10pm on Saturday Night

It can be lonely on the farm. However, it sure looks like Twitter is letting guys striving for the same thing talk in realtime when they're busy. This 'screen shot' is a 10pm Saturday night conversation from a western Illinois farmer. He simply asked for a roll call of who was still in the field. The answers came back from across the Midwest.

No Signs of Weakening Soybean Exports

U.S. grown soybeans are being shipped out of the nation at an astounding pace and, as you'll hear from University of Illinois Ag Economist Darrel Good, there doesn't appear to be any slowdown in the movement.   

Corn Consumption Continues to Exceed Projections

Farmers are going to the field this spring feeling much better about the price of corn. Todd Gleason has more on the reasons why things have gone from dire to acceptable.

Forward Figuring Corn & Soybean Ending Stocks

The March reports released by the United States Department of Agriculture can be used to estimate how much corn and soybeans will be left in the nation for this fall and next. Todd Gleason has more on the calculations from the University of Illinois.

USDA April 9, 2014 World Agricultural Supply & Demand Estimates

Bt Resistance Rant

April 3, 2014 Mike Gray posted a note into the University of Illinois IPM bulletin about the addition of three more counties to the Yieldgard resistant western corn rootworm saga. The Entomologist also reprimanded the industry for not taking academic recommendations on management of GMO products seriously a decade ago. You may read the FULL ARTICLE here, and an excerpt below.

"While the greater implementation of best management practices is a step in the right direction — let’s be clear, these practices should have been in place when Bt corn rootworm hybrids were first used over 10 years ago. Accelerated reliance upon the pyramided Bt rootworm products with reduced seed blend refuges will not solve this resistance management challenge. Increased use of soil insecticides, along with Bt rootworm hybrids, will likely only exacerbate resistance development. As I have done in the past, I urge producers to implement a long-term integrated pest management approach for corn rootworms. This includes the use of multiple tactics (over time, not all in the same season), such as: use of a more diverse crop rotation system, use of a non-Bt hybrid in conjunction with a planting-time soil insecticide, rotation of pyramided Bt hybrids, and consideration of an adult suppression program in heavily infested fields."

EIA Press Release on Ethanol Price Spike

APRIL 3, 2014

Rail congestion, cold weather raise ethanol spot prices

Source: U.S. Energy Information Administration based on Oil Price Information Service (ethanol prices) and Thomson Reuters (RBOB prices).
Note: RBOB is reformulated blendstock for oxygenate blending gasoline, a motor gasoline blending component intended for blending oxygenates to produce finished reformulated gasoline.

---

Ethanol spot prices have increased steadily since early February. By late March, New York Harbor (NYH) spot ethanol prices exceeded prices for RBOB (the petroleum component of gasoline) by more than $1 per gallon. Ethanol spot prices in Chicago and Gulf Coast markets also rose above NYH RBOB prices.

USDA Quarterly Hogs & Pigs Report - March 28, 2014

USDA has released the March 2014 Quarterly Hogs & Pigs report. It, by most accounts, shows more inventory than the trade expected. However, the figures reported do show an impact from PED-V. This impact is, simply put, not as dramatic as the price rise has been in lean hog futures. The futures are still looking forward to what most expect to be a short market ready supply of hogs in April, May, June, and July. The following is excerpted from USDA's March 28, 2014 Quarterly Hogs & Pigs report.

Cost to Produce Corn and Soybeans in Illinois-2013

In 2013, the total of all economic costs per acre for growing corn in Illinois averaged $1,033 in the northern section, $966 in the central section for farmland with "high" soil ratings, $951 in the central section for farmland with "low" soil ratings, and $872 in the southern section. Soybean costs per acre were $727, $715, $673 and $631, respectively (see Table 1). Costs were lower in southern Illinois primarily because of lower land costs. The total of all economic costs per bushel in the different sections of the state ranged from $4.90 to $5.20 for corn and from $12.32 to $12.88 for soybeans. Variations in this cost were related to weather, yields, and land quality.

Reports Continue to Support Corn & Soybean Prices

March is one of four months that contain an unusually large number of USDA reports. These, as you'll hear from University of Illinois Ag Economist Darrel Good, reflect supply and demand conditions for corn and soybeans.

Grain Tube Training to Save Lives

Grain Entrapment - Those that work in and around flowing grain know just how dangerous it can be. That's why they train to be in the bins and how to extract someone that has been trapped in a bin. Todd Gleason has more from the Illinois AgriCenter in Bloomington.

 

Pig in a Bucket

How many of you have ever had a farm animal living in the house?

Here's a story written by a farm wife in Illinois. One of her latest blog posts is titled "The Bawling in the Basement".  It is a great little read and reminded me of a story from my childhood.

Pig in a Bucket

There was a pig in a bucket. Not its snout nuzzling in for corn or water as most pigs are prone to do when a bucket is carried into the lot, but the whole pig. A very little pig. A very little pink pig. A very little pink pig in a bucket.  A very little pink pig in a bucket in the closet. A very little pink pig in a bucket in the closet in the kitchen. Weird...

This little pink pig in a bucket was the runt of the litter. Dad had determined it would not suffer the terminal fate of most runts. So, there was a pig in a bucket in our kitchen. Mom was tasked with keeping this pig alive. It was in the closet in the kitchen because it was very warm in the closet. That's what little pigs need. Sometimes this comes from the sow, but that can be a dangerous affair. Sows tend to lay down on the piglets that don't move fast enough and they don't get back up.

The furnace was in our kitchen closet. It was a very warm place and I suppose if you were a piglet curled up atop a pile of fuzzy rags in a bucket this wouldn't be such a bad spot to start life. This would especially be the case if you happened to know what the phrase "sucking hind tit" means. That's the teat reserved for the runt, and very unlikely to have enough milk for survival.

Mom fed this little pig in a bucket from a baby bottle. I don't recall if it lived, but the effort was valiant.

Addressing Compaction

Here's a beautifully told story about compaction.

Read it on Griggs Dakota now.

Yes, beautifully told. There is an art to good story telling and sometimes it has to do with the words, at others the visuals. Occasionally it is possible to bring a mundane story to life. If you don't believe me just check out this blog about farm life in Griggs Dakota.