blog about the grocery giant, Whole Foods. Apparently they are suffering from the economic catastrophe that so many are suffering from. This is one reason I believe, whole heartedly, in what is called "organic growth". This growth from within is a keyy element to your business, the principle is simple, you don't grow until your business can pay for it. It seems that Whole Foods has succomed to the ever fater pace of growth at all costs. Now, it appears, they are suffering for it. Feel free to click the link to Alan's blog and read the rest of the story, as Paul Harvey would say.

Thanks for stopping by, and I hope to have something of more substance soon. In the meantime you can buy this "Bible Baby" for just $10.00. With a frame, it will add inspiration to any room. Contact us at sppowers@iglide.net to order.

Is Farm Land The Next To Collapse?

Will farmland be the next asset to dramatically fall in price? Cash corn prices in the Midwest are now down to $3.50 a bushel and soybeans are at $8.00. At these prices, it takes at or near 100 bushels of corn just to pay the cash rent on top quality Iowa farmland. This means renters are in a real financial wreck considering the high price of other production inputs. In Argentina where farmers are currently facing these new low prices at planting, we have seen farmers abandon cash farmland leases and pull back into their deeded acreage. So far, farmland prices there have not fallen there but leases are going begging. I suspect we could see the same thing happen in the Midwest this spring. Farmland has already seen one price prop, exurbanization, removed. A dramatic drop in cash rents would set farmland up for severe price declines in 2010 and 2011 as investors exit. Unfortunately, due to the current banking crisis the exit window for cashing in on the recent price runup may have already closed.

Please visit Alan Nation's blog for more news on agriculture and grass farming.

This Should Be a No-Brainer

This information is really self evident, however, when you crunch the numbers, it becomes more like staggering.



A recent study performed by Penn State has published results saying that higher fertilizer costs are causing hay prices to skyrocket, (Duh!). But, before you click off to another part of the information superhighway, here is the kicker.



The study showed that the estimated value of one ton of grass hay is now $84. Whoa! This is the cost of the 50 pounds of Nitrogen (N), 15 pounds of phosphate (P), and 50 pounds of potassium (K?) each ton of hay contains. This does not include all the micro-nutrients.



The study used Pennsilvania custom machinery rates, estimating that it takes $35.70 in machinery costs to make a ton of hay.



Given a 2 ton per acre yield, adding pasture establishment costs (why they added that, I don't know) of $25.63 per ton and land rent at $30 per acre (again, why they added that, I don't know) you end up with a total cost of $160 per ton. This did not include the cost of spreading fertilizer.



Figuring 1000 pounds of hay in one large round bale, this would be an out-of-pocket expense of of $80 per round bale. Whoa!



Consider this: you can often buy hay for less than its fertilizer value ($42 a round bale) and this study did not include weather losses.



If you crunch the numbers and do a little "cipherin'", oyu may find that it is far better to buy hay from your neighbor than it is to make grow and make your own.



Or, you can go one step further, which is the direction that we are trying to go (slowly), and that is to get the hay out. We need to be insatiable readers and learn all we can about the new, old way to farm, on grass, with stockpiled stands to graze through the winter. Something to think about.

U.S. Cow Herd Continues To Decline

I was browsing Alan Nation's blog at the Stockman Grassfarmer web site and found an interesting little article. Apparently, Cattle-Fax is estimating a continued decline in the U.S.A. cow herd size. The estimate places the decline to 32.1 million head, which is the lowest it has been since 1963. Cow herd declines are taking place all over the world as pressure continues to rise on land to be used for the production of bio-fuel. Thus, higher oil prices means the continued higher, and rising, price of beef. It will help the farmer but hurt the consumer at the grocery store, in my opinion. You can go here to read more: http://www.stockmangrassfarmer.net/Allan_Blog.html

Where Would You Rather Be?

I spent some time today talking with my coworker about farming. It all stemmed from a discussion going on at http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/ The topic was "least cost farming". Back when I was in high school in Wisconsin, my best friend's step dad had a small farm. He farmed about 350 acres with all the equipment. He milked, I would guess 50 head, or so. Grew corn and soybeans, raised some pigs and sheep, and cut and baled hay every year. My friend and I would have a ball during hay season, and in the winter, we would climb the silo and pitch silage. That was always fun because there wasn't a cap on the silo and there would always be several inches of snow on the silage. All we would have to do is dig down a few inches and we'd have to start shedding clothes from the heat.

Every year, it would seem, my friends dad would complain about money. The man worked hard, long days and, it seemed, for nothing. At the end of the day he would be exhausted and crash in his chair around 8 p.m. He would be up and at it again around dawn. Every day, week in and week out. His wife (my friends mom) worked at the local hospital as a surgical tech and made good money. I venture that her income floated the farm in more ways than one.

At the homesteading forum, a gentleman remarked that he does not feed hay all year, does not make hay and doesn't own any equipment. So, in my discussion today about my childhood memories on my friends farm, I was contrasting these scenarios.

