Farmers, Habitat, and a Christmas Wish
I sympathize with both positions to a degree. I see abuses of the ground, and lack of concern for any wildlife from the behavior of some landholders, but I work with these people daily, and I see no intention to destroy the world. What I do see, are hardworking folks who don't know what a time clock is, struggling to make a business work, faced with collosal debt. It takes far more capital operate a combination farm, than most of you realize, and the margins are razor thin. Even with crop prices as high as they are, the inputs to get those yields are prohibitive. Land prices through the roof. Lending very tight. Lots of my customers carry net worths in the 2-3 million range, with totals around 5 million, and debt of around 2 million. These operations throw off between 200,000-400,000, in profit, bottom line. Of course there are some accounting, and expense benefits, but I challenge any of you to pencil up a business that has that profile and consider this the profile of greed. Maybe resistent to change , maybe unenlightened by our definition, but not malicious. I know of no farm family which doesn't enjoy seeing wildlife on their land. Absentee profit driven owners, a whole different breed of cat! All bets are off. With the local farmers, they don't have the time, money, or inclination for the most part to tile and drain marginal acres. I do blame the big ag system for continously pushing more and higher priced chemicals, hybrid seed costing hundreds of dollars a bag. My Christmas wish for us all, I would exchange all that for a system which rewards and fosters, self sustaining, self sufficient, low input agricultural models, which produce acceptable returns, while providing water conservation, cleaner water, lower fuel cost, and last but no least wildlife margins, across the country.
I sympathize with both positions to a degree. I see abuses of the ground, and lack of concern for any wildlife from the behavior of some landholders, but I work with these people daily, and I see no intention to destroy the world. What I do see, are hardworking folks who don't know what a time clock is, struggling to make a business work, faced with collosal debt. It takes far more capital operate a combination farm, than most of you realize, and the margins are razor thin. Even with crop prices as high as they are, the inputs to get those yields are prohibitive. Land prices through the roof. Lending very tight. Lots of my customers carry net worths in the 2-3 million range, with totals around 5 million, and debt of around 2 million. These operations throw off between 200,000-400,000, in profit, bottom line. Of course there are some accounting, and expense benefits, but I challenge any of you to pencil up a business that has that profile and consider this the profile of greed. Maybe resistent to change , maybe unenlightened by our definition, but not malicious. I know of no farm family which doesn't enjoy seeing wildlife on their land. Absentee profit driven owners, a whole different breed of cat! All bets are off. With the local farmers, they don't have the time, money, or inclination for the most part to tile and drain marginal acres. I do blame the big ag system for continously pushing more and higher priced chemicals, hybrid seed costing hundreds of dollars a bag. My Christmas wish for us all, I would exchange all that for a system which rewards and fosters, self sustaining, self sufficient, low input agricultural models, which produce acceptable returns, while providing water conservation, cleaner water, lower fuel cost, and last but no least wildlife margins, across the country.
