# Fuel cost thread...



## SidecarFlip (Mar 3, 2021)

Thought I'd initiate a fuel cost thread in as much as fuel cost is climbing like a rocket ship here.

Regular unleaded:  $2.80
On road diesel:  $3.30

Of more consequence is the price of propane.  It's up from $2.25 a gallon to $2.55 a gallon

Have a feeling that by summer, gas prices will be around $4.00 a gallon, diesel will be $4.50 a gallon and propane will be $3.00 a gallon

Of course as fuel prices climb, the cost of manufactured fuel like wood pellets will also increase.

Viscious circle perpetrated by poor politics.

So, what are you paying locally?

Hope you have an economy car like I do.  My 40 mpg is looking real good.


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## clancey (Mar 3, 2021)

Gasoline and Diesel Fuel Update
					

Gasoline and diesel fuel prices released weekly.




					www.eia.gov
				





This might help to look at some comparsions nationwide.. 40mg--what kind of vehicle do you have? I have a old 99 Toyta Tacoma that seems to get good gas mileage but nothing like yours--show off--lol lol. I really do not drive that much "flip" just to what I have to do for everything is so much traffic nowadays but I will drive to get wood for my future stove--ha ha...Keep plugging old timer...Thanks clancey


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 3, 2021)

2014 Ford Focus SE Hatch with a 5 speed that I keep in tip top shape (I do all my own work).  I can actually do a bit better than 40 in the summer but I'm averaging winter and summer together.  2.4 liter 4 cylinder GDI with 230 horses.  As a rule, I don't do imported cars.  My Focus was built at Wayne Assembly by union autoworkers who I also support.  I suspect if it was a slush-o-matic it would be less but I prefer a standard transmission.

Newer Focus' are Hencho Mexico now.  Not in my cards.

Don't much care about nationwide fuel costs, the only cost I'm concerned about is what I pay at the pump actually.


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## EatenByLimestone (Mar 3, 2021)

Regular gas is $2.77/gal.


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## JRHAWK9 (Mar 3, 2021)

I just called on LP by us.  It's down to $2.00/gallon from where it was a couple weeks ago at $2.35.

Gas is $2.50 for 87 octane.  Diesel is $2.72.


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## Dataman (Mar 3, 2021)

Fuel costs are going up because of Texas.  Refineries offline because of the cold.   Will take months to get them back running.  Plus switching to summer gas.    Nothing Political


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## johneh (Mar 3, 2021)

In Eastern Ontario Canada 
Reg. Gas went up 10 cents a liter today 
to 1:24.9 
or 567.04 $ per imperial Gal.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 3, 2021)

Dataman said:


> Fuel costs are going up because of Texas.  Refineries offline because of the cold.   Will take months to get them back running.  Plus switching to summer gas.    Nothing Political



Whatever you are smoking, send me some...........

Could have fooled me.  it's everything political but then you comment tells me what you ascribe to.  Today is as cheap as it will ever be in the foreseeable future.


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## Eureka (Mar 4, 2021)

It’s pretty easy to say it isn’t political when it’s your side wrecking everything.


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## Dataman (Mar 4, 2021)

Do some real research.  It's because Refineries are off line.   Or have you swallowed the Kool Aid.  Seems So


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## Bad LP (Mar 4, 2021)

Dataman said:


> Fuel costs are going up because of Texas.  Refineries offline because of the cold.   Will take months to get them back running.  Plus switching to summer gas.    Nothing Political


Don't bogart whatever your smoking. lol


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## Bad LP (Mar 4, 2021)

LP delivery was yesterday. 291 gals@2.359.

That's up .10 from the last delivery on 1-20-2021. I'm 95% confident our LP comes from Canada so that disproves the Texas angle.
EDIT after the Sidecar Flip comment I'll add the first LP delivery for the current heating season on 11-25 was also 2.259. 

Those numbers also represent a leased tank arrangement.


