The Rural Voice, 2003-02, Page 20(AL-mAR)
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16 THE RURAL VOICE
But if you want profits, which was
the title of his talk, "it's not about
yields, it's about keeping costs down
and keeping land costs down,"
Johnson said. In that, "You guys are
your own worst enemies," he warned.
He pointed to one 700 -acre parcel of
land in his Middlesex County
neighbourhood which a farmer
couldn't rent despite a bid of $245
per acre. How could someone make
money with basic land costs that
high. he wondered?
He also led directly into the
topic of the following speaker
when he urged farmers to tie
up their crop at a profitable level and
not push for the last penny the
market might yield. "It's darn hard
going broke when you're making a
profit," he said.
That was much the same message
that Cal Whewell of F.C. Stone in
Bowling Green, Ohio brought to the
audience as he spoke of marketing
the crop.
Whewell urged farmers to set up a
marketing plan including a price they
realistically hoped to get, then be
disciplined. When he used to work
for an Iowa co-op helping farmers set
up marketing plans he would ask the
farmer how much he wanted to sell at
what price, then go back to the office
and mark it down. If the price was
attained he sold the crop and then
called the farmer and told him it was
sold. If he had called the farmer
before selling, the farmer would have
wanted to hold on a little longer to
see if more money could be made,
Whewell said.
There will be opportunities to
make money on crops this year,
Whewell predicted with low carry-
out level for corn, soybeans and
wheat.
In corn, the carryout is half what it
was a year earlier and the lowest
level since 1996-97 despite dismal
exports of U.S. corn. He blamed the
export situation on U.S. arrogance in
the market, insisting that good
customers would buy genetically -
engineered crops whether they
wanted them or not because they
couldn't get corn anywhere else.
Then the "Starlink" situation hit with
a genetically -altered corn variety
approved for animal feed getting into
the human food supply, and the U.S.
lost customers. South Korea found
other suppliers for corn and now the