Harvest is OVER.

I got back from visiting the grandsons on Nov. 21st and Mike finished up harvesting on Nov. 24th. The yields were better than expected,this is a good thing; but of course we didn't have enough grain contracted ahead of time for the higher price. We saw an all time high of $7.00 a bushel on corn and it is now $2.93 and a high of $15.00 a bushel for soybeans and now they are $7.00. For those of you that don't know a lot about farming let me explain a bit. If we sold 1000 bu of beans for $15.00a bushel that's $15000.00 now we get $7.00 a bushel which would be only $7000.00 total. Do the math, we lost alot of money not knowing when to sell at the high. (It would have bought me many airline tickets to see the kids)
Farming is a BIG GAMBLING GAME.( We don't have to go to the casino to lose money.) Just so you don't think this money is all profit, it's not. There is the expense of the seed, chemicals, fertilizers, fuel,insurance, labor hired, cash rent of the ground and the repairs on all equipment (tractors, combine, disc, sprayer, planter, chisel, etc). The price of a tractor or combine can average around $200,000.00 (depending on the size and if you buy new or used.)
Harvest was later this year because we had such a wet spring and could not get the seed in the ground like usual. Then mother nature decided to give us plenty of moisture and we had to replant several acres (another added expense....twice the seed, fuel, time etc.) Did I forget to tell about our labor? Guess the time it takes to raise all this good food is sometimes donated since we don't make much of a profit. Oh well, our bellies are always full.
Mike finished his fall field work this past weekend and applied part of his anydrous for next spring.
Sorry if I am boring any of you; but I just wanted to get this down in writing about the strange year we had.