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## Eureka (Mar 4, 2021)

It’ll be interesting to see what the chosen reason is in a year or two when it’s even worse.  
I wonder if healthy people will still be hiding in their homes wearing muzzles frightened of the flu.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 4, 2021)

So does our propane actually.  Comes from Sarnia, Ontario.  One of my good friends owns the propane company we buy from and I know where he picks it up at. Certainly not domestically produced.

Trying the keep the political angle out of this thread and keep tabs on the rising cost of fuel and the impact on spendable income.

Far as refineries go, people assume that 'all' the refineries are situated in the Baytown /Houston area and that isn't true.  In fact, there are two large refineries, one south of me in Toledo (Oregon) Ohio and another south of Detroit (River Rouge), Michigan and they are scattered elsewhere around the country and in Canada, Sarnia, Ontario for example (where most of our propane here comes from.

Have no desire to discuss the political ramifications, I think we all realize what Biden did with his EO's.  Don't take a 'rocket scientist' to see what they are doing.  When you go from a net exporter of energy to a net importer of energy via executive fiat, bad things start happening to the citizens.

I also realize that we all use alternative fuels to heat our homes with (biomass fuels like processed wood pellets and in my case corn) but we all still use motor fuel for our automobiles and I for one, use propane to power my central furnace which I use during extremely cold weather as my biomass stove cannot carry the entire heat load.

The other somewhat hidden aspect is the overall impact on food and manufactured goods.  Rising energy costs negatively impact that.  Rising fuel costs are passed on in the form of rising retail prices for the very commodities necessary to sustain life.  It's totally false economy to think that farmers (like myself) won't increase the cost of our harvested crops to reflect the fuel increases.  I know I will.  My input costs, seed, fertilizer and fuel costs, I'll pass along in the form of increased prices and that will directly impact your prices at the supermarket.  You do have to eat, besides putting gas in your buggy.

All I'm attempting to do with this thread is watch those increasing prices as it pertains to motor fuel in various parts of the country and Canada.  Nothing more, but to make a statement that it's not political and it's because of the refineries in the Baytown / Houston, Texas area are idle is totally false.  It is entirely political and has little to do with those refineries.

Why I pre-bought all my fuel and stored it in bulk before this all went down.  Myself, other than input costs like fertilizer and seed, I've negated at least for this season but next season, I too will be dealing with increased costs and I will also pass on those costs to you, the consumer.

It's a viscous circle and it's all controlled by politics and all of you, as end users, get to pay the increased cost of bad political decisions.  How it plays.

Lets stick to the retail pump prices and forego the political aspects please.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 4, 2021)

Eureka said:


> It’ll be interesting to see what the chosen reason is in a year or two when it’s even worse.
> I wonder if healthy people will still be hiding in their homes wearing muzzles frightened of the flu.




I don't think so.  I believe we are approaching 'Herd Immunity' now that the vaccines are becoming widely available.  In fact I received my first Moderna injection yesterday (my arm is sore), with the second scheduled in 3 weeks.  I suspect that we will never return to the pre Covid levels that were the norm a year and a half ago, but the 'hermit life' we are dealing with presently will subside quite a bit.

Far as a 'muzzle' go's, for us, it was always a voluntary choice.  I'm not one to be forced into compliance, never have been.  I tend to resist that kind of mandate.  However, I never wanted to contract Covid so I (we) complied but by choice, not mandate and we will continue with it until such time as the chances of contracting Covid are mitigated to the point where it's highly unlikely that we can catch it.

How we play.  I plan on being around for a while yet.  We lost some family member to Covid.  it's not the way I want to expire.  I prefer a much more sedate death myself.


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## firefighterjake (Mar 4, 2021)

SidecarFlip said:


> . ..  I prefer a much more sedate death myself.



*“When I die, I want to die like my grandfather who died peacefully in his sleep. Not screaming like all the passengers in his car.” -- Will Rogers*


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## JRHAWK9 (Mar 4, 2021)

__





						Weekly U.S. All Grades All Formulations Retail Gasoline Prices (Dollars per Gallon)
					





					www.eia.gov
				




Seems federal fuel prices bottomed out around 4/24/20 at $1.87/gal

On 1/18/20 they were $2.46/gal....or a 31.5% rise from April to January.
On 3/1/21 they were $2.80/gal...or an increase of 13.8% from January.

