By Aaron Myrtle @ Shutterstock.com
Farms are suffering, and the threat to the food supply is increasingly apparent. At LewRockwell.com, a writer known as Southern Catholic Mom highlights four reasons farms are suffering, writing:
We are amidst a terrible drought here in Tennessee. Crops like corn are doing poorer with late planting due to excess rain in early spring, and now drought in early summer. Hay has already spiked in price here and many hay farmers are no longer willing to sell their hay for fear of running out of hay for their own livestock, mostly cattle here. Farmers I know are contemplating selling their livestock if we have a hay shortage, such that this season’s hay won‘t get us through the coming winter season. Hay yields look to be 25-30% down from normal. Reasons for this, besides the current drought, are that this past spring, many farmers chose not to fertilize their hay fields, to cut costs. The fertilizer used on hay fields is chicken litter (chicken poop, a natural and valuable by-product of egg and poultry farms).
Farming families do not have usual yields right now in their gardens, so farmer‘s markets and truck farming are indeed switching toward just feeding our own families.
Reasons for this are:
-The price of fuel. We need diesel on small and big farms. We use it in our tractors and other large equipment, but also for small engines and other applications on the farm.
– The price of animal feed is becoming too much. Just like the lady in the video says, Canadian farmers have experienced a 300% increase in animal feeds. During winter months, especially the farther north you go, farmers must supplement grazing with hay and feed. This past winter, in the Dakotas, thousands of cattle perished in a late snowstorm in May. If we have a shortage of hay here in the South, we will have to cull our herds to feed our own families.
– The cost of equipment and maintenance has jumped. We fix our own equipment on the farms; otherwise, we can not realize a profit.
– Buying new is now old: A small engine replacement part we needed the other day cost $3 last year; it is $8 today. So we are scrounging for used parts, including scraping from neighbors and friends, old equipment piles, and metal bins.
If you’re willing to fight for Main Street America, click here to sign up for the Richardcyoung.com free weekly email.
