Crop Update July 2012

What have we been doing around the farm lately?

We (the guys, not me) have been fixing up a small shed we call the chicken coup at the farm.  They emptied it, organized all the “junk”, made a ramp, fixed windows, installed a door and ramp and are now siding the outside of it.  

Marketing decisions are always being made.  Currently the crop prices are going up because they aren’t expecting a good crop.  So the big question is how much corn/beans will we actually have to sell?  A little tidbit about marketing: a farmer always feels the best about his/her marketing decisions when they sell and then prices drop the next day.  This means they sold at some sort of high in the market.  It may only be a 2 day high, but it was a high in the market.

Brad has been busy spraying insecticide for rootworm beetles and fungicide to improve plant health.  Usually we spray only fungicide, but the rootworm beetles were doing a lot of damage (I was told you could see the damage driving at 60mph down the road) and it wasn’t time for fungicide yet.   That means Brad has to take another pass through the field for fungicide which he doesn’t enjoy doing, but that is what needs to be done.  Actually Brad got a call about the beetles from a friend and had to drop what he was doing and head south because it was an emergency.   He called me at work on a Thursday to inform me he was leaving and that I needed a babysitter for Saturday because he wouldn’t be back.  That is really one of the first times Brad needed to spray something on an emergency basis.

The crop this year isn’t doing well between the heat and lack of water most fields of corn are rolled up and look like pineapples.  It isn’t pretty and in all reality it is just sad.  You could say oh well it is just one year, but I have learned that everything is connected.  The lack of supply this year, leads to high corn prices and increasing food prices, and consumer complaining.  People may find alternate ways to make things that don’t involve corn and then corn price will drop.  Not to mention it means less people we can feed! 

Brad says that some of the ears have had silks eaten off of them by the beetles.  Some plants don’t have ears, others have pollinated already but without the rain they may not be able to produce kernels. Time will tell what will happen, but for now we have grouchy (stressed) farmers to live with.