If people want to make this political and blame certain political party's policies on the rising fuel prices, then the data suggests the incoming party actually slowed down the rising fuel prices.  Do I believe this to be the case.  No.  It's mostly global supply vs demand.  Demand is what it is.  Supply can be regulated by the cartels though, the same as how diamond prices are kept artificially high by the diamond cartels controlling the supply of something they have an abundance of simply to keep diamond prices high.

Price of crude bottomed out the same time as fuel prices did....at the end of April 2020 when the demand fell off a cliff due to the pandemic.

Also, fuel prices, historically, have generally rose ramping up to summer and then fallen during winter due to demand.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 4, 2021)

Just keep an eye on your graph over time.  Not just a snapshot.  Again, national averages don't reflect local pricing at all.


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## JRHAWK9 (Mar 4, 2021)

SidecarFlip said:


> Just keep an eye on your graph over time.


I fully expect them to keep increasing as demand increases if supply doesn't follow suit.    Gas prices go as the price of crude goes.  I also fully expect them to keep increasing as summer approaches and then fall some again for winter.....just as they have historically done.



SidecarFlip said:


> Again, national averages don't reflect local pricing at all.


National averages are the averages of local/regional pricing.  It's just like STFT vs LTFT in the tuning world.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 4, 2021)

Go take a look at the stock market too.  Better be holding on your your shorts...


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## JRHAWK9 (Mar 4, 2021)

SidecarFlip said:


> Go take a look at the stock market too.  Better be holding on your your shorts...



Why all the fear-mongering?  

I've heard people say that in the past too.  My investments did better from '09 to '16 than they did from '16 to '20.  The historical graphs of the DJI show why.  Nobody knows what the future holds though.

1/1/09 - 12/31/16:  from ~7,063 to ~19,763
+279.8%






1/1/2017 - 12/31/20: from ~19,964 to ~30,606
+153.3%


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## Dataman (Mar 4, 2021)

Bad LP said:


> LP delivery was yesterday. 291 gals@2.359.
> 
> That's up .10 from the last delivery on 1-20-2021. I'm 95% confident our LP comes from Canada so that disproves the Texas angle.
> EDIT after the Sidecar Flip comment I'll add the first LP delivery for the current heating season on 11-25 was also 2.259.
> ...


Fuel prices are set in the Market.  if it goes up in Texas it goes up in Canada.    International Market.   Has nothing to do with where it comes from.     Communities Exchange


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 4, 2021)

Dataman said:


> Fuel prices are set in the Market.  if it goes up in Texas it goes up in Canada.    International Market.   Has nothing to do with where it comes from.     Communities Exchange


Wrong.  Propane prices are set by region.  You have the eastern region, the midwest region and the western region and they are all independent of each other.

That may apply to export propane but not domestically consumed gas.


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## SidecarFlip (Mar 4, 2021)

JRHAWK9 said:


> Why all the fear-mongering?


Not at all.  I'm almost 100% invested in Berkshire Hathaway and Warren does real well for me,  In fact, I have no worries about my investments.

Have a 7 figure net worth actually.

I'm not concerned with any long term liquidity.  I am concerned with short term market volatility because it impacts my day to day life.  Fuel prices come under short term.

Lets just say, if I want something I go buy it and pay cash.


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## Dataman (Mar 5, 2021)

Because propane is a commodity that is refined from other commodities and is traded on a worldwide market, 





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						Propane Prices | Current Prices and Price Influencing Factors
					

Current propane prices and factors influencing the local, regional and national price of propane.



					www.propane101.com


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## Grizzerbear (Mar 5, 2021)

2.59 gas and 2.89 diesel. Gas was 2.79 last week.


