Farming Sucks

Rarely, in business, does everything proceed perfectly and according to plan. Conjure an image of the farmer. Winter rains are copious before tailing off. One is able to prepare the earth at the moment of perfection, and sow the crop, fencepost to fencepost, to one's apparently great advantage. The incessant rains of the winter that caused near universal grumbling gives way to sunshine. Germination is nearly total and growth proceeds like a lineup of thoroughbreds out of the gate. Temperatures stay mild. Frequent, but restrained showers continue to nourish the young plants. Financed inputs are applied at the right times and in the right proportions. The farmers' crops reach towards the sky with a rare virility, and he looks upon them with justifiable pride. Even casual observers cannot help but notice the unusual health of the fields, multiplied across the town, country, region, and yes, neighbouring countries. Drought and heat-waves remain elusive. Sufficient rain mixed with sun continues. Yields will approach the pinnacle of what man and nature can conspire to create. Natural disasters will be universally averted this year. The imminent harvest will, in all its preceding perfection, give way to, not the popping of champagne corks but to an........unmitigated disaster!!!! For sale prices will have halved, while fixed costs are ummm... errrr.... fixed. The bounty from nature's smile and their diligent hard work will be challenged to avoid profound financial loss. Rarely, in business, can things go so wrong, when paradoxically, everything goes so right. Rarely is the world so upside-down that bad is good and good, bad. Welcome to the world of the commercial farmer. And it's a right shitty one...