Remembering 9/11

Much like my parents generation at the time of the Kennedy assassination, I remember specifically where I was standing, what I was doing.  I was in front of our shop, when over the pickup radio I heard that a plane had struck one of the twin towers.  At the time, it seemed like a freak accident, and the news was treating it mostly as such.

Being somewhat of a news junkie, but without access to a television.  (Smart phones were unheard of, internet access was slow as molasses dialup)  I turned to the news resource I usually relied on – our DTN unit.  For those unfamiliar with DTN, it was an ag specific market/news/weather terminal and service that was in it’s prime before such information moved to the internet.)

Fortunately, the DTN had an AP breaking headlines/news section, and I remember the exact moment when the headline came across that a second tower had been hit.  At that very moment, I think EVERYONE knew, without any doubt, that this was no accident.  That we were watching the most cold, cruel attack on innocent civilians that America had ever and hopefully will ever know.  It was that specific moment when the headline of a second plane hit that will forever be etched in memory.

I could write about the aftermath, the time I spent in the hospital a few days later watching the event continually, the specific memory there was watching Bush land at the site and give a short talk.  I could write about the dramatically increased security that travelers now face, about many things.

But today, I think most of the individuals and families who are no longer with those they love, and the heartache and pain this day surely brings back.  So much separation - those that died in the attacks themselves, those that have been killed in the fighting since, and the many, many more who go to bed with heartache every night hoping, praying for the safe return of those they love.

Today, my thoughts and prayers are with them.

 

A market economy at work

Several weeks ago, I wrote a blog post covering the rather emotional side of what has become the historic 2012 drought.  Today, I want to look at the situation from an economic perspective.

The price of corn is set by trading that takes place almost 24 hours per day at the Chicago Board of Trade.  Just a few years ago, most trading happened person to person in a “pit”, now the majority of trading has moved to an electronic form.  As I write this, the price of corn is $7.95 1/2 – it will be different when you read I am sure.

There’s a LOT that goes into the price of corn, various months of delivery, the very important factor of “basis”, various discounts for poor quality or premiums based on specific crop traits.  It would take several posts to explain all that, but the important thing to remember is that the price of corn is traded almost every weekday at the Chicago Board of Trade.

At various times, everyone hates how the corn market works.  As a farmer, it’s difficult to know when to sell, wild swings in the market seem to have become the norm, it’s easy to blame the large amount of speculative investment style money that moved around rapidly today.  But the Chicago Board of Trade serves a very important function, and for lack of a better way to put it:  ”for all the ills of the market economy, no one has figured out a way to improve it”

You see, the challenge is this:  We are all well aware there is a lack of corn this year.  The problem is how we decide who gets the corn and who doesn’t?  Imagine what it would be like if we had a “corn czar” in charge, that was supposed to decide who got shorted?  For all it’s ills the job of the Board of Trade is to fairly distribute that corn, in years like this driving the price high enough so people quite using it, or find alternatives.  In years of abundance, the function of the market is to force the price lower, so more corn is used and so planting too much next year is discouraged.  It’s that basic concept of supply and demand and it works very well.  Yea, it’s inefficient, but even in a sever drought, we have 10 Billion, that’s 10,000,000,000 bushels of corn to distribute: to food processors, to livestock facilities, to ethanol plants, to end users both here and around the world.  It’s a difficult task, it’s fraught with inefficiency, but it’s almost far and away the most effective method anyone has come up with.

And one other note on the supply-demand equation.  It’s incredible the feed alternatives one can find when corn goes to $8 per bushel.  In our case, switching to feeding corn stalks vs. wheat straw saves almost 1 pound of corn per head every day we have cattle in our feedlot.  That may not sound like a lot, but at today’s corn prices it amounts to almost $25 per head, a significant number, and even in our small feedlot, it amounts to several thousand bushel of corn in a years time.  I’ve heard of livestock farmers in Florida feeding citrus waste that used to get thrown away.  Across the country, anyone using corn is finding a way to get by with just a little or in some cases a lot less.  It’s the way a market economy works, when there is a shortage, the price is forced high enough so that what we have lasts until new supply arrives next fall.

No one knows if we’ve reached a high enough price to accomplish that.  $8 corn may be high enough, we may need to go significantly higher, or we may learn that these historic prices have accomplished their purpose of reducing use.  Time is the only way that will be answered, and the market, in this case the Chicago Board of Trade, will show us.

Looking Inward

Sometimes a specific chain of events causes one to pause and really think about things.  Actually, I spend a lot of time thinking about things, it’s an introvert personality I’ve learned!   But tonight, the thinking progressed to a point I wanted to share.

The looking inward part is this.  I came in from a busy day of harvest, headed to a school board meeting, and Marci (my wife) asks a question related to an issue we were dealing with on the farm.  At the time, it frustrated me.  I had spent a fair amount of time dealing with it today, and I didn’t want to again.  Over the next few minutes (yea, a few of you will appreciate that this was the one of the classic shower inspirations:)  as I thought about it, I realized my wife’s question offered a wonderful insight and perspective.  She asked about this issue from a different, unique, and important angle.

