Saturday, August 6, 2011

What has been my mind this year? Stability!

What a ride this year has been economy good/economy bad. Would you like a stable milk price, a stable feed price? Join the rest of us in the dairy industry and all other businesses and employees and retirees. August futures Friday for class 3 milk $21.50 August 2011down to$16.97 in February of 2012. Source http://www.cmegroup.com/trading/agricultural/dairy/class-iii-milk.html 8-5-11. You say so what. On February 7th the August 2011 was trading for $16.86 and January 2011 $15.73 http://www.dailydairyreport.com/data/ddr020711.pdf. Six months before August they were off 27.52% up. Even though the dairy business is better now you the dairyman need to look for opportunities to lock a profit between feed and milk.

I’ll bet you want to know if we should vote for or push Foundation for The Future. We at Springing Acres have not decided yet it is still changing as they move it to committees to see what our new farm bill will be. We believe in the free market system, so it is hard to put our hands on something that limits expansions. But in the name of Stability we are looking at it.

What will be happening next with Europe’s euro crises? The S&Pdowngrade? The answer comes only with time.

So keep analyzing feed costs, labor costs and develop a marketing and input purchase plan. Check all the biggies and visit sites like http://cdp.wisc.edu/Welcome.htm ; they have spreadsheets and literature to help you understand financial statements. It will help you be informed so you can keep you creditors happy and maybe even lease a few cows. Cows have the largest return on investment on the farm at least throughout history.

By the way I like the choose my plate I believe dairy is more prominent. http://www.choosemyplate.gov/

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