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See the original image at news.yahoo.com

Corn farmers' hopes are dashed by the flood

news.yahoo.com — This year's corn crop was Bill Talsma's lottery ticket — a potentially record-setting haul worth millions.

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  • johnbeagle, on 06/26/2008, -3/+14Its sad to see this vast devastation.
    • fr3ddie, on 06/27/2008, -6/+2why exactly? are you a doritos fan?
    • gn0stik, on 06/27/2008, -0/+4So, this sux, and it will effect everything. Fr3ddie. It's not just doritos. It's also chicken, turkey, pork, and even beef on some farms. Corn meal is used as feed for all those things. It's also ethanol, which makes up 10% of our gas. This is going to make gas more expensive because of the lack of ethanol, as well as making meats more expensive. Care to take a guess at how many products contain corn syrup? How about corn starch?

      Also, I do like doritos. Cool ranch mostly.

      Thing is, people will still blame ethanol for starving people in 3rd world nations in spite of this flood.

      Look at the big picture man.
  • ColorBlind, on 06/27/2008, -9/+19The lottery is simply a tax on the mathematically inept.
    • unreg, on 06/27/2008, -3/+13Except for that guy holding the winning ticket
      • cdigioia, on 06/27/2008, -1/+4He's lucky, not smart.

        In inverse - Same way if you crossed the street to go to college tomorrow & got hit by a car...we wouldn't say you were stupid for going to class...

        Though what do I care, being a finance/economics major - I can make a lot more money if the general public doesn't understand such concepts.
        • ColorBlind, on 06/27/2008, -2/+1Everyone has their roll in society ;-)
        • unreg, on 06/27/2008, -3/+3
          Oh, a finance/economics major.

          Here's a clue. Using terms like "inverse" and then following it with a lame comparative makes you look foolish.

        • cdigioia, on 06/27/2008, -1/+3Yeah...we ALL know the stereotypes against those finance/economics majors! Also how elitist a word like "inverse" is. I should have used "in usage of the opposite concept", that would have been much better. I'm glad my vocabulary never expanded, even when I learned "inverse" in 4th grade, long before any choice of majors...

          What was your point? Why was the comparative lame?
      • ColorBlind, on 06/27/2008, -1/+1Hey, sometimes you get a refund...I never said it was a bad thing.
    • republicker, on 06/27/2008, -0/+3If I played the lottery I would simply argue that the government(the lottery scam artists) take 17% of our money anyway and there is not chance of winning jack *****. So if some guy wants to buy a Power ball ticket once a month for a dollar I think he is more mathematically sound than someone who doesn't play the lottery. As for someone who spends large amount of money on the lottery you can safely say they fall into the category of dip *****.
      • ColorBlind, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1The government taxes me for earning money. Why should I give them anymore then I already do? I take what's rightfully mine and make more money off of it. Invest that money you throw at the lottery every day/week/month/year into a high yields savings account.
        • Alegoo92, on 06/27/2008, -1/+1Gee, I agree- I just hope you're not a liberal..
        • CedEx, on 06/27/2008, -0/+3The way I look at it... a dollar invested a week isn't going to make a difference in my lifestyle. I'm not going to miss any interest made from it as it isn't significant enough. I'd be better off skipping a cup of coffee to save more money than by not buying a ticket.

          Buying a lottery ticket gives me and my co-workers a short respite from daily life to chat it up about all the ***** we'd do if we won. That's what my dollar buys me.

          Also, me buying one ticket, no matter how bad the chances are against me, is still infinitely more chances than you having not bought a ticket.
        • Ravatar, on 06/27/2008, -0/+2Stop paying for all other entertainment. Huge waste of money, put it into the savings account.

          While you're at it, stop eating out. Throw that extra money in the high yield savings account.

          While you're at it, stop buying new clothes. There are plenty of second-hands and thrift stores out there. Put that saved cash in the savings account.

          Trade in that car you enjoy for one that's way cheaper, that way you can put the difference in a high yield savings account.

