Feed prices

[Hinotori]

I think your thoughts are wishful thinking - ask yourself one simple question. Can you afford a new electric car? I know I can't. Maybe your Mrs Warbucks but I sure ain't Mr. Warbucks.

There are quite a lot of hybrid vehicles around here. Even some of hubby's co-workers have hybrids.

Only people living in the greater Seattle area or Tacoma proper that don't go anywhere really have all electric cars. To much of distance here is measured by time it takes to get there doing 70mph+. Electric charging stations are showing up now around Puyallup but there is nothing out in the more remote places.

Hybrids are popular for that reason. We've looked at a few for hubby's new vehicle. Make his commute a bit cheaper. We do expect our vehicles to last at least a decade, though.

 

[Mini Horses]

I've been seeing this for a while. Often the price stays same but quantity is less in similar package. Hay will take a huge hit as everything about it takes fuel and fertilizer! Plant it, fertilize it, cut it, row it, bale it, move it......unless you do this by hand or a team you need fuel every step! Same with most feed crops. We're in trouble.

Same with groceries. So, big garden everyone!

I saw BOSS go from $19.99 to $24.99 in one week @ TSC. Bought same 40# at WalMart for $17.76. guess where I'm still buying it!?

 

[baymule]

Our DD is on her second hybrid car. Then for hauling kids, they have a van. Even the van gets good gas mileage.

I read an article that said if everyone gets electric cars, there is not enough electricity production to sustain them.

 

[flowerbug]

I've been seeing this for a while. Often the price stays same but quantity is less in similar package. Hay will take a huge hit as everything about it takes fuel and fertilizer! Plant it, fertilize it, cut it, row it, bale it, move it......unless you do this by hand or a team you need fuel every step! Same with most feed crops. We're in trouble.

Same with groceries. So, big garden everyone!

I saw BOSS go from $19.99 to $24.99 in one week @ TSC. Bought same 40# at WalMart for $17.76. guess where I'm still buying it!?

that's about the same price i spent about 10years ago for the same amount. we've still not used it all up. a few lbs left.

 

[flowerbug]

Our DD is on her second hybrid car. Then for hauling kids, they have a van. Even the van gets good gas mileage.

I read an article that said if everyone gets electric cars, there is not enough electricity production to sustain them.

you can read all sorts of things on the internet.

sometimes they're right. sometimes they're wrong. most the time everyone forgets about it because they're reading something else right or wrong.

electric cars do not need a huge amount of energy for most people, once they are charged up. a daily trip to town might run a few kilowatts, a good example would be our own use, we don't use the car that much, a few times a week, even if drained completely an electric car can be set up to charge overnight or during the day or when the rates are the lowest (when the sun is shining for the desert SW) or when the wind is blowing and there is an extra bit of juice around.

in fact, when you get a lot of car batteries plugged in and available to the power company for power games you can bet that it becomes well worth it for everyone to engage in those games. all those huge batteries being built now to help with storing extra energy from solar and wind won't be needed as much the more people have their cars plugged in. add water heaters and AC into the mix and it really gets fun. and this is only scratching the surface.

 

[CrealCritter]

I love these renewable energy discussions when so many forget there was a big push for solar in 70s. Did work then? why? Because the sun doesn't shine 24x7x365. Same with wind it's doesn't blow at a constant speed needed to produce constant electric 24x7x365 The best natural renewable electric power is hydro, which has already been captured "Hoover Dam" is just one example. And as far as batteries you know lithium is some nasty stuff. What kind of toxic waste are we leaving for the next generations to deal with? Maybe we go the route of communist north korea and hardly have any electric at all and no freedom. Or we stay a republic and use the natural resources God gave us in our blessed lands and have both freedom and electricity? I don't know what's... your thoughts?

 

[baymule]

@flowerbug not everyone has your driving schedule.

 

[Lazy Gardener]

Right on, Creal. Freedom of choice. Multiple options for the business owners to produce alternate fuel. I live RURAL. Can't get any where without driving about 20 miles one way. And it's interstate driving. I need a truck for a lot of my needs. AND, I NEED 4WD. I couldn't possibly haul the amount of materials I need on a regular basis with an electric car. Total folly. Ireland, from what I read has prohibited coal heat, demanding that everyone convert to electric. Now, so many of the lower class citizens can't afford to heat their homes, and actually freeze during the winter. This is where we are heading. One of mr. biden's recent EO's demands that all suburban communities function under a single national set of zoning mandates. THAT is going to prove to be a disaster. The US is so diverse that it is folly to expect us here in Maine to function under same set of rules that work in southern climates, or more populous areas. emperor biden is killing us with his pen.

 

[farmerjan]

Most of the raw materials for so many of the solar components, and batteries is mined in places like China. We don't have the rare earth minerals that are required for some of this building of panels and other stuff. The costs will go up as the control gets tighter and the sources of these rare minerals are diminished.
Talking windpower.... do you know that the blades are made of a type of fiberglass.... that is NOT RECYCLEABLE and the life is about 20 years???? So then they wind up in a landfill.....for what????? At least if metal, they can be recycled.....

Yeah, let's have universal zoning that will work in the dry deserts of Arizona, and the wet of Washington state,..... and as @Lazy Gardener says in the cold of Maine and the "subtropic" temps in Florida and Ga and Texas......

This administration has gotten to the point of being totally insane and so power hungry to keep doing all these Executive Orders to such an extreme there is no way to even keep up with them, or to see any reasoning for them except to be able to keep ordering things that even the worst dictators have not done at the speed and frequency as has been done in the last 2 weeks. This is worst than the most insane mob boss......

 

[farmerjan]

that's about the same price i spent about 10years ago for the same amount. we've still not used it all up. a few lbs left.

And the ones producing it are doing more and more for the same return... until they get to the point that there is no more room to "tighten the belt". The only way is to get bigger and bigger so the costs can be spread out over a larger number of animals/acres.... and the small farmer CAN NOT compete. You add in the new proposed minimum wage.... if it should come about.... NONE of us farmers will be able to pay that without getting bigger..... the antithesis of this whole self sufficiently group that believe in the smaller, take care of yourself and your family/group......
So, then where are you going to get things when we can no longer afford to keep businesses open because the input costs are more than what we can possibly sell things for???? Or are allowed to sell things for????? The big companies will just get bigger because the small ones cannot compete. And then the prices will be so far out of the budget that people will do without, go without, and suffer for it. And you will only be able to obtain what the big companies want you to have.
Instead of trying to change this country to be so like all these other ones that are supposed to be so wonderful....those people should just move and go live in one of these "wonderful" countries and see how much freedom you have and how well you live. Leave us dumber ones to just suffer through our less than perfect type of government and country and continue to have to work for a living and be able to work enough to get ahead if we want to.