Eastern Iowa Farmer Fall 2020
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dear diary<br />
just truly feel life will never be the<br />
same nor will we soon forget all the<br />
devastation a little virus brought into<br />
this country.<br />
In terms of agriculture, I have a lot<br />
of reservations! I do hope our government<br />
officials continue to press<br />
forward in their investigations into<br />
packer power and how big processors<br />
were able to pay prices below the cost<br />
of production. The packer’s margins<br />
were incredibly high while farmers<br />
were losing money on every animal<br />
they fed and consumers were paying<br />
higher prices. While both were on different<br />
spectrums, the fact of the matter<br />
is, they put themselves and their bottom<br />
line before anyone else during unprecedented<br />
times and that is so incredibly<br />
wrong!<br />
We are thankful so many locals saw<br />
through this madness and went straight to<br />
the farmer and local locker and purchased<br />
meat at reasonable costs and got a great<br />
source of protein while doing so. There is<br />
still plenty of frustrations in the cattle<br />
business currently as we<br />
are seeing much lower prices for market<br />
ready cattle while feeder cattle are seeing<br />
some pretty high prices.<br />
Market ready cattle prices haven’t<br />
changed in weeks, fluctuating a dollar<br />
or two one way or the other, while cull<br />
cows and bulls trend higher. We have sold<br />
multiple bulls in the past few weeks who<br />
have brought more than market ready<br />
steers. Odd! We have questioned whether<br />
we will be able to buy cattle<br />
back when our yards are empty<br />
simply because the margins are<br />
in the red, and we haven’t made<br />
money on cattle sold in months.<br />
From the market cattle aspect,<br />
agriculture has painted a pretty<br />
dismal picture!<br />
None the less, I am so<br />
incredibly grateful to live on<br />
a farm in rural America that<br />
has allowed our children to<br />
grow up mostly untouched by<br />
this unprecedented time. We<br />
have been pretty fortunate to lead a fairly<br />
normal lifestyle that requires dedication<br />
and consistency everyday no matter what<br />
is going on in the world.<br />
While it’s the future for a reason, I have<br />
no idea what it has in store, I just know<br />
I have many reservations about pressing<br />
forward after such a devastating time we<br />
won’t soon forget. n<br />
— To read more entries from Ashley<br />
Johnson’s journal, go to EI<strong>Farmer</strong>.com.<br />
For your farm appraisal needs,<br />
call Ken Kruger!<br />
Independent Licensed<br />
Certified General Appraiser<br />
Keeney<br />
Welding<br />
SINCE 1953<br />
Steel Fabrication<br />
Portable Service<br />
Steel Sales<br />
MIlES, Ia 563-682-7699<br />
MeMber of<br />
—— Appraising farms in <strong>Eastern</strong> <strong>Iowa</strong> since 2004 ——<br />
563-349-3150 • DeWitt, <strong>Iowa</strong><br />
100 <strong>Eastern</strong> <strong>Iowa</strong> <strong>Farmer</strong> | fall <strong>2020</strong> eifarmer.com
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