Farmers

With the shortage of food I cant believe the farmers are being told to turn your crops under.. whats
the deal

Not sure, but one issue could be delivery. If any of it was shipped by air, something like only 5% of the normal amount of flights are still happening.

Seen it on the national news tonight.. they didnt give a reason

One would think it could be put to good use locally.
Guess the networks don't want to explain the whole story, just whip up more emotion & frustration.

I find that really odd. I work in a packing plant and anything food related is essential enterprise. I know farmers around here are getting ready to plant.

I believe it's felt to suffer a crop loss rather than pay fertilizer, water, labor to bring the crop in and have no place to sell.
This is huge welling problem with the global economy. Besiide lack of labor, no one is buying anything but essentials.
Looking to buy a car or major appliance will be different in a couple months. Better stock your freezers now and also buy beans, sardines and other high quality protein. I've been in the yard and garden much of the past week, cutting cover crops, tilling and planting spring veggies. I think anyone that has room in the yard, or can cobble together some raised beds for veggies would be wise and also able to have high quality food through this summer. Beets, carrots and squash store well too if you have a place to store where it stays cool but not freeze.

Saw a quick blurb on TV, food banks are running out of food, and farmers are not shipping because trucking was blamed.

I’m missing it - if essential, why don’t they have truckers hauling?

Milk being poured down the drain and eggs being broken around here in an attempt to get prices up.

Truckers arent the issue.. they may be slowed up at the boarders but thats all.. 95%
of the vehicles on the roads are trucks

Schools and restaurants closed. That's a huge part of the fresh fruits/vegetables market. BUT...all things considered, it seems there's a better solution than turning it under.

So you are saying people eating habits have significantly changed in the last few weeks???

The “market” is people. Suppliers to grocery stores are extremely busy, suppliers to restaurants (makes me wonder about that abomination Sysco...LOL) are dead.

Around here even the restaurants are still buying food.. not as much but they are buying just to
help keep the supplier running

We here in Washington state have a large Fish and Seafood restaurant called Anthonys Homeport and they are not doing well. But every day their Fish Monger delivers fresh fish and seafood. Then they sell it at their cost at the Seattle cold storage truck dock. My neighbor picked up 25 pounds of fresh Halibut at $18.75 a pound. They do this to keep the Fish monger working. The monger keeps the Fishermen on the boats.

Seems pretty simple, people are only going to the store once a week at the most, so fresh food you only buy for a few days, schools closed, restaurant sales are down over 50%, food banks have so much they do not want it, it does not last, it boils down to 30-50% lower demand on the wholesale side. We bought enough food for a month. When we try to restart there will be some serious shortages for 3-6 months in the food chain, not just fresh veggies and milk, takes a while to get things rolling again. A lot of food manufacture is slowing down, low demand, at some point you close because it takes x amount of volume to make it worth running the operation. I am suprised the fresh side runs as smooth as it does at any time to be honest.

Commercial trucks are still crossing the borders. The staffing may be lighter due to Officers getting the COVID-19 and taking time off sick. I know we are at full staff, but traffic is way down.

a minor reason why it's being dumped.
the bigger part is sales are down so the processors have to produce less. now there is more milk held in storage tanks so they are full now. the farmers can't shut off the cows production and the processors aren't buying so the only choice is to dump the milk down the drain, actually it's usually in the manure pit not the drain.

Well this is no excuse, the same amount of people need the same amount of food - doesn't matter where they eat it.

Same with the toilet paper thing - people need more tp (maybe not as much as they bought!) because instead of taking a dump at work or elsewhere, they're taking that crap at home - as well as everyone else in the home.

American dairy farmers have been screwed over for years. Trump thought he could ease the pain with the new NAFTA deal (whatever its called) by making Canada give access to our market. Well that markets open BUT consumers aren't buying the product. We seem to get just a little more patriotic every time the US pulls one of those stunts. Heinz ketchup was rotting on the shelves after they shut down the Leamington, Ontario plant !

As for turning under the crops, that could be a ploy to drive up prices. The ripple effect will be increased prices everywhere. That will have a major impact on US exports and it won't be a good one.

People do not eat as much when they are not working, do not need the energy. The bottom 50% are out of money, so less food. Manufacture for food on the the commercial side is way down, dried eggs and milk.

I had to read that twice, just to convince myself you really posted that.

well if people don't need their energy, send me some !
i got so much stuff to do i'll take all the energy i can get !

For the farmers that are turning their crops under.. I dont understand.. the farmer already spent the
money on the crops all the lime and fertilizer and seed.. the money was spent so now is the wrong
time to turn it under.. you do that at the beginning of the season when you dont have anything
invested in it

Strong relationships with leaders outside and inside a republic is paramount when we need a unified front. Keep in mind it's not the little guys. We simply suffer the burden.

I am curious is any carry Multiple Peril Crop Insurance (MPCI)

MPCI policies must be purchased prior to planting and cover loss of crop yields from all types of natural causes including drought, excessive moisture, freeze and disease. Newer coverage options combine yield protection and price protection to guard farmers against potential loss in revenue, whether due to low yields or changes in market price.

Crop insurance is your friend...

