The GOP is handing out bribes — er, I mean subsidies — to farmers in an attempt to keep them happy with the Trump administration’s insane trade wars. A lot of farmers aren’t happy with the situation, at least out loud. We’ll see what they actually think about being screwed financially by the Idiot-in-Chief come election day and whether “sticking it to the libtards” is more important to them than, say, keeping grandpa’s farm in the family or not, you know, filing bankruptcy.
Anyway, it seems that maybe the farm handout as currently proposed is being received as weak tea:
The government plans to give soybean farmers like Tim Bardole 82 cents per bushel now, and another 82 cents down the road if a trade agreement isn’t hammered out. The max a farmer can possibly get in aid is $125,000. Even with the injection of cash, Bardole says it's not enough.
“I don't think anybody producing soybeans has a choice but to take it whether they want to or not…it's still below break-even” he said.
Bardole says in his area soybeans are at $7.70/bushel. He says that $9.30/bushel is his break-even point. At the moment, the bailout will get him less than halfway there…a bailout he says he doesn't want…but has to take.
“No farmer wants subsidies of any kind. The way we want to make money is trade” he said.
It’s not just soybean farmers taking it in the shorts, either. Dairy farmers are looking at hard times ahead as well, with the proposed relief being just a drop in the bucket:
An impact study from the U.S. Dairy Export Council says dairies in Iowa and around the U.S. will have large losses over the next five years with current tariffs. U.S. dairy product exports combined could fall by $115 million in 2018 and $415 million in 2019.
Lower dairy farm-gate prices are predicted to lower dairy revenue by $16.6 billion.
To combat the negative trade impact, the USDA announced $127 million dollars in dairy farmer payments and $84 million in dairy purchases.
Former Secretary of Agriculture and Iowa Governor Tom Vilsack, now the President of the U.S. Dairy Export Council says China has enormous needs of dairy.
The impact study says Chinese tariffs will be 73 percent of farm-gate losses in the next five years.
The corn and hog producers aren’t happy, either:
National corn growers have challenged the amount provided under the program — a penny a bushel — saying an industry analysis puts the damage from tariffs at 44 cents a bushel.
[...]
Some industry estimates show producers are losing as much as $24 a pig. The federal program will provide $8 a head.
But MAGA, right, guys?
I guess we’re going to find out just how willing Republican farmers are to put their money where their vote is, literally, come November. For now, the GOP is dangling the carrot that more aid might be forthcoming in the spring, no doubt in an effort to garner votes. We’ll how willing people are to believe that promise.
Saturday, Sep 8, 2018 · 7:29:55 AM +00:00
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Witgren
Just an addendum to remind everyone that farmer’s financial losses have huge downstream economic effects for their communities, too. A farmer losing $16 a head on hogs even with subsidies or a farmer that’s barely breaking even on his soybeans even with subsidies is NOT going to be very proactive about buying new equipment or investing in their infrastructure or expanding or updating their operations, or for that matter taking a vacation or taking the family out to dinner. That means rural communities in general take a financial hit. Add in the fact that a lot of agricultural equipment manufacturers will be taking it in the shorts from both sides — fewer sales to farmers who are busy just trying to keep their heads above water, coupled with having to jack their prices thanks to steel and aluminum price increases thanks to Trump’s trade wars — and we’ve got a recipe for real future crisis in agricultural areas.