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## SidecarFlip (Apr 4, 2021)

Bad LP said:


> LP delivery was yesterday. 291 gals@2.359.
> 
> That's up .10 from the last delivery on 1-20-2021. I'm 95% confident our LP comes from Canada so that disproves the Texas angle.
> EDIT after the Sidecar Flip comment I'll add the first LP delivery for the current heating season on 11-25 was also 2.259.
> ...


Even around here, LP comes from Ontario, CA and it runs in concert with gasoline so, whatever pump gas is, the price of propane is usually 50-90 cents below that.  I have 2 owned bottles and 2 rented bottles but my supplier charges me a buck a year bottle rental.

Far as 'Kool Aid' goes, When fuel prices are going up like a rocket ship, that tells me something is seriously wrong in DC and I'll leave it at that.

Easy to see what side of the fence Dataman is on and it's not my side either.


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## ABMax24 (Apr 4, 2021)

SidecarFlip said:


> Far as 'Kool Aid' goes, When fuel prices are going up like a rocket ship, that tells me something is seriously wrong in DC and I'll leave it at that.
> 
> Easy to see what side of the fence Dataman is on and it's not my side either.



Politics aren't the issue here. So constantly making political jabs aren't helping your case.

Fuel prices are based on the prices of the commodities they are produced from, crude oil prices are up and has been hovering around $60 for some time, meaning gasoline and diesel prices rise along with it. Natural gas and natural gas liquids pricing are up too, and explains the increase in propane cost.

Energy pricing operates on the principles of supply and demand, and all pricing changes are explained by a change in that balance. The Covid discount pricing of the last year is not the norm, and definitely not sustainable, but that's what happens when global demand suddenly drops by 10% or more. At $30/barrel oil development almost stops, here most of our drilling rigs were racked, frac crews sent home, and construction and maintenance went to bare minimum just to keep equipment going, some equipment was even shutdown waiting on the return of higher prices. Finally at $60 there is a chance of more significant exploration and development happening again.

Everyone wants something for free, and fuel costs are a common target for those that don't know better, but I don't work for free and neither do the companies I work for. Much of the easy oil has been extracted, and what remains is more expensive to produce. Combine that with an uncertain future and companies are no longer willing to invest billions of dollars on oil development to profit cents on the barrel.

If you want to blame someone, blame OPEC and Russia, they have been dumping high volumes of cheap oil onto the global market for a few years now in an attempt to squeeze US and Canadian producers out of the market. But of course that's nothing for most people to complain about, because it actually helps keep prices at the pump low. Now OPEC is curtailing production and oil is returning to normal prices again, and the public finally takes notice.

I'm probably one of the few members on this forum cheering for higher prices, simply because it puts more money in my pocket, here's to $100 oil.


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## JRHAWK9 (Apr 4, 2021)

Here in WI, LP prices are trending downwards after spiking around the beginning of March.  The screen capture below is from here:




__





						Weekly Wisconsin Propane Residential Price (Dollars per Gallon)
					





					www.eia.gov
				










I typically call my LP supplier once a month to get the current price so I can update my wood burning spreadsheet.  I have yet to call to get April's price though.  What we see locally always follows the trend shown on that site though.  Last time I called sometime in March LP was $2 a gallon.


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## SidecarFlip (Apr 4, 2021)

What people seem to not understand is, under the last administration we were a net exporter of energy but when the current administration got it, first thing that happened was a moratorium on new drilling, cutting back on fracking in the Marcellus shale in PA and no new oil leases in Alaska, all by executive fiat plus the shutting down of the Canada pipeline to Texas and that all is contribution to the cost of energy.  In this country we have more oil and NG reserves that anywhere else.

The other thing that people don't quite understand and that is, as fuel prices rise, so does the cost to farm and believe me, you food don't come from the market.  We grow it.  Consequently,   As my inputs rise (fuel,  fertilizer. pesticides and herbicides) so, as the production costs rise, the cost is passed on to you the consumer.  Consequently, expect the cost to feed your face will increase substantially.  Double edge sword, you get to pay at the pump plus you get to pay more to eat and last time I checked, food was a necessary item.

