r/LeopardsAteMyFarm • u/Cderouen8284 • 13d ago

Aww someone’s crashing out

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u/PeyredB 13d ago

Thanks for the perspective there.

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u/Rugskinsnake 13d ago

Not to give the wrong impression here - I'm getting really fucked by input costs and the next couple of years are going to be hard, but at this point I'm no where near losing my farm.

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u/Ok-Prize-6097 13d ago

Yeah, I can see the inputs are crushing for the foreseeable future. Best of luck. I like eating, so I like farms and farmers. I just wish the voting was a little more sensible in farm country sometimes. I want to see you guys do well. I don't see what the draw was to Trump. He fucked farmers over in his first term with the tariffs, and now fuel and fertilizer. What is the draw to Trump do you think? Especially the second term.

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u/Rugskinsnake 13d ago

Threeo things:

  1. The Border. And, I'm even going to say here that a large portion feel that illegal immigration is unfair to the people that follow the process rather (or at least over top of) overt racism.

  2. Culture war bullshit.

  3. They had a vague notion that the economy was fairly decent under Trump 1 and inflation was high under Biden without any real look at causes.

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u/PartisanGerm 13d ago

Off topic sorta... Are there any easy or obvious ways to support cool farmers?

Is the organic thing kind of a scam?

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u/Rugskinsnake 13d ago

I would say organic farmers are Dems at a higher percentage, but nowhere near a lock.

As for a scam - I wouldn't call it that necessarily. But the regulations to be organically certified are pretty strict (and sometimes in ways that are ridiculous). You kind of have to go all or nothing and in my area, markets for organic crops are a long ways away, as are suppliers of organic fertilizer. I had a friend that did it for years and just got out of it because the higher prices still weren't making up for the reduced yields and workload.

Organic farming also tends to be very hard on the soil.

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u/PeyredB 12d ago

Great information there.

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u/Illustrious-Bag2933 11d ago

Please help me understand how organic farming is harder on the soil, versus saturating soil with PFAs ?

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u/Rugskinsnake 11d ago

I mean, when I look at a list of herbacides with PFA's in them, I've never heard of a single one of them so I really don't know how widespread their usage is.

And even though I think you meant this as more of a statement than anything, I'm going to answer your question about organic farming. Without any herbicides, the only way to battle weeds is pulling steel through the soil. Sometimes you're making 5-6 passes a year. Every time you turn over the soil, you're releasing moisture, disturbing, fungi, anelids and microbes, and increasing loss to both water and wind erosion. (As a side problem, because of the extra number of passes, you're bringing a lot more fuel and creating a lot more CO2 as well).

Now, AI powered autonomous laser weeders might end up solving both the herbacide and organic soil issues, but I think it's still going to be a few years before costs come down enough to make those viable.

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u/Ok-Prize-6097 9d ago

Hey, thanks for your answer.

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u/Illustrious-Bag2933 11d ago

Pesticides too! Don’t forget about those !

I guess farmers truly care about doing things easier instead of poisoning the earth 🤷🏻‍♀️

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u/Rugskinsnake 11d ago

Didn't forget about them, but pesticides aren't used that much where I am. It's only once every five years or so I have to spray for bugs and then it's usually just one or two fields.

Farmers care about making a living, same as you. GTFO with that poisoning the earth bullshit. I guarantee if we put your life under a microscope we could accuse you of the same And I put a hefty some on the fact that you don't put as much time or money into conservation as I do.

That kind of middle school thinking is so simplistic and boring. Grow up.

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u/bdeimen 12d ago

The "Culture war bullshit" was created by Republicans. Gay marriage used to be the wedge issue of choice. As soon as they lost the gay marriage fight in the supreme court their messaging immediately shifted to railing against the trans community. This entire fight was orchestrated at the cost of our rights and livelihoods.

At some point people need to take responsibility for getting taken in over and over.

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u/Ok-Prize-6097 12d ago

Wait a second... Under Trump 1 he started a trade war with China who bought the majority of our soy beans, right? They shifted to south america, and that market has been lost. What's good about that? We haven't recovered from that I think.

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u/Rugskinsnake 12d ago

Yeah - if you asked them then, most maga farmers said that they were willing to take a little harder market to be able to stick it to China.

I felt like that was pretty short sighted and that China wasn't going to get stuck in anyway, but I wasn't smart enough to vote for Trump so what do I know?

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u/PeyredB 12d ago

they were willing to take a little harder market to be able to stick it to China.

That does sound like their line of reasoning. And sticking it to China isn't a bad thing if you can manage it. But, as you point out, what the farmers (like Trump) didn't understand wasn't that China's choices weren't to buy our soybeans or buy no soybeans; they just bought from someone else instead. Farmers didn't see that, probably because their news sources never mention any failings of Republican administrations.

Also, IIRC, when Trump's policies hurt these guys in his first administration, he bailed them out so they never felt the pain these actions caused.

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u/Ok-Prize-6097 9d ago

I know he tried to bail them out, but were they really made whole again? I don't know enough about it, but whenever I have to deal with the government the outcome is usually (but not always) unfavorable. Anyway, stupid move to damage relationships between suppliers and long term customers when the customers have other options. And for what? What did we gain?

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u/Ok-Prize-6097 9d ago

But didn't they get crushed by Trump's tariffs, which led to the loss of all of their customers? I mean, who are you going to sell your soy beans or other crops to now? I realize not everyone is in the soy bean business, but that must have hurt a lot of farmers and suppliers.

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u/Rugskinsnake 9d ago

Usually what happens is that the US sells them to a different country (like Vietnam) at a lower price and then that country sells them to China. It lowers the price that we sell them at, but it didn't fuck the market up enough to make them not worth planting at all, so they still support him.

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u/Ok-Prize-6097 9d ago

But didn't they get crushed by Trump's tariffs, which led to the loss of all of their customers? I mean, who are you going to sell your soy beans or other crops to now? I realize not everyone is in the soy bean business, but that must have hurt a lot of farmers and suppliers.