          LOOK HOW RICH YOU'LL BE IN A FEW DECADES, AND ITS ONLY AT THE EXPENSE OF YOUR HAPPINESS!!! ITS ONLY TOO BAD YOU'LL HAVE NOTHING AND NOBODY TO SPEND ALL THAT SAVED UP MONEY ON.


          Here's better advice: Stay out of debt, save a little for your future, and ENJOY YOUR ***** LIFE.
    • mtwolf, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1I would say its more like a potential beneficiary of a giant government scam. Legislation that inflates prices based not on market demand, but on lobbyist demands under the pretense of the environment and national security.

      We all lose!
  • Lhuth, on 06/27/2008, -9/+9Yeah it's sad to see all the damage and maybe I'm not the most sympathetic, but it's hard to feel sorry for him on missing out on the 6 million PROFIT, when the "fraction" of that he still gets is still going to be far and beyond most peoples earnings.
    • shagmin, on 06/27/2008, -0/+10Per the article:
      But the flood destroyed 20 percent of the crop. Talsma expects yields on the remaining ground of roughly 60 bushels an acre, cutting his profit in a best-case scenario to less than $200,000. Realistically, he expects to recover only his costs through crop insurance.

      "I'll probably hold my expenses together, but there will be no income," he said.

      Per me:
      Anyways, they may make a lot one year, have crop failure the next, etc.,. One year they may spend more than most people make in a year just on replacing old equipment. It's part of the industry, few farmers live luxurious lives otherwise it wouldn't be a shrinking industry. Whatever profit there is you can be sure is earned with some damn hard work. All the dollar figures can be pretty high in farming but that works both ways. Lets not kick them when they're down.
    • pinchduck, on 06/27/2008, -4/+4I'm guessing you will be one of the idiots whining for government intervention when the price of food skyrockets because of these floods. If the guy takes the risk and makes it, we all win because it's food. It isn't ipods, it isn't Hummers, it isn't PC's, it is the stuff we need to live. If he takes a risk and loses, then we all lose, as the price of food goes up. This is a sad thing. What is your reaction? "The S.O.B. deserved it for trying to make money". Finally, if you think that farming is such a huge money spinner, why don't you try it? I'm sure that the millions in capital investment and endless days of hard labor will come easy to your cynical, jealous mind. We know what will really happen, though. You will go back to playing WoW, and bitching to your Mom that tacos went up in price again.
      • Lhuth, on 06/27/2008, -0/+2Ok, first reply makes some sense, this one makes none. Where did I say he deserved it, where did I say farmers don't work hard, where did I bitch about rising prices, where did you discover I'm an idiot?

        I think yuo put your rant in the wrong place.
    • LordRedSnake, on 06/27/2008, -2/+3Hey let's not leave out the fact that he receives subsidies paid with our tax dollars when the harvest is both good and bad while we continue to pay higher prices.
      • sure13, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1Let's also not leave out the fact that the average farmer pays more taxes than the average American white collar employee due to the expense of the land they own as well as equipment and fuel taxes. How many of you are paying taxes on 640 acres of land and several million in equipment?
      • LordRedSnake, on 07/16/2008, -0/+12 wrongs don't make a right. I'd love to see their tax burden reduced... at the same time as their subsidies.
    • robertsona, on 07/01/2008, -0/+1This guy is an extreme example -- he has an enormous operation, so he will have enormous profits in good years.

      Some farmers with much smaller operations will make $0 or lose money when something like this happens for them. Those are the farmers we should feel for.
  • GhandicapXRS, on 06/27/2008, -9/+13Oh noes! He's gonna have to settle for a mere fraction of a measly 6 000 000$. The humanity!!!
    • orlyfactor, on 06/27/2008, -4/+5You obviously have never owned a business. It costs a wee bit of money to make that kind of money, so can it. It's not all profit.
      • thebaron2, on 06/27/2008, -4/+6You obviously don't read the articles before you post. The $6 million was after expenses and overhead.

