Good read about "DEMAND"

[boarderbloke]

http://www.agrimoney.com/news/inexorable-rise-in-demand-stoking-grain-rally--2287.html

[charliep]

Good article. Would help me answer the why am I doing this question in the days of challenges ahead.

will put in the hot link for blackberry types.

[URL="http://www.agrimoney.com/news/inexorable-rise-in-demand-stoking-grain-rally--2287.html"]Rising Demand[/URL]

[rook]

thanks for the link. There's no question this is a good news article for grain farmers. But more importantly, is it accurate? I'd like some opinions on if we're in for a good stretch of years. If anything, it might make some of the frustrations easier from this crazy harvest...

[charliep]

Not sure how to answer your question. A look at some longer term trends in consumption will
highlight the growth in some crops and markets- soybeans/China and corn/US ethanol.

So the world has been able to respond to the increases in consumption by increasing production. Will
this carry onto into the longer term (3 years plus)? Climate change? Inputs? Energy costs?

Perhaps I look at from a agriculture perspective of managing expectations and ensuring farmers put
realistic prices in long term projections for decisions like borrowing money to buy land.

Is $10/bu canola sustainable? Maybe not but I suspect the new trading range is $8 to $10/bu. $6
wheat? Trading range $5 to $6/bu? Barley $3.50 ish/bu or longer term closer to $3/bu.

It will be a winter project (not for the middle of harvest) but Meyers Norris Penny did an interesting
cost of production survey of farmers comparing the upper profit ones to the average and below ones.
A good read.

[URL="http://www1.agric.gov.ab.ca/$department/deptdocs.nsf/all/econ13232"]COP Study[/URL]

[PureCountry]

Wow, that's a let down. Last time I checked, beef was food. Anyone put any thought into teaching young farmers about growing safe, nutrient dense beef? THere's someone there to teach them how to follow vacc. protocols, how to fatten them in a feedlot, how to sell to the packer to keep the floor busy, how to keep ABP happy, and of course, someone to show them how to overfeed bulls and flood the market, while averaging $4000 per bull.

But who's going to teach them about the effects of confinement feeding on E.Coli H0157 levels in the rumen, how feeding on grass can eliminate that, how only grazing lush pastures will ensure healthy levels of CLA, or proper ratios of Omega 3-6 fatty acids, or even something as basic as taking a Brix reading of pastures to ensure the forage is nutrient dense? Let alone take a soil sample to ensure we're starting from scratch with a chance of producing healthy beef.

This A-Team sounds like it was hand picked by INDUSTRY. Oh, wait, they even called it industry-specific didn't they? Ooops, disregard my rant because apparently anyone who doesn't produce commodity beef is irrelevant, as are their opinions.

[smcgrath76]

Don't feel alone. The less conventional
we get (older fashioned?) the more
profitable we have become and the less
comfortable with "industry".
And on the bright side, now you know at
least one other person with a Brix meter.