Preach it brother, you aren’t wrong. After failing all through the 70’s, my dad figured out two things about farming, set your own prices (direct marketing), and sell things that people don’t need. Every consumer complains about the price of milk, eggs, and beef. Very few complain about the price of popcorn, pumpkins, apple cider, or candy apples. These are facts. He was baffled by regular farmers selling their crops and not even knowing what the prices were. He was astounded when I started conventional farming on my own for the first time in my forties. I was fortunate enough to be able to start at a scale over 10x what he was farming in his forties and about 5x what he was farming at that time. I was dumb lucky to start at a time when nobody was making a profit, right before the Midwest lost their corn to drought, and to get out the year following the peak. It was only about seven years from when I started until I was able to retire. One of my current side hustles is marketing California walnuts. For them the worst crop in history was 2022. Farmers only got a few cents a pound and in some cases it wasn’t enough to cover hulling and drying. Meanwhile they were more expensive than ever in the supermarket. It’s just like pecans but a year or so ahead.
@@FailureatRetirement it’s all a racket. The processors, sometimes with help from the USDA, keep telling producers “you’ve over produced and there’s no demand” while simultaneously telling the end consumer prices are rising because of crop failures
@@PatrickShivers I agree. What they are doing should be criminal. I could be accused of being a middle man for walnuts but fortunately, as a specialty crop, it isn’t quite as bad. There are a handful of big processors who basically set the price range and accuse the little guys of ruining the market. When the chips are down they are the first one to drop their pants on prices because they have big loans that need to get paid. I don’t have any loans to pay and have enough cash reserves to buy a whole crop at harvest except I don’t know what the price will be. I’ve worked for free for the last two years because my growers are all losing money and if they lose their ranches I’m out of business. I don’t think that’s a common model.
@ it didn’t use to be the model, but under current administration it has become increasingly common. I haven’t taken a pay check from my own row crop farm in 18 months….I work there 65-70 hours a week on average. I live off of my direct to end consumer businesses. I have talked to other farmers that also haven’t paid themselves a dime in 2+ years. We’re all just holding on
Great points Patrick. The cattle industry is another that is as consolidated as the grain crops. We started our country by being against monopolies but now we are allowing them at the cost of our farmers, workers, and economy.
Glad you seen the writing on the wall as soon as you did. The way you’re farming and what you’re doing is awesome! And like you say, that’s what it’s gonna take is to cut out that middle man. Especially for smaller farms to survive these days. I’ve been wondering what pecans were bring now. I knew it wasn’t enough for me to get out there and pick them up. The squirrels can have them another year I guess.
@@jackweeks8099 😂 the gangster buying points are offering 30 cents or less per pound. I shell for the public. Turnout is roughly 35% of weight on average. Shelled pecans sell for $10-$12 all day long….so in shell should be $3.50 minus processing cost and a small profit. I can shell 100 pounds in under 10 minutes so processing cost is only a few cents.
@ ain’t no way I’m picking up pecans for no 30 cents a pound!! They ain’t nothing more than thieves giving people that for their product! Glad I didn’t stop by to ask them what they were giving, because someone would’ve had their feelings hurt. Want to buy some pecans? Whatcha gimme?! 😆
@@Gio-yo8nthis record from when he was president before is why we know he’s for us. Farmers prospered during his first term. My dad actually retired from farming when he was in office.
I actually have a degree in Politics and enough experience with politicians to know I don’t want ANYONE thinking I’m one of them. I’ll stick to growing food.
@@PatrickShivers Trump's Trade war with China was a disaster and a total failure. South American has increased production with China's help by 40 percent since Trump's failed trade war and the American people are still paying the tariff's from Trump's failed trade war. It took a generation for the American Farmer to recover from Jimmy Carter's export embargo in 1980. I was 30 years old at the time and for next ten years farmers dropped like flies. Once again It will take a generation for American Agriculture to recover from Trump's failed Trade War with China. South American farmers will be taking China's money from now on instead of American Farmers. Farmers received a tremendous amount of money for short time during the start of Trump's trade war to keep farmers happy as Trump was crucifying farmers for the long term. Tariffs and trade wars will never work and Trump proved it once again.
Hey Patrick, your spot on with your assessment of modern agriculture. Thanks for speaking up and letting people know how tough it is survive financially on a farm now days !We're trying to move into the direct marketing on our farm in Va also. Have you come up on any good resources for a man to pick up some of this equipment we're needing to get started, for an affordable price ? Like a grain cleaner and grain bagging setup and scales and augers, all that fun stuff ?
Very good explanation of how diversified needs to be to stay profitable,if possible. BTW on the deer situation, I believe you are spot on. Get the government out of the way and sell venison to end consumers. Granted meat processing facilities by monitored for proper handling of product. And as for me, I ain't found a way to cook antlers that would make them tender enough to eat. If it's brown, it's down. Meat in the freezer, FIRST. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us.
@@byronglover7998 I haven’t heard of a way to cook antlers either.😂 I’m all for the venison being processed at a USDA inspected facility and properly packaged so it can go to grocery stores.
@PatrickShivers ditto. My reference to government involvement is them regulating what I do on MY private property. Sadly, American people don't OWN anything anymore,we rent it from the government through taxes. I get we need certain taxes to fund community services but every time I turn around there's another "tax" for this that and another. Hey, You have a great Friday and go make some more great videos.
Greed is everywhere. Keep farming Patrick. I don’t care how much money you have, one of these days that’s all there will be is money. I don’t care how long you boil a dollar bill, you’ll never get it tender enough to eat. God bless the farmers, ranchers and fishermen of this country.
100% agree. I farm a little less than 200 acres and sell 100% of my crops direct to consumer. It’s cool too see someone at a larger scale doing the same thing.
Patrick u said a mouth full im a Supervisor at Birdsong Peanuts 🥜 been working for them 15yrs I Tell a lot people just because they left them and Going different buying points the Birdsong Cooperation stills buys peanuts from APG, Tifton, and Golden
@@antoniogrant1953 …..and Olam buys them from Birdsong, Golden, etc. Olam bought out Universal Blanchers and McCleskey Mills. They blanch/roast most of the peanuts in the US irregardless of what company bought the nuts.
I'm toying with the idea of selling peanuts direct consumer in 2025. Our family has not done commercial peanuts in my lifetime. But I need to add another crop for rotation purpose.
I doesn’t help that the public image is that all farmers are rich when that isn’t the case but when they go on RUclips and see these big farms in the mid west with huge shops and new equipment doesn’t help
@@Gio-yo8nt I’ve done the math with the guys that custom combine my corn. They nor I can make an X9 pay for itself on paper. It has to run 5 months out of the year 75-80 hours a week for 20 years
@@PatrickShivers They're living off of equity is all it is, all any of us are, even though it might not be quite as flashy. Farming has always been a cash poor asset rich life. These days though, I believe there is few if any new equipment that will pay it's way, the only thing that is justifying it is the fact that it is being ran to higher hours and needing replacement, and especially with anything with a motor with emissions is just how long do you want to risk holding onto a grenade with the pin pulled? I suppose at some point the banks and the finance companies will be forced to tell everyone no more, but then I think most of them are in the same dire straits as us farmers. Banks got so much bad money on the books if they start failing everyone goes down.
@@Stocker82 just another round of government working its way in a circle. They (the government) assist in creating a problem to which they create a “solution.” Then they go back to their districts at re-election and say “look at what I did for you.” Yes the potential payments will prevent a LOT of farmers from defaulting on loans for a second year in a row…..and the ramifications of the default would put numerous supporting businesses in small towns all across America out of business. The payments will absolutely save people’s jobs/businesses, but the wildly inaccurate WASDE issued by the government is what put us here. They continue to devalue our crops by gross overestimating yields.
There was a time when a dairy farmer could buy a decent sized tractor with the same as a months milk check. Not anymore. I used to do well selling beef by halves and quarters until 2012, and my customers ran out of $ to pay for a years meat. I had already spent my $ on the animal and feed, and I needed to get paid. Did the same with some hogs, and had the same problem. I don't have the time to sit at a Farmers Market all day, so that isn't an option. Perhaps a change is coming next year! 🤞🙏🤞🙏
I have an idea for two crops in South Ga where I live. I am not a farmer even though I live on my Granddaddy's farm basically since i retired from the Navy. I would happily share them with you. If there is a way that we can make contact?
