Fella's, what do you think.....

[Nitro Mag]

You talk about farmers always being bailed out by the government and b*tching about your tax dollars going to the farmers, well I would like to know where the bitching was when your tax dollars were going to South America, Russia, and many other countries when the US gov't was teaching them how to farm. Instead of worrying about US CITIZENS they were worried about the welfare of these other countries. These countries with Uncle Sams help have flooded the market and made prices go way down. As far as the armpit of America being the delta, I love living here as much as I love to farm. If the delta is such a terrible place then why don't you go hunt somewhere else.

And the next time you sit down to eat, ask yourself where that food came from. The next time you get dressed ask yourself where the materials to make those clothes came from.

I would be willing to bet that every farmer in the delta would like to get by without the gov't help. And I guarantee there is not many getting rich from this but barely squeaking by, I know because my family is one of them.

[Delta Duck]

Tell it like it is Nitro,
The Govt tried to get my dad to go to South America in the early 70's to teach them boys how to plant and grow a soybean. He told them no thank you

Agriculture is a weapon,
Agriculture is what brought down the Berlin wall.
The world revolves around Agriculture.

[hillhunter]

i support government subsidies 100%. we are not in good economic times in the world of agriculture anywhere in the U.S. right now. but just picture this for a second; we quit giving our farmers support and they no longer can afford to grow our nations food supply and materials. this accounts for our feed for all livestock as well. we become dependent on other countries for our food.....then we go to war. uh oh, all of the countries we depend on for food (China, Brazil, etc.) just turned on us and we no longer receive anything from them. simply put we are screwed. the minute we start turning on our own and importing our nations food supply is the minute we lose our world dominance and maybe one day our rights. now how do those subsidies look. i know it is really not this simple but we should support our agriculture. it is our livelyhood.

[TODO]

Hammer-

First, i love the delta. Second, you can kiss mine and most every other Deltan's ass. Sure, I think it would be great if we could supplement our mostly ag economy with some other form of industry, but what? It damn sure isn't manufacturing, considering mississippi lost over 10,500 jobs in 2002 alone. I support subsidies 100% because the money stays in my community. Unlike when the gov't takes billions of dollars and gives it to foriegn countries who don't give a damn about us in the first place. And remember, your armpit produced one of the "100 best small towns in america" for the third time in a row. That's right, Cleveland, MS , my hometown.

[sportsman450]

These countries with Uncle Sams help have flooded the market and made prices go way down.

GOOD!!!

[Delta Duck]

I think the world market for soybeans is about $4.25. If the world market stays below $4.00 it is not worth South America to destory and clear more rain forest. The US gov't has a surplus of soybeans, the reason the loan on beans to the American farmer is $5.30 or so is because that is about the cost to grow soybeans.
Once South America has a strong infersructure and can ship soybeans cheaper, all hell will break loose. The rain forest will be gone. It is just a matter of time

[GulfCoast]

I love the delta. Lots of nice folks there. But I have always wondered why everything in the delta costs more? In leases past, I have found it much cheaper to rent a dozer elsewhere and truck it to the delta rather than get a local guy. I laughed in a guys face once when he quoted me on a well and pump. Got a friend from gulfport to drive up and drill the well for gas money for his equipment, and a couple duck hunts, got the pump from an equipment dealer in Memphis and we hooked it up ourselves. Heck, I could have got Coastal to drive to Sharkey County and put it in cheaper than the local quote. Would have been glad to be spared all the trouble, but was not going to stand by and get ripped off. Sometimes I just don't understand the mentality. The local economy is in the dumps, but they wanna charge more for "duck building" work than the busiest contractors on the coast who have so much to do they are working 24/7? Guess its cause they think out of town folks are ignorant. Go figure.

[Nitro Mag]

Sportsman 450, have you seen the price of bread go down, how about minute rice, and how about any other food. The answer is no. These companies are just putting the extra money from these sh*tty commodity prices in their pocket. If you will notice every time the ag economy gets bad, the national economy isn't far behind. You think about all the people who have jobs because of farmers not only in the delta but all over the nation. Companies like Monsanto, BASF, John Deere, DuPont, Helena, Case IH, and local companies Jimmy Sanders Seed, Helena, Tri-State, and the auto parts stores in the area. Maybe you ought to ask Torch how much business he gets from farmers. When farmers have to cut back and do things as cheap as possible it hurts a lot more people than just farmers and other local businesses.

If you don't like farmers so much, then why don't you quit eating and quit wearing clothes. Doesn't sound to pleasant does it?

