It's sunday night........either the start of a new week, or the end of a old one, depending on your point of view.
It's a good time to ponder on things.
It's good to see a little life in the old forum. Usually the more voices the better, someone may bring up a point that the rest
of us had missed.
well.....to keep ishmeal happy, i need to some how link this to marking....so here goes.
Had some some good "observations" on a couple of posts this week.......for some of you, you might be right (well, i cant be
right all the time). I had one of my calm, thoughtful and insightful posts about how a local cooperative is making good money
on its owner/ customers. Some say that I should know my local market...somewhat of a fair point.....but we have a very
limited loca market.....you have a choice of three......all with varied milage to them....I must say, I am more lucky than others,
some really have no options, would have to haul at times almost 60 miles to get away from the claws of a cooperative gone
amuck..
But, the two end users I talked to, really havent worked to hard to drum up business. None have advertised, and neither
one's webpage posts prices....matter of fact somewhat of a job to find their number. While they do take farmer sales,
they have "things set up" with the area cooperative...also the extension service has never brought up this possibility,
more than likly fearing lack of program funding from the large cooperatives.
Some remarks are bins......yes, for years the storage headge has been practiced, and if in the right hands, can be profitable.
We never did store grain at home, my grandpa and dad never did like it. Then grain storage was difficult, didn't
have the fancy equipment like now.......and back then, the markets did act a little better (do i dare say ""normal"") and
storage was not so high........fast forward a few years.........totally upside down.....then, (and i still remember doing it, wasn't
old enough to drive the pickup yet ((at least legel on the road))). we hauled wheat to town via pickups......back then
you used everything available.......it was a parade basicly in town......grain trucks, pickups, gravity trailers......very few
semi's back then, because we had local rail.
today.......local rail is gone. Most gain comes to town in large trucks and even more so, semi...today we put it in a pile
then reload it into semi's and go futher, with one elevator....actually 2 of them, one does have a rail, or the super
coop........they dump on the ground, then run thru their terminal, or haul to processors......or who knows.
ok........i know....get to the point
I guess I'm in good company in not hauling to the larger terminal or processors.......nor storage.....go within 15 miles of
us, very few gain bins....the logic, i'm told, that grain storage is alot of work, management, and you could end up loosing
your crop......all true.......from putting it in to wet, to bugs, to mixing good crop with bad crop......and then in our
neck of the woods, you have to deal with a tornado now and then......so you have to insure the bin, and the hard
one, it's contents.
Then, the second problem, with storage and marketing........the landlord......be it the little old lady with the white hair that
drives a buick.....to the cranky old man who wears overalls, nothing is never right, whats to know when he is going to
get his money, and how the rent should be higher, and is generally not happy with the world, because he had to retire
due to health reasons (hmmmmmm sound fimular ?), to the displaced family members in california and flordia......
who have no idea what end of a tractor you hook up an implement to.......ask what's the difference between
wheat and corn, and can't understand when you complain when input prices go up........"you just mark up your
selling prices to cover it"........and too want to know when the check is here.
They are usually happy (or unhappy), after harvest......most don't have a clue about marketing........if you think talking
about marketing is bad here......imagine the above 3 examples......most will sell their share within 2 weeks of harvest,
not only to get the money, but also to pay their share of the fertilizer and checmical.
so......how can you do marketing when a precentage of your grain has to go to town at harvest......yes, they may get
30%, and you haul 50% to town, and keep 50% at home, but the above three will forever think, you are cheating them.
that's where we're at in the high plains, you folks in corn country might have some different dynamics....rather than
crop share which is still the main thing around here, there you have cash rent, and you have more "freedom", to
market as you see accordingly.
so, the local super cooperatives understand this, and put things together to profit from this situation......
but.....i'm confused......the old ad stuff on the coops said we are joining together, to make things better and so members
could profit........
if we are us, then why ain't us seeing any money that we made ?
ok, i'll shut up now.
have a good week, or thank goodness that one is over with......depending on your outlook
