Obviously, the greatest thing that would help farmers is higher commodity prices. Presently, grain prices are at about the level it costs to grow the crops. This can’t go on for long for most farmers who don’t have another income or a really generous banker. There’s an old story that a bushel of wheat will make 60 loaves of bread. If wheat is $4/bu, that’s less than seven cents per loaf, but what does a loaf of bread cost? The farmer isn’t responsible for what the grocery store charges, no matter what so many people seem to think.
Our main crop is a vegetable for canning, we have a contract. On the other 2/3s of our acres we grow cotton, seed milo and silage corn. At the beginning of the year we put pen to paper and there was nothing except silage that penciled out and the dairies weren’t offering contracts. We chose to try 40 acres of Pima cotton and small grains for rotation and left about a third fallow, there was just no sense in other crops.
Changing the subject, I was just told something about some/many? migrant workers. They work the onion season in Texas and when that is over they get unemployment. They then come to New Mexico, work the season while on Texas unemployment then file for NM unemployment and then move on to Arizona. I didn’t see it with my own eyes but I intend to talk to my state senator about it.
wow!! the general public is so in the dark about so much.
i’ve followed commodities throughout the years. I think in the middle of the 2000s to 2010, prices were very high.
Then they fell again.