So saw an interesting piece while channel surfing about 'crop abandonment' rates. Maybe someone who is a professional 'large scale' farmer can comment.
But what I gather is that a lot of crops were planted, rice and wheat in particular, before the prices on everything totally spiked. Farm planting loans did not account for the price hikes. So a lot of farmers can't afford to buy the diesel and chemicals needed to bring the crops to maturity and harvest them. Plus concerns about commodities prices (are other countries having good years?). Anyway, the result is that they are not going to maintain or harvest crops. The math says it's better to let them die in the fields than to harvest.
Also on Thursday something called the "Acreage" report is coming out Thursday from Ag Dept. It forecasts the harvest, how much is planted, how much is fallow, looks at abandonment, etc. And is predicted to be a bloodbath and predicting very serious reductions in output.
May be interpreting this wrong... but I am sure some of you follow this stuff for a living. Does 'Thursday' mean anything? Or is it just stats that don't translate to the grocery aisle? Seems like it would. But what do I know?
Sirhr