Forgive me if this comment gets long winded, but I have had a lot of time in the seat to think about this problem. Beware, this is a multi comment post. First off, I commend anyone for direct marketing. One of my dreams, that would probably make most question my sanity, is that I have wanted for years to build a dairy farm and a creamery and process and sell my own milk products. Alternatively, and or accompanying, I'd also like to go back to F-F and process hogs to sell, we raised hogs for years until 98' and 8 cent hogs just completely knocked out the market and I do honestly miss having them. Currently in commercial breeder hens, and although it is livestock, commercial chickens just doesn't hit the spot. I have long said there is as much real money to be made selling eggs after church on Sunday as we make working all week and paying all the bills and the house payments. That said, my analysis of especially the creamery, the two things that become fairly obvious the deeper you delve into it is beyond the physical cost of the plant itself, the labor and marketing that you need to run an enterprise like that is not insubstantial. While I know to do it, I would have to be involved in both ends of the business, to do it right, some one needs to be able to focus on the farm and someone on the creamery, and frankly, the farm is my bigger draw. Therefore, I know I either need to draft in some family or more likely I need a plant manager to manage the plant for me and help with marketing. I've also decided direct marketing, or in this case, marketing in storefronts, you got to go where the money is. I can't compete with Walmart, I figure the only way that economically it can be made to work is if you have a differentiated product and you go where the money is, the creamline milk in glass bottles at the local high end meat shops for example. Would people be willing to pay $4/half gallon plus a $2.50 bottle deposit, I don't know for sure but I am more likely to find them somewhere they are already spending for what they perceive is a better product. I think it could work, but I know it isn't a real viable option widescale. Only so many can serve a local market, market is only so large. The issue with direct marketing is, that market is self limiting. End of the day, you are depending on the local capacity to support you, and at best, only a small percentage of people will buy most of your product. The vast majority of people in the USA are still buying their groceries at Walmart or Publix or Kroger or name your favorite store. The vast majority, while they might be willing to buy a few bushels of peas or a gallon of blackberries off the farm, will still turn to the grocery store to stock their pantry, if they even have a pantry. There is still a bunch of people in the cities we'll probably never reach. We still need a wholesale market to be able to sell into the general population. We all know that system is broken. Personally, I lay the blame at the feet of the government first and foremost. They are the ones that have condoned the mergers that have lead to the current conditions in the industry, they have passed bad trade deals for years that has led to agriculture's dependence on exports, and they have passed farm bills that has encouraged and accelerated farm consolidation. It greatly saddens me to see what our rural communities have lost over the last 30 to 50 years, a travesty.
Frankly I have several bugaboos to chew on when it comes to the current issues with farming regarding government involvement. First and foremost, tax laws need to be overhauled. No farmer can compete with investor money when it comes to purchasing land, with land being a production asset for a farmer but a tax shelter for investors. That needs to be eliminated, it might and probably would drive down land values and farm valuations, and therefore borrowing capacity, ultimately it would be healthier for agriculture. Second, the focus of conservation programs needs to change. Since the 60's if not before, almost every conservation program's ultimate goal has been to remove land from production. Be it pine trees or CRP, once this land goes out of production, it may help the landowner but it hurts farming and it hurts the community. We need conservation programs that dovetail into production agriculture and promote better land use. Silvopasture, improved upland grassland and grazing lands, better land conservation practices, to name but a few possibilities. There is no reason to withhold land from production, it does no one any favors. Third, the government needs to sell much of their western land holdings, with priority given to current grazing leaseholders, at a nominal fee. The government has mismanaged that land so badly it isn't even funny, and the government has no business owning all that land. Four, we need trade deals that benefit industry here and penalize shipping our industry overseas. The only three ways to create wealth is to grow it, mine it, or refine it. We have leaders, either by greed or ignorance, that have forgotten that axiom, and it has deeply affected agriculture. For example, I maintain the biggest issue that faces the cotton industry that no one likes to talk about is the fact that we shipped most of our cotton mills and cut sew overseas in the 80's. Once it went overseas, all the sudden, American cotton had to compete on a world market, whereas before, we had a ready US market that bought almost exclusively American cotton. This, among other trade issues, needs to change, and needs to change while we still have a chance. Fifth, we need better land use laws and zoning. As much as I hate zoning from a municipal standpoint, from an agricultural standpoint a change is sorely needed. Between urban development and issues like solar farms, agriculture is losing some of it's best land while our towns and cities rot from the inside out. We need to make it harder to redevelop ag land into nonagricultural purposes, and need to promote city redevelopment to build smarter cities. More infrastructure development, more urban redevelopment. As it is, the current paradigm is unsustainable. These corporations are something else. I hate to argue for government intervention, as it is asking the ones who screwed it to fix it and that can't end well. Even if the government were to begin trustbust I can't help but feel it might be too late. I can't even say farmer owned cooperatives are the answer, I have seen too many of them betray the farmers they were intended to protect. The damnable thing is the gutting of the local rural businesses with the rise of the national and multinational corporations. We've lost our local packers and processers, our feed mills, our cotton mills and cut sew operations, our locally owned grocery stores, our local dealers, among a myriad of losses, and with that, the loss of what was formerly local income that is now going to said large corporations. As well, we as farmers no longer have the diversification to fall back on. We no longer feed out cattle or hogs here at scale, nor chickens. Dairy and beef are only nominally independent anymore, and that, in my opinion, only because that there is no way to completely control the feed. Feeding chickens or hogs for the likes of Cargill or Tyson is just being a glorified employee with the added advantage of buying yourself a job paying for chicken houses or hog barns. Those barn are worth absolutely zero dollars without a contract, they are not an asset without that 8 or so pages of contract that you sign. In my mind, the biggest difference between then and now has been the loss of our local business communities, and all the restaurants and boutique shops in the world will not make up for that.
I would argue the most critical issue that will affect agriculture over the next 10 to 15 years will be the large number of farmers that are going to age out and die and with them, their farms. I can think of a dozen farmers that represent over 10,000 acres that are in their 70's and without heirs. I'm not so naive to believe we won't have enough farmers, we will, all those acres will be absorbed, but it only makes things like finding labor that much more an acute issue. It would seem the answer should be more individual farming operations, but we all know that isn't a viable option in the current world. To me, this reflects a failure of agriculture to gatekeep itself, to ignore some of the very things that lead to the farm strike of the 70's. In times past, if you had a son or daughter who wanted to get into farming, you didn't need to immediately jump onto 1000 acres, if you could find it for rent. You had options. Most here had hogs, maybe you added some more sows and finished a few more head, or maybe you added more cattle or built a dairy. You could to a degree internalize growth and bring in a child into the business. Not only were you bringing in more income, you could build equity, and if your kid decided to step out on their own, they already had some equity and production income to start a farm with. We no longer have that option. As far as the rising prices of seed, fertilizer, and equipment, your guess is as good as mine. Farmers unfortunately are very good at farming the margins out of our business financially. Even though we are running equipment for more hours and for the most part making better yields, these costs aren't sustainable, and frankly I am still at a loss how you fix it. I do believe if we had more livestock and on farm feeding options that would lessen our reliance on our primary cash crops, that would help as much as anything, but it is an option that is not currently on the table. The Cargills and Tysons of the world are not interested in anything but corn and soybeans for feed, and being the Southeast, peanuts and cotton are the obvious cash crops with really nothing to compete against that acreage.
I have long ago abandoned the idea that a farmer should feed the world, while I have never desired to be rich beyond measure, neither will I take a vow of poverty to farm, nor should I. The world still has plenty of capacity to feed itself, and I hate when anyone tries to use that old saw to justify why we should work ourselves broke. I've held the opinion for many years that what we will see sooner or later in farming is a few smaller farms that are willing to go direct or more nearly direct to consumer along with fewer but much larger commodity focused farms that will handle the majority of commodity production. In particular, you are going to see it come to bear in livestock as they diverge between small family operations and large employee run shift work operations, and there will be very little in the middle. We've already seen it happen in vegetables, the few small growers like you that are truck patching a few acres of vegetable to the multi thousand acre vegetable growers with everything on plastic growing 40-100 acre blocks of vegetables. No more real midsized vegetable growers left. I'd love to be wrong, but I am afraid without a significant and permanent shift in policy the days of small and medium sized commodity farms is within a generation of being in the past. Everything grows, I am aware of that, and I think labor is going to be the limiting factor no matter which road is chosen, but it sure is a shame how the country has changed. Like I said, I got long winded on this. I've had plenty of time to think about it over the years, and while I can pinpoint most of what I view as the problems, coming up with viable solutions has been a much more difficult task. Anyway, these are my rambling thoughts for the time being.