        From the Article (you know, the thing you're commenting about):

        "The math is brutal: With corn selling for $7.25 per bushel, and a reasonable yield of 180 bushels per acre, Talsma and his brother should have cleared about $1,300 an acre. Overhead on the farm — expenses such as fuel, chemicals and fertilizer — average about $400 an acre, leaving a profit of $900. On 6,750 acres of corn, that's $6.1 million."
        • bobGratton, on 06/27/2008, -3/+1This comment makes my loins warm and fuzzy :)
        • unreg, on 06/27/2008, -2/+4How about equipment, mortgage, employee costs, insurance, etc, etc.

          Sure, farmers can make a pretty penny, especially in these times. They also take a lot of risk, as evident by this years disaster.

          And remember, his loss trickles down to the consumer.
        • skribble, on 06/27/2008, -0/+2Oh yea... and then there are the taxes on the land, the cost of the seeds, the cost of the machinery and labor to manage all of this, and don't forget the cost of the land itself. Also factor in that last year rather then flood they had to deal with drought which limited crops. After all is said and done they did look to make some money this year, which hasn't always the case even when crops are good. And yet they didn't in fact is seems that rather then earn $900 and acre they will be loosing a great deal of money this year which will mean next year they'll have to earn twice as much to cover this year and next years debts.
        • orlyfactor, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1I can't read.
        • sure13, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1$6.1 million

          minus bank loans to pay for land and farm equipment
          minus hundreds of gallons of fuel for said farm equipment
          minus investments towards next year's seeds, expected costs increases, etc.
          minus insurance
          minus taxes

          ~ 20-50 grand in your pocket on an average Nebraska farm of 680 acres. How do I know this? This is my family.

          If you've never lived on a farm or don't personally understand just all the aspects of what goes in and out of a farm operation concerning cash flow, then please don't display your ignorance through opinionated comments. Thanks.
        • thebaron2, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1Unbelievable...

          The article SPECIFICALLY said the $6.1 million figure was PROFIT. Of course they're not going to list every ***** aspect of this guys financials and what is included in the broad terms "overhead and expenses" because it would make for a very dull article.

          Bottom line is the $6.1 million was PROFIT, as explicitly stated in the article.
      • GhandicapXRS, on 06/27/2008, -3/+2You don't need to own a business to know about overhead. It's pretty obvious that he wasn't looking at a 6mill$ net profit.

        But in the end, the guy lost a quarter of a crop that is worth almost twice as much as it was less than a year ago. Granted it may be worth a bit less (or more!) when the time comes to cash in. But I doubt this dudes gonna be in the street any time soon.
        • SIRBERUS, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1FTFA: "Had all his corn come in, Talsma could have seen a profit of as much as $6 million."
      • Jewbacca311, on 06/27/2008, -1/+2Hahaha, what an idiot. You iz pwned.
      • bobGratton, on 06/27/2008, -2/+1Dum-ass
      • Elliuotatar, on 06/27/2008, -4/+2I'm supposed to feel sorry for a guy who owns 6,700 acres of land and will make $200,000 this year when I'm stuck renting an apartment for $675 a month because idiots are still holding onto their overpriced houses hoping the market will rebound so they don't have to take a loss?
        • orlyfactor, on 06/27/2008, -0/+2$675 for an apartment? Where the hell do you live? I pay almost 3x that, so feel sorry for me instead.
        • Ravatar, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1@orlyfactor: He might have roommates. I pay that for a room in a 3br.
        • Elliuotatar, on 06/28/2008, -0/+1I live in New Hampshire, about an hour from Boston. My apartment is a tiny one bedroom with a compact kitchen that's practically a closet. The average apartment around here will run you at least $700.

          I don't consider my apartment particularly cheap though. When lived in Indianapolis for a little while, I paid $450 a month!

