Farmer Diaries

Nobody should be surprised by Europe's recent weapons' procurement announcements.  On one side, the word is out that Europe is looking, and has a verbal agreement with Donald Trump to manufacture Patriot missile systems under license.   However, Europe is also looking at short range missiles out of Ukraine.  Guess which system will be running first; sorry no contest, it will be the Ukrainian system, first its short range, (less than 1,000 NM) which matches the European theater of war (aka Russia), second, a deal with Trump is never real even when it is signed, looked at all the agreements he signed over the past two years, few lasted more than 90 days before Trump changed his mind.    The truth is that the Patriot deal is probably vaporware, and will never be implemented, but it gives Trump the oxygen he seeks with his base, which is the only thing that matters to him.  He can say that the Europeans are "begging" for US missile systems.  He probab...

Mitch McConnell is an American politician who faces some health challenges.  Apparently, his office released a photo of the man, with his wife, holding a newspaper…the amazing thing is that the article that is clear to read is from an article written in 2023.   Nearly three years ago. Now, it is understood that politicians are liars, it is the nature of the beast, you cannot govern if you let the electorate decide what the issues of the day are, because the electorate is fickle.  Take Brexit being an issue in the UK press in 2026.  It's a non issue, there is no possibility of Britain returning to the fold.  There is more hope for Canada to become a member of the EU, after all it has a border with Denmark… The sad truth is that after the death of Lindsay Graham the GOP's power structure is in trouble.  The funny bit is that the state of South Carolina has a very clear and clean process to replace the man.  It will be interesting if Trump and his ga...

The truth of the matter is that a deeply integrated economy to the United States is walking away.   First it is important to understand that about half of Canada's exports to the US are natural resources.  Some are mighty critical; oil, gas, electricity, timber and other minerals including Potash, where Canada sells about 90% of all potash used in the United States.   Tourism is another $40 billion.    Now, vehicles and parts are about $40 billion.  It is largely understood that the US's intention is to retrieve these operations from Canada. On the other side of the equation, what Canada imports from the US is foodstuff, vehicles and finished goods (do you know that there are other countries that sell finished goods).  The issue that the Canadian Prime minister raised is that he wants to diversify away from the United States its exports, imports will take care of themselves.   As an aside the Canadian Federal government has given gr...

There have been a number of reports that state that either the country is better off or worse off.  Right now in 2026 it is clearly worse off.   It stands alone with no allies, the dream of the Brexiters was that Britain would stand on its own two feet, and become a middle power courted by Europe and by the United States, plus they could get rid of all these pesky foreigners (which they never met…) The truth is complex, right now Britain is worse no doubt about it.  The economy is slowing faster than Europe and there is no lifeline from the Americans.  However, this is not a game of football, there is no end in sight to the process.  Europe has some massive challenges, already Italy, and Portugal are seeing the ravages of a falling population.  Germany has been better at hiding the impact, but they too face massive problems.  The truth of Europe is that it is highly dependent on the credit of Germany…there are implications going forward.  Ger...

When chocolate bars are no longer made with chocolate.  About a decade ago, I discovered that pringles chips had no potato in its ingredient list.   Yeah, I know considering what the packaging seems to imply.  However, American chocolate manufacturers have begun replacing cocoa and its derivatives with chemicals that are cheaper, they apparently also changed the composition of the "chocolate bar"  it no longer melts… Now, I have long discussed our business model, we focus on the higher end, "organically" grown crops and sell mostly to high end buyers and our own transformation businesses (aka our meat pie business as an example).    Last week an expose was made of the McDonald hamburger that was now mostly if not entirely made out of corn and its byproducts.  Now, I have no idea if McDonalds in the UK does this too, last time I had a big Mac was in the 1990s.   It seems that the American food industry has decided to double down on ingred...

The shares of Truth Social were listed in 2024 and the price quickly rose from the $17 dollar issue price to about $50.  The share price was range bound for nearly a year, when it eventually faced reality and started to fall, as all the vaunted management promises came to nothing.  The truth is that quarterly earnings while not in freefall,  are only above $800k, the management costs do not justify the share performance, which has been consistently negative since it was listed two years ago.    As of June 30th the share price stands just below $7.50 a share, market cap has collapsed to around $2 billion (still a lot if you consider that the operating cash flow is negative).  My guess is that over the next year the price will continue to fall, until it is below $1.00 and joins the pink sheet. Another company did something similar more than a decade ago, it was called the Grill Cheese Truck Company, which at one point had a market value in excess of $100 mill...