My son and I both have full time jobs and farm. The farm won't support either of us with the current market conditions. We finished picking cotton yesterday and soybeans tuesday before Thanksgiving. We will pay on our debts for this year and make payments towards what we lost in 2022.
When you got into the john deere right after you said we're gonna figure out the problems that are plaguing American farmers... I was like.. well there is one of them! 100% agree that if we all did more direct to customer selling, the profits will go up. The corporations have no interest in making sure you're profitable. So sad. They are going to get rid of families from farming, because they are too greedy. I do believe that your business model is something that more farmers need to incorporate in someway in order to stay afloat.
He did not act like everything was rosey to me. So maybe his business model needs touching up. If John Deere was a problem then John Deere would not be selling tractors to farmers anymore. Corporations are not the problem either. We produce more than we need and the world needs from us is the problem. How would you solve that?
@@davidadcock3382 we actually don’t produce more than we need. As explained in the video, if we were overproducing where is all the 2, 3, 4, and 5 year old corn, beans, peanuts, etc? It doesn’t exist. It all gets used every year. We (farmers) get told every year that we have produced a record yield and therefore the price offered is low…..but there is no 2 year old corn. It’s all gone every year. No 2 year old peanuts either. We get told every year from the peanut buying companies that “demand is down” and/or “we’re still holding last year’s crop,” however if you look at US peanut demand it actually isn’t down, it is at an all time high, and from personally talking to the warehouse inspector the “full” warehouses are all empty. They tell the Texas peanut farmers “the Georgia crop is bumper and all the warehouses are full (when they are empty) while simultaneously telling the Georgia farmers “they got a bumper crop in Texas.” What the corporate buyers don’t realize is the farmers and buying point operators actually talk to each other and we know we’re being lied to.
@@PatrickShivers In Most years we produce more than the market wants to buy. and thus prices go down to encourage more demand and when we produce less than the market wants to buy prices go up to discourage demand and cut back on assuage You have just proven how clueless you are on this subject. Corn is rotated. The corn left on the farm or commercial elevators at end of each marketing year is the first to go to the market in the new marketing year before any new crop is marketed. You can ask any Elevator manager at the end of each marketing year how much is left in commercial storage and they will tell you. When they are paying 7 dollars a bushel for corn that tells you corn is in short supply and there is not not enough corn for all the buyers needs. If they are paying 4 dollars a bushel that tells you there is more corn than the market buyers all over the world wants at this time.. The cash market tells you how much supply is left. It is the same story for soybeans. You have proven also that you live in a corn deficit area and know NOTHING about this subject. As far as the peanut markets go I have no comment. You also have proven that you are clueless on how much crude oil we are producing and selling. YES We sell crude oil because we do not have the capacity to refine all the crude oil we produce.
I’m not clueless, I am very aware that the LAST of previous crop corn gets sold just as harvest begins. There is no ever growing (which would have to exist if we continually over produced) un-used corn….it all gets used. Where is the 2 year old corn? There is none. It all gets used. None doesn’t get used. Do you keep up with the USDA wasde reports? They release the crop yield report as massive bumper crop fully harvested…..prices fall through the floor. Then a month later they issue a revision (down) saying they over shot the yield (that was fully harvested and reported), a month after that they issue a revision of the revision (down) saying they over shot their previous revision, and then the following month they issue a revision of the revision of the revision saying that all other revisions were wrong but trust them on this one is actually correct. This has been standard practice for last four years. No-one knows what’s on hand b/c USDA consistently lies (and is consistently caught lying) about on hand crop and yields. What we do know is there isn’t an ever growing stack of unused corn which is absolutely necessary to prove over production.
@@davidadcock3382 I’m not sure why you are so ruffled and sure I know “nothing” about so much. I am aware that we don’t build oil refineries anymore snd most of them are aging out, some (multiple) have been damaged by hurricanes in the past 15 years. I have personally been to several. What is very easy to find out, if you weren’t paying attention to current events OR if you were choosing to be dishonest, the US has imported and exported fossil fuels under every US president since WWII. In Trump’s first term we were a net exporter (exported more than we used/imported). Under George W, Obama, and Biden we were/are net importers (import/use more than we export). We export lower grade fuels and import higher grade fuels as some of the crude we produce isn’t suitable for domestic refinery market and needs refining by systems that don’t even exist in North America.
@@onehappyfarmer3461 If you weren't carrying much debt, the 80's were a great time. We got hemmed up early in the 80's and it was a close run thing, but by the middle of the 80's we made some fair money. Way more margin in the business then than now. I'm not downplaying the 80's by any stretch, it was tough, but the losses that I know the Southeast farmers are taking are not going to be sustainable over another year without some kind of intervention.
@@johndeere7245 There were all kinds of government programs trying to help farmers lower production in the 80's from Carter's grain embargo. We had set aside acres. We had the pick program. We had direct subsidies. In 1983 there were several farmers in the pik program that never planted one acre of their farm to crops and I was one of them. There were movies made about the farm crisis during the 80's and don't forget Willie Nelson's Farm Aid Concert in 1985. It was a weekly event to go to another failing farmer's farm sale auction. Very sad decade for many farmer's after the government preached to plant fence row to fence row in the 70's to feed the world and the world needed and took the grain until the grain embargo. It only takes the stupidity of one president to upset American Agriculture brand America as an unreliable supplier of grain. I have now seen it twice in my life time.
It's a shame that the American farmers have to work so hard for little or no profit. We sold our produce mainly directly to consumers. My father always grew watermelons and would tell people that he didn't charge for the melon, he changed for picking it 😅😅
The greed of corporate profiteers is never satisfied... "Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord, and false scales are not good." Proverbs 20:23
I don’t understand why anything you sell from your farm has to be inspected or approved by any third party or government agency. Including meat. It would give farmers a big advantage over corporations if food sold directly from farms was exempt from regulations.
It breaks my heart to hear this happening to our wonderful hard working farmers.these big companies need to be split up like thay did to standard oil and the railroad. I buy local every. Chance I get as a commercial fisherman I know how you feel. Sorry for your frustratings
Patrick, Excellent video!!! Again, you have hit the nail on the head! I hope Trump breaks up the agri-business conglomerates! What we have now is not free-market economics! If that gets done, we could eliminate USDA crop subsidies! Your diversification strategy is genius! Keep up the great work that you do! Thank you Sir!
If you could get the farmers to stick together one year plant corn instead of peanuts wouldn’t this put a squeeze on those guys that control you could show them who really controls the market couldn’t you. I do understand that some farmers may not be able to plant and harvest corn, cotton or soybeans and have a lot of acres just a thought. I have friends this year that farm cotton mostly and gin their own and it has been a very bad year for them also. I really appreciate what you guys do for us you do all the work and make the least amount of money of all the people that touch your products.
@@jamiecollins1220 as stated in the video, if farmers in any region or country plant less of any particular crop then farmers in the another region or country plant more of that crop to fill the expected gap. Farmers are all stuck so deep in survival mode that if any of them even heard a group was going to not plant a certain crop so as to squeeze the market they would immediately plant every acre they could in that exact crop hoping to get a premium. The closest solution is enough farmers have to not sign contract on crop until a fair price is offered. Some farmers can’t hold out as long as others so they sign contracts at low price and once contracts start getting signed its a domino effect. Everyone rushes to sign as big processors start proclaiming “this is all we’re going to offer and we probably won’t offer anything if you don’t sign this week because we’ll have all we need” Many times I’ve heard them pressure farmers into signing with that threat and then the price go up the very next week.
@ I see that was the part I didn’t understand but you are right a couple farmers would take advantage of that. I actually forgot about the contract deals.
Patrick, do you remember quota peanuts??? In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, we could grow quota peanuts with some degree of profitability. When the quota was done away with,....well....now we're seeing what that led to. And you can't blame one particular political party, it was everyone INCLUDING a lot of farmers who clamored for removal of the quota system.
