Am I the only one?

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Lucky

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Am I the only one who sees why these guys are having a hard time? I said in another thread that debt doesn't break you but, bad decisions will. Please change my mind

 
Am I the only one who sees why these guys are having a hard time? I said in another thread that debt doesn't break you but, bad decisions will. Please change my mind

$200,000 on 46 acres? I need to go back and check that out/////
 
My thoughts exactly. If he's in S. Texas it's probably 8-10 acres per cow. If that's what you want to do it's fine with me but, you obviously have trouble running a calculator. On top of that they quit making payments and bought more equipment. No wonder a commercial bank wouldn't loan them money. The problem isn't being black the problem is not being business smart.
 
Never noticed where farmers having a hard time and finacially on thin ice had any thing to do with color, just saying. Plenty of white ones have folded up along the way and will in the future. I agree poor money management is definitely color blind.

Buyers are definitely biased about black cattle but not a blacks cattle.
 
True story
My wife's sister from Houston came to visit a few years ago. She walked out onto our back porch and exclaimed "This the kind of farm I want".

She was looking at our 4 acre back yard!
Collage friends from Brooklynn came to see out new house and thought our two acre yard was a park. We took drove 30 min to the our 50 acre farm and they thought it was a nature reserve, like Yosemite.
 
I'm more than a bit skeptical about some of the "facts" and figures in this article.....and know very well that these government programs come with many many layers of bureaucracy.......and always a CYA attitude. I can only remember my father's stories and his implied warning about involvement in the South of the 1940s-60s. My father was just one step above share cropper status and was able to secure an FHA loan in 1936 to buy 119 acres........and then work constantly to bring it back from briars/sweetgum overgrowth...in an era just as mules were being phased out. He soon was serving on several committees that served as guidance on similar FHA loans, boards that worked with the old Soil Conservation Service, and was very aware of the conditions of our black neighbors......both those that occasionally worked for us.....and those residing around us as neighbors. He witnessed the way these committees worked.......and there was very often a" thumb on the scales"...in a negative way.....when the applicants were black.
The local banker was very selective in his lending also........My father knew of one case directly where.....after telling the man...."You know that farm is not worth THAT much!!" proceeded to pay that exact price and ??!!.......well, after my high school days were complete and I traveled on to school and the service, I came back to see....to notice...to observe that the black farmers in this small area were essentially gone.....a few hanging onto 40-65 acres by having another job away from their farm. Squeezed by the "system" Oh a few survived.....well, there's only one in this area that I'm currently aware.
But my dear old Dad's careful nature and his observations allowed him to pay off his loans in a shorter time than normal. I still remember
 
I may have told this story here before. In the early 80's on a Friday evening I was sitting in an "urban cowboy bar". I was talking to a friend of mine who worked for the federal land bank. Friday after a long week he has a three piece suit on. He was raised on a 800 cow ranch out of Deer Lodge Montana. So along comes the guy who ran the mechanical bull at this bar. The girls all referred to him as "cowboy" which he wasn't. He sat down and jumped into the conversation. He kept saying "the Ranch" this and the ranch that. My Montana friend asked just how big is this ranch. 'Cowboy" puffed up all proud and said 11 acres. Montana very quietly said, "calving must be a bitch". It went right over cowboy's head. I just about fell out of my chair.
 
I may have told this story here before. In the early 80's on a Friday evening I was sitting in an "urban cowboy bar". I was talking to a friend of mine who worked for the federal land bank. Friday after a long week he has a three piece suit on. He was raised on a 800 cow ranch out of Deer Lodge Montana. So along comes the guy who ran the mechanical bull at this bar. The girls all referred to him as "cowboy" which he wasn't. He sat down and jumped into the conversation. He kept saying "the Ranch" this and the ranch that. My Montana friend asked just how big is this ranch. 'Cowboy" puffed up all proud and said 11 acres. Montana very quietly said, "calving must be a bitch". It went right over cowboy's head. I just about fell out of my chair.
The folks who shop at Tractor Supply and have horses.
 
There are a few people in my area that have gotten into a bit of a jam, spent money before the check from the government program
showed up. Last I knew they are still waiting on it.
 

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