          If I wasnted to live with roommates then I could get a place for maybe $350 around here.
    • dave122, on 06/27/2008, -1/+1You have to also look at the risk and cost of new machinery and such in farming, especially with that much acreage you can win big but also lose big (obviously) You don't see that many farmers living in luxury. Plus damn near half of that goes to the government anyway.
  • FranklinStaples, on 06/27/2008, -5/+41 less millionaire
  • nastronomical, on 06/27/2008, -6/+14Yeah the man shouldnt reap the rewards of hard work...oh noess!!!! but hey....Movie stars are making $20 mil a picture isnt something wrong with that? I mean what hard work are they DOING?
    • samard2002, on 06/27/2008, -2/+7Movies aren't subsidized by the government.
      • CedEx, on 06/27/2008, -0/+0Sure they are... when they are shooting on location in a city, many municipal governments offer subsidies to attract the movie industry to shoot there and pretend it's some place else. It's suppose to bring more revenue to the city by giving local workers jobs and stuff.





    • zacharytelschow, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1If you can get millions of people to watch you do something (anything), you'll make a crapload of money too. Problem is, only a handful are talented enough to warrant the attention of millions. And judging by your hostility, you're not one of them.
    • mudpuddle, on 06/27/2008, -0/+0Uh oh, next comes the observation about salary differences between teachers and basketball players. Anything else about our free market capitalism you don't understand?
  • pianomahnn, on 06/27/2008, -7/+12So lemme get the numbers right. Expected $6M profit. Now producing at 75% due to rain destruction. My math is telling me it's around $4.5M profit then. Unless I'm horribly incorrect here, I see this as just a guy whining about not making as much. Also, consider the fact that since there is crop destruction prices will actually go up. So if the current price of corn even goes up 10% (no unlikely given the economic conditions) he's still making decent profit.

    And don't forget all the subsidies from the farm bill. Perhaps he gets a cut of that pie also?
    http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/in_the_farm_ ...

    Farmers are a huge part of this economy. But there is legislation setup so that in situations such as this the farms don't fail. They're not rolling in gold coins stored in a vault, but they're not staving to death like it was more than a century ago.
    • MortVent, on 06/27/2008, -0/+5he was using 75% of his land.

      the estimated value of his current output is 200k dollars.

      that is no where near the numbers you were looking at.

    • thebaron2, on 06/27/2008, -1/+3You are mistaken.

      He used 75% of this land. 25% of THAT was totally destroyed.

      The rest was severely damaged, which is destroying his yields.

      "Corn that should be waist-high has barely poked out of the ground in some of Talsma's low-lying fields along Interstate 80 east of Des Moines. The plants in the fields where the water has drained are sickly looking and probably won't grow to maturity.
      ....
      Talsma expects yields on the remaining ground of roughly 60 bushels an acre, cutting his profit in a best-case scenario to less than $200,000. Realistically, he expects to recover only his costs through crop insurance."

      That 60 bushels/acre is 1/3 of what the yield SHOULD be, which effectively means that his overhead triples since he only has 1/3 of the product to spread it out over.
    • Screwy1138, on 06/27/2008, -0/+3The above replies are correct. But even if we use some of your assumptions... profit is usually a percentage of your costs (profit margin). Say he had a 30% profit margin, which is pretty good, that means he expects to sell $20 million in product (6 million profit). A reduction of 25% means $15 million in sales for a $1 million profit. Now, I made up the 30% number but the point is a 25% reduction is a far greater reduction in profit.

      But yeah, he has insurance, which many farmers do.
    • pianomahnn, on 06/27/2008, -0/+4I admit to not reading much past the initial 2 paragraphs, generally because articles of this nature don't focus on the same person the whole way through. They shuffle around...my bad. So it's worse than I made it out to be. Oops!! Thanks for pointing it out.
      • thebaron2, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1Thanks for at least admitting it. I have some idiots in a post down below still arguing that the $6 million figure isn't profit because they probably left out taxes or some *****...