@@MarshallLanier quota made my grandfather a millionaire. He dropped out of middle school to support his mother and siblings when his father walked out. Started with nothing & retired a millionaire…thanks to quota. Texas farmers heard Ga guys were making money so they lobbied to end quota so they could get in and drop the price through the floor for everyone.
I was raised in southwest ga and remember when a dear was shot it was news. These rural communities are shrinking and wild meat is not harvested like they did back in the day. Corporations are doing to farmers what have always done to individuals. These other countries are not as dependant on the american farmer like they use to.
Some good points. The only disagreement I would have is about corn. If the ethanol debacle would have never happened you would not need 90 million acres of corn planted. We have way too much corn propped up by the ethanol industry
@@joekeusch5995 a ethanol plant was built in South Georgia (about 3 hours from here) during early Obama years. Every farmer in Ga started planting corn. The government stopped the subsidizing ethanol industry and the plant closed immediately. Tyson chicken (a huge portion of the nation’s poultry is grown in Alabama & Georgia) stepped in to fill the gap. They were previously bringing corn in on rail.
@PatrickShivers Surely, you acknowledge that there are millions of acres previously devoted to pasture, hay, dairy, and rangeland that were switched to corn primarily due to ethanol? 10-15 million acres
@@joekeusch5995 Do you want to ignore the fact that we export around a 5th of the corn crop grown each year. You could just as easily target exports. Yes, ethanol did drive the conversion pasture, hay, and marginal land into production, but maybe the better question is why was beef and dairy so marginal to make adding corn production look good? Maybe you dislike ethanol, but that corn could have easily been diverted from other parts of the industry. The reason that acreage came into production is because it became the best risk at the time.
@ around here, corn was added to the rotation (of cotton & peanuts) b/c of ethanol. As stated, the ethanol plant folded within just a few years and then the corn went to chickens instead of fuel. Previously the chickens were fed with midwest corn that was railed in. Now they are fed for a month or two with southeastern corn and 10-11 months on midwestern corn that is railed in. I can’t speak to what is happening in other regions.
@@PatrickShivers Almost Half of the corn produced is used by an ethanol plant in the USA. If they are railing in corn for chickens that means you live a corn deficit area. Ethanol plants should not be built in a corn deficit areas. There are a bunch of ethanol plants in the Midwest where corn is plentiful. With the USA's refinery capacity maxed out can you imagine how high the price of gasoline would be if there was no ethanol???
Greed is number one problem for most everything. CEOs aren’t satisfied with a decent profit , they want an all and then some. I live on the coast in NC , the fishing industry is in the same predicament . The people that catch the fish don’t get much for it , the fish houses get more and then the restaurants get even more money. Greed .
You can thank the demon-craps. They have been controlled by big business for years. Small farmers need to think about following your model as it is more sustainable in the long run. Seems to be working out for you!
I am no democrat but your post is goofy. To control big business you need to control government and they have only controlled government for two years out of the last 22 years thankfully. pitiful!
You don't know what you are talking about!!! When supplies are real plentiful prices are lower and when supplies are short prices are higher! Supply and Demand does work. It works in energy also. When every one stop driving in the spring of 2020 Crude oil went to MINUS 37 dollars a barrel in April of 2020 because there was to much supply and NO demand. Pittiful!!!!!
Lord knows I stocked up on that 10 cent gasoline back in 2020. Oh, wait, as I recall, gas still had a two spot in front of it even though by the board they were paying to get rid of oil. The board really doesn't give a damn when it can make money going both ways. They trade paper, not product. I remember the spring of 98, bottom fell out of the hog market. 8 cent hogs. It was near Easter Sunday and a single ham was bringing more in the grocery store than the whole hog was selling for. No one buying a ham that day knew how cheap hogs were, but someone somewhere was making a small fortune on them, and it damn sure was not the farmer.
@@johndeere7245 To much supply for the demand that there was. My brother traded a hog for pair of new tennis shoes at the mall in 1998. When the guy found out how much it was going to cost him to process the hog he tried to back out of the deal.
@@davidadcock3382 supply and demand absolutely does work, what I plainly explained is farmers AREN’T PAID ON SUPPLY DEMAND. The processor sales the commodity to the market based on supply demand and they buy it from the farm dirt cheap on the basis that they own all the processing so you can either give them your crop for next to nothing or you can watch it rot.
@@PatrickShivers They will pay whatever it is worth to get the commodity. Two years ago they were paying 7 dollars a bushel right off the combine for corn they needed. Today they are paying 4 dollars a bushel for corn they need. Every year the demand for corn keeps increasing and Farmers like me have meet that demand with more and more production. Every year the price is different depending on supply that was produced and the demand there is from all over the world from many many end users. This country has always had the ability to produce more than we need and the world needs from us. We spent years building up demand from China to only have an orange painted clown come along and piss that market away and have another country increase production and take China's money instead of Americans getting China's money. Ronald Reagan was the best president in my life time and Trump the worst.
@ farmers in the southeast did very well during Trump’s first term and are currently going out of business at a record clip under Biden. I talked to many farmers/bankers last year. ALL of them without a single exception said 2023 was the single worse year of their entire career. Nearly all of them have now updated that statement to 2024 was the worse year of their career
It's kinda hard to step out of the system the most powerful government in the world created with the help of the largest corporations in the world. I do agree most are hardheaded working solely in the current system which obviously isn't going to work.
@@jasonhatfield2471 When I was invited to a large farm to conduct the first field trial for SNX30, as the farmer and I entered his office he said, "I spend too much time here." I knew right away that was a big problem. Farmers would be better off doing more research to work smarter instead working harder.
When I was invited to a large farm to conduct the first field trial for SNX30, as the farmer and I entered his office he said, "I spend too much time here." I knew right away that was a big problem. Farmers would be better off doing more research to work smarter instead working harder.
@@jasonhatfield2471 Something that most don't seem to get. That safety net is a powerful enforcer, and anyone who has ever stepped out of it and been penalized for it, it sticks with you. The system is built around cheap commodities, that is what they want, and most cannot risk sticking their neck out that far and giving the axe man any bigger of a target than he deserves.
@@PatrickShivers That's just not really true. Trade wars hurt domestic industry and farmers. Didn't bring back industry just gave tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals and companies. Didn't help the small guys with taxes at all. Interest rates were lower that's the only thing really better about his term and it wasn't his doing
@ so the substantially more money that we got in our bank accounts (first hand experience) because our inputs were incredibly cheaper during his 4 years than they were during the 4 years before and after him isn’t real? The money we made and spent/saved doesn’t actually exist? You sir are denying reality. The bonuses that the corporations handed out that had “Trump tax break” PRINTED ON THE CHECK didn’t happen? Do you really not remember gas and groceries being cheaper while he was in office than they were the 4 years before him and the four years after him?
Preach it brother, you aren’t wrong.
After failing all through the 70’s, my dad figured out two things about farming, set your own prices (direct marketing), and sell things that people don’t need. Every consumer complains about the price of milk, eggs, and beef. Very few complain about the price of popcorn, pumpkins, apple cider, or candy apples. These are facts.
He was baffled by regular farmers selling their crops and not even knowing what the prices were. He was astounded when I started conventional farming on my own for the first time in my forties. I was fortunate enough to be able to start at a scale over 10x what he was farming in his forties and about 5x what he was farming at that time. I was dumb lucky to start at a time when nobody was making a profit, right before the Midwest lost their corn to drought, and to get out the year following the peak. It was only about seven years from when I started until I was able to retire.
One of my current side hustles is marketing California walnuts. For them the worst crop in history was 2022. Farmers only got a few cents a pound and in some cases it wasn’t enough to cover hulling and drying. Meanwhile they were more expensive than ever in the supermarket. It’s just like pecans but a year or so ahead.
@@FailureatRetirement it’s all a racket. The processors, sometimes with help from the USDA, keep telling producers “you’ve over produced and there’s no demand” while simultaneously telling the end consumer prices are rising because of crop failures
@@PatrickShivers I agree. What they are doing should be criminal.
I could be accused of being a middle man for walnuts but fortunately, as a specialty crop, it isn’t quite as bad. There are a handful of big processors who basically set the price range and accuse the little guys of ruining the market. When the chips are down they are the first one to drop their pants on prices because they have big loans that need to get paid. I don’t have any loans to pay and have enough cash reserves to buy a whole crop at harvest except I don’t know what the price will be. I’ve worked for free for the last two years because my growers are all losing money and if they lose their ranches I’m out of business. I don’t think that’s a common model.
