i just couldn't let this one slide by.....

[elcheapo]

on this website, there is an article under farm management about how we should be on the internet with a website and

a blog.......

ok...that might be nice........

but here is where the belt came off the pully.......we just bounced along thru the article....(oh, this ""farmer" also was a

school teacher).....the cost of a website.......a mear $2,500 !!!!!

(note nobody said how much the hosting bill was each month and if there was a maintance agreement...and the

broadband connection, and time needed to keep it current and updated)

let's see that's:

10 bags of super dupper seed corn that will plant almost 30 acres

or

1 nice cow calf pair

or

6 bags of round up alfalfa seed that would do about 24 acres

or

50 bags of medium priced soybean seed that will plant 50 acres

or

277  12 packs of miller's high life beer

or

1,396 medium strawberry sunades at the local DQ

or

250 gallons of generic glyphos, that will burn down 1,000 acres

and this is under the "farm management"....heading  ???

to be fair tho......if you really think it's important...and it can be nice....make your own website with wordpress software

(free), have someone like "go daddy" host it for about $10 to $15 per month...and that will allow secure transactions,

and also allow you to have a small message board, and also provide assistance with keep it up and running...

add an ambient weather ws-0900 weather station for $100, and publish your wx info on your website and wxunderground,

so your neighbors can see how much it rained, or if you go somewhere you can see how much it rained at home via

your smart phone....you really want to go nuts.....add $130 for a wx cam that you can aim to look at the beautiful

field (but remember where you have it pointed....just in case you need to take a "rest break")........yep, someone might

see it, and think there is going to be a flood the way the water was comming down !!

so....for  $230 we have a pretty good "pr" system, and a monthly cost of  $10-15 for the hoasting (didn't figure in high

speed acess tho)

alot cheaper than what they quoted....and still have money left over to buy corn seed, alfalfa seed, soybean seed,

beer and ice cream.........all of which are "essentials"

[hardnox]

I'm reminded of the mega-BTO outfit in C IL that maintained a website to stay in touch with current landlords and for advertising for prospective ones.

One of the interesting assertions they made was that were tops in marketing and actually bought and sold their crop several times a year, thus permitting them to pay the very top dollar for rent.

I think they were the biggest MW farm bankruptcy ever until the MI Top Producer guy topped them a year or two later. I think there were some criminal actions on that, were for sure in the MI case, I think it is still ongoing.

I wonder how many $M's of taxpayer money ran through that thing (and in fairness, into the pockets of the landlords) over the course of their run.

True in general- I'd love to see a calculation on how much of the money that has been paid to farmers since 1985 went to operations that still exist.

[sw363535]

Nox, there is too much changing of entity name and structure for other reasons to make that comparison.
Retirements, management, partnerships. Entities come and go for lots of reasons other than taxpayer $$.

[Jim Meade / Iowa City]

My web site, which admittedly isn't very active, costs me about $75 a year.

[sw363535]

Jim I am glad you mentioned it..

Our business had a facebook page for a while and a website would have made more sense.

I have always been apprehensive over the appearance and what the public message really says about us...

But we need the communication with our "public"  

Too many I read have gotten lost in the ego of pride.  or at least look that way..