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Pittsfield: Farmers brace for fertilizer, diesel fuel costs (Maine)

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jpak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-17-08 07:50 AM
Original message
Pittsfield: Farmers brace for fertilizer, diesel fuel costs (Maine)
http://bangornews.com/news/t/midmaine.aspx?articleid=161698&zoneid=182

PITTSFIELD, Maine - When it comes to this spring’s planting, Maine farmers are facing a double whammy: both the devil they know - increasing fertilizer costs - and the devil they don’t - rocketing fuel prices.

Farmers are watching diesel fuel prices carefully and have no way to predict where the gauge will stop when planting time arrives.

But higher fertilizer costs are something they are already paying. A ton of fertilizer that cost between $300 and $400 last spring will easily cost $1,000 this year — that’s about $500 an acre for a vegetable farmer, a 300 percent increase.

"Another 25 to 30 cents higher on fuel or fertilizer and we’ll be in a crisis situation," Maine Department of Agriculture Commissioner Seth Bradstreet said.

<more>
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GreenPartyVoter Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Mon Mar-17-08 09:30 PM
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1. And of course their crops are going to be more expensive in the marketplace next fall
What a brutal cycle we are in.
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NNadir Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-18-08 12:45 AM
Response to Original message
2. Don't be ridiculous. All the farmers in the world are powering their tractors with renewable
ethanol and biodiesel.

That's the proof that this particular renewable strategy is the greateristic marveloperfectalicious, bestotestosteronistic perfectanious system found anywhere in this galactic cluster:

All of the farms in Maine operate as closed systems.

Or is the biofuels concept just another grand big talk renewable energy strategy that's failed as badly as say, solar electricity?

Speaking of grand renewable energy failures, when will the anti-nuke cult be writing some posts about the grand TCE plume in the ground water of San Jose, California?

You don't know about the grand polysilicon TCE plume under San Jose California?

You couldn't care less?

Why am I not surprised?
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jpak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-18-08 01:53 PM
Response to Reply #2
4. What a stupid post - but that's OK: MOGFA, Backyard Farms and Maine biodiesel will abide
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NNadir Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-18-08 06:59 PM
Response to Reply #4
5. Oh. I see. So your orginal post was meaningless.
There's no problem with fertilizer and fuel on Maine farms and the entire idea of saying there was is refuted by your new links.

Hallucinate much?

Never mind, I already know the answer to that question.

Have another glass of Allen's coffee brandy and think of another 50 things to tell us about Maine.
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jpak Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-18-08 08:37 PM
Response to Reply #5
6. I hallucinated some internet dude in New Jersey invented a molten salt breeder reactor
cheers!



:rofl:
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NNadir Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-18-08 08:47 PM
Response to Reply #6
7. Well that would explain thoroughly why you contradict yourself continuously.
It's certainly not a sober thing to declare simultaneously in your own thread that biofuels are simultaneously a failure and a success in Maine.

I have always felt that you had no idea what you were talking about. It matters not a whit whether the origins of your confusion is substance abuse, simple delusion, denial or some kind of cult faith. The effect is the same.

Ignorance kills.
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NickB79 Donating Member (1000+ posts) Send PM | Profile | Ignore Tue Mar-18-08 01:10 PM
Response to Original message
3. Might have to go back to longer crop rotation periods
Plant corn one year, soybeans the next, then alfalfa/oats the third, and harvest more alfalfa in the 4th year. By the 5th year, the soil is sufficiently replenished that you can go back to corn. If livestock manure is applied properly, you might be able to grow back-to-back corn crops with decent yields.

Boy, wouldn't that jack up corn costs though.
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