BleepingComputer.com: Stupid Diesel Prices And Corn Prices....goodbye Farm Maybe

Well it looks like the prices of diesel and corn prices are going to kill the farm. The 15th of June we are over 10k short on cash.
We may lose the farm soon. It would be a good and a bad thing but we dont have any jobs lined up.
I really was hoping it would stay afloat just a bit longer. I dont want to lose our land. I wanted to make some good cash and pay for it myself if I had too.
I am starting my online biz. but its not ready yet so....
I just thought I would let you all know just what high diesel prices is doing to us. Corn into ethanol... Stupid morons.

Wow that really stinks.

My chemistry teacher was telling us how corn and other food's are not the way to go for fuel. I think I remember him saying the amount of food needed to a fill a tank of gas would equal about how much food the average person eats in a year. So we can drive our vehicles, but we might starve! Sounds like a great trade off! I think most people would rather eat then prevent global warming. There has to be much better ways to get fuel.

I am seeing a lot of anti-ethanol signs popping up along the country roads here. I would have thought your farm would be doing better, given the price of milk around here, but I guess even the increase doesn't begin to cover the increase in operating costs.
I will keep my fingers crossed about your farm.
Johm

Ouch CGM. I feel for you. My dad told me about when his family lost their farm back in the depression. I fervently hope things for you don't downgrade to a situation like what his family had. It's no fun being homeless.

Any possibilities of growing something else, or would a switch over be too expensive?

Another effect of ethanol for fuel: land used to farm other food crops being taken over to raise corn for fuel adding to issues of food shortage and high prices. Grrr.

Orange Blossom

Yeah, if you stay away from the ethanol propaganda, the concept, using ethanol from corn, does not seem, as Spock would say, "logical".

Brazil's ethanol from sugar cane makes a lot more sense.

I'm very sorry to hear that I hope that things start getting better! Everyone's having a really hard time right now!! Sucks to not have any money to pay the rent and eat...


I had never heard about using corn for fuel but as JohnWho says that doesn't sound very logical to me O.O??? That would ruin Mexico! Tortillas are getting damn expensive as it is >.>

Anyways my best wishes go to you.. I hope you will do all right! But you are saying it may be a good and a bad thing? So there is a good thing to it? Look at the positive side always!

*hugs*

We had lots of rain this spring but its been dry for over a month. We cant plant and if we make it through the summer and there is no rain we just lose the farm anyways.

Yeah milk in the stores is high....and going up. Yet our pay per hundred weight is going down. We get like 1.70 a gallon....

We have plenty of food as in silage its just the grain. Those dumb people in office turning our corn into ethanol are whats causing prices of stuff to go up.
When land is planted in corn instead of wheat in mass wheat goes up. When more corn is used for ethanol corn goes up. This causes food to go up and our cow feed which is made out of I think soybeans and a lot of ground corn. It just went up this past week I think.

59% of our money is spent on feeding the cows alone.

Well me and my dad would actually like the farm to be gone. I just work a bit on the farm to pay for my car until I get another job but my dad works full time and gets nothing to show for it. Its just we dont want it to be taken from us.

We may have to file bankrupt to be able to pay off the land,cows and credit cards. Plus lose our credit. My dad is not sure but it may ruin his credit as he is like a co-signer along with my uncle and my mom on some of the bills. We may could pay those bills off but my grandma and poppa would have their credit gone for sure. They done a stupid thing and did not incorporate the farm and instead put the stuff under their names(not my parents or my uncle) and so they will have no credit.

We are thinking of selling a bunch of the slacker cows in hopes of being able to feed them until August or a bit later so we can get the calves out of them and sell them and then maybe the cows also. There is a government buyout program we may put a bid in it but they wont take the cows until August and so we dont know if we can feed them until then. It would be nice to get a bunch of calves out of them and then let the government have the cows but we might not be able to wait.

We are going to call some people and see if milk is going to go up. It may put it off just long enough for us to hold on.

If the farm goes out we lose 3 full time jobs and I lose my 360 a month that I earn. Our house is about paid for and the land already is that our house is on so we wont be homeless.

But my grandparents have another mortgage out against there home to keep the farm afloat and so its even possible they could lose their house! They did some stupid stuff to keep a farm up that never really paid its own way and when it did we did not earn much. So they are in some trouble.

If we sell the land the stupid taxes will kill our profits. 45% taxes am I correct? There ought to be a way around it.

If we go out we want to be able to avoid bankruptcy by paying the bills but with taxes we dont know....How pitiful!

What we produce milk wise is going down fast as it heats up. We have had nearly 100 degree weather for like 2 weeks now. It was 99 on Sunday according to the weather so it probably was over 100 at some point. Cows cant stand heat like that.

They dont eat and so they dont give milk. They just stand(mostly stand) or lay and pant like dogs.

EDIT
Yes there could be some good come from it. My dad could finally get a job that pays more and he would have to work less hours. We are tight on a single income family of 4. With that extra time off which he does not have now having to work 7 days a week we could have some more family time and go out every now and then. Plus vacation would be easier as we would not have to worry if we would be called and he would have to go home early if something happened as he has had to do before and then come back the next day.

This post has been edited by cowsgonemadd3: 10 June 2008 - 07:50 PM

Wow Cows, I'm really sorry to hear about the troubles with your farm.

That is some nasty weather!

Well.. I hope everything is for the best and that your dad can find a better paid job and have more family time with all of you!

Even though it still hurts to have something taken away that is yours just think things will get better

Bummer CGM3, but maybe it's a what gets taken away gets replaced by God with something better possibility ?

I hope something comes along thats better. We can hardly make it as it is.

There is a large part of me that wants it gone. I hate messing with the cows they are the dumbest idiots....argh

Like I said we have held this thing up for too long already. Its not paying its way its just surviving like us.

I bet you all go out and eat and maybe spend some cash on things every now and then. With us and our little income we just make it paycheck to paycheck.

We do take a 1 week vacation each year but dont do hardly anything as we have no money. We hardly ever go out to eat unless you count the 99cent menu going out...

For like a year now my parents have not had a car of their own. It was there but they could not afford to drive the SUV. I wanted to drive my civic anyways and we have for two years. So they sold the car and for months they did not have a car and now they bought one but really could not afford it.

Luckily we won a truck this past saturday. Its value is like 6000 and we paid 6700 for the 4 door civic they bought. We got 900 from the government so now the car is basically payed off.

I am just saying our money is tight and we need a better job. But I dont want to give 45% of our money to a wasteful government just because we sell our land and cows. It should be 10% or 12% like everything else is?

For the 45% tax are you talking about capital gains taxes? If so then you should have some time to reinvest that money before having to pay taxes on it. If you don't have one the get a good CPA or at least consult with one before selling. They usually save you more than enough to cover their own fees.


Cows could you lease the land or something? What about for hunting? A lot of people pay very good money to lease good hunting land. Or there are a lot of places in SC that runs the hunts too.

http://www.biggamehunt.net/sections/South_Carolina/

Its like 1000 a month or more for the land.

We may have to sell it just to pay the bills mainly because of the taxes. I wish I knew of a way we could skip the high taxes.

Ouch CGM I sure hope the best for yah.

Hope yah don't end up homeless like me it is NO fun at all!