Glaringly absent from Congressman Dusty Johnson’s taxpayer-funded pro-Trump propaganda is any mention of the decline of agriculture under Il Duce’s reign. Even Dusty can’t spin the fact that Trump has pounded South Dakota farmers with destructive tariffs and propped them up with socialist bribes.
The USDA’s latest crop value report shows that the value of all crops produced in South Dakota in 2019 dropped 22%, from $5.849 billion to $4.559 billion. That’s $1.29 billion less in farmers’ pockets, and $1.29 billion less circulating at Cenex and Runnings. North Dakota’s total crop value declined 11.9%, while Minnesota only saw an 8.6% drop. Iowa produced 3.9% more in crop value, and Nebraska upped its crop value 5.5%. Nationwide, the value of all crops produced dropped 9% to a lower total than in each of the last three years of the Obama Administration.
Soybean prices bounced back a little in 2019 from $7.97 per bushel in 2018 to $8.40 last year, but they are still below what Obama left us in 2016. We produced $1.228 billion worth of soybeans last year, down from $2.001 billion in 2018, $2.157 billion in 2017, and $2.329 billion in 2016.
Corn prices actually ticked higher than they were at the end of the Obama Administration, from the $3.20–$3.34-per-bushel range during Obama’s last three years, $3.09 in 2017, and $3.38 last year to $3.70 in 2019. But the value of total production dropped from $2.628 billion in 2018 to $2.098 in 2019. Total corn value in 2014, 2015, and 2016 topped $2.6 biagrilcullion; Trump corn hasn’t beaten Obama corn yet.
Donald and Dusty may claim that Trumponomics works, but they are leaving Trumpistani farmers in the ditch.
I have been in situations that look like some of these photos. I ache for the owners of those machines. It is VERY hard to cure the problems. It involves heavier machines with very long cables, and often involves breaking things that are VERY expensive to fix. I have pulled tractors in two trying to unstick them.
Stuff like this is one of the reasons I am now driving long distances on asphalt and concrete, eschewing even good gravel roads most of the time.
The extreme wet weather and prevent planting of crops had more to do with lower crop value than any of Trumps trade war.
Used to be a shortage of grain, regardless of the reasons, resulted in higher prices due to greater demand for less product.
drumpf’s idiotic trade wars took away much of the demand for US ag products and his world’s greatest negotiating skills has done nothing to restore those markets. drumpf excels in getting tools to believe every word he spews, no matter how laughable it is on its face.
What exactly improved for farmers in the new trade deals? Farmers were forced to store another year’s crops because the market price was too low to even break even. If you weren’t one of the favored “biggies” you got basically nothing in the way of bailouts.
Greg intelligently highlights the ag devastation nosing into SD from global warming. Welcome on board to help us liberals solving this big (existential) crisis.
Perhaps you can document your initial statement.
I think if I’d ever stuck a tractor that bad I’d have just jumped in after it.
The weather didn’t helped froze enough to create ice during harvest but water underneath and ground not solid. These very pictures
Are real, we fell thrunwith combines 4 times on one field. Took 2-3 tractors at times to pull out. Where it should have been dry was wet underneath and what should have been wet, was able to harvest. The extra expense Was quadrupled to day the least, all for lower market prices. Keep voting for him people, even in the soup lines he is driving us into, they still love him
“These findings suggest a substantial impact of mechanized bots in amplifying denialist messages about climate change, including support for Trump’s withdrawal from the Paris agreement,” states the draft study, seen by the Guardian. https://www.motherjones.com/environment/2020/02/if-you-see-a-tweet-about-the-climate-crisis-theres-a-1-in-4-chance-its-a-bot/
China cancelled purchases of US pork and soybeans last month. Didn’t hear about it, did you?
China did recently buy US sorghum, but not the 35 billion bucks they allegedly pledged to buy in one year.
I think Mike is reading something like this article, showing China’s purchases are up from trade war levels but down from the status quo antebellum.