@ it didn’t use to be the model, but under current administration it has become increasingly common. I haven’t taken a pay check from my own row crop farm in 18 months….I work there 65-70 hours a week on average. I live off of my direct to end consumer businesses. I have talked to other farmers that also haven’t paid themselves a dime in 2+ years. We’re all just holding on
Great points Patrick. The cattle industry is another that is as consolidated as the grain crops. We started our country by being against monopolies but now we are allowing them at the cost of our farmers, workers, and economy.
Glad you seen the writing on the wall as soon as you did. The way you’re farming and what you’re doing is awesome! And like you say, that’s what it’s gonna take is to cut out that middle man. Especially for smaller farms to survive these days. I’ve been wondering what pecans were bring now. I knew it wasn’t enough for me to get out there and pick them up. The squirrels can have them another year I guess.
@@jackweeks8099 😂 the gangster buying points are offering 30 cents or less per pound. I shell for the public. Turnout is roughly 35% of weight on average. Shelled pecans sell for $10-$12 all day long….so in shell should be $3.50 minus processing cost and a small profit. I can shell 100 pounds in under 10 minutes so processing cost is only a few cents.
@ ain’t no way I’m picking up pecans for no 30 cents a pound!! They ain’t nothing more than thieves giving people that for their product! Glad I didn’t stop by to ask them what they were giving, because someone would’ve had their feelings hurt. Want to buy some pecans? Whatcha gimme?! 😆
I'm from Tifton Georgia. You're spot on with your points in this video! I hope Trump adds you to his department of agriculture!
You really think that idiot is for you 😅😅😅😅.Trump is for the Corporate and you do know he was the President already.
@@Gio-yo8nthis record from when he was president before is why we know he’s for us. Farmers prospered during his first term. My dad actually retired from farming when he was in office.
I actually have a degree in Politics and enough experience with politicians to know I don’t want ANYONE thinking I’m one of them. I’ll stick to growing food.
@ So let me take a big guess🤔 It’s those Democrats fault? Smh 🤦
@@PatrickShivers Trump's Trade war with China was a disaster and a total failure. South American has increased production with China's help by 40 percent since Trump's failed trade war and the American people are still paying the tariff's from Trump's failed trade war. It took a generation for the American Farmer to recover from Jimmy Carter's export embargo in 1980. I was 30 years old at the time and for next ten years farmers dropped like flies. Once again It will take a generation for American Agriculture to recover from Trump's failed Trade War with China. South American farmers will be taking China's money from now on instead of American Farmers. Farmers received a tremendous amount of money for short time during the start of Trump's trade war to keep farmers happy as Trump was crucifying farmers for the long term. Tariffs and trade wars will never work and Trump proved it once again.
Hey Patrick, your spot on with your assessment of modern agriculture. Thanks for speaking up and letting people know how tough it is survive financially on a farm now days !We're trying to move into the direct marketing on our farm in Va also. Have you come up on any good resources for a man to pick up some of this equipment we're needing to get started, for an affordable price ? Like a grain cleaner and grain bagging setup and scales and augers, all that fun stuff ?
@@RedbanksBeefFarm check the auctions. Ag industry is in peril, all sorts of deals being had at auction if you have the cash available
Cost of production. Cattle are high this year but the cost to grow them has multiplied exponentially.
Spot on man. Keep up the hard work and grinding away.
Same situation over here in Louisiana with both the prices of commodities and the deer eating up our crops.
Depends on where and what you farm, and how you do it.
You are exactly right
Truth Patrick, speaking the truth.
U talking true facts!!!
This man is spot on. this coming from a farmer myself
Very good explanation of how diversified needs to be to stay profitable,if possible. BTW on the deer situation, I believe you are spot on. Get the government out of the way and sell venison to end consumers. Granted meat processing facilities by monitored for proper handling of product. And as for me, I ain't found a way to cook antlers that would make them tender enough to eat. If it's brown, it's down. Meat in the freezer, FIRST. Thanks again for sharing your thoughts and experiences with us.
@@byronglover7998 I haven’t heard of a way to cook antlers either.😂 I’m all for the venison being processed at a USDA inspected facility and properly packaged so it can go to grocery stores.
@PatrickShivers ditto. My reference to government involvement is them regulating what I do on MY private property. Sadly, American people don't OWN anything anymore,we rent it from the government through taxes. I get we need certain taxes to fund community services but every time I turn around there's another "tax" for this that and another. Hey, You have a great Friday and go make some more great videos.
@ thanks for watching Byron
Amen!!!! Thanks Patrick. God bless you
Patrick, thank you for your explanation of the problems and possibilities of you as farmers in the USA.
Love this video you speak a lot of truth and what you were saying
AMEN!!
The problem is the middle man to many hands in the pot
That is a key point and that is true for more industries than I think many are aware of.
Greed is everywhere. Keep farming Patrick. I don’t care how much money you have, one of these days that’s all there will be is money. I don’t care how long you boil a dollar bill, you’ll never get it tender enough to eat. God bless the farmers, ranchers and fishermen of this country.
100% agree. I farm a little less than 200 acres and sell 100% of my crops direct to consumer. It’s cool too see someone at a larger scale doing the same thing.
👍🏻❣️🇺🇸🫡
Hello from North Carolina!
@@nomerc3608 how’d you fair through the storms? A lot of south Georgia thoughts, prayers, love offerings, and volunteers was sent up there
Farmers buy at retail and sell at wholesale.
Patrick u said a mouth full im a Supervisor at Birdsong Peanuts 🥜 been working for them 15yrs I Tell a lot people just because they left them and Going different buying points the Birdsong Cooperation stills buys peanuts from APG, Tifton, and Golden
@@antoniogrant1953 …..and Olam buys them from Birdsong, Golden, etc. Olam bought out Universal Blanchers and McCleskey Mills. They blanch/roast most of the peanuts in the US irregardless of what company bought the nuts.
I'm toying with the idea of selling peanuts direct consumer in 2025. Our family has not done commercial peanuts in my lifetime. But I need to add another crop for rotation purpose.
I doesn’t help that the public image is that all farmers are rich when that isn’t the case but when they go on RUclips and see these big farms in the mid west with huge shops and new equipment doesn’t help
Right, they be having these huge heated shops with heated floors , 4 or 5 X9 John Deere combines, 10,000 acres, etc….Somebody is lying.
@@Gio-yo8nt I’ve done the math with the guys that custom combine my corn. They nor I can make an X9 pay for itself on paper. It has to run 5 months out of the year 75-80 hours a week for 20 years
@@PatrickShivers They're living off of equity is all it is, all any of us are, even though it might not be quite as flashy. Farming has always been a cash poor asset rich life. These days though, I believe there is few if any new equipment that will pay it's way, the only thing that is justifying it is the fact that it is being ran to higher hours and needing replacement, and especially with anything with a motor with emissions is just how long do you want to risk holding onto a grenade with the pin pulled? I suppose at some point the banks and the finance companies will be forced to tell everyone no more, but then I think most of them are in the same dire straits as us farmers. Banks got so much bad money on the books if they start failing everyone goes down.
well said !! keep up the good work
best info on internet today
Preach it brother.
Do you sale them online to end consumer? Or do they come pick them up .. I’m interested how that part works
@@sirmatt6143 I advertise online, sell in person at the farm.
Well said
What’s your thoughts on the potential farm act 2024
@@Stocker82 just another round of government working its way in a circle. They (the government) assist in creating a problem to which they create a “solution.” Then they go back to their districts at re-election and say “look at what I did for you.”
Yes the potential payments will prevent a LOT of farmers from defaulting on loans for a second year in a row…..and the ramifications of the default would put numerous supporting businesses in small towns all across America out of business. The payments will absolutely save people’s jobs/businesses, but the wildly inaccurate WASDE issued by the government is what put us here. They continue to devalue our crops by gross overestimating yields.
There was a time when a dairy farmer could buy a decent sized tractor with the same as a months milk check. Not anymore. I used to do well selling beef by halves and quarters until 2012, and my customers ran out of $ to pay for a years meat. I had already spent my $ on the animal and feed, and I needed to get paid. Did the same with some hogs, and had the same problem. I don't have the time to sit at a Farmers Market all day, so that isn't an option. Perhaps a change is coming next year! 🤞🙏🤞🙏
I have an idea for two crops in South Ga where I live. I am not a farmer even though I live on my Granddaddy's farm basically since i retired from the Navy. I would happily share them with you. If there is a way that we can make contact?
