The Farm Bill

[Retired Educator]

That is true, although in this case I don't think it's the farmer causing the argument. The only thing the farmer wants out of the farm bill is to know how the bill affects them. Yes, they do get some subsidies such as crop insurance and a couple other payments dependent on the cripts they raise but that's been in existence for as long as I can remember. When I was young I remember my dad talking about target prices, wheat payments and barley payments. It's just now there are so many other groups in the party instead of just farmers and the government.

 

[PrairieGhost]

If you go into McDonalds and hand them a $10 are there strings attached? Do they just give you what's left over, or do you get to tell them what you want? Same with the farm bill. If A through M get taxed and the government is going to give millions to N do we get to tell our representatives what we want out of those tax dollars? Does the government just give it to N and he decides what he is going to do?

I don't care if those organizations go for tax dollars, but I am not ok if they stop listening to their members. Tax dollars are a pile of money and A through M have as much right to it as N. Even those organizations we don't like have as much right to it as anyone else if they write an acceptable proposal of what they will do with the money. When the government gets their hands on the money it belongs to all the people. I wish the people paying in could determine how it's used. There are a lot of people saying "I don't want my tax dollars used that way" when they have not paid a red cent.

 

[Fritz the Cat]

Retired Educator said,

Plus the cash flow of CRP was pretty good, many times paying more than what a farmer could get for cash-rent.. For a few farmers it provided a pretty good retirement. 60 years old, crop prices are low, government will pay me more to plant grass than I can get by renting it out to another farmer. Hell of a good retirement if it worked for some of them.​

My dad put some acreage into CRP in 1998. He got $25 dollars per acre, about the

average ​

going rate. He received about $4,800 dollars a year. The first year he went backwards with seed cost and planting. Plus weeds came gangbusters and he had to clip. His contract stated he could hay every third year which was about keeping weed pressure down. Didn't work, the other two years the Canada Thistle and wormwood made tons of seed.

The contract ended in 2008 and I've tried to convert some of it into pasture. (rough land, it should have never been broke out in the first place. Don't know what in the hell those early farmers were thinking?) Sprayed the piss out of it and killed everything good. So last year I tore up the last of it. This year it is tangy mustard or pigweed. When I finally get done eradicating all these weeds it's into going into pasture.

I will spend every penny my dad made cleaning up this shit.

 

[PrairieGhost]

Are you sitting down Fritz? I admire what your doing with that land.

 

[Zogman]

You guys are way too young. I remember the Soil Bank program, Sharp Tails and Hungarians. Didn't care about the details but sure enjoyed the birds and this was in the desolate parts of Pembina County.

 

[gst]

Waterbank, soilbank.......all govt programs meant to regulate production. CRP was also partially ot idle acres to impact production but it was primarily the fore runner to the conservation plan program currently in place meant to idle highly erodible or "wetland" acres .

CRP early on included a grazing/haying management plan. The farmer/rancher worked to get a managed plan in place rotating thru the acres enrolled 1/3 at a time. These producers knew from the waterbank/soilbank days that untouched tame grasses were better off hayed or grazed rather than left untouched.

Wildlife benefited, the farmer benefited, some input stores still left in town benefited............

What some do not realize is the impact the old CRP program had on small rural communities. We watched as supply/input stores closed their doors as significant portions of land surrounding these towns were taken out of production.

A lot of producers have realized the true costs of a CRP program and when combined with the new stipulations/limitations some orgs are pushing for it is not as popular as previously was.

It is too bad the farm bill which is tied to a long standing food security program designed as much to control food costs as subsidize farmers is not as said above a stand alone program.

 

[PrairieGhost]

You guys are way too young. I remember the Soil Bank program, Sharp Tails and Hungarians. Didn't care about the details but sure enjoyed the birds and this was in the desolate parts of Pembina County.

We had our farm in soil bank when I was a kid.

 

[Fritz the Cat]

Are you sitting down Fritz? I admire what your doing with that land.

Pasture for my farmed elk. They thrive on rough land. Do you still admire?

 

[gst]

 

[PrairieGhost]

Pasture for my farmed elk. They thrive on rough land. Do you still admire?

I doubt a cow elk is worth hiding if it's diseased. Ya I still admire your care for the land.

 

[Fritz the Cat]

I doubt a cow elk is worth hiding if it's diseased. Ya I still admire your care for the land.

What in the hell is that supposed to mean?

 

[eyexer]

Now I understand why my grandpa used to say "I wish the government would get the hell out of farming, stay out of the way and let us earn a dollar".

 

[SDMF]

Those tax payer inputs should be through their elected representatives should they not?