        ::facepalm::

        It doesn't get much more explicit than PROFIT=$6 million unless you want to look at the guys financial statements.
  • hokie47, on 06/27/2008, -1/+9Farmers are always cash poor
  • uncleFester, on 06/27/2008, -4/+2Before you start lauding the millions made.. check into the costs to produce that amount of corn. Chemical costs alone are staggering; fuel costs to work the ground are also a massive impact. Your supposed 'millions' are gross income.. not net.
    • Lhuth, on 06/27/2008, -3/+4It said "profit" in the article so I'll assume that's already counted in
    • thebaron2, on 06/27/2008, -1/+6Dude, read the goddamn article. The $6 million is AFTER expenses and overhead, assuming a 180 bushel/acre yield.

      "The math is brutal: With corn selling for $7.25 per bushel, and a reasonable yield of 180 bushels per acre, Talsma and his brother should have cleared about $1,300 an acre. Overhead on the farm — expenses such as fuel, chemicals and fertilizer — average about $400 an acre, leaving a profit of $900. On 6,750 acres of corn, that's $6.1 million."

      Check into reading the article before making a stupid comment; it couldn't have been spelled out more clearly that the $6.1 million *was* net.
      • unreg, on 06/27/2008, -0/+3Becasue we all know the accuracy of these reporters.

        How about the indirect costs, like equipment payments? Mortgage, land taxes. Employee costs. Insurance.

        These guys have incredible income during boom times. And incredible expenses.
        • thebaron2, on 06/27/2008, -0/+2Guess what overhead is? Equipment, taxes, employees...

          The bottom line is that they explicitly said the PROFIT is $900/acre. Profit, by DEFINITION, is what's left after you deduct everything you listed.

          Just because they didn't list every single line of expenses and overhead from the guy's financial statements doesn't mean it wasn't counted.
        • unreg, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1It also doesn't mean that the facts presented in the article are complete.

          PS: Thanks for pointing out the definition of profit. Is that profit before taxes or after?
        • thebaron2, on 06/30/2008, -0/+1Profit is after taxes, otherwise it would be pre-tax income. If it was before they counted equipment, mortgage, etc... it would be called revenue.

          And of course the article isn't complete as far as his financials go - to actually list everything the way you'd like it would be meaningless for the majority of people reading it, and it would take 2-3 pages of just numbers and line items. Most people don't want to analyze financial statements themselves, which is why they summarize everything by pointing out a few major costs (fuel, chemicals, fertilizer) instead of listing every single item.

          If you just don't believe the author then so be it, but you can't expect every single article to include a laundry list of financial information unless that publication is for CFO's or other career finance people. An article on Yahoo.com is written for a broad audience.
      • KillerKellerjr, on 06/27/2008, -0/+4He may be getting $6.1 million in profit but a majority of that has to be used to re-invest the next year in replacement equipment, seed, chemical etc. I grew up on a large row-crop farm and this reporter didn't give all the facts, they are missing. Trust me its not $6.1 million dollars worth of profit to put in your pocket and do as you please with. So it is actually sad as I have been in his shoes as part of a large farm when I was growing up. But farming has its ups and downs, apparently he is having a downer year!!!
  • incd, on 06/27/2008, -1/+2http://farm1.static.flickr.com/122/299000347_d62ad ...
  • MortVent, on 06/27/2008, -2/+3So many farmers are going to lose a lot of income. And everyone will pay more for the crops of the rest.

    Insurance premiums for crop insurance will also rise, and the listed farmer is not even going to see a profit but break even using the insurance payout.

    Smaller farmers are more likely to be filing bankruptcy and having to deal with all that..

    So it's a bit bigger than a man that might have made 6mil now barely breaking even with an insurance check. It's going to hit your pockets too.
  • therealkdog, on 06/27/2008, -3/+6Someone cried him a river...
  • xerofilter, on 06/27/2008, -0/+5I suggest you watch the stellar documentary King Corn.
    http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UiCRwMMh9k8
  • tcpip4lyfe, on 06/27/2008, -2/+6Don't worry. I'm sure he has crop insurance and CRP ground to get him by. Not to mention the government subsidies and all that jazz that goes along with being a farmer. I live in Iowa and I have limited sympathy for a lot of these farmers out here.
  • amightywind, on 06/27/2008, -1/+5The floods happened early enough where farmers can replant. Only a few areas in the flood plains were flooded out. For every farmer that was flooded out there is another on higher ground thankful for the rain. There will be a large harvest this year in spite of the flooding.
  • alanr19, on 06/27/2008, -3/+3farmers, always whining about something.