And the unions that work for those big companies have to work with them.just part of it.thanks😊
Forgive me if this comment gets long winded, but I have had a lot of time in the seat to think about this problem. Beware, this is a multi comment post.
First off, I commend anyone for direct marketing. One of my dreams, that would probably make most question my sanity, is that I have wanted for years to build a dairy farm and a creamery and process and sell my own milk products. Alternatively, and or accompanying, I'd also like to go back to F-F and process hogs to sell, we raised hogs for years until 98' and 8 cent hogs just completely knocked out the market and I do honestly miss having them. Currently in commercial breeder hens, and although it is livestock, commercial chickens just doesn't hit the spot. I have long said there is as much real money to be made selling eggs after church on Sunday as we make working all week and paying all the bills and the house payments. That said, my analysis of especially the creamery, the two things that become fairly obvious the deeper you delve into it is beyond the physical cost of the plant itself, the labor and marketing that you need to run an enterprise like that is not insubstantial. While I know to do it, I would have to be involved in both ends of the business, to do it right, some one needs to be able to focus on the farm and someone on the creamery, and frankly, the farm is my bigger draw. Therefore, I know I either need to draft in some family or more likely I need a plant manager to manage the plant for me and help with marketing. I've also decided direct marketing, or in this case, marketing in storefronts, you got to go where the money is. I can't compete with Walmart, I figure the only way that economically it can be made to work is if you have a differentiated product and you go where the money is, the creamline milk in glass bottles at the local high end meat shops for example. Would people be willing to pay $4/half gallon plus a $2.50 bottle deposit, I don't know for sure but I am more likely to find them somewhere they are already spending for what they perceive is a better product. I think it could work, but I know it isn't a real viable option widescale. Only so many can serve a local market, market is only so large.
The issue with direct marketing is, that market is self limiting. End of the day, you are depending on the local capacity to support you, and at best, only a small percentage of people will buy most of your product. The vast majority of people in the USA are still buying their groceries at Walmart or Publix or Kroger or name your favorite store. The vast majority, while they might be willing to buy a few bushels of peas or a gallon of blackberries off the farm, will still turn to the grocery store to stock their pantry, if they even have a pantry. There is still a bunch of people in the cities we'll probably never reach. We still need a wholesale market to be able to sell into the general population. We all know that system is broken. Personally, I lay the blame at the feet of the government first and foremost. They are the ones that have condoned the mergers that have lead to the current conditions in the industry, they have passed bad trade deals for years that has led to agriculture's dependence on exports, and they have passed farm bills that has encouraged and accelerated farm consolidation. It greatly saddens me to see what our rural communities have lost over the last 30 to 50 years, a travesty.
Frankly I have several bugaboos to chew on when it comes to the current issues with farming regarding government involvement. First and foremost, tax laws need to be overhauled. No farmer can compete with investor money when it comes to purchasing land, with land being a production asset for a farmer but a tax shelter for investors. That needs to be eliminated, it might and probably would drive down land values and farm valuations, and therefore borrowing capacity, ultimately it would be healthier for agriculture. Second, the focus of conservation programs needs to change. Since the 60's if not before, almost every conservation program's ultimate goal has been to remove land from production. Be it pine trees or CRP, once this land goes out of production, it may help the landowner but it hurts farming and it hurts the community. We need conservation programs that dovetail into production agriculture and promote better land use. Silvopasture, improved upland grassland and grazing lands, better land conservation practices, to name but a few possibilities. There is no reason to withhold land from production, it does no one any favors. Third, the government needs to sell much of their western land holdings, with priority given to current grazing leaseholders, at a nominal fee. The government has mismanaged that land so badly it isn't even funny, and the government has no business owning all that land. Four, we need trade deals that benefit industry here and penalize shipping our industry overseas. The only three ways to create wealth is to grow it, mine it, or refine it. We have leaders, either by greed or ignorance, that have forgotten that axiom, and it has deeply affected agriculture. For example, I maintain the biggest issue that faces the cotton industry that no one likes to talk about is the fact that we shipped most of our cotton mills and cut sew overseas in the 80's. Once it went overseas, all the sudden, American cotton had to compete on a world market, whereas before, we had a ready US market that bought almost exclusively American cotton. This, among other trade issues, needs to change, and needs to change while we still have a chance. Fifth, we need better land use laws and zoning. As much as I hate zoning from a municipal standpoint, from an agricultural standpoint a change is sorely needed. Between urban development and issues like solar farms, agriculture is losing some of it's best land while our towns and cities rot from the inside out. We need to make it harder to redevelop ag land into nonagricultural purposes, and need to promote city redevelopment to build smarter cities. More infrastructure development, more urban redevelopment. As it is, the current paradigm is unsustainable.
These corporations are something else. I hate to argue for government intervention, as it is asking the ones who screwed it to fix it and that can't end well. Even if the government were to begin trustbust I can't help but feel it might be too late. I can't even say farmer owned cooperatives are the answer, I have seen too many of them betray the farmers they were intended to protect. The damnable thing is the gutting of the local rural businesses with the rise of the national and multinational corporations. We've lost our local packers and processers, our feed mills, our cotton mills and cut sew operations, our locally owned grocery stores, our local dealers, among a myriad of losses, and with that, the loss of what was formerly local income that is now going to said large corporations. As well, we as farmers no longer have the diversification to fall back on. We no longer feed out cattle or hogs here at scale, nor chickens. Dairy and beef are only nominally independent anymore, and that, in my opinion, only because that there is no way to completely control the feed. Feeding chickens or hogs for the likes of Cargill or Tyson is just being a glorified employee with the added advantage of buying yourself a job paying for chicken houses or hog barns. Those barn are worth absolutely zero dollars without a contract, they are not an asset without that 8 or so pages of contract that you sign. In my mind, the biggest difference between then and now has been the loss of our local business communities, and all the restaurants and boutique shops in the world will not make up for that.
I would argue the most critical issue that will affect agriculture over the next 10 to 15 years will be the large number of farmers that are going to age out and die and with them, their farms. I can think of a dozen farmers that represent over 10,000 acres that are in their 70's and without heirs. I'm not so naive to believe we won't have enough farmers, we will, all those acres will be absorbed, but it only makes things like finding labor that much more an acute issue. It would seem the answer should be more individual farming operations, but we all know that isn't a viable option in the current world. To me, this reflects a failure of agriculture to gatekeep itself, to ignore some of the very things that lead to the farm strike of the 70's. In times past, if you had a son or daughter who wanted to get into farming, you didn't need to immediately jump onto 1000 acres, if you could find it for rent. You had options. Most here had hogs, maybe you added some more sows and finished a few more head, or maybe you added more cattle or built a dairy. You could to a degree internalize growth and bring in a child into the business. Not only were you bringing in more income, you could build equity, and if your kid decided to step out on their own, they already had some equity and production income to start a farm with. We no longer have that option.
As far as the rising prices of seed, fertilizer, and equipment, your guess is as good as mine. Farmers unfortunately are very good at farming the margins out of our business financially. Even though we are running equipment for more hours and for the most part making better yields, these costs aren't sustainable, and frankly I am still at a loss how you fix it. I do believe if we had more livestock and on farm feeding options that would lessen our reliance on our primary cash crops, that would help as much as anything, but it is an option that is not currently on the table. The Cargills and Tysons of the world are not interested in anything but corn and soybeans for feed, and being the Southeast, peanuts and cotton are the obvious cash crops with really nothing to compete against that acreage.
I have long ago abandoned the idea that a farmer should feed the world, while I have never desired to be rich beyond measure, neither will I take a vow of poverty to farm, nor should I. The world still has plenty of capacity to feed itself, and I hate when anyone tries to use that old saw to justify why we should work ourselves broke. I've held the opinion for many years that what we will see sooner or later in farming is a few smaller farms that are willing to go direct or more nearly direct to consumer along with fewer but much larger commodity focused farms that will handle the majority of commodity production. In particular, you are going to see it come to bear in livestock as they diverge between small family operations and large employee run shift work operations, and there will be very little in the middle. We've already seen it happen in vegetables, the few small growers like you that are truck patching a few acres of vegetable to the multi thousand acre vegetable growers with everything on plastic growing 40-100 acre blocks of vegetables. No more real midsized vegetable growers left. I'd love to be wrong, but I am afraid without a significant and permanent shift in policy the days of small and medium sized commodity farms is within a generation of being in the past. Everything grows, I am aware of that, and I think labor is going to be the limiting factor no matter which road is chosen, but it sure is a shame how the country has changed.
