Farmer’s Hotline and other Stuff
April 14th, 2008 by Northern FarmerThe snow is slowly melting and the forecast is for some warm windy weather tomorrow and that should cut it back and get spring ushered back in here. I keep thinking as I try to hold everything together that in a month from now that old cowherd will be on grass, one way or another and this ordeal will be finished at last. A long painful ordeal coming to an end. A month from now the crops should mostly be in the ground too. These late springs really put a crush on things time wise but when the poor weather is gone jobs go much, much easier without all the winter gear a person carries around. It’ll feel good to lighten the clothing load on a fellas back I tell you! Spring might put a crimp in blogging, but then again, maybe not. There’s allot that goes on between the ears during a long day in the tractor doing field work and a fella can get down right inspired! One thing I’m thankful for is the fact that in this recent snowstorm and aftermath our cows decided not to have any babies during the ordeal. Praise the Lord, God is good, that really lightened my load! I love it when calves are born on the grass, although its mighty short grass this time of year, and bask in the sunshine they’re first few days. Incredible how much headaches and money that saves an old farmer compared to listening to the experts and calving when no calf in their right mind would want to be born, winter.
And I just heard in the farmer grapevine today, well I heard allot of stuff on the grapevine today but I had better only dwell on one subject here. (Folks, you wouldn’t believe what an old farmer can learn shooting the bull with other farmers, they can out gossip anyone.) And I know gossiping is evil so I won’t do that here. But…..I can talk farming and one of the only ways to learn is to hear, …..right? Well, anyway there’s this one farmer that always thought he knew everything there is to know, he knows how to borrow money better than any of us folks and he also is a firm believer in the dead of winter calving. Many a time he just laughed at me because I calve with nature, when its warm and sensible, but he listens to all the big whig university experts that tell you how to farm and how to borrow money till there’s no way out. And them big brains that never did a lick of work in their lives say to calve in winter so you have a bigger calf come fall. Pretty smart eh, I’da never thought of that! Well, to shorten the gossi…, uh story, he lost around half of his calf crop and I think he has around 80 cows. Now I figure that should cut the profit potential of this year’s calf crop or else he’d better get the surviving calves durn big by fall to make up a fifty percent difference! Now I’m not gloating or anything here, (cough), but for some reason my pity level is pretty low concerning this. And if I was his cows I’d think I’d start an open rebellion and set him straight! I tell you, some people just deserve to suffer and this case is one of them. A classic case of modern farmer stupidity if I ever seen on. There’s enough to go wrong in farming without a person sealing his own doom with idiotic practices.
Now the tough part in writing, how to change the subject after sharing a little, (just a little), from the local farmer hotline? Well this blog is about as real as it gets if you want a feel for the country so I’ll do like we do when we’re gossi…, I mean discussing matters about the neighborhood, just change the subject flat out any old time. So here goes, subject change. On Wednesday evenings at church I spend an hour teaching kids. And now I’m sort of changing the basic teachings and going more into the old paths, with pastor approval I might add. One of my texts is the old “New England Primer” and the kids just suck it up. Amazing! And I enjoy teaching that way also! And yesterday I ran across a thing at Vision Forum and I almost fell flat on my face! I didn’t know that a person could buy Geneva Bibles in this day and age! Well, I’m getting one and am looking forward to it! I just wish I could get around more on the blogs and I never picked up much about them and what simple folks think of that Bible. If there’s any opinions out there just fire away! I’d appreciate it very much. I’ve read them on the internet, but I hate reading on the internet for more than five minutes, makes sore eyes you know, and to get a family sized Bible like that has me all excited today to say the least. Not like we’re short on Bibles in this house, but I always wanted one of those and honestly didn’t know that they even existed anymore except as collector items. What can I say, they never bring up the subject of Geneva Bibles during the farmer hotline sessions. Anyway, any thoughts, just feel free to jump in.
