[AT] quiet list(wheat prices)

[Francis Robinson]

--On Thursday, February 21, 2008 8:50 PM -0600 Ralph Goff 
<alfg at sasktel.net> wrote:

>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Francis Robinson" <robinson at svs.net>
> To: "Antique tractor email discussion group"
> <at at lists.antique-tractor.com> Sent: Thursday, February 21, 2008 6:53 PM
> Subject: Re: [AT] quiet list
>
>
>> I have seen more wheat planted here this fall than I have seen in some
>> time. Of course we don't grow the same stuff as the plains. We only grow
>> soft red winter wheat.> "farmer"
>
>
> I predict we are going to see a lot of acres planted to wheat this
> spring.  There is an air of optimism in Canadian grain farming that I
> have never seen  in almost 40 years of farming. Mainly due to these huge
> price increases for  the crops we grow. For the first time I can
> remember, any crop we choose can  show a profit this year . With stocks
> very low and projected demand for huge  quantities of wheat for the
> ethanol plants, not to mention canola for the  crushing plants, there is
> a good chance these prices will last for a good  while yet. Canola has
> doubled since last summer, flax has nearly tripled the  $6 per bushel
> that I sold for in the fall of 06.
> I'm not too sure just how long this ethanol/biofuel idea is going to fly.
> Opinions vary but some say that using ethanol from grain products does
> not  really make sense economically or environmentally. We burn a lot of
> fossil  fuel growing, harvesting, and hauling to market, those bushels of
> grain to  be turned into fuel.
> An old saying that many of you have probably heard, "The cure for high
> prices is........high prices"
> Interesting article on "sky high wheat prices" here....
> http://canadianpress.google.com/article/ALeqM5h6NmAqWmkD5b7ExVGyrtkmqLkLWQ
>
> Ralph in Sask.
>

======================================




	I think there is little doubt that eating (one of my favorite activities) 
is going to be much more expensive over the next few years. With food cost 
quickly leaping to the front page news classification people will be 
looking for quick answers. I'll bet you a dollar to a donut (well, it may 
take several dollars to buy a donut) that one quick boom will happen in 
home gardening this spring. Buy your seed early if you garden or you may 
have to scramble to find it. Some people will run out and spend more 
setting up for first time gardening than they could save in 10 years but 
they will still do it. We "are" a reactionary society. This might be a good 
year to be in the gardening supply business.
	Beef will probably go through the roof (even fork lift cows) because of 
high cost feed. There is a huge number of unused plots of ground across the 
country that have been just mowed for years that will suddenly find 
themselves fenced and growing from 1 to 10 head of freezer beef.
	A lot of people may rediscover that sheep (which can thrive on grass alone 
and grow to market size in one season) are an edible critter. No wintering 
over except for brood stock. Of course pigs don't have to winter over but 
require a lot more than grass to do well. Demand for baby chicks may be 
extremely high this spring as the public reacts to being battered with news 
reports of expensive food. Meat chickens raised in "chicken tractors" can 
be a cheap way to have low cost meat again without wintering over on costly 
feed.
	If you are not familiar with chicken tractors there is a picture of one 
here:
<http://www.ibiblio.org/farming-connection/grazing/pastpoul/resource.htm>
	They are typically moved the length of the cage once or twice a day and in 
many cases meat birds are given nothing else but water. I guess if you had 
a really old one you could call it an "antique tractor"...   :-)




--
"farmer"


Francis Robinson
Central Indiana, USA
Robinson at svs.net