Palmer Amaranth: A Weed on the Move in Illinois

The bane of the south is making its way northward.

The question at hand says University of Illinois Extension Weed Scientist Aaron Hager is not if, but when and where Palmer Amaranth will show up in Illinois fields. Maybe more importantly, how much damage will it do to the yield of a growing crop. He wrote about it in The Bulletin online. “The Bulletin” is ILLINOIS’ crop science and extension outreach webpage.

Hager notes research done by Adam Davis, USDA-ARS plant ecologist at the University of Illinois, has examined these questions.  Results demonstrate there are few landscape-level barriers to the

A Very Robust Demand Base for Corn & Soybeans

Livestock and ethanol are the goto users of commodities like corn and soybeans. As you'll hear these two sectors have now created a very robust domestic demand base for the crops.

Sampling Errors Associated with Grain Stocks

USDA tallies the amount of corn available in the United States quarterly. It does this through a survey. However the Grain Stocks report that is developed from the survey data has been suspect for a few years.   Listen to a short piece with Scott Irwin to learn more on the sampling errors associated with the amount of corn on hand or watch the longer form unedited video interview.

Learn more on the farmdocdaily website.

2012 Ag Census Infographic by University of Illinois Extension

Twitter, It Really Works!

The experience & success of simply emailing the frosted corn photos to a list of grain analysts had me thinking about social media quite a bit this year. So, I started a twitter account @commodityweek and pretty quickly had about 40 followers. This all before ever mentioning it On Air. 

The power of this medium came home when I took a Sunday drive to purposely scout the corn crop in central Illinois. Over the 11 hour, 16 stop, 300 mile drive I tweeted results from each stop and, amazingly, picked up 8 followers! Again, I was using what was in my pocket, and this time a real - if small - video camera. The iPhone photos, and Twitter logged exact locations which allowed me to produce a TV news segment of my ride for air later that week.

Using What's in My Pocket

This is Not Your Farther's Phone

It was clear in June that much of the Midwest was suffering very dry conditions, but few had really been into the field to see what was happening. 

I simply decided to pull over and use what was in my pocket, an iPhone, to give a running commentary from two different sites. 

Both of these iPhone videos were posted into the radio station website at www.willag.org. Most of the WILLAg listeners hear me talk about my father often on the air. It was nice to let them see him.

Dad is 86 years old in this video. He golfed 36 holes earlier in the spring, and helped my brothers plant this corn crop. 

If only we could all be so active in our old age.

Using Photos to Start a Buzz

This year I attempted to harness the power of several mediums to deliver important U.S. growing season information.

The year began very early with farmers across the Midwest planting corn at a record early pace. While not broadcast, I first used photos of frosted corn emailed to my network of On Air analysts (about 60) to provide context to the cold air mass that arrived in early April. These flashed around the globe within a couple of hours and prompted many other news outlets to ask for permission to use them including Bloomberg.

It was my first experience at backing into a story by creating a buzz within the futures industry.

The series of photos also included the first early warning of the powder dry soil conditions found in some of the frosted fields.