Barley

[bulltipper]

BTW.. as of yesterday the local feedlots were paying up to 128/T for good heavy 2 row, about 2.79/bu delivered

[bombay_43]

Rsomer: I believe if you go back to my previous comment, I said that the only way we make money on our barley, is to recycle it through our cattle. That is in essence what you are saying also. We use our straw which would average only 1 round bale per acre on a 30 bushel crop, as well as our harvested fields for pasture. There really is not much pasture value left, if not for the fence lines, low areas, bush, etc.

Let’s look back a few years. Just for kicks, I dug out some old receipts from 1982.

Multi month bill: Oct 23 to Jan 25,1982, AB Power Ltd: $140.67
Nov. 23, 2003 to Dec 23, 2003, Atco Electric: $229.43

Rent on my AGT telephone bill March 04 to April 03, 1982: $6.25
Monthly local services Telus Dec 04, 2003: $33.76

Gas Alberta Bill February, 1982: $132.10
No gas bills since 1982, couldn’t afford it then, sure can’t afford it now!

To farm 270 acres of barley in 1982:
Chemicals cost $462.00
Diesel & Gas cost $842.00
56 cultivator Shovels cost $205.00

Barley sold to AWP, March 17, 1982 @$2.32/bushel

April 26, 1982:

6 Holstein steers sold EPSyard, average 986 lb at 59.85
Selling commission: $5.51/head
Brands AND Alberta Cattle Commission: $1.00/head
Hartford Insurance: .84/head

I think you are an optimist to say, “ it is always possible to put together numbers that show you are not making money farming”. These are the same words we are hearing from our politicians, I didn’t really expect to hear them from other farmers!

Up until last year, NE Alberta, had 7 years of drought. Guess what that did to crop and hail insurance averages? My premium last year was right around $9000.00. Keep in mind the Federal and Provincial match my premiums! We chose the highest coverage at 80%. I would be more than willing to open my books to you, and allow you to see that not one cent was collected in claims. At 30 bushels/acre we fell below the coverage for this area!

Without cattle, and the prices they USE to pay, barley will not make you any money. Tell me what would be typical of your area? I would appreciate seeing what your spending to produce 30 bushels per acre.

[countryguy]

Sorry if I offended anyone.When I used the term "lazy landlord" I was thinking about some of the ones that I rent from!!

[kato]

When your back is up against the wall, you really have to take a good look at how you are doing things. In 1995, when we had our last cattle price crunch, we took stock of what did and did not make money on our farm.

Grain did not make money...even compared to the cattle which were in the dumps at the time.

We only had a small amount of grain land ..a half section. The rest was hay and pasture. That half section grew us some really expensive feed.

Rather than have money invested in a mixmill, seeding equipment, replacing the tractor before it's time, owning a combine and fixing things all the time, we decided to plant it down to hay. We only left enough acres to grow some grazing corn and have a bit of summerfallow for manure. Any grain we grow now is baled for greenfeed. The cattle are fed screening pellets.

Every time we did the math on the grain, it didn't work out. Once the barley was harvested, it cost money to roll it and add the proper amount of supplements and such to make a good ration. It always seemed to work out to the same price as the pellets, only the pellets are delivered to the bin, and the barley took a lot of time and labour.

Besides, with a herd cows, a couple of hundred steers on feed, and no hired man, there just weren't enough hours in the day to do all the work. Better to use the time from mixing feed in a more productive way, like doing a better job of managing the cattle.

The only apparent advantage we saw was that there was no monthly bill from the feedmill. When you analyze it though, the bills are still there, they are just owed to the chemical, fertilizer, fuel and equipment dealers.

[rsomer]

bombay_43: You asked to see my numbers.

Revenue
Barley $69.00
Straw $8.00
Grazing $7.00
Total Revenue $84.00

Cash Expense
Seed $4.06
Seed Treat $1.15
Fert $10.82
Chem $5.82
Repairs $7.15
Fuel $6.08
Total Cash Expense $35.08

Contribution $48.92
(Revenue - Variable Cash Expense)

I have not included crop insurance or hail insurance as expense because I have also not included them as revenue. We did get hail this year and collected more insurance than we paid premiums. We took out SPE and it covered all our crop insurance premiums. We farm in Alberta in risk area 9 which has a very high premium/coverage ratio.
We had drought and grasshoppers too.

[Horse]

Rsomer I didnt see any depreation for equipt , taxes intrest, on land and if owned then some return on investment how about a little for your labor and something for management you know the stuff other buisness charge for because if you want to work for nothing there is probably a good demand for you unless others think anyone willing to work for nothing is all they are worth.

[cowman]

Country guy: Are our rents really absurb? They are high but so is our production and we have a ready made close market in feedlot alley. When I talk about $40/acre pasture that is not necessarily very good pasture! Might take as much as 4 acres to pasture a cow/calf for the summer. Works out to about $30/month per cow/calf which is fairly cheap around here.
As I've said before this is an area close to a booming city. The farmers have to compete with the playboys from the oil and gas industry. Economically it might not be a good place to farm but it is a good place to live. Most of the farmers still in business are fourth and fifth generation so they've had a few years to pile up some capital.

[rsomer]

Horse: you said "I didnt see any depreation for equipt , taxes intrest, on land and if owned then some return on investment how about a little for your labor and something for management."
The $48.92 contribution is the money available on our farm to cover the fixed costs you have mentioned and more such as utilities, wages, taxes, office expenses and so on. Obviously $48.92 is not much per acre if you are farming at Olds but it you have enough acres or have other enterprises such as cattle there would be enough contribution available to cover all the fixed costs and provide an acceptable return on investment. The numbers can work even in areas like ours that have lower yields. Likewise, farming in areas that typically have higher yields is no guarantee of a profit because the farm may not have enough acres to generate sufficient contribution to cover its fixed costs. If I could be guaranteed 30 bushels per acre year in and year out I would be comfortable with that, especially when barley is worth $2.30 or more per bushel.

[Junebug]

I guess we live in a real expensive area.
Grey wooded soil. A 1/4 section has been selling from $220-$260,000.00 A neighbour got $45.00 cow/calf per month for summer pasture and didn't even have to look at them. No wonder we are having a tough time trying to make the figures work.

[cowman]

rsomer: I'm am looking at your figures and trying to figure why your inputs are so low. I mean $10.85 for fertilizer? Do you live in the desert or something? Not trying to be ignorant here, just wondering if there is a reason?