A week like this makes you a believer that global warming is an existential threat. Thank God we are not in London, still it's very warm and very uncomfortable for our cattle, especially for our dairy herd.  During the summer they are outside, but now they remain inside the barn away from the sun.   The ventilation systems helps, but still not a very pleasant time for our herd.   The ones that are doing the best are the pigs in the forest.  Chickens not so much, we have tried to place the meat chicken enclosure near the tree lines away from the sun, but we may have to butcher them early, they may die from heat strokes. One unexpected outcome is the increased efficiency of our biodigestors, thank god because our greenhouse fans are operating 24/7 to keep the temperature down in the greenhouses.  One good thing about the early June weather is that the water table is high.  In fact, the sudden heat has been helpful in drying out our fields that saw m...

A few days ago the Space X IPO happened, and two things are remarkable.  One expected, the share price of Space X fell a bit, its down from it $218 peak (issued at $200) down to $156 at closing on the 23rd of June.  The second is that Space X just borrowed a lot of money (actually drew down facilities it already at hand).  The second could (maybe) be caused by the first, it takes a few days for the 75 billion Space X raised to make its way from the various brokers to Space X coffers, so the drawdown could be related to that.  HOWEVER, it seems that SpaceX little mentioned AI foray cash consumption is even higher than anticipated. For Space X the real savior is the inclusion in the NASDAQ index, in particular the QQQ, it got a special one of exception of the two rules for inclusion (be listed for at least six months and profitable).  Space X has been listed for 10 days and is not profitable, nor is there a clear path to profits – the forward looking statements st...

The past four years have shown that the old adage that force projection was everything has been turned on its head.   The early destruction of Russia's tank offensive by Ukrainian drones (and the Russian's own stupidity), had fundamentally changed the power structure.   Until six months ago, the general perception was that the might of the US and of Israel in the Middle East was unchallegable.   Iran, Ukraine and drones proved otherwise. In the middle east Iran has been largely unchallenged in its ability to strike US bases in Kuwait (ok that's next door), Qatar Saudi Arabia and Dubai (a bit further).  Iran has shown a deep bench in terms of drones and its willingness to use them effectively.  It's unclear how much remains in the US munition depots, but it is serious enough that the American government which had sold systems to the Finn have told them not to expect any systems this year or next (and the US has been out of Ukraine for nearly two ye...

Was the departure of Prime Minister Starmer necessary?   In short, yes. He had two years as the leader of a new labour government with a crushing majority to take action.  He did absolutely nothing as if he was still a backbencher in the opposition.  He also made a massive error in inviting Peter Mendelsohn into his government when it was already well known that he had ties with Epstein.  This showed a massive lack of judgment on his part (and he only had himself to blame for that one). Will the new guy do any better, Andy Burnham has been a parliamentarian his entire adult life, from 2008 until 2016, when he became the mayor of Manchester.  Will he be an effective Prime Minister, who knows, the truth is that Starmer has largely been an empty shirt for the entirety of his mandate, he has managed to make the far right look good.   The same way Trump has made Iran's leadership sound reasonable (they are not – actually homicidal maniacs), and China a...

 Out of kindness of my own heart, I never mention the names of the billionaires that have bought property in Argentina. Several months ago, I mentioned that massive farms had exchange hands for millions and millions, and that these were self-sufficient mega mansions owned by some of the richest people in the United States. Well, this week, Peter Thiel indicated that he was moving to Argentina. It’s unclear this stage if this is a full-time thing or if it’s temporary one. Doesn’t really matter, Mr. Thiel has always been known as a right winger, at the very right of Genghis Khan.. I never spent a great deal of time in Argentina. South America is too complicated and too far away for London base businesses. In addition, most of South America has a love affair with the United States. I’ve only been to Buenos Aires three times in my life, twice for work and once for our holiday, a 25 year marriage anniversary gift to my wife and I. In fact, it has been more than a decade since I set foot...