Price increases and shortages

[ducks4you]

For what it is worth~

What Farmers Really Want From the 2023 Farm Bill

We dig into what groups across the country are asking for.

modernfarmer.com

Rice Growers Continue to Battle Weedy Enemy

A new herbicide-resistant rice variety was supposed to help farmers control an aggressive weed in their fields. Now, the weed has evolved to be herbicide-resistant, too.

modernfarmer.com

"Producers in China and Vietnam have also used ducks and geese to chow down on weedy rice as a form of pest control."

 

[ducks4you]

I didn't want to start a new thread, and I figured that is fit best HERE.
This article is from a regular email I receive from
HoofPrints Newsletter

HoofPrints <gina@hoofprints.com

Can you imagine the government mandating a specific horseshoe? It's happened.​ Goodenough Horseshoes' marketing materials state that they're made to fit every horse; no forge work and minimal tools would be needed to apply them. What could possibly go wrong? Predictably, quite a bit did go wrong. In 1874, the US War Department's Ordnance Office issued an illustrated, 123+ page memoranda outlining various cavalry equipment specifications. Page 61 mandates the use of Goodenough brand horseshoes for 50% of the horses to be shod - using Goodenough brand nails. Details here. According to HoofBlog's Fran Jurga, some cavalry horseshoers refused to use them.

​

Around that time, Charles Russell, president of Goodenough Horseshoeing Company, built a shop in Brooklyn to shoe the Brooklyn City Railroad Company street railway (trolley) horses. Formerly each railroad company employed the men directly in its smithy, but Russell persuaded them that they would save money by giving him contracts to do the work. The contract system tended to both reduce the wages and also to reduce the number of men employed. The men grumbled for a long time and finally decided to take action in their union. On this day (February 12, 1884,) 75 horseshoers working there went on strike. Imagine: one shop employed 75 farriers! One man shoeing 8 head/day would service 240 horses in a six week cycle. (this is assuming an hour per horse and a 5 day work week - I suspect it was probably more than that.) Even at this conservative calculation, a strike lasting very long could potentially mean 18,000+ different horses going without hoof care. Goodenough tried to bring in scabs but was unable to find enough non-union shoers to do the work. Ultimately, he conceded, the contracts were voided and the horseshoers returned to work under the old system.

 

[flowerbug]

if you have to go back nearly 150 years to find something...

 

[baymule]

Interesting bit of history.

 

[meadow]

I didn't want to start a new thread, and I figured that is fit best HERE.
This article is from a regular email I receive from
HoofPrints Newsletter

Interesting! I enjoy hearing about self-serving individuals NOT succeeding for a change.

 

[ducks4you]

HERE is the kicker:
"The contract system tended to both reduce the wages and also to reduce the number of men employed."