RE: Where The Hell is C/L Lately?
July 14, 2016 at 10:57 pm
(July 14, 2016 at 10:10 pm)Whateverist the White Wrote: (July 14, 2016 at 1:56 pm)vorlon13 Wrote: I could see not being around here during pregnancy.
Heck, I'm glad my farm doesn't have milk cows anymore, this site would curdle the milk. . .
You have a farm? That is cool. Never thought of you as a Broke Back Mountain kind of guy. What are you raising? (I assume it is legal in your state by now.)
It's extremely prosaic; corn and soy. That's it.
Farm's paid for, I get a pension in a few years from the defense contractor gig, set for life if I don't punt something. Not all roses however, 40+% increase in health insurance premium in 1 year has left me stunned. Health insurance used to be in the S/N ratio of the farm budget, it ain't anymore, it's in the 5 figures now.
Frankly, I'm amazed there haven't been riots about the soaring insurance rates.
Seriously. The figure I just paid for 6 months would have bought 3 years worth of health insurance just a few years ago. How do people deal with this ?
Well, anyhow, I have a farm manager that does most of the work, buys the machinery, deals with the ASCS/USDA, handles the seed, fertilizer and chemical inputs, and I just sign checks. Turns out I'm real good at that. Might buy an irrigator next year, had an informative conversation with someone who knows 'stuff' recently and of the 3 options to grow the bottom line; buy more land, clear more land, get more output from the land I have, the irrigator makes the most sense. If I can figure out the geometry of how to fit the thing in the field I want to water. The field isn't square, and the easiest way to do it is to start with a square field and set the pivot in the middle. That probably isn't the answer this time. If money was plentiful, there's an obvious solution, but the irrigator would be almost 3000 feet long, but that is a little pricey. If I did one that big buying the field to the south would be a no brainer, again if the money was available, as one that long could water more of that field than mine.
I need some numbers to compare . . .