Opportunity?

[charliep]

bucket - I understand your point.

oneoff - Help with something. You are a grain company that is dealing with a just in time delivery Japanese crusher That is, your customer has limited storage capacity and they are dealing with you based on your commitment/contract that says you can put a 25,000 tonne boat into their port every two weeks. Just curious how you would set up your logistics system to ensure you can consistently meet your commitment? What are farmers roles as partners (not enemies) in making sure that Japanese crushers day to day needs for consistent supplies of high quality product?

[bucket]

Charliep

Just in time is a flawed economic trial and has to be abandoned.

Especially when you are dealing with railways that don't give a ****. And mother nature running a close second.

Best thing to do is tell the customer to start building storage and buy good quality when they can.

[BFW]

charlie how is the grain company in your scenario any different than a farmer who presells crop and can't deliver? I wonder if the Japanese would give them an act of god clause or is it it simply force majeure? Not sure the individual farmer really has to feel too responsible in this situation.

[farmaholic]

BFW: Don't you have any compassion for your "partners"?

[oneoff]

Charlie...While the present system is failing farmers through little fault of their own (except maybe a "little" excess production) your "just in time system" has evolved as basically a forward contracting of supplies with risks passed on to farmers. That system was sold and/or forced onto farmers over the last decade; not designed by farmers.

Don't follow those rules of the game and as a farmer you only get the occasional chance of delivery when production shortfalls crop up. Otherwise the cash market doesn't even exist unless you take some firesale price that is unlikely to meet anyone's cost of production; let alone a healthy profit.

Just when was the last time anyone in farming planned on say a 27% return on investment. You do know that railways and real businessmen see such a rate as the beginning point of profitability.
Not once in a lifetime; but longterm.

And thanks charlie for bringing us back on track in this thread.
Maybe the first confirmed ebola case in Dallas Texas should get tied in with the real world. Or would you have that real serious problem put somewhere in isolation too.

[Hopperbin]

Do we need to go I termodal? Is everyone treated equally o. Intermodal? Imagine grain getting shippednout of the county priority over wedding dresses shipped in. **** me supposed to get married today and my weding dress is in ****ing china.