    everyones going through a tough one. suck it up.
  • Thrilltone, on 06/27/2008, -1/+2That is a shame but he still owns vast acreage.
    I'm more concerned for the many millions of working poor who can't afford to buy food or get medical care for their kids today.
    • sure13, on 06/27/2008, -1/+2Correction. The BANK owns vast acreage.
    • cwbrandsma, on 06/27/2008, -1/+0And the fact that all his crops are gone aren't helping feed those millions either now are they.

      And sure13 is correct. I haven't met a farmer yet who didn't have vast amounts of debt. It is the way the system works.
  • MrFurious2k, on 06/27/2008, -3/+1It's alright. The Government is going to give him a fat buyout and pay him not to plant.
  • jdbeast00, on 06/27/2008, -2/+3"he'll only make a fraction of 6 million in PROFIT this year"

    poor baby! Can't the government do something, like pass some sort of bill to help out all these needy needy farmers?
    • dave122, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1You have never lived in a rural area have you?
  • Thrilltone, on 06/27/2008, -1/+2Maybe he's praying in the wrong direction?
    http://WWSD.biz
  • byronm, on 06/27/2008, -4/+5I hate industrialized farming. Bring back the family farms. Put more families at work instead of rich people with machines. My 2 cents.
    • GhandicapXRS, on 06/27/2008, -0/+2Damn commie ;)
    • unreg, on 06/27/2008, -0/+2Will that lead to higher or lower prices?

      • Ravatar, on 06/27/2008, -0/+2Wow, that's some nice ***** Wal-Mart mentality.

        "RAPE OTHERS AS MUCH AS YOU WISH, SO LONG AS I PROSPER TOO!!"
    • xDibblerx, on 06/27/2008, -0/+3All farms in Iowa are considered "family farms". Commercial farming isn't allowed but I have a feeling this guy has some political connections and uses a few loopholes to run his farm on a commercial level. In my area the rich farmers have 1000 acres so this guy must be really rolling in the money.
  • Slovenian6474, on 06/27/2008, -2/+13Oh no! Not my High Fructose Corn Syrup!
    • FreeTalkLIve, on 06/27/2008, -0/+5I wish we could have SUGAR as a ***** sweetener again!

      It's insane that we even need to say such a thing.

      If Simone asked you to name something sweet, SUGAR is what comes to mind.

      /This country is bat ***** crazy.
  • stumper, on 06/27/2008, -3/+8Food as fuel is one of the worst ideas EVER. Of course, the elitists on here probably love it. Nothing like $15.00 gallons of milk.
    • ColorBlind, on 06/27/2008, -0/+2hardly, it's a great idea when we can feed ourselves when the going gets tough. The middle-east, on the other hand, only have black gold to eat.
      • legolas68, on 06/27/2008, -1/+1Let's shut it down until we need it.
    • skidooer, on 06/27/2008, -1/+2We normally have way too much food on hand. It makes sense to turn that huge surplus into something, fuel or otherwise. However, we've had several crop failures in the last couple of years, which is quite extraordinary.

      Unfortunately, the timing of biofuels just happened to coincide with these failures which makes it appear as though it is the culprit to anyone not paying close attention to the industry.
  • xDibblerx, on 06/27/2008, -1/+6Do the news people live in New York? Iowa is a big ass place and only a very small part of the state was flooded. The only farmers that were flooded were the ones that planted in flood plains and it's accepted that every few years the there will be floods. I live in Iowa and all the corn around were I live looks great and we've had a freak'n ton of rain too. That's why the corn looks so good. I'm getting tired of hearing how the entire midwest was/is under water.
    • tcpip4lyfe, on 06/27/2008, -2/+4More then 3/4 of the counties in Iowa have been delarced federal disaster areas. In my city of 125,0000, 24,000 people were displaced and more then 100 city blocks were under at least 5 feet of water. they are going to have to destory 2000 houses. The people from FEMA rate disasters pn a scale of 1-5 and there have been only 2 5's: Katrina and 9/11. The flooding in just Cedar Rapids, Iowa is a 4.5. I currently 24 and homeless because of it. I know about at least a dozen friends and famlies that have lost everything they own. Think before you speak you prick.

