The rates are down…what's to come?

Ethanol doesn't receive direct subsidies anymore, however it does receives an artificial demand via the energy policy act which requires all gas contain ethanol.

And corn is heavily subsidized,ergo ethanol is subsidized. If you're not receiving a subsidy to grow corn, you're losing money on every bushel you produce. The big growers like that, because the small growers will eventually give up (or have to stop farming) creating a shortage.

Food producers (think refined foods, not whole foods) explain why prices have remained flat for 20 years.

 

I watched a show about Monsanto. They sell corn resitent to roundup. If the neighbors field doesn't have Monsanto seed, their corn will be stunted when the first farmer sprays his crops with roundup. I know it won't stunt the entire field, but what racket.

 

Thing is, most everyone has been planting Round Up ready corn and soybeans for quite a while, at least in my neck of the woods. There is even Round Up ready alfalfa and other products. But it has been in use for some time, and there is some of the weeds and such that it is designed to control that are building up resistance to it. I think it will have a limited life and someone will have to come up with something new.

 

Glockwise, please provide evidence that corn growers receive actual grain subsidies. Somehow we missed that one in Iowa.

Grain prices have not remained flat for 20 years. Just a few years ago, corn was one serious cash crop. But market fluctuations are always in play. Right now corn is at the level of the Clinton era. The food producers do have some play in how the market price of grain is, since they are buyers. If they're need drops, then they don't buy as much. Price drops. But foreign markets are the major player in how the grain market prices fluctuate. And in regards to ethanol, the products from that production are in SERIOUS demand outside the country. Vietnam, of all folks, showed up in Iowa to negotiate trade deals wherein they could leverage a large chunk of the Dried Distillers Grain that comes out of ethanol production. It is very high in protein and highly digestible by livestock, especially swine and poultry. We should have developed ethanol production earlier and sold them DDG instead of shooting at them.

 

here you go. In IL they print the recipients and amounts by county in the local papers. The big farmers don't like that much. http://knoema.com/USFSS2014/us-farm-subsidies-by-state-2014?country=1000160-iowa

 

IDK Cowpie, apparently something did change in 2012, I know there are still crop insurance subsidies for sure and I believe others. It seems they quit disclosing recipients and amounts in 2013 though. You know any of these people ?
http://farm.ewg.org/addrsearch.php?...ients&last=&first=&stab=AL&fullname=&stab2=AL

 

Went onto that site and dug around. Direct payments for corn subsidies pretty much ended in 2008. After that, everything centered around crop insurance and conservation programs including land set aside programs to encourage not growing anything, wetland preservation, conservation programs to protect wildlife habitat and reduce soil erosion. Those are not directly related to any grain crop. This is in line with what I stated about ethanol direct subsidies ending in 2011. I do know several of those folks that were in the link you provided.

As for crop insurance, not really any different than flood insurance programs for homeowners. And let's look at that.

Federal crop insurance total subsidies by government approx $96 billion. Premium revenue back to government of $37 billion. Actual cost for crop damage payouts, approx $59 billion. This all per the site you linked to. Actual cost to the tax payer is that $59 B.

Now the National Flood Insurance program. Cost as of 2012 $126 billion to the tax payers. Over twice that of crop insurance with no raising of the low rate requirements because it is not politically correct.

And our little neck of the woods... transportation. Total expenditures for transportation is set for $277 billion in 2015. If the trend continues, fuel taxes, tolls, excise taxes and such will only provide about 1/3 of revenue for transportation funding. Not any better than the revenue collected from farmer insurance premiums vs payouts for crop insurance.

No one is guiltless when it comes to gaining from the system. But one might take a look at the log in their own eye before they worry about the splinter in someone else's eye.

 

If only the idiots could figure that out! That is: moving for too little is losing money.

 

Spot market is the swap meet of trucking. When ever spot rates rise to a certain level that freight moves to the premium markets. Once that gets tight then it moves back to spot at higher rates.

Last year the premium markets couldn't handle the growth and it took some time to work itself out. That has happened and we are back to a traditional market. The freight is there being moved at good rates. But the customers refuse to pay some POS carrier those rates so all that is left is scraps with subhuman brokers.

If you are a quality carrier you need to realize you are trying to sell silk boxers at a swap meet at Nordstroms prices.

 

There always is, but you can't see it if you have your eyes closed.