I've already increased my end product cost 20% to cover what I anticipate will occur this growing season and your local grocer ain't gonna eat it, he'll pass that along to you.

Whether you like it or not, this country run on fossil fuel energy and it's not just lighting your home and heating it. My tractors don't run on solar, they run on petroleum and I'm not a charity and never will be.

Always keep in mind as you shell out more and more money for the same products you paid a lot less for a year ago that even the cost of pellet will increase because the production costs will also increase and they ain't eating it either.

The propane market is interesting.  Propane is really a local priced commodity and I don't bother calling my buddy who owns the local propane company, I just let him do the price anticipation and it it looks like it's gonna jump a lot, he will top off my bottles.  I have 4 500 gallon bottle on the property.  2 for the house and two for the grain dryers.

Bottom line is, it's 100% political, like it or not.

Expect your cost of pellets to increase substantially this fall.  I'm guessing around 20%, which really has no impact on me because I burn field corn anyway.  I do mix in pellets to mitigate the clinkering issue but 1 skid lasts me an entire winter and my corn is basically free, other than dry down cost and harvest costs.

Hope you all got your vaccine shots.  We did.


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## begreen (Apr 4, 2021)

JRHAWK9 said:


> Here in WI, LP prices are trending downwards after spiking around the beginning of March. The screen capture below is from here:
> Weekly Wisconsin Propane Residential Price (Dollars per Gallon)


The midwest gets great price breaks on LP. That's wishful thinking in our county. Add a dollar or more to those numbers. Note that the EIA doesn't even include western states in its chart. Florida also has high propane prices while neighbor Alabama does not. What's with that?


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## SidecarFlip (Apr 4, 2021)

begreen said:


> That's wishful thinking in our county. Add at least a dollar to those numbers.


Most likely and for some reason I never understood, the energy costs increase the closer you get to the West coast and the East Coast, I've always wonder about that.

What really hurts is people on fixed incomes.  I'm retired from my day job, but I just switched to farming full time.  Was an easy switch too.

I will say that I am glad my buggy gets 40 mpg.  That helps.  I only drive my big diesel pickup when I need to for farm stuff and I don't fill my wife's suburban, she does.  When you drive a bus, it drinks fuel.  it's a 100 buck fill up now.


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## begreen (Apr 4, 2021)

SidecarFlip said:


> Most likely and for some reason I never understood, the energy costs increase the closer you get to the West coast and the East Coast, I've always wonder about that.


Georgia and New York have much lower LP prices than FL too. There is no govt. regulation of heating oil or propane prices so this may be just getting away with what they can charge. If one goes 60 miles north of Seattle, propane prices are at least $1.50/gal less.


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## ABMax24 (Apr 4, 2021)

SidecarFlip said:


> In this country we have more oil and NG reserves that anywhere else.
> 
> Bottom line is, it's 100% political, like it or not.



Nope, in terms of oil reserves the US ranks 9th, and in terms of natural gas the US ranks 4th. Not anywhere close to having more reserves than anywhere else.

The current oil prices are reflective of current production costs. The US Gov't doesn't have the power to control world oil prices like many Americans claim, partly because the US isn't the big bully on the block anymore, if OPEC wanted $20 oil that's what it would be, if they wanted $100 oil that's also what it would be. The cancelling of the Keystone pipeline doesn't change much either, the oil will just cross the border by rail, CP Rail has just bought an American rail line so they can have trackage to the gulf coast. The US produces its own oil, but the pricing is affected far more by outside factors than the internal affairs of the US. Things like the previous administrations sanctions against Iran also drive up oil prices, and is probably one of the most influential means the US has on affecting world oil prices. Our course China loves this, they are buying up Iranian oil at close to 1 million bpd at a discount because of the sanctions.


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## SidecarFlip (Apr 4, 2021)

ABMax24 said:


> Nope, in terms of oil reserves the US ranks 9th, and in terms of natural gas the US ranks 4th. Not anywhere close to having more reserves than anywhere else.


