Feeding America, Days 22-25 of Harvest 2011



Farmer Joe servicing his combine

 So you think your fuel bill is high? This will make you feel better… =) Our day starts out with servicing the combines and tractors. Have you ever wondered how we diesel up the machines? We don’t drive them into town to gas up at the pump, but rather a big “slip tank” is put into the back of the service farm pick-up and it then becomes a mobile diesel station that will go to where the combines and tractors are parked. Then either Cody, our hired man, or the farmer will fill up the tank, which costs about $500 a day to run just the combine. Ouch, but it is a cost of doing business.


I wanted to share that little fuel tidbit with you along with another good link that talks about the high cost of farming. Here is a quote from the article, “Further, the amount of capital needed to get a farm or ranch operation off the ground is staggering. We borrow more money each year to cash flow our operations than most Americans borrow in a lifetime. Here in Texas, some cotton farmers spend $600,000 for a single piece of equipment. That’s just one machine—it doesn’t’ even take into account land costs, fuel costs, seed costs and labor costs needed to grow a crop.” To read more on this, here is the link to The Hand that Feeds Us, http://news.thehandthatfeedsus.org/index000537092.cfm?x=bjRkbvN,bgBrLqFy . So my friends when you hear in the news about “farm subsidies” to help the farmer, it is because of these high costs that many of us in the Ag industry face. Call us crazy, but we love what we do.

A quick update on our harvest, Farmer Joe has been whittling down the Spring wheat fields with the help of Cody and Hale. Farmer Jay is still down at the Tammany farm harvesting garbanzo beans.

We still have some patches of spring wheat by our house that we will harvest on Saturday and we will be able to give our Dinner on the Farm guests an actual ride in the combine.

Take care and feel free to email me at idahofarmwife@gmail.com or leave a comment. I’m getting ready for our 3rd Dinner on the Farm event, of which the first dinner is tomorrow. All my best, Gayle