Devin Moon

@GoddessofGrain 💯 Private equity and investment funds have jumped into any industry that’s got great margins and is easily copied/pasted. Vets, car dealers, travel trailers and motor homes. It’s not what’s best for society, like our big ag problems. Just squeeze every last $ from customer

I've actually been thinking about this a lot lately as we see more and more people turning their pets into animal shelters because they can't afford to keep them Vet care has become ridiculously expensive for even the most basic of needs

Our local FFA chapter had their FFA week breakfast this morning for the community. Spent some time looking through the old chapter scrapbooks. In the early 1970’s a large majority of the members had legit livestock operations. Not just a couple show animals for the county fair, but real and profitable herds bred for meat production. A way to learn animal husbandry, business acumen, and work ethic. Now our entire county is fencerow to fencerow two crops - corn and soybeans. All the hogs are in concrete buildings owned by 3 or 4 different corporations, and the towns have shriveled up. I can’t help but think we’ve lost the plot. In the quest for maximum efficiency, we’ve extracted all the value from our own communities. Truck in fertilizer and chemicals by the semi load, haul off the animals hundreds of miles away for processing. The mom and pop tractor dealership who took care of their employees and customers is now part of a 30 store corporate chain. All for maximal efficiency. Extract extract extract.

“Being a good dad is exercising the right amount of negligence” Tony Reed

@cfarms76 I’ve watched all 16 seasons of gold rush so pretty sure you want me on your team

Thinking about renting the farm out and heading to Alaska to mine gold. Who’s in?

@steveconaway1 @BradyD78 I think better stated would be you pay the interest and depreciation. With equipment today the depreciation annually is more than the interest

@BradyD78 I’ve heard it said before & even shared it on here. “You either pay interest (for new equipment under warranty) or you pay equipment repair bills” Up to the individual to decide which one is the lesser of the two evils. 🤷‍♂️ Seems like ones who crave reliability pick the former.

Presentation on farm financial literacy: “A big myth out there is, the newer machinery the lower the repair bills” What are everyone’s thoughts on this? Is it truly a myth or is it reality?

Indeed, Idiocracy is happening much faster than expected

My Venezuela experience as head of trading in the region for Cargill. Cargill was/is the leading producer of critical staple ingredients such as flour, pasta, vegetable oil, and rice in VZ. I am not saying I agree with grabbing the dictator, but I did have a front row seat to the damage a kleptocracy did to innocent people. 1. The government took over our "minute rice" facility at gunpoint because we were "gouging" the nation's poor. The government was never able to run the plant. It never ran again. It was returned years later with no equipment inside 2. There are 1000's of generals in the army. They are each given a slice of the economy to loot. The large number of generals made it difficult to organize a coup against the regime. 3. The government opened grocery stores and sold staples below the cost we sold them to the government. In theory they used petro oil money to lower grocery prices. Our regular grocery outlets were forced out of business. When the government demanded we sell them products below cost we simply had to shut down. The populous became ever more dependent on the government handouts. (PS this is the mayor of New York City's proposal. 4. Dollars- We needed dollars to go buy raw materials like wheat from places like the US and Canada. The government would periodically allocate us some dollars that could only be spent for raw materials and freight. Eventually only the local companies that can and would pay bribes got dollar allocations. We had several facilities closed for lack of raw material 5. My employees liked working for Cargill. The office was an armed compound with access to a gym, high speed internet, global communications, and a weekly box of basic staples. Cargill provided a safe and secure environment if only for the working hours. 6. Employees became very close to others inside the apartment building. Going out on the street with a desperate population was not advisable. 7. I needed wood pallets for feed. We tried to export wood pallets to swap for grain. We refused to pay the bribes it would take to export the pallets 8. I once tried to set up a closed loop wheat planting to flour mill supply chain. A. They came and stole all the seed wheat for food. When we tried to ship in seed wheat in containers via US donors there was no way to get it out of the port without it being stolen 9. Livestock- Our feed business completely collapsed. Even if you could raise a pig, you couldn't defend it from being stolen. People with guns were hungry. 10. Employees- In the end my highly skilled team alone with other highly educated people chose to leave. Cargill often found jobs for them in other Latin countries. The regime was more than happy to see the well-educated leave the country. Setting these employees up with high quality stable jobs after fleeing remains one of the best things I ever did in my career. No one remembers millions in trading earnings. This is a short list. In my opinion the first money spent needs to happen now and it needs to be food. The US is already on the clock. The current regime does not care if it starves the population. The orgy of theft will actually accelerate if they believe their days are numbered. VZ should be an outstanding customer of US grown ag products. Rice, bread wheat, veg oil ect. Feed the people first. Jeff Kazin Former head trading Cargill

@ElliottHenders7 @DamianPMason @PetersenFarms I would definitely tune in for this

@DamianPMason @PetersenFarms It would be hard to say no to you Damian. I make anything work.

