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[Lynn Wigglesworth <lynnw1366 AT hotmail.com>]

My kids have spent most of their lives watching me try to make a living 
from the farm. They see the hard work, they know that we have no money. 
I don't think it's unreasonable that they'd want a profession that would 
bring a livable wage. Kids here don't aspire to be lawyers; they mostly 
graduate high school (or not) and get whatever job comes along. Many 
come from farms, but farming isn't even an option for them. Farmers 
can't afford to pay much for help (in PA, farmers can and do pay below 
minimum wage for help), and no one right out of school could afford 
their own farm. I don't know a single farmer that doesn't have off-farm 
income.

Very few people are in a position to buy tons of grain and store it. If 
next year brings a good crop, your corn is worth less than you paid for 
it. And you can't hold it forever. I think that in cold storage, very 
dry corn can be held for several years. In normal storage, it's a year 
or less. That's why food isn't treated like a normal commodity. It's 
perishable. It makes so much more sense to go with the cycle of food; a 
food is only valuable until next year's crop comes in. You store what 
you can use or sell until next year. You make a little this year, lose a 
little next year. That's why it's never a 'get rich quick' scheme.

I have a friend who had a business buying (garden) seed in bulk and 
repackaging it. It was a lot of work, and it's not like you can put seed 
in a closet until it's worth more. Most seed is only good (for practical 
sales purposes) for one year. Most people won't buy seed that's more 
than a year old, even though most will germinate.

Lynn Wigglesworth

bob ford wrote:
> Well every young person has to follow their own star, but I believe the 
> days of a ,even, advanced degrees necessarily providing above-average 
> security are dwindling.  Somebody's kids are going to have to be farmers.  
> We don't all have to hire a lawyer (yet).  We do all have to eat.
> 
> I don't know the gender or age of your children (and it isn't my business), 
> but teenagers can be too easily influenced by media, and media distorts 
> realty and even flat-out lies (As you well know).
> 
> My brother's kids don't listen to anything I tell them (over the phone).  
> They simply follow the path that their friends follow, that the media has 
> encouraged.  
> 
> Our young people now are all so terribly conformist in their pretentions of 
> non-conformity.  Maybe that is the way it always was, and I was too busy 
> doing my own thing to get earrings or spiked hair or tattoes (not that 
> there is anything wrong with that, you probably have eighteen of each; now 
> that I've made that comment).
> 
>   I remember when my two baby brothers got tattoes of their girlfriends 
> names.  My daddy almost exploded, and, of course, neither of them even 
> lives in the same state with the girls, today.
> 
> I can't do like James and buy tons of grain, now, with a strong dollar and 
> weak commodity prices.  'would cost too much to store and eventually 
> transport.  What I have considered , though, other than trying to trade a 
> little in commodity etfs; is buying quantities of good quality seed, while 
> prices are low, and the dollar is strong.  Is that possible?  Will seed 
> keep well?  Where would you buy the best quality seed, that are not in the 
> little "gurney" packages?  
> 
> Maybe I'm being ridiculous ......bobford
> 
> 
> --- On Sat, 10/25/08, Lynn Wigglesworth  wrote:
> 
>>> And, for people who have children about to take out
>> huge student loan debt to attend  college to learn about
>> 'business' or 'law', there are alternatives.. This country, and the world  
>> needs young, smart farmers. ...bobf
> 
>> Haha. I keep telling my kids that, but they want to be able
>> to earn a 
>> living.
>>
>> Lynn Wigglesworth
> 
> 
> 
>       
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