Salute to the Farmers

We take a lot for granted.

I never gave it much thought but we owe our whole exsistence to 6 inches of top soil and the fact that the sun shines and it rains once in a while.

Where would we be without the American Farmers??

Keep up the good work Folks!!

Not enough people think this way unfortunately. According to the whacko's, we are responsible for the world wide food shortage for making ethanol. We pollute the streams and air. We poison folks with GMO crops. The wildlife is all going extinct thanks to us. And we abuse farm animals by raising and eating them. I sometimes think we should ship all these idiots to Dar fur and let them stay there for about a year or so. Then bring them back and let them be good will ambassadors telling all about how good we have it here.

Gene

You mentioned pollution.

I hate to think of that or even talk about it because seems like others don't want to even bring it up.

What they don't know is that we've polluted this earth this bad in just the last 125 years not the passed 300 years.

What an eye opener!!

JOHN B 3;16 W T F R U TALKING ABOUT
PS BUY FORD NOW!!

Food shortage ???????????????????

Ponder this ==== farmers use chemicals cause they want more from the land, as in greed, and then, our water is polluted, and they THINK there doing good.

IF farmers where smart, they wouldn't pollute the ground, we do need food, and they have to sell it to survive, or the banker will own them and they would be back in the city.

I have farmed, I sold fert. and chemicals, and you are right, the farmer must use chemicals and non organic fert to survive in this society of credit. I now believe that whenever we can we all should purchase organic. I also would like to inform, the large devastation and pollution we have is caused from urban runoff and not from Ag. I would encourage an organic ag. be reestablished to help reduce our intake of chemicals into our bodies, one of our biggest killers will be the continuing use of corn sweeteners used in the drink industry and our inability to control our consumption. We are our own worst enemies from over consumption and our lack of knowledge in the results of that over consumption.

The days of over application of phosphates and nitrates to cropland went the way of cheap fertilizer. meanwhile the developers and lawn service people and home owners continue to apply fertilizer at three times the rate that farmers do, and there is a water runoff path between every two homes. Every home owner has the real opportunity and responsibility to stop water pollution.

farmers are smart.we use chemicals to try to squeese every last cent out of our land to attempt to make a living because you ungratefull b@$tards are too frigging cheap to pay us to feed your fat lazy @$$es!!!!

Thank you, John B., for the compliment. We real-time farmers do live with a lot of anxieties dealing with the weather, markets, banker, landlords, etc. It's refreshing to get a pat on the back.

However, maybe your post should have been made later in the morning after everyone's coffee has taken hold and the morning grouchiness has subsided. Have a good weekend. Jim

Keep it up you guys!!

Please remember that there is a big difference between farmers and so called Agribusinessmen which is what you described

When I brought up pollution and food shortages, I hope you didn'think I was thinking this way. I mentioned it was the whachko's that say these things.

I was at a regional church meeting this summer and they were basically blaming farmers for the so called food shortage. every African country that has starving people is controlled by military dictators. In the instance of Zimbabwa, they had a food surplus when the evil, white farmers ran things. Mumbgabe took all the land away from the white farmers, ran them out of the country, and gave it to the blacks who had no business sense, and now they are starving.

And yes, someone mentioned urban lawn care. They put on way more chemicals on a per acre basis than farmers would ever begin to.

Lots of misinformation and ignorance about food and farming. It is just going to get worse.

Gene, ( BS Agriculture University of Mo. 6th + generation farmer )

Ponder this, Farmers use the minimum amount of
chemicals to do the job. The machines used to apply
this chemicals cost almost $200,000 and they are
capable of applying less than a quart of chemical per acre or even less, accurately. These chemicals are quite expensive, so farmers use as little as possible. If it weren't for these chemicals, the farmers would not be able to find enough land in the country to feed the world. Look it up, how many farmers did it take to feed 100 people in 1935, and how many people can one farmer feed in 2008? NOW, Does your local golf course have a $200,000 sprayer to spray the greens? What do you and your neighbor use to apply chemicals? Makes one wonder who is actually doing the polluting. OK, so you don't use chemicals but I bet there are alot of your neighbors who do. We've done away with DDT to save the birds, but how many people in third world countries die because they have no chemicals to kill the mosquitos that carry malaria
but who cares about those people.