This I understand but you need to get it in the beginning of the season.. the pics I seen
were them tuning under a existing crop which to me is a waste.. but the little bit of farming
do doent matter in relationship... I will have to get my stuff in in about 1 month

Mike...I am sure it varies by state. I can't remember the cut off date in Iowa but I am sure it must be sometime in March or early April.

Anyone wanting to head off potential shortages later this spring and summer may consider starting the little, or big plots now. Ours may be a little larger than ordinary plot that is 45 x 65 with high yeild crops to help family and friends.
Save small food containers (yogurt, sour cream, etc) to get seeds started.Think high quality, high yield. zucchini, yellow squash, scallop squash one plant each should yield enough for a family of 4. A cherry or other indeterminate tomato (vs a determinate) will produce tomatoes all season (determinate tends to ripen all at once at end of season, for canning). Peas now, beans later, do a little research and don't over-do it.

What part? You don't work you don't need as much food part? You don't work=less money= less food? Unless you are welfare trash you have to work, I am talking about the working middle class.

Born on the farm , razed on the farm ..

Things are not like they were at one time .Now, most of it is corporate farming . Sure, there is still some family farms but, they work incredible large plots of land ,

The equipment is beyond large , the combine heads which legally are told to take off to transport from place to place, rarely do .. 25-30 feet wide, take the entire road

The tractors are gigantic and ruin roads, bridges .. and, they pay ZERO road use tax . .. it is nothing to see 2-3 million dollars of equipment working a 100 acre field around here

We have corporate owned dairy's about 5 miles from me -- 16,000 head being milked 24/7/365 , the amount of hog confinements and all the waste they produce is unbelievable .

They all get huge government subsidies .. local farmer , has received near 4 million in the last 15 years ..

He spends all of that , on tractor pulls .. has several beautiful tractors .. I'd guess his building and tractors trucks to haul them would be near 2 million

Tough times indeed ..


Don't believe what the media wants to show you ..

Dumping milk, threatening to kill livestock , etc .. old ploys been here for years

snipet from 1983

https://www.csmonitor.com/1983/0121/012160.html

''You kill hogs and dump milk and you get the spotlight,'' says NFO president DeVon Woodland, a cattle rancher from Blackfoot, Idaho. ''

For those crops still harvested by hand - how much of that work force has been told to shelter in place, in the traditional places like Florida and California where a lot of our produce comes from?

Myself I have only reduced my intake by about 5% to a max of 10% only because I want to loose
some weight.. I still do most of what I did all along.. tonight the wife and I are ordering a pizza
which we rarely do.. we tend to eat at home 95% of the time

Last week three local farmers had their chicken flocks destroyed. Processor is not running and they were ready to ship out this week. I don't know how many thousand chickens were killed, but lots. It's a shame....

Still busting butt on the property. Setback yesterday afternoon and this morning chasing no spark on the mower. Getting it going for the first time is always a challenge even though I run all fuel out lube and change oil in the fall. Problem was a pesky interlock under the seat that requires me to be setting upon to start. Contacts must have corroded so de=oxit sprayed on fixed it, only after chasing every other connection and circuit. Finished up after lunch and my post above and spent 4 hours mowing orchard and cover crop on garden area. Tilling in the next day or three.
With the nice weather and garden work I've lost 6 # down to 183 @ 6'1" Feeling pretty fit @ 62. I got leftovers and an organic chicken apple sausage, and an unmemorable vegetable for dinner. Ice cream is calling me now.

i don't know the wiring specifics of your riding mower.
my POS 17hp craftsman has the safety seat switch. it was having problems with it that's why i got it really cheap. i just connected both wires going to the switch bypassing the switch entirely. mower will stay running even when i am not sitting in the seat. i have no problems with that. been like that for 10 years now.

Reminds me of my days in the service, we had a switch on the gear labeled "battle short" that would bypass all safety interlocks.

Most of my lawn gear has a battle short installed in it these days.

I jump those safeties also.. those things can be a PITA

How do you explain all the obese unemployed welfare cases !!!

umm,......... "happy meals" ?

Now that I have it operating it's ohm meter time so I can figure how to jump the 4 wires. actually 3, as one is factory jumped with a short length of wire on incoming electrical terminal connector housing. Thing is either 14 or 15 years old, only had to replace a few things (fuel tank, fuel lines, carb, several tune-ups (kohler 20 hp) and wheels on the mower deck.

Mine is a 61" zero turn and when I would be flying along I would bounce off the seat and
it would try to kill the engine so I removed all of the safeties

I said people...that means someone who works, like constuction, lifetime welfare trash ain't people.

I was thinking that Farmers are subsidized to plant crops not to grow them or harvest them. That is how it was described to me by a farmer when I asked why his neighbor always plants cabbage and lets it rot in the field until he turns it into the soil.

TY
Kevin

which only pads the middleman's pocket and leaves the farmer hung out to dry as always.

Spot on! Farmer always gets screwed.

May sound crazy. It's probably time to revert away from corporate farms and the smaller farms should break loose from sales contracts and start thinking of smaller sales bubble within a community, county, state or region at most. Co-op, and barter works well for very small farms.
Getting out of the mess (bug and financial) requires thinking small. What was going on is insignificant to the well being of a people or economy.
How much de we need to pay for phones, tv's, fuel, electricity, internet access, etc. The important things are a roof and high quality food.