stocky
Well-known member
Cattle are down alot here. 4-7 weight calves are down from 30-50 dollars per hundred in the last 5 weeks. Some of the plainer calves down more than 50 dollars per hundred. Slaughter bulls down 25-30 dollars and slaughter cows are down about 15 dollars on good ones and 25 dollars per hundred on plainer cows. The cows to go back to the farm havent fallen too much, they are still within 100-200 per head of what they were. They are way too high for what the calves are bringing.
There is no shortage of money to borrow in this area. The banks are trying to get people to borrow money. I checked last week at FCS (the old Farm Credit Service) They have plenty of money to lend. So far, they havent had very many farmers come in for emergecy loans and extensions, but unfortunately that will probably change when the farmers have to sell their calves at these prices and then try to pay the fertilize bill and make the machinery and vehicle payments. The interest rates I was quoted for a 30 year land loan were 6.0 for a three year adjustable, 6.8 for 5 year adjustable, and 8.4 for 30 year fixed. I didnt ask about 1 year adjustable.
The biggest fertilize dealer in the area went out of business. Most of the farm stores that sell bulk fertilize have declined to order fertilize for next spring because they will have to pay up front and it is around 1,000 per ton for them to order it. I used to use 40 tons each spring but did not put any on this past spring. The dealer I use still had 160 tons left from last spring a couple of weeks ago and he is selling it at last spring prices to try and get rid of it and he isnt ordering any more. He is not going to pay a few million dollars up front for fertilize and then not be able to sell it. Those dealers risk bankruptcy if they order fertilize.
There is no shortage of money to borrow in this area. The banks are trying to get people to borrow money. I checked last week at FCS (the old Farm Credit Service) They have plenty of money to lend. So far, they havent had very many farmers come in for emergecy loans and extensions, but unfortunately that will probably change when the farmers have to sell their calves at these prices and then try to pay the fertilize bill and make the machinery and vehicle payments. The interest rates I was quoted for a 30 year land loan were 6.0 for a three year adjustable, 6.8 for 5 year adjustable, and 8.4 for 30 year fixed. I didnt ask about 1 year adjustable.
The biggest fertilize dealer in the area went out of business. Most of the farm stores that sell bulk fertilize have declined to order fertilize for next spring because they will have to pay up front and it is around 1,000 per ton for them to order it. I used to use 40 tons each spring but did not put any on this past spring. The dealer I use still had 160 tons left from last spring a couple of weeks ago and he is selling it at last spring prices to try and get rid of it and he isnt ordering any more. He is not going to pay a few million dollars up front for fertilize and then not be able to sell it. Those dealers risk bankruptcy if they order fertilize.