Non profit orgs such as PF are not elected by tax payers. In my opinion any conservative that believes in limited govt as our Founders intended should be concerned with these federal agencies and their surrogates (tail) wagging the dog (Congress) when they are trying to EXPAND govt

Farm Bureau and Farmers Union aren't elected either are they? They must be OK though because they keep the "Gimme Gimme $$'s" headed your way.

"Gimme Gimme Gabe" has his hand out again. Gimme Gimme Gabe isn't happy unless he's getting the "Triple Dip". He wants CRP and he wants to be paid @ producer rates. Then he wants to break the contract and either cut and sell some for hay, even though he's been paid NOT to do that, or, post-deer season, run his own cattle in there. Then the icing on the "triple dip" is that he is going to charge you if you want to do a little hunting in that CRP.

 

[PrairieGhost]

Yes, and those non profit organization members are taxpayers. Many common Joe's on salaries that don't have write off to hide their true income like the members of Farm Bureau. They are not racist, they don't care what color their slaves are.

 

[gst]

Farm Bureau and Farmers Union aren't elected either are they? They must be OK though because they keep the "Gimme Gimme $$'s" headed your way.

"Gimme Gimme Gabe" has his hand out again. Gimme Gimme Gabe isn't happy unless he's getting the "Triple Dip". He wants CRP and he wants to be paid @ producer rates. Then he wants to break the contract and either cut and sell some for hay, even though he's been paid NOT to do that, or, post-deer season, run his own cattle in there. Then the icing on the "triple dip" is that he is going to charge you if you want to do a little hunting in that CRP.

Farm Bureau policies are aimed at reducing govt involvement and payments in production ag.

I agree with most FU policies as much as I do DU policies.

My statement in it's entirety.

"Non profit orgs such as PF are not elected by tax payers. In my opinion any conservative that believes in limited govt as our Founders intended should be concerned with these federal agencies and their surrogates (tail) wagging the dog (Congress) when they are trying to EXPAND govt"

And to simply set the record straight addressing inaccurate claims, I have never advocated breaking a CRP contract to hay or graze. The CRP contract I had allowed for that in the contract language and yet I never once in 15 years hayed or grazed it.

The contracts actually require cattle to be removed from grazing before "post deer season" (at least rifle season) so that claim again is simply not accurate either.

Nor have I ever charged to hunt on our lands. Please try to stay on point, make posts that are at least somewhat accurate and leave the personal crap aside for once.

 

[Fritz the Cat]

I doubt a cow elk is worth hiding if it's diseased. Ya I still admire your care for the land.

Hey PG, you need to go back and answer. Were you joking around or making another false claim/accusation?

 

[PrairieGhost]

Hey PG, you need to go back and answer. Were you joking around or making another false claim/accusation?

It may be more entertaining to let your imagination run wild for a little while.

 

[Fritz the Cat]

Provocateur, you should have learned a long time ago that I am not quick to temper. ​

 

[PrairieGhost]

Provocateur, you should have learned a long time ago that I am not quick to temper. ​

But you do jump to the worst case scenario.
OK the first part of my statement.

I doubt a cow elk is worth hiding if it's diseased.

You brought up your cow elk. I thought about our past debates. That high fence hunt issue the people that started it were against it from a sportsmens standpoint. I don't think many of them are very sporting, but my issue was disease. I mentioned cow elk not being of such high value that one would hide a diseased animal. We all remember the big buck in Minnesota taken away during the night for a guy in, I think it was Tennessee, to shoot. Since you were trying to push a button with the elk comment my idea was to let you know I'm not worried about anyone raising cow elk. A general statement about all cow elk farmers.
Second part: Even though we push each others buttons I was compelled to give a man his due credit. Learn to accept a complement Fritz even from an adversary. I learned long ago to give one.

 

[Fritz the Cat]

But you do jump to the worst case scenario.
OK the first part of my statement.
You brought up your cow elk. I thought about our past debates. That high fence hunt issue the people that started it were against it from a certain government employees standpoint. I don't think many of them are very sporting, but my issue was disease. I mentioned cow elk not being of such high value that one would hide a diseased animal. We all remember the big buck in Minnesota taken away during the night for a guy in, I think it was Tennessee, to shoot. Since you were trying to push a button with the elk comment my idea was to let you know I'm not worried about anyone raising cow elk. A general statement about all cow elk farmers.
Second part: Even though we push each others buttons I was compelled to give a man his due credit. Learn to accept a complement Fritz even from an adversary. I learned long ago to give one.

Fixed it for you.