Topper wrote: ↑Mon Sep 09, 2019 9:49 am
The family farm is a quaint memory. Those still remaining will continue to fade away.
Economy of scale.
Just had dinner with some Iowans tonight. One has a brother who took over the family farm and still runs it.
Soy beans, corn and oats. I think he may have a tough road ahead of him.
Look at the size and cost of the machinery being used and how many days/weeks a year it is used for, you know the independent family farmer is doomed.
Sure. The acreage needed to make ends meet keeps getting bigger. Also, in the article I linked to, one particularly scary chart is this:
Return on assets for the American farming industry has been below 2% for the past six years!
It hasn’t really looked healthy since the 1970’s. I mean, no board of directors at any company would accept such a horridly low rate of return. You’d be looking for at least 5% over time.
The forecast for 2019 is a lousy 1.3%. This means the farmers have absolutely no margines. Anything that goes wrong will turn their figures red. And then their government goes and picks a fight with their main export market, a country that buys 22% of American soy beans and also a substantial part of the corn and grain production.
Absolutely not a good time to be a farmer.
Btw, remember the farm crisis in the 80’s?
Look at the chart.
That would have been caused by the dip between 1976 and 1983, right?
A far rosier return rate than the last couple of years...
Re: US Erection 12 *AND* 16
Posted: Mon Sep 09, 2019 10:11 pm
by Topper
Sounds like the restaurant industry
Re: US Erection 12 *AND* 16
Posted: Tue Sep 10, 2019 7:38 am
by Cornuck
Almost all of the Nebraska farms are family farms. They're surviving, but it's always been a boom-bust cycle. It seems the booms are coming farther apart. One explained it me a while back saying that every 10-15 years things come together and they'll have a good year (or two) and get caught up and be able to update equipment, etc.
Most farmers are now also ranchers. Almost every corn and bean farmer out here raises cattle. Farmwives have jobs in town. Their kids are going to college and not usually coming back - and that will be downfall of the small farm.
A lot of the older farmers lease their land to younger guys and actually do better than when they were actually farming thanks to a guaranteed income.
The historic floods earlier this year destroyed a lot of farms, but the area around me had little long term damage. Some fields north and east are still underwater or under feet of sand.
Re: US Erection 12 *AND* 16
Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2019 1:43 pm
by Per
Attempt to blackmail the Ukrainian president in order to get dirt on Biden, eh?
Is it time to rid the tree of peaches?
Re: US Erection 12 *AND* 16
Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2019 2:03 pm
by Strangelove
Per wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2019 1:43 pm
Attempt to blackmail the Ukrainian president in order to get dirt on Biden, eh?
Is it time to rid the tree of peaches?
Have they added that to the Trump Derangement Syndrome list?
Per wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2019 1:43 pm
Attempt to blackmail the Ukrainian president in order to get dirt on Biden, eh?
Is it time to rid the tree of peaches?
Didn't Biden do the same as VP?
Re: US Erection 12 *AND* 16
Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2019 2:41 pm
by Strangelove
SKYO wrote: ↑Tue Sep 24, 2019 2:23 pm
"Nancy Pelosi announced that the U.S. House will move forward with a formal impeachment inquiry of President Donald Trump."
When the full House votes on articles of impeachment, if at least one gets a majority vote, the president is impeached — which is essentially the equivalent of being indicted.
Next, the proceedings move to the Senate, which is to hold a trial overseen by the chief justice of the Supreme Court.
A team of lawmakers from the House, known as managers, play the role of prosecutors. The president has defense lawyers, and the Senate serves as the jury.
If at least two-thirds of the senators find the president guilty, he is removed, and the vice president takes over as president. There is no appeal.
And that's what it'll take.
Re: US Erection 12 *AND* 16
Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2019 3:30 pm
by Strangelove
Re: US Erection 12 *AND* 16
Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2019 3:57 pm
by Topper
Bill Clinton was the last President to be impeached.
Re: US Erection 12 *AND* 16
Posted: Tue Sep 24, 2019 4:10 pm
by Topper
Dems stage managing while President Trump addresses the UN
SL.