I'm starting to get a little negative...
Go to this link, scroll down the comments till you get to the one written by "The Colombia County Kid," and tell me what you really think. If you have the attention span...
I speak as someone who at times gets a bit frustrated about growing stuff that nobody actually needs.
I got an inquiry from a possible new chicken feed customer today.
Yes, I grow it myself.
If you don't want soy curls I won't put them in.
If you don't want corn I won't put it in and we only combined one combine tank full anyway.
Basically I am making this feed to your order as that is the only way I can legally do it.
No, I don't put in any vitamins or minerals or oyster shell. You have to do that yourself.
I do know I am $250 a ton less than the feed store and that is because you will go broke on feed that costs more than $400 a ton, according to my figures.
Yes, I know I would sell a lot of it at that price-but then I would run out of grain I grew myself and I would have to buy all the ingredients and that would push me completely into the realm of a commercial feed business and I would have to charge you $650 a ton as I cannot compete with the volume purchases of a real feed mill.
Why am I doing it?
Because I want longterm customers who will still be in business when feed prices come back down and I am making the amount of money per ton that I want to make.
When I do not have that profit margin I am going to quit...
I don't really understand why people are amazed by this attitude.
I know my costs, I know how much money I need to make, I know (or have a good idea) how much it costs to raise pigs/chickens/cows, If I push the price limits then it all gets more complicated and a bigger pain in the arse and I don't really make that much more money. It is not worth it to me. It is not like I want to be your friend I just do what I do because that is how I want to do it...
However, You could give me more money if you want... Or some extra eggs, or more of those REALLY good porkchops that you are charging the gourmands in Portland a small fortune for...
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Guys like that NEVER WILL understand, but they'll always have another question that they will first ignore the answer to and then forget.
ReplyDeleteActually I agree with 90 percent of what he says. But, I don't really have a good answer. The few big farms that are left are making a lot of money. I was watching one of those big farmers today. He did 200 acres to my 50 acres. If you are medium sized, and not a very good farmer, you can't make it paying high priced rent. Ten acre vegetable farms seem to make money but they tend to suddenly go broke when the market changes unexpectedly. There are people waiting in line to try their luck so there is always the next guy to try.
DeleteI think times were better when there were more small to medium sized farms.
You can just link the comment directly.
ReplyDeleteAs for CCK, what we have here is. . .failure. . .to grasp simple economics.
If there is a bad guy here, it's all the state and federal government twerps who have jacked the markets through the roof with excessive regulation and subsidies.
smitty, thanks for that link. I didn't realize any "real" bloggers still followed me! Of course it has been the sort of summer where I haven't really followed anyone outside my very small circle of regular commenters/grumpy farmer friends.
DeleteI see a couple problems.
Generally, I think people are getting to be worse. Short sighted, live for immediate profit/desires, and not the depth of character you gain when you have a really good education though eighth grade and have to work really hard with no TV or computer.
There is no real answer to that. The rest of us are going to have to learn to cope.
The other arguments of government twerps and changing markets and competition are all great arguments, but the bottom line is that people are becoming more self-centered, stupid, and short-sighted all the time.
"but the bottom line is that people are becoming more self-centered, stupid, and short-sighted all the time."
ReplyDeleteThat pretty much wraps it up. The parents weren't parents. Didn't put much ethics into the lesson plans, either.
"I haven't really followed anyone outside my very small circle of regular commenter s/grumpy farmer friends."
Happy being a grumpy commenters.
Bobby
So Budde, which field are you "out standing" in today?
ReplyDeleteEd, I made pig feed and made a mess attempting to change the transmission oil in an 806 IH. I think you need the 806 to turn into a pulling tractor. It has a turbo. It is supposedly a factory turbo but I doubt that.
ReplyDeleteI was going to comment on your site about the White Plow I almost bought last week but I got way to long winded and just deleted the whole comment. sorry.
Most "...people are becoming more self-centered, stupid, and short-sighted all the time."
ReplyDeleteI seem to find myself associating with only the handful I've found that aren't. It's no wonder the world is falling apart.