AgPoll: How will you remember 2011?

[John_Walter]

It's that time of year to take stock of things. Anything we're leaving out?

[Kay/NC]

John, just my perspective, but other than the wild weather - which always makes things more challenging, from blizzards to hurricanes to drought to tornados ( and let's not forget earthquakes...not weather, but spooky) -  I think that everything else is pretty much a derivative of the "global economic woes" choice. 

Saw on "Morning  Joe" that the Time Magazine Man of the Year for 2011 is "The Protestor."  This has been an incendiary year, from the collective bargaining fight in the US, through the Arab Spring, to riots over lifestyle and funding it in the Eurozone,  and winding the year down with OWS and unrest on several foreign fronts. 

That is a reaction to economics, at the foundation of it all....

[Nebrfarmr]

Better than the last two, and I'll leave it at that.

[BA Deere]

It`s all of the above.  It was the most profitable year I ever had in the nearly 30 yrs I`ve been at it, first +$7 corn I`ve ever sold.  I`m not at all bragging, went through alot of tough yrs to get here and all bets are off for 2012 and beyond.

[k-289]

John - I am having trouble picking out the right selection---kind of like looking through the" Montgomery Wards" catalog when I was a kid about this time of year and my parents said you can pick  ""  1 "" thing out --- in this case you have covered most bases ---

[sw363535]

Agree Kay,

And I am in the heart of the drought and the worst production year of my life.

But the "Global economic woes" are trumping things in the markets as well as in public attitudes.

It seems to be "pay the piper" time for the execsses of much of the world.

Examples----Social borrowing by governments of the west funding a vast number of extravagances from Military to social programs to environmental fears to micro managing the new technologies, retirements at young ages,  guaranteed health, etc etc etc etc.

-----power concentration excesses --- plagued the middle east and africa for years and often boils over.  opec nations in particular have lived with a concentration of wealth in a few hands to an extreme that has reached a tipping point with poverty masses.

As you say a lot of this seems to be coming due and overshadowing everything.

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

It's markets to me.  Everything else is tangential to the prices I receive.  When I say markets, one major factor that is new to me is the significant difficulty in hedging crops at what I consider a reasonable or sensible level and way.  In my opinion, that, more than anything, will eventually drive the vertical integration of grain agriculture.  It may take years, but it seems like one way to make grain farming work consistently.

[smokeyjay]

Wild weather, first choice, We were in the area that experienced the worst drought and high temperatures since the dirty thirties.  In fact, some places in my area recorded more days over 100 degrees than during that time.  Through September, we received about 4 inches of moisture, most of that came prior to the major growing season.  We generally receive about 28-32 inches per year.

[kraft-t]

Yet, you won't vote for Obama. There is just no satisfying some folks!

[sw363535]

The justice department will be tracing that message and there will be a hefty campaign contribution due to avoid the audit.

🙂  🙂  🙂

Man it is good to here someone had a great year------------ours was 2010----and luckily not an election year.