The reason farmers use as little as possible, but use enough to bring the Biggest yeald, is that the chemicals are Strong enough to kill anything in it's path, ( and giving Cancer )
your right --- every one is doing the polluting, in one way or another.
mosquitos been a problems for thousands of years, so don't give me that - we need chemicals to kill mosquitos.
farmers just have to get smarter in growing without greed, it can be done, -- it's called ORGANIC .... now you ponder !!!!!

Hey Dave........you gotta realize that not all "fruitcakes" were consumed at Christmas......and that some folks post under multiple names, even in the same thread.

You're welcome.

It is this type of ignorance that really frustrates me. You armchair wannabe's "have all the answers," but in reality, have absolutely no experience. As many have stated, the "a little works, alot more must be better" type of mentality was gone years ago. I don't know about anyone else, but my cash flows are not looking real great for the 2009 crop year. My dry fertilizer is the only place I can see to cut my costs. And no, I am definitely not one of the young guys that are paying $2-300 per acre cash rent either. I farm 240 acres, feed 100 hd of calves, have a 30 hd cow-calf herd, a farrow to finish swine operation, and I feed turkeys on pasture. I am also two semesters away from obtaining my Bachelor of Science degree in Agricultural Business from Iowa State University. I am an eigth generation farmer in my family. My Grandpa and Dad (as well as many of their counterparts from their respective generations) are some of the most intelligent and resourceful people I know. We are not greedy, we are simply trying to make a living feeding the world. It is ingrates like you that make can make me second guess why I work as many hours as most farmers and I do. You are too cheap to dedicate any more of your paycheck (that most likely came from working a 40 hour week) to paying more for the food you buy. If you want a differentiated product, it costs more to produce, SO PAY UP!! You have the chapest food in the world. Go to China where they spend 30% or more of their income of food. I would imagine that you will learn to appreciate what you have very quickly. As for the pollution, as many have said, tell your city/suburb dwelling counterparts to learn how to use a measuring device when applying household/lawn chemicals and that will do more to aid in reducing pollution than anything.

To John B. and all the others that replied. Thank you very much, and you are very welcome.

Now that I have vented, I want to truly wish all on this site a very happy new year! Good luck to all in 2009!

Brandon

Everything depends on agriculture.Unlike the rest of industry,if farmers cant grow food everybody will starve.Just like everything else they kept beating on them more and more and there are less and less farmers.Now the costs of fertilizer and equipment keep going up,but the price of the grain and animals raised for meat have not gone up accordingly.From when the farmers could only barely get by,to now,all the crooks have ever done is steal everything they could get away with.Things like the Chicago Board of Trade were thought up to steal more.Now where years ago you had one man farming 40 acres with a mule,now you have one man with a lot of machines farming 1000 acres and getting 4 times better yield off of the same dirt that was worn out 100 years ago.Far as pollution goes,industry pollutes way more than farming does.Where farming causes problems is when you have 1000s of animals all piled up in a small area that causes pollution thats bad.When you have farming that they pour chemicals on the crops rather than cultivate.Instead of the past 125 years,pollution has got way worse since the 60s.Confinement animals,Roundup ready crops,have ruined farming.Now a man with 1000 acres only makes a good living like a guy with 40 acres and a mule,a few cows and pigs did at one time.Ridiculous.Off of that same thousand acres a guy that sells chemicals,a seed salesman,a banker,an equipment dealer,a feed salesman,an insurance man,crop buyers,meat buyers,all make a good little pile of money off of one poor farmers work,plus a lot more people.Everybody has their hand out.This is the big corporate welfare give away that has everything in a mess.The farmer should have a lot more say in the price of what he sells rather than give it to the thieves to make more than the man doing the labor to produce it.There needs to be some way to fix that.Farmers needed to stick together years ago and say no to things that worked against them.Things probably are going to get worse,then collapse,before they get better.It has to get fixed someway.Thanks to those that survived so far.

