Winter is definitely here. Two days last week saw -28 C at night. I can much better handle this -9 C or -10 C at night. If we have to have winter, a little bit on the light side is OK with me.
On those -28 C nights my 7.3 L environmental polluter did not want to start even though he was plugged in. I tried him but he just bucked a few times. I ran the battery down. I let him sleep for a couple of days then I got my battery booster out and started my F-250 gas who wasn't plugged in. We boostered with him, too. The diesel finally started. It brings me to the belief that the current F-350, 7.3 L environmental polluter is the first, the last and only diesel I will ever buy. The mileage hasn't been any better and I just want something I can start and go somewhere. Diesels are good if you need to pull a load but most of the time the load is only me.
For you hoar frost believers, I have marked May 27 and 28 as traces. If you believe in following the wind too, mark May 28 as windy. Nice sun out today, six months later should be sunny also. Mark June 1 also, it would appear to be a good one.
On the home front, son Todd and his hunting friends, Terry and Pete from British Columbia, consented to stop long enough to eat dinner Thursday. Dedicated hunters don't like to waste time eating! They were down to one white tail tag left. Apparently Terry was too fussy and was taking some good-natured ribbing. He said he didn't want to take a little one that still had milk on its lips. Beverly put on a real feast and we all ate too much and so I had to have an after dinner nap. The hunters left but I don't know how much hunting they did. Probably napping in the truck on top of a hill somewhere. I think they just like driving around looking at the countryside. Some deer might fall but it's just an excuse to be outside, touring around. I don't hunt, but I like touring around looking at the country. We have a beautiful, breathtaking countryside in Saskatchewan. There are more beautiful spots to look at within 20 miles from my house than you could shake a stick at. What a great place to live even when it is -28 C. You know the - 28 C is not going to last!
I need to get my snow plow tractor running and clean out by the bin yard so I can clean seed. It is all in the elevator, so I just have to get the grain truck running and out of my yard. I also need to get the grain auger set up at the bin. This was all going to happen so I hired a person but she quit on me. One day! I needed a young person to tramp through the snow to plug things in, get stuff ready, help move the auger, hop up and roll back the tarp. All that sort of stuff. Now it is just me and my wonkie knees.
Alec McDonald from Turtleford phoned me. He told me he liked my column but wanted me to point out the disparity between the oil prices and the wheat price. Back in 1951 he said, a bushel of wheat bought a barrel of oil. He said there was a chart on the Internet. I was checking around but couldn't find it. I am probably not smart enough!
There is a great disparity in what we get for our wheat compared to what other organizations get for their products. Just south of Waseca on land I used to rent for 21 years is an oil development. There are seven wells on one quarter, seven on the next, across the road is another four wells and a battery and water disposal. All built in the last two years. This outfit makes more money in one day than I grossed in two years.
If you want to talk about disparity, what about the price of wheat at $6 per bushel compared to $9 last year. What other business must suffer a one third reduction in the price of what they are selling. It's the same for canola. It was $15 a bushel last year and is fighting to stay above $10 a bushel now. We have had a small reduction in the price of nitrogen fertilizer, 10 cents a pound, but that commodity was grossly overpriced. We used to be told that the price was tied to the price of natural gas. That is now clearly a bunch of bull ommpapa. The price is determined by the maximum the market can pay. There is no competition as big companies have bought each other out left and right. The only hope we have is Farmers of North America are getting finances in place to build a fertilizer plant. I am wishing them well.
Doesn't it appear too handy that our grains prices have been neatly reduced by one third? Where are the buyers who bought wheat at plus $9 a bushel? What happened to marketing freedom if the price is just magically set down one third? Where is this competition? Every company has the same price!! I think the farmers have been sold a "pig in the poke." Will the price next year magically be $4 a bushel?
Disparity isn't new. I used to rent that land the oil wells are on. The landlord liked racehorses and he had good horses. He had a racehorse that won a lot of races. One year, I had a good crop, but that racehorse grossed more than I did all year! I am trying to feed people, buying fuel fertilizer and machinery and scrambling to get done. The racehorse runs a couple of minutes a week. How does that compare?
I know all about disparity and agriculture playing second fiddle. The price of fuel today is related to greedy governments. In the price of fuel they admit to having about half as taxes. There is a lot more than that all down the food chain as companies are adding up their expenses and they put in enough margins to cover their taxes. I think the real figure is closer to three quarters of the fuel cost is taxes
Joke of the week from Bev Stewart. Two old ladies were at the teashop one morning when one says to the other, "Say Mary, that looks like a suppository sticking out of your ear." The other old lady pulls it out and looks at it and says, "Oh my gosh! Now I know where my hearing aid went! Yikes!!Oooooh Noooo! Much better when Bev tells it with the hoot and all the cackling. You can't help but laugh with her and let me tell you we all love the jokes she shares with us!
