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Re: [OM] mini-day-out for Zuikoholics

Subject: Re: [OM] mini-day-out for Zuikoholics
From: "Earl Dunbar" <edunbar@xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx>
Date: Sun, 28 Sep 2003 12:53:58 -0400
AG:  You have mentioned large-scale agribusiness and gotten my back up.  But I 
won't go way OT.  I have travelled across IA more than once, and one of my 
uncles (now deceased) lived there for years... Clarion and then Albia.  My 
niece now lives in Bettendorf or Davenport.  The rolling hills in some locales 
can make for some great shooting, esp. in low angle light, etc., etc.

But the bit about following pork belly prices... reminds me of Orren Samuelson 
(sp?) on WGN radio.

Earl aka Canoeman

*********** REPLY SEPARATOR  ***********

On 9/28/2003 at 9:03 AM AG Schnozz wrote:

>I'm just a bit confused about that old Christmas in Summer
>thing.
>
>As far as sheep go, I can't get good lamb here in Iowa.  There
>is a ton of sheep raising around here, but 99.90f them get
>shipped off to the east/west coast or exported.  Come to think
>of it, 99.90f everything raised/grown in Iowa, including
>people go elsewhere.
>
>Can you say "population decline"?  There are only a handful of
>locations in the state that have ANY form of population growth.
>Rural Iowa is dying fast.  It manafests itself in the small
>towns.  Towns that used to have a few stores, some churches, a
>gas station or two and a watering hole now have nothing.  Once
>the watering hole dries up, it's all over.
>
>Is Iowa turning to weeds?  Nope.  A generation ago, a farmer
>family could survive on 500 acres.  Not anymore.  Farms in this
>area now average 2000 acres.  The true "agribusinessmen"
>(farming is a business, not a lifestyle) regularily run 6000
>acres.  This isn't podunk farming either.  We're talking 180
>bushel of corn per acre in a drought.  250-280 bushel per acre
>in a good year.  Imagine this:  the largest combine/harvester
>available doesn't even hold 600 bushel.  It takes an army of
>trucks to support just one harvester.  And those new harvesters
>are FAST!  Of course, they also run $300,000 each!
>
>It takes a whole lot less farmers today than a generation ago.
>
>This next week, I'm going to photograph my jeep next to a wagon
>used to transport corn off of the field and to waiting trucks.
>It holds something like 4000 bushel.  It is huge.  The tires are
>around 10 feet (3 meters) tall.  Takes up two entire lanes of a
>road.  The unloading chute (powered by the PTO) is almost
>two-feet in diameter.  It can unload in about 60 seconds.
>That's a good thing, since the harvestor will fill it's own 500
>bushel bin in three minutes and needs these wagons to be hoofing
>it back and forth.
>
>Sure, there is other things in Iowa besides corn and soybeans.
>Des Moines is a big insurance/finance city.  Cedar Rapids has
>electronics, Iowa City and Ames have research.  It would suprise
>you of the things that come from Iowa.
>
>Still, everybody is tuned into the weather every night and
>following pork-belly futures is one of those things that even
>the children do.
>
>No wonder everybody moves away to Chicago and Denver.
>
>AG-Schnozz
>
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