Farmer Diaries

The last production A380 will be delivered in 24 months time (that means that the last one is already in the production cycle).  I've never been onboard the A380 aircraft -- I just didn't fly it.   When the A380 became the new super heavy aircraft king of the world it was evident that there are two different issues here by each of the two dominant aircraft manufacturers. Whereas Boeing has largely decided to cancel the B747 type about 5 years ago, Airbus was the only player on the heavy metal business.  Boeing instead has concentrated on twin-engine aircraft with the B777 and the B787.  Now the 777 is a seriously large aircraft with a capacity of up to 550 sardines passengers. I was well acquainted with the decision process at Boeing; since they were looking at a possible new variant of the B747 -- and to them, the numbers didn't work (and the cost for them was a fraction of the cost of developing the A380).  Boeing's planning team could not justify the...

So lets be amused for a few minutes.  Today, the Mexican government announced that they will, with the help of private enterprise build the Mayan Train, 1,490 km of rail track to take the foreign tourist across the Yucatan peninsula, all of it.  So the government announced that this train project, which will cost between US$ 7 and 11 billion will start operations in 4 years (from right now), never mind that there is no consortium in place or traffic for that matter.  Population density in the peninsula is very low.  Today you can drive from Cancun to Chichen Itz in about 90 minutes, there is an excellent (and very straight road that links the two). The tour bus tour from your hotel to Chichen Itza and back cost about $75.00 but also includes entrance tickets. Let's assume that you can sell train tickets (return) for $100.00.  It would be unreasonable to think that you can sell tickets for more. Lets further assume that 20% of all road travel ...

Despite what the title says, 5 million tons is not, it turns out, a lot of soybeans.  In fact, America produces 4.3 billion bushels of soybean.  In 2017, China purchased 31 million tons of Soybeans.  So China, which had cut its import of Soybean to nearly zero by the end of 2018, has agreed to restore something like 7% of what it had imported in the past...this is called victory. The latest news is that China has actually contracted for 2 million tons, so about 40% of what they had indicated they were going to purchase, and something like 3% of what they bought in 2017.  So Trump got played -- the problem when you start a trade war, are the long term ramifications.  The truth is that China has secured alternative sources of Soybean elsewhere.  They have signed contracts so its harder to go back.  Moreover, the beans are not usually purchased by government entities.  It could take several years until trade levels return to their 2017 level -- and...