Like I said, I got long winded on this. I've had plenty of time to think about it over the years, and while I can pinpoint most of what I view as the problems, coming up with viable solutions has been a much more difficult task. Anyway, these are my rambling thoughts for the time being.
My son and I both have full time jobs and farm. The farm won't support either of us with the current market conditions. We finished picking cotton yesterday and soybeans tuesday before Thanksgiving. We will pay on our debts for this year and make payments towards what we lost in 2022.
When you got into the john deere right after you said we're gonna figure out the problems that are plaguing American farmers... I was like.. well there is one of them!
100% agree that if we all did more direct to customer selling, the profits will go up. The corporations have no interest in making sure you're profitable. So sad. They are going to get rid of families from farming, because they are too greedy. I do believe that your business model is something that more farmers need to incorporate in someway in order to stay afloat.
He did not act like everything was rosey to me. So maybe his business model needs touching up. If John Deere was a problem then John Deere would not be selling tractors to farmers anymore. Corporations are not the problem either. We produce more than we need and the world needs from us is the problem. How would you solve that?
@@davidadcock3382 we actually don’t produce more than we need. As explained in the video, if we were overproducing where is all the 2, 3, 4, and 5 year old corn, beans, peanuts, etc? It doesn’t exist. It all gets used every year. We (farmers) get told every year that we have produced a record yield and therefore the price offered is low…..but there is no 2 year old corn. It’s all gone every year. No 2 year old peanuts either. We get told every year from the peanut buying companies that “demand is down” and/or “we’re still holding last year’s crop,” however if you look at US peanut demand it actually isn’t down, it is at an all time high, and from personally talking to the warehouse inspector the “full” warehouses are all empty. They tell the Texas peanut farmers “the Georgia crop is bumper and all the warehouses are full (when they are empty) while simultaneously telling the Georgia farmers “they got a bumper crop in Texas.” What the corporate buyers don’t realize is the farmers and buying point operators actually talk to each other and we know we’re being lied to.
@@PatrickShivers In Most years we produce more than the market wants to buy. and thus prices go down to encourage more demand and when we produce less than the market wants to buy prices go up to discourage demand and cut back on assuage You have just proven how clueless you are on this subject. Corn is rotated. The corn left on the farm or commercial elevators at end of each marketing year is the first to go to the market in the new marketing year before any new crop is marketed. You can ask any Elevator manager at the end of each marketing year how much is left in commercial storage and they will tell you. When they are paying 7 dollars a bushel for corn that tells you corn is in short supply and there is not not enough corn for all the buyers needs. If they are paying 4 dollars a bushel that tells you there is more corn than the market buyers all over the world wants at this time.. The cash market tells you how much supply is left. It is the same story for soybeans. You have proven also that you live in a corn deficit area and know NOTHING about this subject. As far as the peanut markets go I have no comment. You also have proven that you are clueless on how much crude oil we are producing and selling. YES We sell crude oil because we do not have the capacity to refine all the crude oil we produce.
I’m not clueless, I am very aware that the LAST of previous crop corn gets sold just as harvest begins. There is no ever growing (which would have to exist if we continually over produced) un-used corn….it all gets used. Where is the 2 year old corn? There is none. It all gets used. None doesn’t get used. Do you keep up with the USDA wasde reports? They release the crop yield report as massive bumper crop fully harvested…..prices fall through the floor. Then a month later they issue a revision (down) saying they over shot the yield (that was fully harvested and reported), a month after that they issue a revision of the revision (down) saying they over shot their previous revision, and then the following month they issue a revision of the revision of the revision saying that all other revisions were wrong but trust them on this one is actually correct. This has been standard practice for last four years. No-one knows what’s on hand b/c USDA consistently lies (and is consistently caught lying) about on hand crop and yields. What we do know is there isn’t an ever growing stack of unused corn which is absolutely necessary to prove over production.
@@davidadcock3382 I’m not sure why you are so ruffled and sure I know “nothing” about so much. I am aware that we don’t build oil refineries anymore snd most of them are aging out, some (multiple) have been damaged by hurricanes in the past 15 years. I have personally been to several. What is very easy to find out, if you weren’t paying attention to current events OR if you were choosing to be dishonest, the US has imported and exported fossil fuels under every US president since WWII. In Trump’s first term we were a net exporter (exported more than we used/imported). Under George W, Obama, and Biden we were/are net importers (import/use more than we export). We export lower grade fuels and import higher grade fuels as some of the crude we produce isn’t suitable for domestic refinery market and needs refining by systems that don’t even exist in North America.
Early and mid 80's were the worst in my lifetime. Hundreds of thousands of farmers lost everything they had.
You ain’t kidding. The eighties were way worse than the past year. We had deflation and 20% interest.
@@onehappyfarmer3461 If you weren't carrying much debt, the 80's were a great time. We got hemmed up early in the 80's and it was a close run thing, but by the middle of the 80's we made some fair money. Way more margin in the business then than now. I'm not downplaying the 80's by any stretch, it was tough, but the losses that I know the Southeast farmers are taking are not going to be sustainable over another year without some kind of intervention.
@@johndeere7245 There were all kinds of government programs trying to help farmers lower production in the 80's from Carter's grain embargo. We had set aside acres. We had the pick program. We had direct subsidies. In 1983 there were several farmers in the pik program that never planted one acre of their farm to crops and I was one of them. There were movies made about the farm crisis during the 80's and don't forget Willie Nelson's Farm Aid Concert in 1985. It was a weekly event to go to another failing farmer's farm sale auction. Very sad decade for many farmer's after the government preached to plant fence row to fence row in the 70's to feed the world and the world needed and took the grain until the grain embargo. It only takes the stupidity of one president to upset American Agriculture brand America as an unreliable supplier of grain. I have now seen it twice in my life time.
It's a shame that the American farmers have to work so hard for little or no profit. We sold our produce mainly directly to consumers. My father always grew watermelons and would tell people that he didn't charge for the melon, he changed for picking it 😅😅
@@jasonkelly7930 😂he’s right on that. Picking and moving the melons is the majority of their costs
The greed of corporate profiteers is never satisfied...
"Unequal weights are an abomination to the Lord, and false scales are not good."
Proverbs 20:23
@@jamesh.5709 thanks for the scripture brother. God is good all the time.
Ole Lamar Here From Cairo,Ga. Grady County. Love Me Some Georgia Ice Cream AKA Grits.😊
@@lamarcutts2511 my continuous flow pea sheller was built in Cairo by Mickie down at Thomson Industries.
I don’t understand why anything you sell from your farm has to be inspected or approved by any third party or government agency. Including meat. It would give farmers a big advantage over corporations if food sold directly from farms was exempt from regulations.
It breaks my heart to hear this happening to our wonderful hard working farmers.these big companies need to be split up like thay did to standard oil and the railroad. I buy local every. Chance I get as a commercial fisherman I know how you feel. Sorry for your frustratings
Patrick, Excellent video!!! Again, you have hit the nail on the head! I hope Trump breaks up the agri-business conglomerates! What we have now is not free-market economics! If that gets done, we could eliminate USDA crop subsidies! Your diversification strategy is genius! Keep up the great work that you do! Thank you Sir!
@@ChuckWorkman-y6x What USDA subsidies???? We quit receiving USDA direct subsidies with the passage of the 2013 farm bill !!!!
Not all deserves a large piece of that tasty pie.
If you could get the farmers to stick together one year plant corn instead of peanuts wouldn’t this put a squeeze on those guys that control you could show them who really controls the market couldn’t you. I do understand that some farmers may not be able to plant and harvest corn, cotton or soybeans and have a lot of acres just a thought. I have friends this year that farm cotton mostly and gin their own and it has been a very bad year for them also. I really appreciate what you guys do for us you do all the work and make the least amount of money of all the people that touch your products.
