6-15 FB Farm Challenges

  The chess game you play when you are a farmer. It’s complicated, it can be dangerous, rewarding, heartbreaking, or filled with joy.

 There are so many variables when you are a farmer. First of all there’s weather. There are adversaries such as bugs and weeds. There are consumer issues. And then of course varying input costs. Example: the rising price of fuel and fertilizer. Here’s local farmer Vaughn Jensen: “The first thing it meant when we filled up some of our tanks this spring, was it took and unworldly amount of money to pay for it. Fuel and fertilizer are tied together and our fertilizer costs are up as well so our input costs this year in terms of fuel and fertilizer are way above what they were five and 10 years ago.” Then I guess the next question would be, why not just pass along your increased costs to the consumer? “When it’s a free market system, the demand for the crop is what determines the price. Right now prices are fairly strong on grains because the world and the national supply is down but if the world has a good crop of wheat and corn this year, prices are going to drop.” You grow wheat and corn. Are you okay? “I’d have to say we are happy with where wheat and corn are today.