I don't buy that at all.  But then you are Canadian and so yours is always more.


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## wishlist (Apr 4, 2021)

Mid Michigan 2.77 unleaded .  I still remember back when I had my first job (pumping gas around 1980 ) full serve was $1.56 gallon and never changed .   Memory has failed if that was leaded or unleaded . Lol 

Fortunately last summer when off road diesel bottomed out I topped up . Seems like it was just over $1/gallon . That’s just from the covid supply and demand tho as others have mentioned . I see NO politics involved as the reason, in fact , as other have said the biggest reason is OPEC . It’s all supply and demand . Economy is getting back on track which causes demand to rise .

I do wonder how sidecar sets his price on field corn at the elevator ?   Farmers did very well last fall here .  Excellent yields on beans along with rising prices .


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## ABMax24 (Apr 4, 2021)

SidecarFlip said:


> I don't buy that at all.  But then you are Canadian and so yours is always more.



Well according to your own government the US is 10th in oil reserves and 4th in natural gas reserves. Clearly this must be an error due to "the current administration" and "politics in DC".


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## SidecarFlip (Apr 4, 2021)

wishlist said:


> I do wonder how sidecar sets his price on field corn at the elevator


I don't grow corn or beans or wheat.  Never have.  I'm a professional forage grower.  I sell to feedlots.  I like the forage business.  Much less headaches.  Less equipment costs too.

Most row croppers around here are running on a preset contract price.  One of 7 fields I do.


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## sloeffle (Apr 5, 2021)

SidecarFlip said:


> I don't grow corn or beans or wheat.  Never have.  I'm a professional forage grower.  I sell to feedlots.  I like the forage business.  Much less headaches.  Less equipment costs too.


Same here, except I have four legged harvesters eat mine. Even way less inputs than what you have since they don't require petroleum to run.  I always thought you were a row crop farmer because you are always talking about the "free" corn that you get and the propane for your grain dryers. That's another subject for another day though.  

Back on topic - do you sell round bales, idiot cubes, or big squares ? Nice looking hay BTW.


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## SidecarFlip (Apr 5, 2021)

I own GSI bottom grid dryer bins but I have not used them lately (myself).  I get my corn from a buddy down the road that has a huge seed corn operation and the corn I get is off test non coated, non GMO.  He usually has at least a couple tons of it every fall.  He uses my GSI's to dry down his corn but last year it came off so close to 15, he never used them.

I run rounds 4 x 5's in net mostly.  Have a NH 575 small square bailer in the barn that I have not used in about 5 years.  I should sell it.  Nice bailer.  Runs 100% with every option except a hydraulic swing.

Have 2 mowers, a NH Disc Bine side swing and a JD 1020 MoCo, a 3 point tedder, rotary rake and a NH Roll Belt 450 net twine round bailer.

I prefer rounds and I don't even haul them.  My feedlot customer drops his semi trailers in the field, I load them up and away they go.

I used to run 'idiot cubes' but it's just too much of a hassle and too much manual labor and idiot cube people don't like to pay either.


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## sloeffle (Apr 5, 2021)

That's a pretty sweet deal you have going then. Won't the elevator take it ?

I feel my cows round bales. I have a buddy that I help with idiot cubes in the summer, I'm sure glad when that's over. What a PITA.

Yep, I sold idiot cubes for a short amount of time and had a check or two bounce.


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## Seasoned Oak (Apr 5, 2021)

Crude up 188%  , Lumber  262%.   I just noticed a roll of 12-2 house wire is now $112   at Lowes vs about $60 last yr.


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## paulnlee (Apr 5, 2021)

But it's not political


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## SidecarFlip (Apr 5, 2021)

sloeffle said:


> That's a pretty sweet deal you have going then. Won't the elevator take it ?


