Earl Butz, one of the most famous and popular US Secretaries of Agriculture, once told me that a key competitive advantage for US farmers in the global marketplace is our built-in natural infrastructure. Our Great Lakes and river system is perfectly designed to transport grain efficiently. The Mississippi River is the backbone of our agricultural transportation system: 60% of all grain exported from the USA is shipped by barge down the Mighty Mississippi.
In commodity crop production, we talk a lot about bushels per acre. Because that’s how farmers get paid. But what exactly does bushels per acre mean? A bushel is the unit of measure we use in the USA (other parts of the world use tons or metric tons) to calculate yield, verify shipments and set pricing standards for crops such as corn, soybeans, wheat, canola, rice and sorghum. There’s a good chance your grandparents had a bushel basket laying around their house, garage, or barn. If you were to fill that basket to the brim with corn, you’d have one bushel’s worth.
Everyone remembers where they were on September 11, 2001. One of my most vivid memories was the week after. I was farming with my dad at the time. He had just started cutting soybeans in a field owned by my wife’s family, situated next to Interstate 74 in western Illinois.
#Harvest23 is here! If all goes well, I should be harvesting my corn plot this week. The beginning of fall brings excitement and optimism to the farm. But this year, those feelings appear tempered. Farmer sentiment dropped 8 points last month (according to the Purdue Ag Economy Barometer) as producers
Labor Day signals the end of summer and ushers in the frolics of fall: football, pumpkin spice, UGG boots (well, maybe not in Arizona), hoodies, weenie roasts, and of course, harvest. When do farmers start harvest? For commodity crops, this is largely dependent upon the crop, the variety, geography, and
We all do it. We track time by referencing memorable items that we or our family once possessed. “Back when he drove that blue Silverado”, or “when she had that yellow Labrador” are examples of how we recall events that shaped our lives. For farmers, those points in time are often
The recent fertilizer market may be best described by two catch phrases: “wait-and-see” and “just in time.” In the fall of 2021, sky-rocketing energy prices pointed toward looming inflation and an inevitable rise in fertilizer prices. Many savvy growers, including those aligned with the regen ag movement, hedged their bets
Just as the seasons inevitably turn, so does the farming landscape within a tight-knit rural community. That reality hit close to home for me last Thursday with the passing of my uncle, Gary Nichols. He and my father farmed together for decades, and like most farming families, Uncle Gary was a
This summer we’ve entertained a visitor from Japan, my son’s girlfriend, Riko. So what do you suppose one of her favorite things to do in America is? Go to the grocery store. A trivial, if not mundane task for most of us is a full-on experience for her. Now keep in mind, Japan is
36 years ago, a wide-eyed intern walked into the office of Indiana Prairie Farmer magazine. It was a baptism by fire. Paul Queck, the seasoned editor, told him, “We’d like to have you take a shot at writing what we hope to be the cover story for July. Since you’re only here
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