Farm bureau survey

[Hopperbin]

do you sign up onto the web cast?

[rockpile]

Willy, let me add my perspective. In the mid to late
seventies we saw a generational breakthrough in
world wheat prices and acres went up. Remember,
for grain farmers there weren't that many options
back then. When wheat was fetching 4 bucks a bu
and canola (****seed) was fetching 4 bucks a
bushel and yields averaging high 30's for wheat and
22 for canola, the acres followed the dollars. The
wheat prices fell when the EEC began to subsidize
surplus export sales and the US answered with the
EEP. Then in the nineties the specialty crop markets
began to take off giving us new profitable options.
Again, the acres followed the dollars. And until the
BSE crisis the best thing you could do was allocate
resources to beef production. Barley production has
always followed the cow count except for growing
malt markets. Perhaps Charlie has good insight on
this stuff. One thing always repeats itself - high
prices are the best cure for high prices!

[rockpile]

Hopperbin, I assume your investments in mutual
funds are mostly targeting growth funds. Take a
deep breath, we are just cycling. The reason people
went broke during the dirty thirties was because
they bought high, got scared and sold low. Global
markets may be shifting and wealth might be
moving around but overall this has been going on
since the days of C Columbus. At the end of the
day, the Global economy is growing and
opportunity is there - we are just going through
another 'silly season'. The ones to feel sorry for are
those who just retired and were counting on
dividend and income funds. Maybe a lesson to be
learned there. Sounds like overall you've got your
shit together.

[Hopperbin]

Oh shit don't feel sorry for the dividend investors that are retiring.
They are doing quite well

[rockpile]

Whoops - slip of the tongue there. I should know
better being one of them.

[Hopperbin]

My Kids RESP's that are locked in the mutual funds are still not breaking even, i am supposedly in high gain high risk. 8 years later. Check any stocks for the last 8 years and tell yourself why my mutuals are not performing. i do not knwo what or where my mutuals are invested, they could be invested in a half percent savings for all I know.

[cottonpicken]

NO<NO<NO<NO
wheat prices skyrocketed because the gold standard was abandoned by nixon
which took gold from 35 dollars to over 800,the rest of the commodity
complex HAD to follow,which it did.

People who a thing or two about money put their money into tangibles

When volckner stepped in and said enough is enough i'm going to stop this
train wreck he jacked rates to over 18%.

People who know a thing or two about money piled into bonds.

Inflation was stopped but it almost killed us to take our medicine.

Fast forward to today-rates are being held under by qe.

Nobody is showing up at the bond auctions so the government has too buy
them,aka "monetizing the debt"

There is no point talking about canada we are to small to matter but in a side
note carney and company have no trouble selling our bonds because of our
relative safety...i use relative loosely,we are still screwed.

If you want to take a trip down memory lane and 4 dollar wheat,don't forget
to think about the purchasing power back then

My gold wheat ratio chart shows about a 50 to 1in 1975,which means we
would be around 35 dollars today,soybeans 25 ish to 1.

Will wheat hit 35 dollars?

I quarantee it.

[Hopperbin]

What is the scoop on China lately, they are in a slump apparently only growing at 9.8 pecent per year.

[rockpile]

Hopper, I'd check out the fee structure on your
RESPs. My guess is that they take the cream. You
might even be better off investing in low yielding
guaranteed investments.
Cott - are you saying the laws of supply and
demand don't function and scarcity of resources
don't influence economies. I agree with most of
what you say but call 'bullshit' on the first one. We
had just come through a time period where farmers
had been paid by govt not to grow wheat. I'm not
sure I buy your theory about the gold standard
drives food market values.

[rockpile]

Hopper - something else to consider. You should
be aware of where your MF's are invested and you
do have the power to shuffle the deck chairs from
time to time to manage overall benefits. I guess it
all depends on whether you want to play a good
game or if you want to risk being struck out
because you're always shooting for home runs. I'm
rated a moderate to high risk investor, have
mutuals and others and to date have not lost
anything, nor have I hit any home runs recently. The
best advice I can offer is to have the services of a
good professional in your corner. If you're lucky, it
doesn't even cost much.