3 ms·
My father is a (retired) farmer. Wheat is a pretty reliable crop that pays for itself, but you don't really make money on it. So, you grow some wheat, and you g
by goodcanadian 4y ago
My father is a (retired) farmer. Wheat is a pretty reliable crop that pays for itself, but you don't really make money on it. So, you grow some wheat, and you grow other stuff, such as canola, in order to get paid. With the elevated prices, a bit more wheat may have been planted this year, but you have to remember that the prices of the inputs have gone up as well, particularly fertilizer and fuel. Moreover, any land used to grow wheat is not growing something else. In the end, it doesn't make a lot of economic sense to increase wheat production when you can use the land and resources for higher value crops.
- photon12 4y agoThis is highly dependent on the area. My family has a background in wheat farming, I grew up in an area with a lot of family wheat farms, and if you are in an area with good soil and the weather is good you can make a lot of money on a wheat crop even in so-so international wheat price conditions. They rotate in other crops for soil balance but YMMV in terms of wheat profits.
- goodcanadian 4y agoFair enough, different crops do better in different areas. In your case, for reasons of crop rotation (which you mentioned), they are still unlikely to be able to substantially increase wheat production. Farming is one of the most "free market" industries out there. In most cases, everything is already highly optimised.
- drewm1980 4y agoThis is not at all true for the USA. Farm subsidies there are famously massive: https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/blog/2021/11/03/farm-subsidies-harmful-or-helpful/ https://liberalarts.tamu.edu/blog/2021/11/03/farm-subsidies-...