I’ve been reading some articles and talking to friends and reference’s to the 1920’s keep coming up, especially the later half, some of the similarities are over production in agriculture, a government that seems to believe in the “freedom to farm” and with trying to spend less I’m guessing that CRP acres will be reduced putting more ground into production, land is greatly over valued, a stock market that is extremely high with the chance of a major drop a possibility, a lot of personal debt, a high money supply, the one oddity is that the metals are moving greatly in the 20’s this didn’t happen. I was wondering with these point what other people are thinking?

From what i have read the 20s here is when farming changed from cotton to tobacco. Overproduction of cotton and the depression killed the price. And now tobacco is mostly gone except for a few large producers. Grain farmers out west are in dire straits now for sure. I am seeing my countys formerly agriculture landscape go to development very quickly as it is the fastest growing county in NC out of 100. County is about to pass a unified development ordinance that limits head of livestock per acre and lots of other things in 691 pages of rules. Long story short your land here is worth more to the government with 100 houses on it than 100 cows on it and their long term goal is to regulate you off of it. Rant over carry on

Metal prices were set by the government and all paper money was backed by gold or silver

My property taxes shot up another $1100.00 this year, after going up the last two as well. That was an unpleasant surprise for today.

Keith

They reevaluated us also a lot of peoples assessments doubled from last year.

Is your tax rate higher or your property valued higher? If the latter do you agree that it is worth what they say it is?

Why do you think CRP acres will be reduced? Some of the crop insurance subsidies should be ended, particularly in poor ground, force it back into pasture, the additional cattle consume corn grown on less acres and we consume the cattle domestically.

The guys who I'm seeing may be in trouble are the ones who kept saying "they don't make any more if it" and bought ground that won't cash flow for 40 years now

They keep raising what they believe my property is valued at. Last year, it supposedly was worth $369,000.00 more than I paid 12 years before for it. I should see what is involved in getting a lower estimation. I don't honestly know if it's a fair evaluation, but it is similar to what sites like Zillow say.

The Ohio conservative governor candidates are mostly talking about doing away with property taxes. I think they should. You don't really own something if it can be quickly taken away if you don't pay a mandatory fee to keep it.

Keith

With reduction in spending CRP and the like are very easy ways to reduce the USDA budget while increasing production and driving down the price further, right now we are looking at a 2 billion bushel carry out and if things go the same as last year it’s easy to add another 1 billion to that and have at least a 3 billion bushel carry out after this year, its next to impossible to feed that much corn.

Some of the things have changed, some are still the same. My mom and dad said that many farms were lost not because they couldn't pay the mortgage but because they couldn't pay the taxes. Then they borrowed the money to pay the taxes and couldn't pay that back, then lost their farm. People that had some money in the bank had it stole when the banks went under and only got 10 cents on the dollar. Many of the bankers came out rich. When they would take farms they would keep the mineral rights from under them because they had to pay no taxes on the mineral rights. The banks themselves were dissolved but many of the stock holders came out rich. Federal insurance on deposits has since helped with that problem along with the bank examiners helped stop some of the inside stealing, unless they are too big to fail of course.
We farmers like to have pride in being in control of conservation but many times the bottom line is what rules. The fox running the chicken house didn't work out well in the dust bowl days and it was soon seen that the group couldn't operate without oversight from big brother. Of course when big brother helps, complete control is always a threat. Putting a chicken in every pot and getting that vote is a big incentive to maintain control. Lets just face it, if there wasn't some oversight in conservation the land would be down the Mississippi. The land isn't lost, just relocated to the Delta, lol. The gov has been watching over us to protect us from ourselves since the days of Joseph in Egypt.
In Plato's ideal society known as the Republic there are 3 main classes. The Kings who rule, the soldier who keep the rule of law and order and the worker bee who does the work. Its the workers job to put the nectar in the honey pot up at the top and if there is any left at the top it will overflow and trickle back down to the worker bee. If he complains he is expendable and easily replaced by those from a segment that hasn't caught on to the system yet. Just be still and pay your consumption tax and be HAPPY, lol!

KeithC,, Did you sign the petition to end all property taxes that's been going around. It's a grass root petition not by someone running for office who will say anything. They had a add in our weekly paper for signing it. They had a location where one could sign it. There were a fair number of people signing it when I went there to sign it. There taxing me for empty lots BECAUSE I could build on them.

Bank shenanigans were the reason bank robbery became such a popular activity in the 30's. Which led to people accepting the NFA. Farmers without debt got by. Not much money but they got by. A few managed to acquire more land. People with debt and those who were renting had the worst of it. The lucky ones had a job they could hang on to.

IMO the whole thing was orchestrated.

Hypothetically if we had 12.5 million acres of CRP converted to pasture and the other half to hay we would have space for 3 million cattle. Would take approximately 225,000,000 bushels of corn to feed those steers out.

We subsiidize CRP and row crops and then blame drought for a lack of cattle and wonder why corn prices are so low.

All that cow gas would help melt some of this snow and ice. Just kidding, lol.

One of the things that has changed from the depression days is that in those days most of the city people still had grand parents or cousins still on the farm and had access to meat, vegetable and fruit. If we had a total melt down today the grocery shelves could dwindle in a matter of days. With no family on the farm how would they gain access to any food.

My grandma's 2 brothers were doctors and one of them couldn't meet a $2500 margin call and was about to lose his farm. My grandma loaned him the $2500 to save his farm. She didn't trust any bank other than a can in the back yard, lol. Uncle Arthur had plenty of business, but none of his patients had any money. They paid him with apples, potatoes and chickens. He would offer my Grandma some of that, but she already had plenty and she needed her money. He couldn't pay her but did pay her when things got better. He even delivered my 3 sisters for free at home. My dad always laughed and said that was for interest on the money she had loaned him, lol. I was the first store bought baby in the family.

In the 30's my Grandma's sister and her husband from Ohio ran a steam shovel and got a contract and they came down here and dredged from Shawneetown up to Hamilton County on what is known as the North Fork drainage. So as Danny said some people had jobs that paid. My dad had one later with the WPA digging ditches building roads for 75 cents a day.

Here is a picture of my Grandma and her sister (the big one sitting on the right). My dad is the one with overalls on and his hands in his pockets. That was is 1925.

Danny is correct banks sucked My grandfather bought an additional 40 acres in 1914 I was amazed to see the paperwork 6 percent interest many receipts for paying the interest nothing on the principle Our church was built in 1927 7percent interest All the stories about money was worthless but there were still bank robbers and bootleggers