Howdy friends and neighbors, well let’s talk some ag markets for a spell. Commodity prices are all pretty good at the present time. As I write this column, we have $7 wheat, $5 corn, $12 soy beans, $1.40 cotton, $80 crude, $4 natural gas (not so hot) and $110 hay. But in what I handle the most, beef cattle; we have $1.50 four weights, $1.20 feeders and $1.04 fats! That’s record high! Cotton, feeder and fat cattle are currently at all-time record highs on the futures board. Now, that’s a stimulus plan!!!!!
With all the above mentioned I still hear state elected folks whining about being broke. Well, elected ones, mark my words that with record high cattle and cotton prices as well as good wheat, corn, bean, peanut and crude oil prices and a livable natural gas price the state coffers will soon be replenished so y’all can blow it. I’m tired of them talking about how bad things are in this state! Bologna! This state has the same tax revenues it had a few years ago when we had plenty of money in a state budget. According to the Social in-Security Administration the cost of living hasn’t gone up so why can’t this state function on the same budget it had several years ago?????
We are in fine shape in Oklahoma. Don’t think so? Look to the east and west coasts. Those states are BROKE! Why? Glad ya asked. Here’s what’s under my hat.
The state of Oklahoma is just fine because we have plentiful God given natural resources and we use them. (Period.) Thank goodness for the common sense folks that step up and run this state that continue to support the energy and agriculture sector. Over on the left coast the folks in Cali-broke-fornia continue to kick their energy and agriculture sector in the teeth. They simply cannot figure out why they are broke and why industry is running back to the Midwest. (Like Boeing for instance.) Plus, the cost of living keeps going up there because they must tax, fee, regulate, fine, and hamper anyone that might have a chance of creating wealth. California shut off thousands of acres of fertile, highly productive specialty crop acres to help a non-native minnow that got into their canal system. Liberal judges forced USDA to destroy Round-Up ready sugar beets because they’re a “bio-tech” crop. Yeah! You can spray it once with one harmless chemical instead of several passes of other chemicals. You can no-till them which means less fuel and more “carbon” retention in the soil. Despite such efficiencies, you can’t grow ‘em in California.
I go against the flow here. Oklahoma is sitting pretty. We are developing and using new oil and gas recovery technologies. This state has only just begun developing our wind resources so we can sell “green” energy to the right and left coasts. (Cash only.) And my industry, agriculture, is still a strong second to energy in gross receipts in this state. Energy and agriculture create wealth by converting natural resources into consumable products. We pump it, dig it and grow it out of the ground and harvest it from the sun and the wind. Our products don’t come from foreign suppliers, they come from the ground you walk on and the sun and wind on your face!
I’m Monte Tucker and that is what’s under my hat.
I’ll leave you with one of my favorite quotes, “Man owes his every accomplishment and very existence to a thin 6 inch layer of top soil and the fact that it rains!”