      http://www.kcrg.com/younews?cid=205879
      • xDibblerx, on 06/27/2008, -2/+1What does that have to do with corn, *****? Did you have a big corn crop growing in your back yard? I sure hope that since you lived in a flood plain you didn't "cheap out" and skip the flood insurance. If you owned a mortgage you'd be required to have flood insurance and you had a few days to get your playstation and D&D figures out of moms basement.
      • davewashere, on 06/27/2008, -2/+3How much corn was being grown on those 100 city blocks in Cedar Rapids?
      • zacharytelschow, on 06/27/2008, -1/+2"Iowa is a big ass place and only a very small part of the state was flooded."

        He was refuting that point, idiots. I think he did so quite effectively.
  • plundstedt, on 06/27/2008, -1/+4I know you guys don't feel pity for this guy, but keep in mind his size. This guy's got 9,000 acres. I don't know of any other farmers that own close to that! Most farmers own between 100 and 500 acres of cropland. Their profits are much smaller and really are their lifeblood, unlike this guy who's probably got a couple mil tucked away in the bank.
    • skidooer, on 06/27/2008, -2/+1100-500 acres is just a hobby farm. If you want to cash crop grain and oilseeds for a living you need several thousand acres just to get by.
      • plundstedt, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1Guess why we need a farm bill? Farmers are poor. Land and input prices are high, and most farmers don't own too much land.
        • skidooer, on 06/27/2008, -0/+1My mistake. I'm not American. We don't have your fancy farm bills.

          Where I'm from 9000 acres would be on the high side, but nobody serious about farming would only have 500 acres. About 2000 acres would be your normal family-farm sized operation.

          I personally run 250 acres, but it's just a hobby. There's no way I could make a living off of such little land.
  • mikethejohnson, on 06/27/2008, -0/+3One of the few serious comments I will ever make on this site:

    Sucks that people lost EVERYTHING they own. As far as crops go, I work in the grain industry and out of the countless millions upon millions of acres that supply us a few hundred thousand were lost, so it is a relatively small crop loss. It just sucks from the people who lost their entire crop, houses, etc.
    Don't turn this into hysteria people......
  • ahhell, on 06/27/2008, -3/+7Hey Mr. Farmer-guy. You do realize that you farm on a flood plain.

    If he didn't get flooded out, he would be bitching about it being too dry/too cold/too hot/too many bugs/etc.
    (grew up in a farming community all those ***** did was bitch about everything)
  • nycmac247, on 06/27/2008, -0/+2Did I miss a part about insurance?
  • kurtwinter, on 06/27/2008, -2/+3Of course, like all farmers, this one forgot THAT EVERY OTHER ***** CORN FARMER WAS GOING TO DO THE SAME ***** THING. If it weren't for the flood, the market would have been deluded with corn and the price per bushel would have plummeted because history teaches us one thing: farmers don't understand economics.
    • sgtawol, on 06/27/2008, -0/+3Have you ever met a farmer? They understand the market better than most. Besides, it isn't actually feasible for them to all plant corn. It would destroy the chemical balance of their fields. I'm sure some pushed the envelope, but without over-spending on fertilizer and additives to their soil planting nothing but corn would bankrupt them in 5 years.

      Google crop rotation.
  • Negligence, on 06/27/2008, -0/+5Guys, keep in mind that to farm 9,000 acres (or heck, even a couple hundred) requires a lot of expensive machinery. They don't run simple $50,000 tractors there. You're looking at several $150K-300K tractors (one won't do), plus all the implements for each tractor to work at the same time. Then add in fuel, oil, maintenance (both tractors and their implements require a hefty amount), parts, labour, fertilizer, mortgage, utilities, etc.. It quickly adds up, although it does seem this fella will be doing well even without a full yield this year.

