Hog Prices Take Big Drop: What Next?

Traders in Chicago have a better handle on a disease in the nation’s hog herd. Lean hog futures have responded by moving lower. Purdue Ag Economist Chris Hurt has more on why the price of pork is on the decline.

Visit a Grain Elevator on a Sunday Afternoon

Some Sunday this summer you should make the drive to Atlanta, Illinois and tour the old grain elevator. It stopped taking in corn long ago and sat unused for years. Then the townsfolk decided, in the mid 1990’s, to refurbish the J. H. Hawes Grain elevator. Today it is a museum on the registry of historical places in the United States. You can learn more on the museum website.
 

The J. H. Hawes Grain Elevator and Musuem is open to visitors from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. every Sunday afternoon in June, July, and August. Here are few facts and figures about the machinery in the elevator.

• the old gas engine that operates the elevator runs at 400 r-p-m and puts out 10 horsepower
• the pulley system inside the building is driven by a single rope 280 feet long
• the total capacity of the elevator is twenty-nine thousand bushels

All About PEDv

Skype Capable of Real Time Language Translation

Skype, now owned by Microsoft, may soon be able to translate speech in real time. The company demoed this new kind of magic on stage. It would allow people to converse in their native (but different) languages.

Skype is one of my favorite broadcast tools. I use it every day and cannot wait to see how it might handle a conversation translation about on farm conditions in China, Ukraine, Argentina, and Brazil.