So that’s the start of the week around here. Melting snows and I’m trying to stay out of the mud as much as I can. Put the duals on the JD 4320 this afternoon for something to do on dry ground. Tomorrow Lord willing do a few more jobs just to be prepared for the season. I thought about pulling the grain drill out of the machine shed this afternoon and putzing with it in the yard but the snow drift in front of the machine shed doors made me change my mind. It can wait till there’s real ground there before I attempt to weasel a sixteen foot wide grain drill out of the machine shed’s fourteen foot door. That’s worth a blog in itself, doing that job! Yep, there’s allot of jobs you’ll never read in a farming how to book, in fact I can honestly say there ain’t a book been written that even scratches the surface. You want to farm by the book all I can say is good luck! Just remember the farmer that lost his calf crop, well 50% of it anyway, he farmed by the book and did it well!
April 15th, 2008 at 9:26 am
Tom,
Speaking of farming by the book - have you seen the price of roundup ready corn? The neighbor was telling me he spent $200 per bag. Looks like Monsanto is making their chunk of change.
Jim
April 15th, 2008 at 2:37 pm
Jim,
No, I never checked their prices but I believe you. I was looking in a seed catalog at the co-op the other day and the cheapest “blend ” seed corn was $120 and we always call that floor sweepings seed. I have to say, and folks may disagree, but I have never seen anything like what’s going on in my entire life. Prices for everything are skyrocketing! And its only the beginning. What’s the most amazing is the lack of concern by the masses. Is everyone so brain dead nowadays that anything goes? I don’t know but I do know that us folks are on the right course! Better buckle up for the ride, its gonna be a rough one!
April 15th, 2008 at 7:24 pm
Tom,
Are you growing most your own seed now days from the OP corn?
April 15th, 2008 at 7:35 pm
Don,
Very little. The reason, devastating droughts, back to back. Everything had to be chopped for silage and then we only got a quarter of the regular supply on double the normal acres. I was tempted to save a bunch for seed but after investigating found that I could be screwing up the upcoming crop with badly stressed out corn seed. Of coarse this year the plans are still in place to save at least a couple thousand bushels of cob corn which would be very easy to do even with half the normal rains. Then we could get back to saving an abundant supply of MN 13 and Wapsie Valley. I’m gonna try and get the Reids Yellow Dent in early enough here also to maybe save seed. They say that strain is 90 day but that transilates to 90 or over in most cases. The little seed I had offered a while back, (which reminds me, I have a couple more folks to send some out to, oops), wouldn’t make a dent in how much I plant so I’m buying all the seed this year again, hopefully for the last time. Oh, we’re talkin about building an old fashioned narrow wood corn crib just for seed corn cobs like they had years ago.
April 15th, 2008 at 8:44 pm
Hello Tom! Nice day out today, after three days of looking at my tractor and spreader stuck in a field we were finally able to pull it out with the neighbors 4020! Phew! Another of my neighbors was cleaning out his manure pit this past weekend before it overflowed, the custom hauler managed to bury the tractor and a 20,000 gal manure tanker axle deep in mud! Had to dump the 20,000 gal of manure right at that spot. They brought in one of those 500+ hp, 6 wheeled case tractors to pull everything out, it only took them about 12 hours of work to do it! I heard that the big Case uses 20 gal an hour when it’s working and has a 300 gal tank on it! Boy do I love my old JD 2cyls when it comes to using fuel, more like 10 gallons a day! Farm diesel here is $3.97 a gal and you pay up at delivery, the fuel companies are refusing to carry accounts! Gee, do you think the farm economy might be in trouble this year? By the way, when we feel bad about ourselves, I think of a news video we saw recently on MSNBC. It showed the food riots in Haiti and also a fellow that was making and selling a kind of pancake at a food market. The pancake was made of butter and dirt! The fella said it was all many had to eat so they wouldn’t starve!
April 16th, 2008 at 5:54 am
Brent,
Yesterday morning till this morning the whole world has changed! The snow disappeared in the last twenty four hours and large areas of ground have firmed up. Talk about a shock! That was one of them rare fast melts with a strong south wind to dry up the slop.
I’ve been thinking, (oh, oh) about the cost of fertilizers which will very soon be beyond the grasp of farmers that hope to stay on the land. I even read an article, the first one I ever read like it in a regular farming magazine that said the cost would never get payback, hmm, hows that for some news! And what this boils down to is in farming we’ll have to start producing our own fertilizers, and that starts in healthy soils and also means diversified farming. You know, some crops and such. My feeling is the current grass farming is very good as long as a person has the regular society supporting the farm. But a farm that’s going to continue on has to be diversified with several crops in order to maintain the soil. This won’t be popular with the current train of thought in agrarian circles but its very true none the less! Stay tuned for some truth about the current fads which cannot support the farm very long and certainly cannot support civilization, even in a toned down manner.
