Liz set up and manned the Farm Bureau booth at John Deere days on Saturday. I helped her for a couple of hours, got to talk to a few area folks and Matt and Lisa who stopped by with their son. It is always a very nice program with wonderful food and very welcoming, friendly folks, but this year we heard enough bad news to last the whole year.
An area icon, familiar literally since my childhood, is gravely ill and missed the affair for the first time ever I guess, there has been another self-inflicted death on the edge of the farm community, someone we knew a little, and some dear friends, of whom we are terrifically fond, have had enough of this ridiculous price situation and are selling their cows. All such sad news...none of the stories we heard were mine to tell, so I won't, but they were pretty awful. I wish the anti-trust investigations that are supposed to be going on now, would get it in gear and actually stop the market manipulation that is driving prices down artificially. I don't think the big processors are a bit afraid that anything is really going to happen to them, as manipulation on the CME goes on apace....
And for you dairy farmers who wonder where your money is going, here is a link (caution, pdf) from John Bunting's blog, to a story in the Milkweed, that will probably floor you. (Take time to read it all if you can.) It sure shocked me. Dang, here we dairy folks are losing our farms and wrecking our credit and letting our families go without stuff that would probably surprise you if you knew about it and these "promotion" execs and "cooperative" execs are making money that would look good on Wall Street. There is a skunk in the woodpile, I'm telling you, and I hope they smell it in Washington soon.
Alan is no longer studying fisheries and wildlife over at Coby. He realized that jobs in the field are nearly non-existent and switched into the ag-engineering program, which is mostly a study of diesel engines. He has always had an amazing aptitude for mechanical work and is doing very well so far.
I took a couple pics of this gigantic tractor Saturday, because it is one of the ones he is learning to work on over at the college..(it was just visiting Hudson River Tractor for JD Days and the FB booth was right in front of it.) People actually stopped to ask us (we must have looked as if we would know) what farmers do with such huge tractors.....we told them that they work huge fields.
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13 comments:
I READ THE JOHN BUNTING ARTICLE. TURNS MY STOMACH. GO TO THE YOU TUBE AND PULL UP THE MOVIE F.I.S.T. WITH SYLVESTER STALLONE.
WATCH THE TRAILER AND YOU WILL SEE WHAT I FEEL HAS TO BE DONE.
WHAT IN THE H... ARE THEY THINKING? WHEN PEOPLE ARE DROPPING LIKE FLYS FROM EATING FOOD FROM CHINA THEN FOLKS WILL WAKE UP.
SINCERELY,
ANNE THE BIGMOUTH
Alan has made the correct decision, unfortunately. He'll probably never get rich working on diesels, but he'll always eat! More than lots of folks these days.
I'd hate to see the list price on that Johnny Popper! Ya have to go true 4wd to get bigger. Quite a piece of equipment, really.
(pssst - your link to the pdf leads to Blogger's sign in page)
Anne, I don't know how to cope with the world like it is today....look at the price of calves...or the lack of a price for calves. Someone is selling them, but we sure aren't getting paid.
Jeffro, thank you for the heads up. don't know how I did that, but I think I have it fixed. Hope so anyhow.
Some of the farmers off to the east and south of here have those and the equipment it pulls. Huge! Couldn't hardly turn around in my old fields we used to farm for hay.
Many sad stories from the farming communities out here too. Maybe someone knows of a substitute for food.
I'm already in a bad mood this morning, when I calm down I will finish reading the article.
I really do think a letter writing campaign to these greedy *thinking nasty bad words a lady wouldn't dare say* and make our presence known. For what little it matters.
It's sad how the people that are supply food for out nation are treated. Sounds like Alan has some sense in his choice.......things always break!
JB, amazing isn't it how big some of the machines are... a lot of them wouldn't even fit through our gates!
Jan, seems like you can't even buy good news...always supposing you could afford it at all.
Sara, I don't even know what to think, let alone what to say., What those in positions of power are doing to dairy farmers these days is way too much akin to kicking a puppy.
Linda, he has a real knack for the fixing, and although he is really knowledgeable on the outdoors, he doesn't fit in too well with the government mindset...
These are damn tough times. So much pain and uncertainty out there.
I read the article. Seems there needs to be a good house-cleaning and some serious accounting to the good folks who've been milked to create those cushy salaries.
And good for Cody. I have a nephew who just dropped out of a similar program for the same reasons.
Problem is he doesn't have anything like Cody's capabilities and experience with machinery and is in a real funk as he ponders his future.
Unfortunately, the smell you hope gets to Washington, probably is already part of the stink that no sane person wants to get near there.
Cathy, Sorry to hear that your nephew is facing this kind of hard decision. Alan debated heavily back when he started school, whether to go into diesel tech or fisheries and wildlife. I told him not to feel that he had wasted the first year because he will always have that understanding of the natural world to help him enjoy hunting, fishing, and just being outdoors. On the selfish side of the equation I miss F&WL because he was adding to my knowledge vicariously. I loved every night in the barn talking about trees and fish and frogs. I am not quite so passionate about rings and pistons...he is though so it is fine for him.
Earl, no doubt that is way too true. I read an analysis of the lawsuits and hearings going on in Washington on dairy and the consensus was that not one darned thing is going to change. I suspect that we are not going to be able to hang on very much longer, along with many, many other farmers. You can't just keep losing money and survive in business and we can't do a thing to set our price. The people representing us go over to the dark side and we just can't win.
:0)
Yeah. Rings and pistons not quite as romantic as the cry of a killdeer.
My nephew, unfortunately, has a least three years devoted to his studies.
His brother is a field biologist in Montana and I think that may have contributed to the delay in facing the hard facts.
I think his brother is having serious second thoughts. He's found his job very isolating.
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