The problem is my initial reaction..  the quick dismissal, the not wanting to really discuss the issue, not wanting the new input.  You may be surprised to learn this is a significant character flaw I have.  I can think of many, many examples, where I will initially quickly dismiss a new idea, only to realize a few minutes/hours/days later that there is some value there, that I shouldn’t have been so quick in my rush to judgement.  I’ve thought about this for some time, I know it’s not a positive thing, yet habits are very, very hard to break.  So I continue to work on it…

Your probably tired of hearing about me, but the thought I want to leave you with is this.  Can you be honest with yourself and evaluate where your own character flaws are?  I think that is a critical, critical component to working as a team player, be it a marriage, a business, or an organization.  And it’s not about being as narcissistic as I am, and proclaiming your flaws in a blog post, but it’s about recognizing your limitations, recognizing where you truly, honestly arn’t as good as you need to be, and acknowledging it, even if only to yourself.  Doing so is a big positive step towards improvement, and it’s the continual process of learning, growing, improving that propels us forward.

Tough stuff

Goodbye to Twitter?

It seems only fitting to write this post on the third anniversary of #moo.  If one could point to a single event that began the social media agvocacy movement, it would have to be #moo.  The goal was to trend #moo for Mike’s (@farmerhaley) birthday and also highlight the economic crisis facing America’s Dairy business.  And it succeeded, wildly.  For hours the term #moo stood as one of the top trending topics on Twitter.  The uniqueness of the term caught the attention of many, lots of questions were asked, and a number of agriculturalists spent the day answering questions and explaining conditions in the dairy industry.  Janice has a good year-later perspective of the #moo effort as well.

At the time, Twitter was the primary social media tool used by agvocates.  It seems time changes things, and now there is much more emphasis on Facebook, video’s, blogging, Pinterest and more!

So it may come as a surprise to many that the Twitter we have all come to love and know.  The 140 character tweets, the simplicity, the ability to access Twitter with numerous other tools – it appears much of that may be coming to an end.  Why you ask?  For a very simple reason it appears, as useful as we’ve all found Twitter, they are not a non-profit or government entity chartered to serve the public good, they are a business, with the goal of making money.  A lot has been invested in getting them where they are, in the range of hundreds of millions of dollars.  And they simply are not generating the kind of income they need to be.  So, their strategy shifts.

For many of us, this will result in a far different, possibly much less desirable Twitter than we’ve gotten used to, one with much more media, in short one that looks more like Facebook.  Time will tell if this strategy is smart, if it’s what Twitter needed to do to be successful, but one thing is sure, Twitter is changing, rapidly.  Here are a couple of great articles that explore this issue in depth if your interested.

So, when you hear talk about the death of Twitter, realize that it’s probably both sensationalized a bit, but also quite likely contains a bit of truth regarding the Twitter we used to know.  And also realize that the genie has been let out of the bottle for agvocacy via social media, and while the platforms may change, the need and ability to connect farmers and their customers remain as strong as ever.

#moo!!!

Has your life been profoundly changed by the drought?

I wrote a blog post about the drought a couple weeks ago, one of the more interesting contacts I got was from Charles.  He wanted to share this message with those that read this blog in the hopes that someone could be found that could tell the drought story from a life-altering personal perspective.

 

 

First of all, I want to say that my heart goes out to those of you who are struggling through this drought.

 

Secondly, I want to thank Darin for sharing this message with his readers.

 

I am an assistant professor of journalism at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.  I specialize in visual journalism – telling stories through photos and video.  Over the years, my work has taken me to fifty-one countries and most US states, and I have been fortunate to meet amazing people in my professional life – individuals who have opened up their lives to me and my cameras in the interest of sharing their stories with others.

 

The drought is one of the most important stories of this year.  It is certainly the most important story in the midwest.  In order to tell this story in the most personal way possible, I am looking for someone whose life and livelihood has been profoundly changed by the drought – the kind of person/family/business-person that Darin has so eloquently written about here:  http://daringrimm.wordpress.com/2012/07/19/drought-happens/

 

I see a lot of news stories about the drought, but I am looking for something deeper and more personal than I see on the evening news or in the newspapers.  So, if the drought is, for you, a life altering event and you would like to share your story, please e-mail me at stretch@illinois.edu.  If you know of someone who might have a profound story to associated with this event, please pass my e-mail address on to them.

 

Thank you very much.  I wish you all the best -

Drought happens

Update:  Since I wrote this, I had a request for anyone with a personal story of the impact of this drought.  See this blog post for more details:  

And sadly we all get caught in the crossfire.

