Rain, Rain go away.....?

Just look at this rain gauge! I dumped almost 2" of rain out of this in the first 2 weeks of August. Now there are a lot of different opinions of the rain at this point. If you are a rancher, we call this "the million dollar rain." Meaning it could not have come at a better time, it softens the existing grass, brings on new growth, settles the horrible dust and renews the land for the upcoming fall season. If you are a hay farmer and had your 2nd crop hay down the rain could not have come at a worse time. It all but ruined the 2nd crop, we are even hearing reports of hay being chopped and blown back on the fields, not even worth baling. And then there are the barley and wheat farmers, this rain also could not have come at a worse time. It came right as farmers were beginning harvest and made the fields and the grain too wet to harvest. What does that mean? The grain starts sprouting and molding in the heads, while still in the field. What does that mean? The grain in not useable by the grain companies at closer to $5.75/bushel, now the farmers can only sell it for feed at around $3.00/bushel! This is terrible for the farmers, but it is also agriculture. Lots of reports of a total loss of the wheat and barley crop in East Idaho, only time will tell. Today it will hopefully be dry enough to start cutting again and get the grain done before potatoes officially start around the 25th.

I often hear that agriculture is like a double-edged sword. In order for one commodity to do really well, another commodity or two have to have some type of loss. Sad that we almost have to hope another producer has struggles so our industry will pick up. But this is the ag cycle, this is life in agriculture. When grain is up, corn is down. When corn is up, cattle are down, etc. We as producers have been on an extremely good ride for at least 8 years that I know of since being in the lending business, I am sad to say that it is about time for a little down turn to the markets to bring us all back to reality. And even though cattle at ridiculous highs, they too will have their time.



We should as beef producers should be thankful for this time and count our blessings. Plan for the future when things are not as bright. Agriculture is the best life I know, but it's also one of the hardest, hence my full-time job in town. But at the same time, I still deal with the down turn to the full extent at my job in town professionally every single day. Stupid occupation? No. I GET to live the life I love and deal with agriculture and it's people every day. Some days that's good and some days it's not as good.