A lot.
We sold our small herd of cattle 2 years ago. Have not repurchased because of lack of winter grazing. You cannot afford to feed them grain & hay all winter without winter pasture. No rain, No pasture.
At some point, soon, the price will spike.
Last year we made 1/2 the normal wheat crop. This year is looks like 1/4 the normal. And we are lucky, 90% of the acreage planted was so bad that they will never harvest it, claim the insurance. Locally, seed wheat will be extremely scarce this fall. I am in the process of looking out of state for a way to supplement that. Not sure it is practical, but we shall see.
I know a little about how hard farming is as my Mother and Dad were raised on the hardest kind of farming back in the days of WWI.
And I live surrounded by dirt farmers.
So I sympathize with you.
However, you missed the point of my question.
When I asked about what you would pay for cattle and wheat, I should have been more careful.
What I was asking in reply to the post that you can not eat gold...instead invest in cattle and wheat, my real question was:
What form of payment are you going to use when paper money becomes worthless.
That is when you will be glad you have some real gold coins or something else of value to barter.
Paper money, or for that matter money of any kind, is nothing more than a substitute for barter. When the money goes worthless, he who has something to barter that can be broken down into small amounts, will make it just fine.
Money took the place of barter because it is hard to pay for a chicken with a cow and make change.
So we need something that can barter for big or small items.
All through history, gold has met that requirement. Whether it will the next time around, I know not.
But I firmly believe that we are going to find out.