All them smarts you claim to have, You still don't know what ORGANIC means... how sad for you...

I know precisely what ORGANIC means. I'm just disappointed to realize that you know so little about basic agricultural economics. Also, a brush up on your english skills and sentence structure wouldn't hurt either...........

I know what organic means, probably better than you do. I never claimed to have any smarts either. I just said that farmers are not trying to be greedy, and ORGANIC is not right for all operations. It doesn't take a genius (just someone a touch smarter than you) to grab a calculator and run the numbers.

Since I believe that your a professional farmer and an absolute whiz at economics, I'm sure you do your homework. Why don't you call Dr. John Lawrence at ISU (a noted agricultural economist, but I didn't need to tell you that) and ask him his take on organic production? I think you will find that he also has ran the numbers...extensively......

OH, look,^^^ there's the guy in the tinfoil suit, again!

Hello Joe,

I can understand what you mean and where you are coming from, please don't get me wrong. But, am I mistaken in thinking that if you don't "run the numbers", or do a cash flow, and make sure an enterprise is profitable, that you are headed for disaster. In my simple mind anyway, I always figured you could be the best farmer, but if you were not making any money, you wouldn't be doing it very long.

I think that you believe that I have some contempt for organic farming. In all actuallity, I don't. I have thought about converting several times as it complements my diverse livestock enterprises well. I raise natural (no antibiotics or hormones) hogs and farrow on pasture, so part of my land is constantly in rotational clover pasture. I feed my turkeys in large port-a-huts on pasture, as well as most of my broilers. If I was truly greedy and inconsiderate of my neighbors, I would have a 2400 hd swine finisher and a large confinement turkey building. However, I could not bring myself to do that to my neighbors, or the environment.

I don't have contempt for organic crop production either. As I said, I had thought about it several times. However, at the time of $5-7 corn, I could not get it to figure out right. While I don't pay $300 an acre cash rent, I still have a cash rent bill to pay. The farm will be a century farm in another 5 or 6 years. However, through estates and non farm children involved, we are buying the farm again.

Maybe at some point in the near future, I will take another gander at organic production. It wouldn't be a total shock to me, as I cultivate both my corn and beans and plow down clover pasture annually as well.

Joe, I hope you have a great New Year and the best of luck in 2009! Take care!

Iowa Farmer

Amen Brother!! I used to be an organinc farmer, and becuase of the rising cost of every dadburned thing, I had to sell my team of horses that I farmed with and get a tractor. Man I miss those horses. Couldn't afford the fuel for the tractors after a while, (with diesel at $4.50 a gallon) so I had to get rid of the organic ideas and go with fertilizer, then to spraying instead of cultivation, and no-till instead of traditional tillage, to get better yeilds from the ground. Even with that I still just scrape by.
If people were wanting the farmers to be organic, then they would only buy organicly produced foods and wouldn't whine about having to pay for it. Inflation hurts everyone. If I have to pay more to produce the food on your table, then dammit, you're going to pay me more for that food!

I have farmed on both sides of the field, so to speak. Neither one is any walk in the park. Any business, be it farming or anything else comes down to trying to make a living. When you can no longer make a living, you need to find a way to do so. Plain and simple economics!

The bunny hugging tree kissers are making the farmers look like the bad guy, but have no problem whatsoever feeding their children cereal with more poisons in one bowl than my entire corn field has in it. Not to mention that they shop at walmart instead of the local ORGANIC farmers market, and they still gripe about the prices! It just makes me sick.