Business Case 3 Bill Thurmond Pig Farm

As the time period moves forward the quality of the farm machinery increases. Perplexing to me because, the tools of the trade are better; shouldn't the work be easier, with greater profit as well? Not so, because the family farm has been pushed out of the scene by big business. It is ironic, how big business crept in and taken over such a simple and innocent way of life. The problem is, the new farm machinery was over-priced, making it hard for the everyday farmer to purchase it. "Corporate America" has worked its way into nearly all aspects of everyday life activities. The financial burdens of owning a farm are so great, Larry alone was in debt $250,000 in 1980. Family farming as we know it has very nearly come to an end.

farms to keep their prices low, can eventually cause the market to fail. (58) The article The

the farmer only eats what he can afford to eat. He has to sell most of

This article written in the Texas Agriculture, a magazine published by the Texas Farm Bureau, is about all the factors impacting farmers that effect their income. Over the past couple years, a combination of things has caused the average Texas farmers income to drop. The primary audience for this article is the farmers in Texas as they are experiencing these issues first hand. The secondary audience would be consumers who have noticed price fluctuations in products at the store and are wondering the reason.

In his article “Boss Hog: The Dark Side of America’s Top Pork Producer,” (Rolling Stone Magazine, December 14, 2006) Jeff Teitz reports that not only are millions upon millions of pigs being abused and slaughtered each year by America’s largest pork producer, but, in turn, the waste produced by those pigs is polluting, destroying, and even killing others. Teitz begins by revealing that Smithfield Foods, the world’s most profitable pork processor, killed 27 million hogs last year, which is roughly equivalent to the entire human populations of America’s thirty-two largest cities. As Teitz delves deeper into statistics, he explains that more fecal matter is produced from half a million pigs at one Smithfield subsidiary than the 1.5 million

To make matters worse there are evident racial and socioeconomic factors that have been observed in relation to hog farms in

The demand for meat in America is on the rise while the number of family owned farms is declining. The farming industry has had to change century old practices like free-range grazing to keep up with the mass amounts of meat that Americans and other cultures have become accustomed to. A process known as factory farming is controlling the farming industry worldwide. Factory farming is an unnatural and inhuman way to raise mass amounts of livestock. Unfortunately to keep up with demand, small farmers around the world are struggling to survive and are being pressured to work for large corporations raising animals using theses factory farming strategies rather than the natural alternative. As described by Wenonah

Alongside the growth of large farms, crops are being subsidized which leads to the prices of the goods being kept at a low price (Toews). For a family farm, this means producing a crop that is not cost effective which eventually drives the family farms out of business. Once these large corporations produce the crop, it is then shipped to the manufacturers

The agricultural industry: the farms, plants, animals, and farmers, have supported this great country for so long, but lately we have turned our backs on it. Today, we live in a materialistic society, people wanting more and better items, not settling for products that will accomplish the same job.From looking at the fruits and vegetables in the grocery store, we see the bruised or smaller ones left, while the big and brightly colored ones are selected first. In our society today, changes are constantly being made to help expand and evolve the agricultural industry, but it has yet been able to do so. To this day farmers across this nation have not been completely successful in providing for the people who make up this country. In the stores

In 2003, Producers Cooperative Association attended 9,591 cooperative members within their one hundred miles radius sales territory of Bryan, Texas. Producers had lead their peers in patrons’ capital where their member’s equity as at 2003 was 48.12% of total assets compared to the group average of only 30.55% and the revolving cycle of five-year was the shortest compared to the group average of 17.6 years. This cooperative diverse economy of feed, fertilizer fuel and agricultural supplies had manifested excellent performance than their peers as indicated by Producers’ higher gross margin of 18.69% of sales versus the group average of 16.55%.

Organic ranchers and dairy farmers in California also feel the effects of the drought. They rely on green pasture to feed their animals a healthy diet. Due to the lack of rain, the pasture are drying up and the ranchers have to purchase supplemental organic hay from other states. In an attempt to fund the purchasing of this out of state hay, the organic farmers are selling herds to businesses for hamburger meat and the small

The Fike family farm has been has been established from quiet sometime, and as well has been a part of the Edinburg community. The have been loyal to Edinburg and to the state of Texas. The raises a wide array of crops such as sorghum, and corn. The do this off the land that was purchased by their elders and hope to keep the farm running for as long as they can. They are a large family consisting of many farmers. They all work together and do their part in order to make their farm prosperous, although they have run into some road blocks with regulations, the state, and Edinburg as well. Regulations gives them most of their problems typically. They have been forced out of planting and raising certain crop due to dire regulations. They as

Hobby farms are on the rise, thanks to the growing popularity of terms such as “organic”, “free-range” and “sustainable farming”, to name a few. People are getting more health-conscious by the day, and are becoming more selective when it comes to buying fresh vegetables, meat and poultry.

The Old Mule Farms is a cow-calf operation that provides calves for feedlots to fatten up before being sent to packing houses and eventually sold as meet for consumers. The current owners have been experiencing a problem with losses in revenue. The expenses that Old Mule Farms incurred are veterinary bills, labor, nutritional supplements and minerals, and a variety of forage. The forage is primarily grazed grasses but is supplemented with hay.

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