colson04
Senior Member
I personally have never received government assistance or payments. I take it kind of personally when others accuse that we all do.
When the ag service company killed off our non roundup crops or miss apply our nitrogen, it had nothing to do with our directions. They have a computer system that tracks what is planted where for each client. They knew what we had, and where we had it planted because it was their recommendation. We hire them specifically to watch over the crops for pests, plan our fertilizer program, help select crop varieties to be planted, perform soil analysis on a regular basis and to apply various sprays as necessary to maximize production. It's not much different than hiring a shop to perform Preventative Maintenance and service on someone's fleet of trucks (or cranes). If the shop used the wrong lubricant to the detriment of an engine or failed to perform a proper allignment and prematurely wore out tires or some such thing, the owner of the equipment that is paying for the service would demand some sort of recompense for the shops inability to do what they were paid for.
There's a lot of money on the line no matter who's business it is or what the business is. When a service provider makes an internal communication error or fails to properly perform it can quickly take you from mild profit to sharp loss. We never went bankrupt because of it, but it was certainly an unexpected blow that limited our bottom line. Any company, no matter the industry, can relate and feel that pain. And no, crop insurance does not help in those situations. It basically only protects the farmer in event of catastrophic loss like hail.
As for CRP, I don't know of any farmer that owns land that participates. I know several non-farming land owners that do, and it's the land owner that gets that check. It equates to the cost of land rent, which is about $100/acre in our area. With all the dairy in my area competing for acreage, there aren't any local farmers giving up something they can put manure on. Same goes with the set aside program. It's just not happening here.
When the ag service company killed off our non roundup crops or miss apply our nitrogen, it had nothing to do with our directions. They have a computer system that tracks what is planted where for each client. They knew what we had, and where we had it planted because it was their recommendation. We hire them specifically to watch over the crops for pests, plan our fertilizer program, help select crop varieties to be planted, perform soil analysis on a regular basis and to apply various sprays as necessary to maximize production. It's not much different than hiring a shop to perform Preventative Maintenance and service on someone's fleet of trucks (or cranes). If the shop used the wrong lubricant to the detriment of an engine or failed to perform a proper allignment and prematurely wore out tires or some such thing, the owner of the equipment that is paying for the service would demand some sort of recompense for the shops inability to do what they were paid for.
There's a lot of money on the line no matter who's business it is or what the business is. When a service provider makes an internal communication error or fails to properly perform it can quickly take you from mild profit to sharp loss. We never went bankrupt because of it, but it was certainly an unexpected blow that limited our bottom line. Any company, no matter the industry, can relate and feel that pain. And no, crop insurance does not help in those situations. It basically only protects the farmer in event of catastrophic loss like hail.
As for CRP, I don't know of any farmer that owns land that participates. I know several non-farming land owners that do, and it's the land owner that gets that check. It equates to the cost of land rent, which is about $100/acre in our area. With all the dairy in my area competing for acreage, there aren't any local farmers giving up something they can put manure on. Same goes with the set aside program. It's just not happening here.