How is this right? The American taxpayer (on average) has just involuntarily been conscripted to work for these farm payments to the tune of $1.53 a week. And for what, so we can export cheaper commodities to other countries? #thanksataxpayer

@kperlik In my experience people you know or people who know people you know are a way better place to start. A vouch goes a long way. Just know it’s a journey of finding those good people and learning the different skill set of hiring and managing people.

Alright X, where does a farm find a decent employee for a mixed farm? Not just a steering wheel holder, not crap jobs only. Somewhere in between. Kijiji and indeed are a complete waste of time it seems like.

I’ve wanted to do this for years, haven’t seen a sprayer done up. Parked it on the local highway, hope it makes some memories for the little ones. #merrychristmas #farm #sprayer #johndeere

Can your 4 year old back up a gooseneck? #farmkids

@FarmerFrost I’ve got a sister seed truck, won’t go anywhere fast but reliable and can’t beat that price!

Bought this 1996 international 4700 for 4,500 with 112,000 miles. I’m going to replace the old c60 I use for a seed truck. Nearly zero rust as it served as a trash truck in Moab for the duration of its life. Modern air brakes, modern synchronized 6 speed, modern cab, just missing AC!

Talent in ag doesn’t always live where you’d expect. Some of the sharpest, most capable people I know are working from small towns most people haven’t heard of. They’re running operations, raising kids, feeding calves, and building businesses and brands, often all in the same day. It’s a reminder that impact isn’t about location. You don’t need a downtown office to be part of something great. What matters is giving people the right tools, clear expectations, and a team that trusts and values the work they do. When you support people this way, they thrive. They solve problems, grow the business, and create value in ways that surprise even the most seasoned leaders. And that’s how operations succeed long term, by trusting and empowering the people who are actually in the dirt every day. Great work comes from people, not places. And when we recognize, invest in, and empower talent wherever it lives, we strengthen the future of agriculture itself.

@PetkerFarm @silvopasturist That seems like a broad statement, there is a bunch of variables there. Are you implying that it’s due to water/wind erosion from the growing of corn?

@silvopasturist Wait, 3lb of soil per acre per gallon? Or by what measurement? How many pounds of grain goes into a gallon of ethanol? This sounds like fuck all to me... How many pounds of soil get consumed by the pound of pickled cucumbers I supply?

For every gallon of E15 made a farm loses just over 3 pounds of soil. Why farmers would want commuters driving to bullshit jobs to burn their soil is beyond me.

@JasonHowell10 Did they ever figure out who was doing it and why?

Any of you cowboys across the country ever experience anything like this? I remember hearing stories from my neighbor that was Sheriff at the time. Pretty creepy

@CowBizGuy @bullishboiler @TheDailyCowman I’d agree with that logic. While that’s a pile of money it’s a small enough chunk for a moderate sized basin farmer to bite off and grow acres.

@bullishboiler @TheDailyCowman @mooncustomag Unless it’s close to another parcel I doubt it’s farmland reserve (Mormon church). They like the big stuff but could be wrong.

Things are pretty bleak Nobody wants to farm anymore *cough cough* 283 acres $ 5,380,000

@TSmith1867 Agree. A dirty filter cleans better than a clean filter.

Over 1000 acres. Started with a professionally cleaned filter, and so long as the filter light doesn't come on, dont F with it! Every time you crack that thing open you ARE letting dust in.

@LowBoomLowDrift @joejansen1 It would be interesting to see those numbers. To me that is the biggest expense in owning a sprayer. Makes it hard to justify new or slightly used they depreciate so fast

@joejansen1 I know exactly what it is when they get traded in.

How much fuel does your sprayer burn ? Gallons per hour? Gallons per acre? I ask this question to farmers often. Very rarely do they know the answer or track it 🤷‍♂️

As I am “in real estate” … this is a bad take. The sad truth is two fold: One, “we” are the problem. I watch every day. The “market” (of which is made up of readily willing buyer and sellers) are too willing to OVER PAY - Every day I say to my self WTH are people thinking. 🧵