@@jamiecollins1220 as stated in the video, if farmers in any region or country plant less of any particular crop then farmers in the another region or country plant more of that crop to fill the expected gap. Farmers are all stuck so deep in survival mode that if any of them even heard a group was going to not plant a certain crop so as to squeeze the market they would immediately plant every acre they could in that exact crop hoping to get a premium. The closest solution is enough farmers have to not sign contract on crop until a fair price is offered. Some farmers can’t hold out as long as others so they sign contracts at low price and once contracts start getting signed its a domino effect. Everyone rushes to sign as big processors start proclaiming “this is all we’re going to offer and we probably won’t offer anything if you don’t sign this week because we’ll have all we need” Many times I’ve heard them pressure farmers into signing with that threat and then the price go up the very next week.
@ I see that was the part I didn’t understand but you are right a couple farmers would take advantage of that. I actually forgot about the contract deals.
Patrick, do you remember quota peanuts???
In the 70s, 80s, and 90s, we could grow quota peanuts with some degree of profitability.
When the quota was done away with,....well....now we're seeing what that led to.
And you can't blame one particular political party, it was everyone INCLUDING a lot of farmers who clamored for removal of the quota system.
Thank You, we gotta be honest.
@@MarshallLanier quota made my grandfather a millionaire. He dropped out of middle school to support his mother and siblings when his father walked out. Started with nothing & retired a millionaire…thanks to quota. Texas farmers heard Ga guys were making money so they lobbied to end quota so they could get in and drop the price through the floor for everyone.
I was raised in southwest ga and remember when a dear was shot it was news. These rural communities are shrinking and wild meat is not harvested like they did back in the day. Corporations are doing to farmers what have always done to individuals. These other countries are not as dependant on the american farmer like they use to.
Some good points. The only disagreement I would have is about corn. If the ethanol debacle would have never happened you would not need 90 million acres of corn planted. We have way too much corn propped up by the ethanol industry
@@joekeusch5995 a ethanol plant was built in South Georgia (about 3 hours from here) during early Obama years. Every farmer in Ga started planting corn. The government stopped the subsidizing ethanol industry and the plant closed immediately. Tyson chicken (a huge portion of the nation’s poultry is grown in Alabama & Georgia) stepped in to fill the gap. They were previously bringing corn in on rail.
@PatrickShivers Surely, you acknowledge that there are millions of acres previously devoted to pasture, hay, dairy, and rangeland that were switched to corn primarily due to ethanol? 10-15 million acres
@@joekeusch5995 Do you want to ignore the fact that we export around a 5th of the corn crop grown each year. You could just as easily target exports. Yes, ethanol did drive the conversion pasture, hay, and marginal land into production, but maybe the better question is why was beef and dairy so marginal to make adding corn production look good? Maybe you dislike ethanol, but that corn could have easily been diverted from other parts of the industry. The reason that acreage came into production is because it became the best risk at the time.
@ around here, corn was added to the rotation (of cotton & peanuts) b/c of ethanol. As stated, the ethanol plant folded within just a few years and then the corn went to chickens instead of fuel. Previously the chickens were fed with midwest corn that was railed in. Now they are fed for a month or two with southeastern corn and 10-11 months on midwestern corn that is railed in. I can’t speak to what is happening in other regions.
@@PatrickShivers Almost Half of the corn produced is used by an ethanol plant in the USA. If they are railing in corn for chickens that means you live a corn deficit area. Ethanol plants should not be built in a corn deficit areas. There are a bunch of ethanol plants in the Midwest where corn is plentiful. With the USA's refinery capacity maxed out can you imagine how high the price of gasoline would be if there was no ethanol???
Greed is number one problem for most everything. CEOs aren’t satisfied with a decent profit , they want an all and then some. I live on the coast in NC , the fishing industry is in the same predicament . The people that catch the fish don’t get much for it , the fish houses get more and then the restaurants get even more money. Greed .
You can thank the demon-craps. They have been controlled by big business for years. Small farmers need to think about following your model as it is more sustainable in the long run. Seems to be working out for you!
I am no democrat but your post is goofy. To control big business you need to control government and they have only controlled government for two years out of the last 22 years thankfully. pitiful!
Howdy Patrick
Yall need some dog hunters.
You don't know what you are talking about!!! When supplies are real plentiful prices are lower and when supplies are short prices are higher! Supply and Demand does work. It works in energy also. When every one stop driving in the spring of 2020 Crude oil went to MINUS 37 dollars a barrel in April of 2020 because there was to much supply and NO demand. Pittiful!!!!!
Lord knows I stocked up on that 10 cent gasoline back in 2020. Oh, wait, as I recall, gas still had a two spot in front of it even though by the board they were paying to get rid of oil. The board really doesn't give a damn when it can make money going both ways. They trade paper, not product. I remember the spring of 98, bottom fell out of the hog market. 8 cent hogs. It was near Easter Sunday and a single ham was bringing more in the grocery store than the whole hog was selling for. No one buying a ham that day knew how cheap hogs were, but someone somewhere was making a small fortune on them, and it damn sure was not the farmer.
@@johndeere7245 To much supply for the demand that there was. My brother traded a hog for pair of new tennis shoes at the mall in 1998. When the guy found out how much it was going to cost him to process the hog he tried to back out of the deal.
@@davidadcock3382 supply and demand absolutely does work, what I plainly explained is farmers AREN’T PAID ON SUPPLY DEMAND. The processor sales the commodity to the market based on supply demand and they buy it from the farm dirt cheap on the basis that they own all the processing so you can either give them your crop for next to nothing or you can watch it rot.
@@PatrickShivers They will pay whatever it is worth to get the commodity. Two years ago they were paying 7 dollars a bushel right off the combine for corn they needed. Today they are paying 4 dollars a bushel for corn they need. Every year the demand for corn keeps increasing and Farmers like me have meet that demand with more and more production. Every year the price is different depending on supply that was produced and the demand there is from all over the world from many many end users. This country has always had the ability to produce more than we need and the world needs from us. We spent years building up demand from China to only have an orange painted clown come along and piss that market away and have another country increase production and take China's money instead of Americans getting China's money. Ronald Reagan was the best president in my life time and Trump the worst.
@ farmers in the southeast did very well during Trump’s first term and are currently going out of business at a record clip under Biden. I talked to many farmers/bankers last year. ALL of them without a single exception said 2023 was the single worse year of their entire career. Nearly all of them have now updated that statement to 2024 was the worse year of their career
Biggest problem in agriculture = a farmer's thick head, unwillingness to change, and their big ego.
It's kinda hard to step out of the system the most powerful government in the world created with the help of the largest corporations in the world. I do agree most are hardheaded working solely in the current system which obviously isn't going to work.
@@jasonhatfield2471 When I was invited to a large farm to conduct the first field trial for SNX30, as the farmer and I entered his office he said, "I spend too much time here." I knew right away that was a big problem. Farmers would be better off doing more research to work smarter instead working harder.
When I was invited to a large farm to conduct the first field trial for SNX30, as the farmer and I entered his office he said, "I spend too much time here." I knew right away that was a big problem. Farmers would be better off doing more research to work smarter instead working harder.
@@jasonhatfield2471 Something that most don't seem to get. That safety net is a powerful enforcer, and anyone who has ever stepped out of it and been penalized for it, it sticks with you. The system is built around cheap commodities, that is what they want, and most cannot risk sticking their neck out that far and giving the axe man any bigger of a target than he deserves.
And we vote for Trump who is the most pro corporation anti worker politician possible....
@@ryecarlson7867 heads up: farmers and workers did EXCEPTIONALLY well during his first term. Just the facts.
@@PatrickShivers That's just not really true. Trade wars hurt domestic industry and farmers. Didn't bring back industry just gave tax breaks to the wealthiest individuals and companies. Didn't help the small guys with taxes at all. Interest rates were lower that's the only thing really better about his term and it wasn't his doing
@@PatrickShivers Farmers did well because of the huge huge payments Trump handed out as he was stabbing them in the back for the long term.
@ farmer here, speaking from personal experience. We did well because our main input (energy) was 1/3 the price.
@ so the substantially more money that we got in our bank accounts (first hand experience) because our inputs were incredibly cheaper during his 4 years than they were during the 4 years before and after him isn’t real? The money we made and spent/saved doesn’t actually exist? You sir are denying reality.
The bonuses that the corporations handed out that had “Trump tax break” PRINTED ON THE CHECK didn’t happen? Do you really not remember gas and groceries being cheaper while he was in office than they were the 4 years before him and the four years after him?