[Hammer]

Alright I'll admit that I made a mistake...Calling the Delta "an armpit" was over dramatic and I apologize for it...I've been to parts of Mexico that make the Delta (even Tchula) look like Beverly Hills so I should have picked some different words- sorry...

...but I stick by my point that the MUCH of the Delta is in dire straights and the problem is the fixation on row crop, commodity agriculture...Yes food is a weapon but realize this...The US provides 60% of all charitable hunger relief food in the world and still the rest of the world hates us as evidenced by 1 successful effort to blow up our buildings and many other attempts that our intelligence/security people have stopped...Ever seen the movice Fight Club? Imagine Fight Club on a global scale with a bunch of Islamic fundamentalist pricks and that is what we are up against...

In a world where food production technology is advanced as it is today, food is not the weapon it used to be...Crying over who gave the world the technology and when is crying over spilt milk...The food production cat is out of the bag and the farmer is the little man at the end of the road...He does the hardwork, the middlemen make the money...That aint gonna change...Besides 60 bushels of beans is a poor yield in Illinois, Iowa, etc...Whereas 40 bushels is good int he Delta...The MidWest also kicks the Delta's ass in corn and wheat yields...Those are the major food commodities grown in the Delta so your food argument dont hold water...

In he last 100 years, the Delta leaders have had at least 2 golden gooses in their grasp and let both of them get away...The first were the vast hardwood forests, many of which were dozed and burned and not even logged...What would those forests be worth today?In terms of timber? Hunting? Billions of dollars and NO government subsidies would be needed to tap that wealth...

Second, the music known as the blues which became rock and roll...Born in the Delta only to migrate north and taking the billions and billions of dollars with it...

So why should I or any other US/Mississippi taxpayer expect the same folks whom missed two major economic home runs to be able to turn things around? Again- it is time for new blood to run things in the Delta...Middle class blacks and working class whites should unite and throw the plantation class out of power and then get to work...Not defending the status quo but making things change...I think this process is underway but it has a long way to go and the plantation elites are fighting it all the way.

HAMMER

[Greenhead22]

Those places in Mexico must really be messed up if they'd make Tchula look like Beverly Hills.....

[Nitro Mag]

40 bushels is good in the delta? Most everyone farming in my area has averaged 55-65 bushels the last several years. Hammer I know I am not going to change your veiws, I just hate to see someone bad mouthing something that I enjoy and love so much.

[MSDuckmen]

Well I agree with Hammer on one thing.
3/30
Please God make it so.

[Greenhead22]

55-65??? I think someone's been lying. For a farmer to get that much then he must have some type of superbionic soybean seed or something.

40 bushels in the delta is damn good. Had several farmers telling me that they were getting over 40, went and got some of their records, more like 20 or so. My buddy has one hell of a soybean crop last yr and made 35 bushels. Had another farmer that planted soybeans in front of our camp that claimed he got over 30 bushels, even with all of those weeds and grass that had grown up in the soybeans. The beans weren't as big as the point of a pen and the majority of the beans were still lying on the ground after they were combined. Called the place where he took the beans, talked to a buddy of mine, that farmer got 13 bushels, instead of the 30 he claimed.

[BR549]

You are right about 40 bushels. I would take payment on that and not farm year in and year out. Make way more than we do now! We averaged 42 bushels on 2400 acres before the dockege at the elevator. Netted about 20. Cut 110 bushels corn on 1000 acres and picked 945 lbs. cotton on another 600 acres netted .41 cents after all dockege. All total lost about $150,000. We must have sibsidies or there is no way a farmer can make it. By the way we have 29 duck blinds and had one hell of a duck season. I guess we just spent to much on shells, wader, and decoys. Gonna have two more hoorah's with kids this weekend. If your gonna go broke might as well go out in style!!!

[Insider]

I know when your life and your families life depends on it, you do what it takes today, to live until tomorrow. Most of us have never been in that situation, but our forefathers paid their dues so that we would never would have to experience it. That is what those early Delta landowners did by clearing the forest to plant agricultural crops. The money at that time was in farming, not timber. Timber wasn't often worth the land taxes. Most people don't often have the ability to make accurate economic predictions 30+ years into the future. IF those early Delta landowners could have made those economic predictions and IF they could have afforded to live to the next day, things MIGHT be different today. IF a frog had wings........

55-65 bu./acre soybean averages are common on leveled irrigated ground and not to common on non-leveled non-irrigated ground.