The rural exodus accelerates (Plains, Walton: employment, subsidized, tax)

[itsMeFred]

A prime example of the above is Nebraska's R-HOP program.
However, what we usually attract via RHOP are PAs rather than full fledged doctors.
Don't misunderstand me, it's certainly better than nothing, but the rural areas are having more and more trouble hanging on to all levels of quality physicians...

[itsMeFred]

Originally Posted by Gunluvver2

Many city people would go to farmers in the area and buy a steer or heifer and have it taken to the local MEAT locker for butchering. More restrictive Health Laws drove these small lockers out of business. Another source of CASH to small farmers gone. Now we have HUGE feedlots and beef packing houses (Pork also) selling meat to the retailers.

This is still done...
Generally speaking, if a town in western KS, NE, eastern CO, etc. is large enough to support a grocery store, they'll also have a packer. (Wray, CO (pop.2000), for example, has two.)

I think most cattle producers don't do it that way anymore because it's not worth the hassle of direct marketing.


I think concrete it is probably right with the complaint about subsidies.
To be sure, it's why so much prime range land in my area has been converted to Center Pivot Land...

But grain subsidies also keep feeding operations' costs lower. This in turn means that mass produced, lower-quality meats, will often be cheaper than purchasing straight from the producer. And if nothing else, the cost if offset by the simplicity of going to the store for smaller quantities when you need them.

[Gunluvver2]

Originally Posted by itsMeFred

This is still done...
Generally speaking, if a town in western KS, NE, eastern CO, etc. is large enough to support a grocery store, they'll also have a packer. (Wray, CO (pop.2000), for example, has two.)

I think most cattle producers don't do it that way anymore because it's not worth the hassle of direct marketing.


I think concrete it is probably right with the complaint about subsidies.
To be sure, it's why so much prime range land in my area has been converted to Center Pivot Land...

But grain subsidies also keep feeding operations' costs lower. This in turn means that mass produced, lower-quality meats, will often be cheaper than purchasing straight from the producer. And if nothing else, the cost if offset by the simplicity of going to the store for smaller quantities when you need them.

**************************************************
Fred I grew up in Wray. One of the owners of a local locker was the Father of a friend of mine. Engel was the family name. Do you know if they still operate a locker in Wray?

Awwww irrigation. One of my Pet Peeves. In the 1950'2 MOST of the irrigation in Yuma County was surface water from the Republican River. I remember one of the neighbors South of Wray started irrigating Sugar Beets in about 1959 or so. If I remember correctly that irrigation well was less than 200 feet deep. How deep are they going now to get adequate water do you know?

I don't see that irrigating crops has really benefitted farmers in any way. Yes yields are higher but for the past forty years surpluses of crops, caused in part by irrigation, have resulted in LOWER prices to farmers. Plus the increased costs of pumping the water and more fertilizer needs have lowered returns to the farmer. I have to wonder IF irrigation had been strictly controlled in the early days whether the farm subsidy structure in place today would be needed.

Pandoras Box has been opened and it is too late to close the lid now. But I think water shortages in the Western States are going to make it clear that using underground water to irrigate was one of the biggest blunders of the last one hundred years

GL2

[itsMeFred]

Engel was the family name. Do you know if they still operate a locker in Wray?

They sure do. There's also a locker right up next to the sale barn. Wray Meat Pack.

In the 1950'2 MOST of the irrigation in Yuma County was surface water from the Republican River.

And because of the decline in water levels, irrigation from the Republican is impossible. But man, everyone has a pivot, so who needs surface water?
Most pivots, so far as I know, run around 3-400 feet deep. Nebraska has finally started metering water usage for pivots in the last 5-10 years. I'm not sure if CO has anything ongoing, but I do know that down around Burlington, they'd had to shut off their pivots last summer.

But I think water shortages in the Western States are going to make it clear that using underground water to irrigate was one of the biggest blunders of the last one hundred years

I think you're right. Not to mention the fact that center pivot irrigation made it possible to dig up millions of acres of perfectly good range (but sub-standard farm ground) that never would have been farmed otherwise. And that also ties back in to subsidies, because it wouldn't have been worth it to develop into farm ground had they been better controlled.

Most springs (this one was unusually wet), when the wind blows, this area will look like some of the pictures of the Dust Bowl.
There is so much dirt in the air from farm ground that never should have been...



This topic is something that really gets me bent out of shape, in case you couldn't guess.

[Weedsnake]

Originally Posted by itsMeFred

They sure do. There's also a locker right up next to the sale barn. Wray Meat Pack.