On the one hand, you have a man that worked very hard, and you could tell. He had lots of "stuff" and plenty of outbuildings full of animals and equipment and hay. Yet, exhausted, he would struggle to find the next dollar. He'd fall asleep in his chair and he would not be heard from again until the next day. He was pooped and broke. All that equipment costs money in loans and maintenance and fuel. It seemed that he was going nowhere and there are many more like him. It makes young people want nothing to do with the dead end business of farming. You either get big or get out, and most can't afford to get big.

On the other hand, you have a gentleman who works hard. The difference is, he works hard with his brain. He has studied and taught himself the ways of Management Intensive Grazing and has found a way to stockpile fescue for the winter, thus feeding no hay at all. He might be in the house relaxing after dinner, watching the evening news. He makes good money because he has no overhead. He is a one man show and can do it without all the equipment. He might lean back in his chair and remark to his wife how much he loves farming, and his kids might look at him and see that farming isn't such a bad way of life. They might want to carry on the farm after dad quits.

The question is, which scenario would you rather be in? A least cost, thus, least stress operation? Or a high stress, large debt operation? The thing I find easy for myself, having never been a farmer until several years ago, is that I didn't come into it with any preconceived notions about how to do things. I can understand how those that did grow up on a farm, can bristle at the new way of thinking of farming. The things is, the new way of least cost farming isn't really new, just lost. Lost wisdom from not that long ago. Sure, the machinery is fun and will speed things up, but if you think outside the box and learn to manage the animals in a way that they do the work for you, you don't need it. What a concept, no debt! I wish I could say I didn't have any debt, but I'm working on that.

So, which scenario would you rather be in?

2008 Farm Bill

I was visiting The Beginning Farmer blog a few days ago (you can find a link to this blog at the right), and he had written a short article on the 2008 Farm Bill. After the article he asked that his readers give their opinions on the bill, I gave mine then but have since gotten something related from the place of my employment, and have conjured up a few more opinionated opinions.

As many of you know, I am a produce manager at our local grocery store that is part of a chain. I get periodic email's from my "big boss" keeping me abrest of changes in the market, or, in this case, legislation that will directly affect us as a business and as consumers.

The email had to do with part of the 2008 farm bill, specifically, the Country of Origin Labeling (cool) and how it will affect us as a retailer.

The information I have is long, so I will try to condense it and give you the highlights of it here. First of all, "cool" is mandatory. It means that all commodities that fall under "cool" are to be labled as to where they came from. This includes all seafood (fresh and frozen), all fruits and vegetables (fresh and frozen), all meat (ground or cut), peanuts, macadamia nuts, pecans, and ginseng.

Some people are exempt from "cool" and those are mostly resturaunts, as the food is being prpared. On our level, we must ensure that we have signs that are clearly visible to the customer and lets the customer know where their food came from. This is easy enough to do, and I am allowed to write on the bins (if need be) where watermelons came from etc...

All bagged salad mixes must be labled for each variety of lettuce in the bag and each ingredient (carrot, raddish etc..). I won't have to do this, likely, but the manufacturer will (Dole, in our case).

I am not against this because it will add more work to my load, it won't be much. I am not even against knowing where the food comes from, that is what we enjoy about our customers, they want to know about the food they eat.

What I am against, and the same applies to the entire 2008 Farm Bill, is yet more government. I am not fond of any farm bill and think that the government needs to focus on other things. I am not fond of a "nanny government" that will protect us and care for us.

The bottom line is this, all Farm Bill's are about one thing, Big Agribusiness. Guys, this is a fact, all you need to do is read between the lines. The Farm bill is laced with subsidies, and who gets those subsidies? Not you and I, that is for sure. Big Ag is paid, by our government, to overproduce, hence the mentality of ever bigger animals and ever bigger GMO, Roundup ready veggies. The subsidy money goes to a "farmer" in a suit and tie that has never gotten his penny loafers dirty. These businesses pay migrant, slave labor to do that.

Ultimately, you and I, as consumers, will suffer. We will pay ever increasing taxes to fund this latest addition to the bureaucracy. And we will face higher prices on the shelf as these big ag companies need to raise their prices to offset the increase in cost for new labeling and packaging. Heaven forbid if their profit margin should slip a little.

Don't make any mistake about it. The farm bill does not help the farmer in America. It helps Big Agribusiness, which is what this mercantilist government wants. Protectionism for the sake of rich people who buy the election of the candidates that will ensure their way of life. Don't be fooled.

What lies Ahead?

Wow! Two posts in one day! Like I said in my post this morning, I'm bored. But I came across a really good article that kind of goes along with the "balloon that went POP!" article I posted the other day. I know, I know. What does any of this have to do with farming? A bunch, I'm affraid. We, as do most of you, have a mortgage. I feel that is very important to keep a watchful eye on things to come and be ready for it. This is done with the idea of trying to help small farmers stay on their farms, to keep feeding their families and their communities. So, with that in mind, read this article by clicking here: http://money.cnn.com/2008/07/11/news/economy/fannie_freddie.fortune/index.htm