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  • From: Dan Conine <dconine@bertramwireless.com>
  • To: livingontheland@lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [Livingontheland] Electricity, diesel, etc.
  • Date: Mon, 24 Mar 2008 10:48:45 -0500

Actually, it's going up faster than articles are written.
I'm not buying fertilizers, but my brother's prices went from $400/ton last year to $1100/ton, and that's with locking in an early discount.
Diesel is 4.00/ gallon on the road in Wisconsin.

Not worth starting the truck, but what are you going to do when things have to get hauled?
Most people don't realize that's why gas prices are still at 3.00 -3.50: because they can carpool or choose not to drive as much. People using diesel are trapped in a loop until the economy shifts away from highway transportation, and it's going to take a while before Want-Mart parks that warehouse on wheels.
Corporations are cutting back on UPS and FedEx shipments, but the inertia of the last century of diesel slaves is a pretty big juggernaut, and the train system hasn't been maintained to shift any more cargo that it is right now. People have to be retrained, scheduling has to be rethought, engines and cars have to be built, etc. All things that will only be done AFTER the current system has failed badly enough.

What a Way to Go.

Dan C.

Electricity, diesel, fertilizer prices tough on farmers, ranchers
Mar 23, 11:38 AM EDT
By BETSY BLANEY
AP Agriculture Writer
http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/T/TX_AGR_COTTON_ENERGY_COSTS_TXOL-?SITE=TXSAE&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT


LUBBOCK, Texas (AP) -- South Plains cotton producer Don Langston is eager for a
"big rain."

Without it he'll have to keep irrigation pumps running to water thousands of
acres of dusty, parched land so there's enough moisture to plant this year's
crop in a couple of months.

He figures he'll spend as much as $50 more an acre than he did last year,
when rainfall was plentiful, even by West Texas standards.

"We're going to have to have a good crop just to break even," Langston said. "I'm
OK. Just need a big rain."

But for Langston and other agriculture producers across the U.S., electricity
costs aren't the only concern. Diesel fuel and fertilizer prices are also
weighing on them.

Last year, a farmer could buy a ton of fertilizer for about $450; the price
tag is now closer to $1,000, American Farm Bureau Federation chief economist
Bob Young said.





  • Re: [Livingontheland] Electricity, diesel, etc., Dan Conine, 03/24/2008

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