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Strategies & Market Trends : Buy and Sell Signals, and Other Market Perspectives

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Nov 25 4:00 PM EST

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To: SGJ who wrote (50756)	5/24/2013 9:30:29 AM
From: robert b furman	Read Replies (1) of 219332

Hi SGJ, This is just my observation from the Wisconsin area 60 miles north of Milwaukee along Lake Michigan. I graduated from High School here and most of my classmates were small dairy farmer families. Much has changed as Dairy farming is now big business. Big farms milk over 1000 cows. Other farms raise just calves for milking later. Other Farms buy the biggest equipment and just raise crops - a lot of specialization has morphed in farming. The friend I spoke to was a "Wisconsin Farmer of the Year" back in my High School days.My Dad was a locla banker and thought a lot of his operation. Now he farms over 500 acres and has sold of his herd long ago. His harvestor blue silo's are now converted into soy bean storgae with fans at the bottom which blow cold winter air up through the stored beans and keeps the moisture content low enough so storage can be long term with out a cost. His Dad listens to the farm report and when soy beans hit a high price he loads up the long bed grain truck he owns and delivers them in Chicago. He is just a brilliant farmer and I love talking to him. Crops out here need to be rotated between alfalfa,soybeans and corn. Alfalfa is bought by the dairy farmers to feed the cows - so too for corn. Corn requires drying to store so it is more expensive to plant (fertilize) and store. Soy beans is the easiest to store - so thats his preference. Last year we had a severe drought in the western and central part of the state.My area due to it close local to Lake Michigan had great beans and corn - unlike 3/4 of the state. If there was a time where beef was sold off it would have been last year as corn prices were really high.If you had to buy it to feed your cattle - you reduced the herd. Alfalfa is grown almost exclusively to feed dairy cows here. If you have a field of hay that looks good - you'll have a wonderful summer baling it and selling it.In a good year we get a third cutting.This spring there are some fields that have 15 - 20 percent winter kill. Its hard to plant just where the ice killed the alfalfa so you end up seed drilling the whole field. That has been done so much here the seed has gone up in price and there is NONE to buy. So some fields will go to corn or beans by default. It's time to buy a 1/4 or 1/2 of beef and put it in the freezer. Beef going up by this summer is what I'm hearing. I think it is safe to say the herd reduction happened last year and cost of raising beef is going up. If there is a good corn crop pork will be the cheaper meat.Pigs eat corn and not alfalfa. Hope that helps - it is just what the farm boys of Wisconsin are talking about as they drink a beer.LOL Bob

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