Word: benedicts
(lookup in dictionary)
(lookup stats)
Dates: all
Sort By: most recent first
(reverse)
...does not get pains, but Benedict admits to some anxiety about taking over failed farms: "Any farm closing is traumatic. You worry that the fellow who sells out knows something you don't because he's shutting down and you're taking on debts to expand." But in his view expansion is the only way to make money: "Each acre produces so little profit that all you can do is go for bigger acres and make sure that each acre produces more crop." So, besides buying land, he has purchased so much machinery that it requires a football-field-sized...
...Benedict estimates that it costs $300 an acre to raise sugar beets. At an average yield of 15 tons an acre, and a depressed price this year of around $21 a ton, the typical beet grower will receive $315 an acre, producing a thin profit in view of the heavy investment required. But Benedict's mechanization and tight management enable him to grow 20 tons an acre, worth $420, enough to promise a worthwhile return...
...mechanization make him independent of the Government Had he chosen to "set aside" (not plant) 20% of his 2,000 wheat acres this year, he would have qualified to receive a Government-guaranteed "target price" of $3.40 a bushel. Benedict elected instead to plant all his acres, gambling that eventually he will get a high enough price to make a larger profit on a bigger crop. Whether he wins he will not know for many months. He has signed a contract to sell 40% of his wheat crop, for a price that he says "will cover costs and a little...
Over the years, Benedict has averaged a return of only 3.5% on the $3.5 million present value of his investment. Of course, since he bought much of the land and many of the machines when prices were lower, his return on original investment is substantially higher; nonetheless, in theory he could enjoy a larger income by selling out and putting the money in bank certificates of deposit paying around 9% interest. Such profits on even the most efficient farms are too meager to interest big corporations. The fears that the family farm would be taken over by "agribusiness" have proved...
...only Benedict exempted from chores is two-year-old Luke, and even he tours the fields regularly, bouncing on his father's lap in a pickup truck (his present on his second birthday: a toy tractor). Besides the supervision and paperwork, Pat labors with his hands too, doing most of the machinery repairs himself...