# sodbusters



## 10-2 (Jan 30, 2009)

So I noticed that around where I live alot of the small time farmers with a few hundred acres are selling their property to big time farmers. When this happens there is usually a dozer on the property within a day and say goodbye to every tree and bush around. Some of the places we (not so much me but my dad and his buddies) have been deer and coyote hunting for 30+ don't have so much as a rabbit on them now. I know it is their land to do with as they please but it kinda ticks me off that they aren't a little more conservation minded. Not only is it hard on wildlife but also there is nothing to catch the runoff when they farm within 6 inches of a waterway. I'm fairly certian they will not go broke if they leave a 10 ft buffer strip along a stream.

I'm not some sort of anti-farmer I just don't like the way the huge operations are doing things.

I've noticed this happening at an alarming rate here in Iowa. I am in my early 20's and I'm just wondering what it will be like when I'm 40.

How do you all feel on the subject? Are you noticing this much habitat loss in your area?

Discuss.


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## dakotashooter2 (Oct 31, 2003)

Same here. They are undoing what their forefathers learned, the hard way, was necessary (Shelter belts and tree claims).

Eventually it will come back and bite them in the a$$ when we get a long term drought. :eyeroll:


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## Call-em (Jan 10, 2009)

They are not doing for the eventual profit. it is get by now, or die.
if you were in the same place as them, you would fill that damn river up to just be able to get 1-2 more rows of corn.

Fertilizer has trippled in one year.

it costs 780.00 an acre right now where i am to plant corn to harvest ready.

200 bushel per acre at 5.00 a bushel is 1000.00 more land, more money.

What happends when it dont dry fast enough and the SNOW gets to the corn?
or what happends when a storm or heat strip hits the corn you may only get 15-60 bushel/acre. or maybe even 100..... 150?
I am a farmer.


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## Plainsman (Jul 30, 2003)

Kind of scarry considering the economic mess we are in and now many farmers are ignoring the things they learned in the 1930's. With the shelterbelts and the land use practices that the Soil Conservation Service (what's their new name again) recommends those things wouldn't happen. Corn last year made visions of dollars dance in their head and I think they are throwing good land stewardship out the window.



> They are not doing for the eventual profit. it is get by now, or die.


That's short sighted. They make be making victims of themselves in the long run.


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## Call-em (Jan 10, 2009)

That is the only way to farm.
they have no choice.
10 years ago if half your corn didnt grow you still paid bills. with the remainder. now days. if 7% dies. your negative.


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## giwoyna5 (Mar 5, 2008)

I can see if you lose 7% of your crop how it would behard to pay for that new combine, new tractor, new pick-up, new snowmobile, your house, your lake cabin, boat and jet skiis. oke:


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## Dak (Feb 28, 2005)

If it is so unprofitable to farm, seems like putting less acres in would be a good idea. :beer:


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## southdakbearfan (Oct 11, 2004)

Kind of what I was thinking. I know about 30 area farmers here, anything from a little over 500 acres to a few really large ones, and not a single one of them are hurting.

Most of them go buy new pickups, 4 wheelers, etc just for the write off, and then go cash the gov't checks.

Fertilizer went through the roof last year, and is right back down where it was before here, kind of like corn, beans and wheat.


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

The Fedral Farm Programs have driven the industry this way. Farmers went along with it, but every big business remotely connected to agriculture has stepped on the gravey train of the Farm Program. Railroads, chemical companies, insurance industry, millers, food processors, lending institutions, bio-fuels, you name it. They put a bigger carrot on the end of the treadmill and farmers had to run faster or get out. And there was individual greed too, can't deny it.

Conservation is intentionally structured cheaper than cropping the ground because all those industries above couldn't get their finger in the pie if it wasn't. Until they pare down the carrot it will continue. I guess "they is us".


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## busdriver (Feb 26, 2009)

this subject falls close to home for our area in central nebraska, not only does this hurt our outdoor oppurtunities, but also our small towns, businesses and schools. seeing this first hand this year with three local schools combining because of the lack of students. small farms are on the decline and with this so are the populations. when a large farmer needs more money they purchase land from the small farmer (who maybe also has a part-time job to help pay the bills) and pay him more than the property is worth, thus making land overpriced and removing the small farmers chances of growing. after purchasing the land is leveled and wells go down and pivots go up. we are currently having water rights issues with kansas and local large farmers because nobody has enough water. if pumping rights go into full effect what happens to the waterfowl who deperatly need the rain water basins. we already have to pump most swamps to be ready for migration, due to the lost of gravity irrigation, and land stewardship. i'm not anti-farming (married into a small family farm) but if things don't change the dust bowl years will be a tropical vacation compared to what is approaching.


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## Dick Monson (Aug 12, 2002)

busdriver, you are exactly right. ND is always behind the curve on these issues because the problems reach us a little later that other states. Water usage and shortages are bound to hit here but our states leaders still refuse to address the issue of draining in ND. We look 5 minutes ahead instead of 50 years.

And sodbuster is the same. Over production of commidities will crush the grain markets again. Sodbuster was intended to avert in some measure both of these problems. But the gov farm program undercuts that intent by encouraging the cropping of virgin ground.


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