No, because it's either in bags or super sacks, so it would have to be broken down.  One thing I have to deal with.  I return the super sacks and the skids they are on but the sealed Tyvek sacks I have to dispose of myself as they are not reusable.  Everything goes through the automated packing line.  I usually have a roast in the spring...  just had one actually.  Was a mild winter, I have a full ton left over and a couple ton of pellets.

Not worth it for him to do that and it's labor intensive, IOW he has to pay an employee to do it.  Easier for him to let me pick it up with one of my tractors and front loader and truck it down here.  It's a great deal for me.  I have the most expensive to run biomass stove around, considering the to farmer price for a 53 pound bag is (was) last year around 300 bucks.  He don't get off test on that much anyway.  I might get 4000 pounds a year.

All the off test coated has to go to a hazardous waste landfill and before I started roasting the no germ non coated, it was all getting landfilled.  Seed corn has to germinate at 95% or better to be sold.  USDA rules.

Who knows what it will be this year, probably 350.


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## SidecarFlip (Apr 5, 2021)

Seasoned Oak said:


> Crude up 188%  , Lumber  262%.   I just noticed a roll of 12-2 house wire is now $112   at Lowes vs about $60 last yr.
> 
> View attachment 277570


Of course it's not at all political.  I find it interesting that none of this came about until the new administration got 'installed'.  Then 'wham', everything went through the roof....  But it's not political right?


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## wishlist (Apr 5, 2021)

SidecarFlip said:


> Of course it's not at all political.  I find it interesting that none of this came about until the new administration got 'installed'.  Then 'wham', everything went through the roof....  But it's not political right?


You first post was not to make it political about fuel prices .   Your not helping yourself sidecar . 

The new administration won an election.  
Same way the previous administration did and the one before that and so on .  Accept it and move on . It’s really not that hard of a concept.  
When covid hit bad , the economy tanked . We all can probably agree on that . Was it the previous administrations fault ? Nope . 
 Why were fuel prices so low last summer ? Seems to me there was a huge surplus of crude oil and OPEC didn’t cut output along with Russia until later in the year ?   Now demand has risen and supply needs to catch up .
My brother in law has been driving fuel trucks for over 20 years .  He fills stations all over mid Michigan.   Last summer his hours were cut back to less than 20 hours a week . He’s never worked less than a 40 plus work week .   Now he’s working the maximum hours he can under the CDL laws .  Same company , same amount of truck drivers .  Demand is high right now ,  it’s not rocket science.


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## SidecarFlip (Apr 6, 2021)

wishlist said:


> Demand is high right now , it’s not rocket science.


Demand is high because farmers are filling their bulk tanks.  I filled mine (500 gallon) before the price jumped, like I knew it would (and it did).


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## JRHAWK9 (Apr 7, 2021)

I just called our local LP supplier and got my monthly price update.  It's down to $1.70/gal now....down from $2 last month which was down from when it peaked at around $2.35.  It's trending down here.


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## SidecarFlip (Apr 7, 2021)

Get it while it's cheap.


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## JRHAWK9 (Apr 7, 2021)

I usually top off my tank around August/September sometime.    It's still at 63% from being filled to 80% on 9/29/20.   It's a 500 gallon tank, so used about 85 gallons in that timeframe between the LP clothes drier, LP water heater and what the furnace used when we are on vacation or just too lazy to light a fire during the shoulder seasons.

My spreadsheet shows a total furnace runtime of 37.9 hours......it's a 75KBTU/hr furnace, so it used about 31 gallons of LP out of that 85.

So 54 gallons to dry our clothes and heat our water in a little over 6 months........under 9 gallons a month.  Or about $15 a month at today's LP price.


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## begreen (Apr 9, 2021)

Seasoned Oak said:


> Crude up 188%  , Lumber  262%.   I just noticed a roll of 12-2 house wire is now $112   at Lowes vs about $60 last yr.
> 
> View attachment 277570


Not sure where that shot is from, but it is not quite accurate and it doesn't show what happened during the past year when another administration was in charge. The pandemic has upset global pricing. This started a year ago. People should stop trying to politicize this.
The last page is half farm reports. Sticking a fork in this one.


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