Just dwelling this morning on a whole bunch of stuff, snow melts and Tom wakes up
April 16th, 2008 at 10:53 am
I found these two quotes from an article on the web site “farmindustrynews.com”. I think they explain well the attitude of industrial agriculture toward the farmer who is nothing more than a slave or cash cow to them.
“A report in Forbes.com in late June fueled the speculation, with one industry analyst reporting that “the value of (Monsanto’s) products-in a world where bushels of corn go for $4-has now perhaps opened up an opportunity for price increases of $15 to $25 per bag for elite, multi-trait hybrid seed in fiscal year 2008.”
“Tami Craig Schilling spokesperson for Monsanto. “If a bag of seed continually yields more grain and delivers more profit to the farmer, it is realistic that its price will go up accordingly”.”
In other words, if the farmer gets paid a little more for his corn, the money will be taken from him by the seed companies in the form of higher prices. The seed companies consider it their (Monsanto’s) just rewards. To them the farmer has no need of or just claim to the extra money he recieves for his corn crop. Monsanto’s belief is, “whatever we can get from the farmer is justly ours and we will get all we can”.
That I think explains well why your seed costs so much more. It is not just that the cost of producing it has risen. Much of the price increase is because Monsanto knows they can get it.
Here is my opinion of most American farmers today who follow the government and Industrial agriculture dictates. This is not my opinion of farmers like Tom Scepaniak.
The American farmer who used to be a symbol of liberty and freedom is now a symbol of slavery and addiction. Slavery to Monsanto and the bank and addiction to government handouts, (subsidies). The subsidies are just money taken from me, an already over taxed non farming U.S. citizen.
The farmers like most citizens, feel that they should not have to pay for other citizens and illegal aliens housing, food, clothing, education, health care, transportation and private business expenses. However the American farmer does feel that I should pay for his needs and poorly run, failing private business, (his farm).
What is wrong with farmers today? Why do they think I should pay for their farm and the processing of thier product, corn?
I am a business owner also and it is a real struggle to keep it going. I am paid less than most American farmers. I do this by my own choice because I love the work I do.
Maybe there should be subsidies paid to me from the farmers through the higher prices recieved for corn. After all, that is what the farmer expects of me. Maybe I should expect the same of him.
I think the farmers have become crybaby, addicted slaves to big brother.
April 16th, 2008 at 11:34 am
I like Don’s observations! Big ag / industrial style farming has many dirty secrets, like the truth that RR corn doesn’t give greater yields but does sell more Roundup for Monsanto. Or the truth that much of the labor on the big dairies is actually illegal aliens, not family members! Big ag uses the image of the small family farm as a smokescreen and propaganda point for dealing with the public. The truth of the matter is that big ag and their lackeys (especially ag publications) have little regard for the true, small family farmer.
April 16th, 2008 at 6:49 pm
Hey I should apologize to some of the farmers out there. I shouldn’t call them crybabies. That was wrong of me. They don’t know any better. They think that farm subsidies are government money they deserve. They don’t know that it is my money and I deserve it more than them.
It’s not thier fault. They have been brain washed by self serving politicians and rich socialists who have never wondered where they will sleep or if they will have heat this winter.
It’s easy to give away other peoples money when you have more than you could ever need. It’s easy to ask for other peoples money when you have been conditioned to think it comes from a limitless government supply instead from other hard working people possibly in more difficult circumstances than ones self.
I apologize to all the farmers who feel farm subsidies are just and due to them from me. I apologize to all the farmers who ask thier congressmen and senators for more and more of my money. I apologize to all the farmers who feel that I owe it to them to send more money to washington so they can save the world with the equipment they couldn’t afford but bought with loans guarnteed by my money. Please accept my sincere apologies.
And please send a $10 check or money order payable to Miles Trumpets at,
Miles Trumpets
10270 Spartan Dr., Suite K
Cincinnati, OH 45215-1246
Please be sure to include your return address so a reciept can be promptly mailed out to your farm.