And because of the decline in water levels, irrigation from the Republican is impossible. But man, everyone has a pivot, so who needs surface water?
Most pivots, so far as I know, run around 3-400 feet deep. Nebraska has finally started metering water usage for pivots in the last 5-10 years. I'm not sure if CO has anything ongoing, but I do know that down around Burlington, they'd had to shut off their pivots last summer.



I think you're right. Not to mention the fact that center pivot irrigation made it possible to dig up millions of acres of perfectly good range (but sub-standard farm ground) that never would have been farmed otherwise. And that also ties back in to subsidies, because it wouldn't have been worth it to develop into farm ground had they been better controlled.

Most springs (this one was unusually wet), when the wind blows, this area will look like some of the pictures of the Dust Bowl.
There is so much dirt in the air from farm ground that never should have been...



This topic is something that really gets me bent out of shape, in case you couldn't guess.

I'm with you on that.

I was born and raised in SW Kansas, joined the US Navy to see the world. Came back home on leave, must have been sometime in the seventies, and couldn't believe I was seeing fields of CORN. What really got my attention was the center pivot fields in the sand hills along the Arkansas river.

I can see in a few years the water table will be so deep it's not economical to pump it up and that sand will start moving. That should make life out there interesting.

[Morphous01]

Originally Posted by cp1969

Where does it end, with everybody packed into 100 nasty, crime-ridden cities and everything else empty?

There is something incredibly wrong with that concept, if that's where we're headed.

Exactly!!!

[Morphous01]

Originally Posted by concrete it

I think this was a direct result of the goverment farm programs that were supposedly ment to "help" the family farms but instead destroyed them. The only benifit of those programs were for corporate farmers and investors. Soon they will be out also and the goverment or Monsanto will controll it.

Yup, this is true!

[GraniteStater]

Originally Posted by Weedsnake

I'm with you on that.

I was born and raised in SW Kansas, joined the US Navy to see the world. Came back home on leave, must have been sometime in the seventies, and couldn't believe I was seeing fields of CORN. What really got my attention was the center pivot fields in the sand hills along the Arkansas river.

I can see in a few years the water table will be so deep it's not economical to pump it up and that sand will start moving. That should make life out there interesting.

The bottom line is that the subsidies encouraged way to much plowing up of sub-standard land for agricultural purposes that should have been left as grazing land. Corn and soybeans should be grown in the Midwest core and not out in the High Plains. High crop prices might make it attractive in the short-term for farmers, but long-term sustainability of the Ogallala Aquifer is a much more pressing ecological concern in my opinion.

[pvlman]

Originally Posted by [LEFT

quesera[/left];9257117]Ellis County does not have extremely low real estate... not even slightly low. Their home prices have jumped considerably in the past few years. You could always check www.realtor.com after consulting a map to find a general location in which you want to search for a home.

You are correct, but the county has all of the other things

Roccaluma

listed. The reason the prices listed with Realtors are high is that Ellis County is not yet gasping for it's last breath, and Realtors are going to list the most attractive properties that will have the highest prices. No doubt the person who goes to the county spending time their can find a decent modest family home at a reasonable price, is they can bring some money with with them. Looking for a bargain Mcmansion? Forget it, not going to happen. Anyway in this day and age the

impractical

are

looking

for a

Mcmansion

.

[pvlman]

Originally Posted by itsMeFred

This is still done...
Generally speaking, if a town in western KS, NE, eastern CO, etc. is large enough to support a grocery store, they'll also have a packer. (Wray, CO (pop.2000), for example, has two.)

I think most cattle producers don't do it that way anymore because it's not worth the hassle of direct marketing.


I think concrete it is probably right with the complaint about subsidies.
To be sure, it's why so much prime range land in my area has been converted to Center Pivot Land...

But grain subsidies also keep feeding operations' costs lower. This in turn means that mass produced, lower-quality meats, will often be cheaper than purchasing straight from the producer. And if nothing else, the cost if offset by the simplicity of going to the store for smaller quantities when you need them.

I recall the adults at the time 40 or so years ago predicting the corporate take over of the entire food chain, but I believe they though the process would take longer, though the take over isn't complete yet. Those Agricultural producers who have let any not worth the hassle mindset creep in are their own worst enemy, where that mindset is pandemic in the USA, one should be surprised it exists within some agriculture producers. Personally I blame the commodity markets, if I where dictator I'd decree that only those able to take actual physical delivery of the commodities would be allowed to place bids. Glad I'm not dictator because I'd be dead before noon on my first day.