Paul: I raise grain too. I usually have 300-400 acres under crops. I know what the grain ground generated in government payments the last decade. I have a neighbor that never has farmed over 1000 acres but has drawn 1.2 million dollars of government payments the last ten years. The FSA sent out payments just last year that amounted to over $100 per acre of corn around here. Supposedly for a loss in 2008. So in a year that the grain prices are at record highs the government is sending out cash payments to corn producers????
I have yet to find out where I can get thousands of dollars of government money for raising livestock.
The cheap grain prices where not caused by the livestock producers. If they raise too many animals/pounds then the prices drop. The grain guys just want to produce all they can without looking at the market. When the corn price is real low the grain guys think the answer is to raise a record big crop to get more money?
The livestock guy sure did not force the grain guys to raise cheap corn. Maybe the livestock guys should stop buying the ethanol by products. Then lets see what the ethanol plants will bid????
I was not starting a battle between the grain and livestock farmers but a hay field or pasture will not erode as much as a field of grain. So the point I was trying to make was that one of the big reasons for the CRP program, erosion control, was not rewarding to those that had already controlled some of the erosion problem. The stated reason for the CRP program was conservation, soil and wild life, not corn price control.
As for the livestock guys being pure as driven snow comment. I never said that but they sure did not produce their product into worthlessness. It seems that the grain guys never learn a lesson. They have a good price right now. So what do they do??? Go out an plant all the acres they can. So you think it will be the livestock farms fault when the prices fall through the floor??? That price drop will happen. The BTO that are bidding $500 per ace rent and buying 10-12K land are going to get a real education when the prices fall.
What I really was wanting to get guys to think about is the government playing games with the land/food supply. The programs will always pit one group against another. The rental rate problem was caused twenty years ago. The current CRP rates will not compete with the high grain price driven cash rent market.
What I really want is the government completely out of the farm/grain/livestock picture. I don't want some government bureaucrat deciding who gets what.
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