Again I sincerely apologize.
Thank you,
Don Miles
Miles Trumpets, Cincinnati
April 16th, 2008 at 10:06 pm
OK, Tom, I’ll jump in…
As one who has been on all sides of this issue, I can say it’s a complex one at the least. You really cannot argue with Don’s logic however. It is his (and everyone else’s) money that goes to farms in the form of subsidies. Additionally, as Tami Craig mentioned earlier , these subsidies generally end up in the hands of Dow, Monsanto, Dupont, John Deere, etc… Just like most of the Social Security checks are now ending up in the hands of Lilly, Merck, and other drug companies.
While the farmers are certainly not without blame here, and many do feel just as Don describes, its the entire system that is corrupt…
Let’s get farmers convinced that they need fert and chem and big equipment to grow a crop, then let’s get the gov’t to steal from Don to help the farmer pay for all our products!! Woo Hoo!
Good thread. Makes a guy hungry for some Authentic Jalepeno Bacon…
April 17th, 2008 at 6:05 am
Well it’s tax season and I just got to thinking where all my money is going and how people think it is owed to them. I’ll try to calm down. And please don’t send me money. I was just trying to make a point. I don’t want to spend the postage sending it back. However that is my correct business address. And you can check out my web site if you are interested in the products or services I provide. I always need work.
April 17th, 2008 at 5:03 pm
Gentlemen,
Some good thoughts on this thread if I must say so. And Don, I’ve no problem at all with you sounding off the truth around here, have at it! There’s not the slightest doubt that Monsanto and others are blatantly taking all the profits from the farmers that have been sucked into their propaganda. That’s the name of the game in their eyes. I won’t repeat what Don posted here, its all correct. And Brent’s observation that RU ready corn doesn’t improve yields is absolutely correct. And I might add that BT corn disrupts a rumen’s digestion with the in the plant bug killer that destroys the bacteria in a cows rumen. Funny how very few farmers care because all they listen to is the propaganda and lies spewed out of the big ag media. The same media that’s responsible for destroying family farms, the same that could care less about the population’s health! Oh I tell you my blood can get to the boiling point on this!!
I think this subject and others is very important to keep on pounding out on this little blog. I was taking down last years electric fence this afternoon way out far from the roads and it was relaxing to say the least. And a guy gets to thinking, allot. And I have to say at this moment I’m ready to scream! All the lies and abuses in the farming sector. So I’m thinking, what can one person do? I mean besides what we’re doing here as a farm and family. And being that this blogs underlying theme is Christian, whether it be Christian Agrarian or Christian Farming, whatever, that was one of my main concerns this afternoon. I’ve come to the conclusion that the church is sick, very sick in this country. There’s a church that figures we can be Christian and live the way the rest of society does. And every angle I look at it, it won’t work. There’s a society that’s totally pagan and the mainstream church calls it prosperity if we flourish in it. There’s no church crying out about corporations slowly killing the masses and as they are dying keeping them drugged up at tremendous profits.
Funny how I can throw the church into this eh, but THAT”S THE PROBLEM! And it came to me, even after writing on this blog for almost three years and no even knowing what I was doing, that its time to go on the offensive! I’ve had it! If anyone wants to read the truth around here from now on they’re going to get it! This time of the year I have more time to think, funny how that works with a farmer, the busier you are the more you think. I was thinking how people are doing something about it, the different bloggers and the different readers. These last two years of extreme droughts have fogged my thinking, but no more. We’re almost done with barely surviving and things are coming back in order.
Its ministries like Acres of Hope that I was thinking about today. Spread the Gospel and teach the people how to live again, literally pull them out from the hell of this pagan society. I was thinking about Authentic Agriculture and I totally believe in what Good Farmer John is starting. Its a new growing season and I’m fired up to say the least! There will be times when it’ll be hard to blog but the blogs will be good. One warning, it will hit point blank on anyone that still believes that this industrial society is “good”. But so what.Every move I make, the industrial society tries to tear it down. We’re laughed at for being Christian, laughed at for being a family farm. But they can laugh like they laughed at old Noah, laugh right up to the water getting up over their knees.
Oh, John, let me know how that Authentic Jalepeno Bacon tastes. I love that stuff and hope you and your family do too!