I've always looked forward to fall and the changing countryside. Harvest is almost complete and the sea of green has changed to browns and yellows. Every little community has a convenience store where the growers gather every weekday morning to have their coffee and doughnuts and more. This fall they are talking about their almost record harvest and no place to sell it or store it. Almost all elevators are at capacity with beans that would normally be on their way to China. But that market is closed. No one wants to mention election day 2016 and what "they" did but it's just under the surface. Corn is being stored on the ground protected by tarps. Grain cars that would normally be rolling down to Louisiana ship terminals are sitting idle on every branch line track. The "We Can Handle It" Union Pacific doesn't have any beans to handle. There is a silence across the land this Thanksgiving.The new pickup or combine or tractor or grain bin will have to wait. Those acres that were snapped up a few years ago at $8,000 per aren't returning squat on investments. Grain prices won't even cover the cost of growing it.It's not a happy Thanksgiving for many rural families. Hope we have only shot one or two toes off.Happy Thanksgiving America.
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