    There's an old saying: How do you make a small fortune in farming? Start with a large one.
  • oakj423, on 06/27/2008, -0/+4please keep in mind to harvest a corn crop takes about a million dollars of equipment. i know several cattle people and i've talked to them about why it's a hard business. seems like you have a bull and a cow, put them together and 9 months later you have free money. he spends about $500 a year in medicine, etc to meet FDA stuff.
  • Locnar, on 06/27/2008, -0/+4Thats the life of a farmer though.. its allways a gamble... if the floods don't get you the droughts will. And they work for it too.. It can be a tuff life to live..
  • sgtawol, on 06/27/2008, -1/+3It is called CROP INSURANCE. It is mentioned in the article, but it is available to cover a heck of a lot more than just his initial investment. He could have paid more for his crop policy and received a fair market value for the damaged acres or lower yield per acre. However, he apparently didn't want to pay for that level of coverage and now he isn't getting his "lottery ticket."

    Tough beans.
  • republicker, on 06/27/2008, -2/+1200k awwww poor farm boy
  • Vejadu, on 06/27/2008, -1/+5My dad and brother are both small family farmers that grow corn and while the price of corn has pretty much tripled over the past few years, so has their expenses. The farmers aren't reaping the benefits of these record prices because everyone they depend on has their hand in their pockets. The price of land, machinery, seed, fertilizer, herbicide, etc. have all scaled up with the rise in grain prices. If you thought it was expensive to fill your Camry's gas tank, imagine how much fuel it takes to operate a farm's tractors, irrigation wells, trucks and combines.

    While it's vogue to hate corn-producing farmers right now, they work harder than most of us in a vital, yet thankless and risky (both physical and financial) job.
  • skidooer, on 06/27/2008, -1/+2My hopes have been raised. Corn has never been worth this much before.
  • mobilexile, on 06/27/2008, -0/+3Take the potential income as stated in the article: $6,000,000
    Divide it by the number of acres on Mr. Talsma's farm: 9,000

    You get income of $6.66 per acre.

    What are we to think of this? Is corn the devil crop? Is Talsma's land ancient burial ground cursed by the dead? Is Talsma's farm the place our Lord and savior, George W. Bush, is to be buried?

    Discuss.
  • Landlocked, on 06/27/2008, -0/+2Obvious evidence that George Bush also hates white people.
    • SteelChicken, on 06/27/2008, -0/+2not all white people, just the ones that farm.
      • siszam, on 06/28/2008, -1/+2And the poor ones, the sick ones, the ones who enlisted in the service, the parents of those enlisted, the white children........it never ends.
  • zacharytelschow, on 06/27/2008, -0/+5Corn would never be as high as it is if it weren't for federally mandated ethanol and farming subsidies.

    Isn't there crop insurance against this kind of thing?
  • QuantumBios, on 06/27/2008, -1/+3Where's the looters?
  • cheeseysynapse, on 06/27/2008, -1/+1Do we only grow corn in flood plains? Illinois, Indiana, western Iowa, etc...........the farmers are lovin this! Maybe, at best 5% of the crop is lost. And yes, if this guy who lives this close to the mississippi and doesn't have crop insurance is damn fool. Granted it won't recoup what he could have made, but it will still cover his expenses.
  • mocherz, on 06/27/2008, -1/+1womp womp
  • beauley, on 07/02/2008, -0/+2Some of us grow a small garden or a flower bed along the side of our home and some use a piece of land to give our family the needed nutrition by growing organic vegetables. We benefit more from the latter.
    http://www.gomestic.com/Gardening/Grow-Organic-Foo ...
    Grow Organic Foods in Your Back Yard
  • betacmag4u, on 07/13/2008, -1/+1No risk no reward. These guys should quit farming and go work at Mcdonalds if they want no risk, otherwise the farmers should zip the piehole. ......p.s. This disaster was God's will.
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