You know, it may be a bit unpopular to say, but for the majority of corn/soybean farmers, the drought of 2012 at this point will not have a lot of sever financial hardship associated with it.  Most have (or for sure should have) crop insurance, rising prices mean rising insurance payments if you didn’t raise a crop.  For the few folks having a normal year, rising prices mean above average income potential.  This sounds very wrong to even say, but unless the crop insurance companies go broke (something I lay in bed at night wondering), for most cash grain farmers, it’s really not looking like all that bad of a year financially.  Emotionally it’s awful, I don’t know a single farmer that does what he does so he can collect an insurance payment, its tough to put everything you have for the last several months into growing a crop, into giving it the best possible care, and watch it wither away, day after day, with little or no relief in sight.

Corn picture from Indiana Farmer Brian Scott

But for this post I’m thinking of those financially impacted by the drought, there it’s a much sadder story.  I’m thinking of folks like this:

1)  The farmer who doesn’t have crop insurance, or doesn’t have the right crop insurance.  That may seem simple, but there’s numerous options when it comes to insurance.. (60%. 80%, harvest price option, trend adjusted yields, etc.)  I remember a few years ago we didn’t get the paperwork submitted quite right, and we didn’t have the insurance coverage I wanted.  It was ok, as we had a good year, and didn’t need the insurance.  The many, many thousands of dollars involved in whether you check a certain box or not makes me think of those farmers that for whatever reason do not have the insurance coverage they could have.

2)  The farmers with the saddest story to tell are the folks raising livestock.  The cold hard reality of the situation is this:  It appears like we do not have enough grain to feed all the livestock in this country until the 2013 harvest.  The ugly reality of that seemingly simple statement is that some livestock farmers are going to have to exit the business.  That is just sad, I don’t know what else to say.  What’s so hard is how completely out of an individuals hands it is..  The feed is simply not there, and the function of the market is to drive the price high enough that we reduce usage (a nice way of saying slaughter more animals) so that we do make it to the next harvest.

3)  A drought moves far beyond the farm gate though.  The local elevator is a perfect example.  There won’t be too many lines at ours this fall.  I doubt they will operate on extended hours, or hire much temporary help.  That sucks dollars out of the local community.  There’s the ethanol plants that will be going dark.  Political decisions will be made that determine whether it’s farmers here, farmers in Japan/Mexico, or ethanol production that shoulders more of the responsibility to cut back.  (Isn’t it sad that politics plays such a role in the ramifications of a drought?)  But one thing the politicians can’t do is produce grain, so someone, somewhere will get shorted, and for the businesses that do, the employees will feel it directly.

Drought-stressed corn ear (once again Thanks, Brian!)

4)  The trickle down effect of all this is significant.  If there is less livestock, there is less need for truckers to haul that livestock, less need for vets to care for the animals, less need for the feed store, less need for the custom manure hauling services.  Ultimately a reduced livestock herd means we may have too many slaughter facilities in this country, and a few may be forced to close.  All of those directly involved in livestock in an area will see their paychecks cut, and have less money to spend in their rural communities.

One minor note.  Many may be thinking, we’ve survived droughts before, and that is true.  The last one of national significance was 1988, and we began 1988 with 50% of our corn usage already carried over from the previous year.  We begin this year with less than 10% carryover.  Going back prior to 1988, I hear comparisons to 1956 and than way back to the Dust Bowl years.  The agriculture industry has changed greatly since those times, and understanding how this all plays out is impossible at this point.  I am not an alarmist, food/fuel prices will go up, we will survive, very, very few will go hungry because of the 2012 drought.  But many folks, with a deep passion and love for agriculture, will find their farms, their jobs, and their future changed in ways that only happen in nightmares, and that is the sad reality of large-scale drought.

Secrets

I’ve been on a fairly long blogging vacation, and one of the things that has been on my mind a lot lately is my faith.  It’s not something I talk about online much at all, but it’s a very stressful/difficult time.  If praying is something you do, I would ask for your prayers.  One of the better sources of inspiration in all of this is an author I happened to stumble on a couple of months or so ago, Rachel Held Evans.  I recently read her book:  Evolving in Monkey Town:  How a Girl Who Knew All the Answers Learned to Ask the Questions

I certainly do not agree with everything Rachel questions or believes, but something about her style of writing, her experiences, what she feels she’s learned, has meant a lot.  It’s not the kind of book I can unconditionally recommend, I am sure I have friends that would wonder whats wrong with me, there’s several friends I’ve met via social media that I would highly recommend the book to as a far better look at what I personally believe Christianity to be about than what I hear from much of the mainstream “Christian” movement today.

But it was Rachel’s latest blog post that inspired me to write this (and provided my blog title!), it’s an incredibly insightful look at living  in a social media/always connected world.  At maintaining our humanness, while yet enjoying the benefits of  the multitude of connections we all have.  It’s a perfect example of why I appreciate hearing Rachel’s perspective on the wide range of topics she covers.

 

And I’m thinking it’s probably best I haven’t figured out how to categorize my blog posts, not sure this one fits with anything I’ve previously written!