JD Email

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

John Deere sent out an email yesterday. So, I was thinking 'blah blah blah spamish email' as I read it....

Then I saw the part where it said '1-series tractors starting at under $1,000'.

That woke me up! Really?! $1,000?? I'll take ten of them at that price!!!!

Of course, I realized there be a Zero missing from that string.....

Wrong.

Today, I get another email from Deere, titled: 'Oops, let's try this again'.

Ah. Not missing a Zero. Missing a Two. As in 'Starting under $12,000'.

Oh, well. Same effect on my wallet.....

So much for my dream of Buying Low from Deere and Selling High on eBay.

Stan

[shinnery]

Have I been doing it wrong all this time? I thought it was "buy hi and sell lo".
Bryce

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

That is the way I have been doing it as well. Here I thought Deere noticed and was trying to help me out.....

Stan

[Lavoy]

I have always subscribed to the buy high, sell low philosophy, but I try to make up the loss in volume sales!
Lavoy

[CuttingEdge]

I'm a farmer; where we buy everything at retail prices and sell at wholesale prices and wonder why only 1/2 of a percent are farmers, yet we feed the other 99-1/2 percent in this nation!

[Paul Buhler]

I have always subscribed to the buy high, sell low philosophy, but I try to make up the loss in volume sales! Laughing
Lavoy

Yep, most of us have been there. I keep trying to get it right, but I'm a slow learner.

[Paul Buhler]

we buy everything at retail prices and sell at wholesale prices

Now there's a mouthful.
I'm happy to say that I've met a number of farmers who have taken the time to do the math and adjust their methods so that they are profitable. It's a joy to visit their farms.

[CuttingEdge]

I have always been on the bottom end of things I guess. It always amazed me in farming that they would haul our milk away after we produced it, take it down to the creamery where they dilute it with water, separate it, add sugar for "taste", sell it on us, then 2 weeks later send us a check for what they felt it was worth.

What other industry does that?

Oh yeah, the logging industry, where their take your logs that have been growing for 80 years, have them hauled down to a scaler who sees one knot, one slight crook and deducts you 50% for the log knowing full well you are not likely going to haul it back home and smile as he steals your wood. But when you go to a lumber yard and see what they call "select" and it is a far cry from what they allow your select logs to be, it makes you mad at the system.

That is why I got my own sawmills. The scaler's know they will get my selects, numbers 1's and 2's, but pallet wood and #3's are going back on the truck and being sawn on my mill. We once did a logging job where the cutting crew before us took the select white pine and left the rest to rot in the woods. We went in and cleaned it up but the weevils laid their eggs. The scaler wanted to call the whole truckload #3's but like I told him, "I'll saw it myself." The weevils had just laid eggs, they did not have time to bore their way through the logs and the scaler and I both knew it...the whole truck scaled up as #1's and 2's. That one load of wood paid for our sawmill.

You got to be one step ahead of them guys when you are a farmer/logger!

[Stan Disbrow]

Hi,

We are growing gourds. The only fruit you let sit outside all winter and it doesn't rot. Then, scrub it and bore a hole in it for the bird and sell it to the end-consumer for $10 bucks. That being for the most common kind. The less common kind fetch more, some bring $100 per.

Odd things to farm, though. Almost as much manual effort as tobacco. About the same work per plant until the curing stage, then tobacco takes more work from that point onwards.

Stan

[CuttingEdge]

I raise sheep now which is an interesting livestock to raise too. During lambing season, life is intense as you might get 6 lambs in a day that all require a lot of attention to keep alive. I mean you must figure, they are like infants, the same weight and vulnerability, yet once they get some age on them, sheep are easy keepers. I got plenty of pasture so this time of year, I forget I have them. I might check on them once per month or so?

I could probably make more just raising hay and selling it, but that is only in certain years. With so much good weather this year, every one who raises hay is going to have plenty of hay, driving down the price and making profitability less. So in that case, having livestock pays better.

And there I do well. I get far more per acre raising sheep because I get a lamb crop every year, and while they require attention (especially during lambing season) and monetary investment, it pays off far better than the woodlot. Yes it is nice to cut a load of wood and bring in $900 bucks in two days time, but it has also taken 35 years for that wood to grow. I have always figured woodlot only nets me about $25 per acre per year which is why I am in the process of clearing much of what I have and converting it to woodlot.

As of right now anyway, tillable land has far more value per acre then houselots. I do not expect that to always continue, but with paper mills closing in Maine, converting forest back to farmland is the direction I would like to go.