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Show The Bench FARMER THE POWER OF A PENCIL Spring is almost here. Have you made your plans for next summer or does the future look too dark? With the price of cattle low, the raising of alfalfa seed out of the question, taxes, water assessments and all farm expenses steadily rising, have you avoided making any definite defi-nite plans? Even Mother Nature seems to have joined in against the farmer farm-er here in the Uintah Basin. The dairy farmer can be a little more optimistic, unless he thinks of "Oleo" and ice cream made from vegetable oils. You can take that same pencil pen-cil you figured yourself down in the dumps with, and lay out a plan that will make your future fu-ture look much brighter. This is the year to watch unnecessary un-necessary expenses. Avoid buying buy-ing on time. Cooperate with your neighbor on the use of machinery so that you won't have to buy new. Don't leave manure in your corrals while you buy commercial commer-cial fertilizers. I have been thinking about this $80.00 you pay for each ton of 42 phosphate phos-phate and wondering at the present price of hay just how many tons you could buy for that amount and put through your animals for manure? Remember while you are planning, that there is profit in good crops, but there is no profit in poor ones. Avoid putting put-ting grain in a piece of ground that will just give you a mediocre medi-ocre crop. It is better left idle than to just break even or lose a little. If the prospects for water look as critical when planting time comes as it does now, it would not be wise to break up old hay ground to put grain in. Some of the hay ground would make a crop for each water turn. By using the best plans, the best methods you know and an optimistic outlook, this year can become a challenge to you. Farming is the work you love or you wouldn't be a farmer. , The enjoyment comes from doing do-ing something good, not mediocre. medi-ocre. So use your pencil and plan this year to overcome last year's mistakes. This is a new year, with new hopes, new prospects. Don't go into it believing you are beaten or you will surely end up that way. |