$300,000.00 agri- instability welfare to the rich cheques.

[bgmb]

If a gov lender is offering me 20 year money @ 5% who am I to say no. hope you have fun picking up the tab parsley.

And I won't complain about the money spent on BS organic research. lol

[farmaholic]

Parsley:
Yes we are production oriented......

farmaholic posted Mar 3, 2012 13:38
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Parsley: When producers have the ability to price their products according to costs of production and built in profit margins then.....

[parsley]

You want a guarantee, farmaholic. There is no
such thing in a free market.

[parsley]

You speak like the Greek employee who
negotiated with his government for a wage and
benefit guarantee for the next twenty years, only
to find himself being told by Germany what his
slashed wages will now be, how much money he
can take out of the country, and when to pee.

Maybe that's your idea of good management, but
it's not mine. We differ. You want taxpayers to
underwrite your risk; many other farmers feel they
have the management ability to underwrite their
own risk. I do encourage farmers to lobby for less
government tax dollars. Not more.

There are lots of farmers who do not enrol in
Government programs, such as crop insurance,
grants , Agri-invest, or welfare , etc. Nor are they
stupid; or poor; or mooches; or lazy. They
manage just as well without them. Thats what you
call long range planning. Pars.

[farmaholic]

Just the ability to price my production to cover costs and make fair margin.

Few manufacturers are price takers, they simply won't produce lower than their costs or at least they won't for long. Weather would probably have the biggest affect on Ag production that most other manufacturing industies, I am not saying others aren't affected but likely not to the same degree.

No I don't want guarantees, just a recognition that we are dealing with some pretty unique circumstances in Ag.

[stonepicker]

For a fee that amounts to pocket change, a person
is foolish NOT to be in agri-stability. If you've had a
string of poor years then it's probably not gonna
work that great. Its not designed to be a money
maker. it's there to stabilize your income if you had
a bad year. We've had good years here, this year
was a bad one and agristability is paying off. i
would've made more money with an average crop.
But it sure smooths things out in a year like last
year and no you don't have to rework your figures
to get a payment. It seems like some people think if
your getting money that the person getting it must
be cheating. Give me a break and get on with life,
no program is gonna make everyone happy

[bgmb]

But the gov research into organic crop production is ok. Right Parsley

[parsley]

If the government pays farmers 5% interest on
AgI, while a commercial bank is paying 1%,
where does the government get the money to
pay you? Matching dollars coming from.....uh,
the tooth fairy?

This is about direction. Which direction should ag
be heading? That is an issue each one of you
should be deciding. More government teat vs
independence. That is the issue.

It's one that is going to make the self-backpatting
free enterprise "managers" squirm and lash out.

You can't have it both ways. Agriculture will head
in one direction more than the other.

Who do you want to be.

Organic research, engineering research,
biotechnology research... You should well know
by now that I've never had a problem with
government allocated university research dollars
for any industry, as long as the information is
owned by the public funders. I do have a
problem with research that if publicly funded, is
privately patented for only the profit, while
downloading all liabilities on the unsuspecting
harmed. Pars

[parsley]

Stonepicker, you seem to think gov programs are
a no brainer for YOU. I'm questioning really how
good is it for the burdened taxpayer, how is it for
for any up-to-their ass-in-credit government, and
thus ultimately, for the overall future of farming.
Hint: think about greek and Italian and Icelandic
and portugese and Polish farmers. Uh huh. Pars.

[farmaholic]

Well said Stonepicker. It's only meant to be there when you need it. I don't understand the scorn.