This is what happens when the railroad won’t stop for the smaller grain elevators anymore. Now trucks haul gain to more distant giant elevators and the small ones are abandoned. This puts a lot more truck traffic on the roads. It is also a much less energy efficient means of transport.
I was left wondering about the economics of this. Could added road maintenance costs of the truck traffic possibly be covered by fuel taxes or is government subsidy of roads driving irrational and environmentally harmful policies?
I think about these things as I ride. I once got a long talk about the economics of round versus square hay bales from a couple of farmers at a little breakfast spot in Michigan.
What was their verdict on the hay bales? One of my favorite childhood memories was being able to go out an “help” with haymaking when just big enough to push the rectangle ones around into piles. No chance of moving the huge round ones by hand …
Nice blog and great effort out there!
Glad you’re enjoying my ramblings. Seems that word of the blog is getting around!
The main advantages of the square bales is that they can be moved by hand, as you noticed, and stacked for storage in barns or transport. The round ones easier to make for large scale farms.