Ag commodities dive, recover, with stocks.

Farmers and ranchers are not immune to the stock market crash and recovery. Monday was truly Black Monday for owners of livestock or grain crops, as the futures market crashed and drove cash prices through the floor.

This time of year, many farms and ranches get their annual income in one week, from the sale of their calf crop or grain crop. A precipitous drop like Monday's, over which they have no control, is a disaster.

If you own stocks and bonds, you only took the hit if you sold them. As a farmer and rancher, if your crop came to market Monday, you took the full hit. Even if it were possible to pull it back off the market--which is tough, since you've already paid to ship it for sale that day--you incur substantial costs.

Commodities recovered somewhat Tuesday, just like the Stock Market did. But that was too late for many hapless farmers and ranchers. The Big Boys on the Chicago Mercantile Exchange and the Chicago Board of Trade, where most commodities trade, only theoretically lost money Monday, and probably even made money from buying newly cheap contracts at the bottom Monday and selling them at a substantial profit Tuesday.

If you own actual, existing cattle or grain on the ground, you can't practically do that. You take the hit, and hopefully have enough left to move on. Such is the lot of the family farmer or rancher.