Farmers learn not to count chickens too early

High grain prices this last spring and into the early summer had prognosticators asking for windfall profits taxes on farmers.

The only problem, as any veteran farmer knows, is that the crop was barely in the ground, much less grown and harvested. That's always when the best prices are--when you don't have anything ready to sell.

So it is, that corn prices have dropped a dollar, and other crops like wheat and barley are off their highs too. As reality sets in, like drought, corn borers and rust, flooding, scorching temperatures, early frost--prices come back to earth. By the time the crop is actually harvested and put in the grain bin, farmers are ready to settle for just a profit margin at all, much less a big windfall.

This year will undoubtedly prove to be no exception, as late August rolls around, and the harvest begins.

Agriculture is a risky business at best, and good years are usually offset by bad ones. There are much more lucrative industries than agriculture.

The profits are in things like love of the land, the independence and the rural lifestyle. Things you can't deposit in the bank, but for many, outweigh dollars-and-cents considerations alone.