Farmers are harvesting the gold in their fields. That gold is yellow corn and yellow soybeans. They are coming off at a fast pace around here. I said the other day it looked like every available combine was in the field.
Farmers are taking off good yields overall. 25 miles around our farm has to be some of the best crops in the United States. We are very blessed. I have heard more yields closer to 60 than 40 on soybeans. The early corn has been taken off and everything else is still in the field.
My friend in NW Pennsylvania sent me his corn plot results. The high was 263 and the low was 200! I said Stuart, you are a better farmer than I am! When so much of the country was toast, some of us made out quite well. They have a very short season there and it's one of those places I say if you can farm there, you can farm anywhere.
We finished every tile repair but one yesterday. I have been meaning to drain this low spot on the high spot if you know what I mean. Right near the curve on Martinsville Road, excess rain will drown out my crop every once in awhile. I showed Jack and he said we better call OUPS. I call OUPS and they say he has to call. I know he isn't going to call.
I know there isn't anything there but a 6 inch tile going around the curve clear past all my driveways. Still, I don't know where the telephone or water lines are buried and I don't want him to hit one and I know he is not going to let himself hit one. As they say, call before you dig! It's almost a 911 call in the US, it's 811.
I just got an email about the post turtle.
"While suturing a cut on the hand of a 75 year old rancher, whose hand was caught in the squeeze gate while working cattle, the doctor struck up a conversation with the old man.
Eventually the topic got around to Obama and his role as our president.
The old rancher said, 'Well, ya know, Obama is a 'Post Turtle''.
Not being familiar with the term, the doctor asked him, what a 'post turtle' was.
The old rancher said, 'When you're driving down a country road and you come across a fence post with a turtle balanced on top, that's a 'post turtle'.
The old rancher saw the puzzled look on the doctor's face so he continued to explain. "You know he didn't get up there by himself, he doesn't belong up there, he doesn't know what to do while he's up there, he's elevated beyond his ability to function, and you just wonder what kind of dumb ass put him up there to begin with."
Best explanation I've heard yet.
Ed
Might be what they call fool's gold, when you get paid 14 cents a pound for corn ($8/bushel) and its real value is 7 times that for barely processed corn ($1.06 a pound for yellow corn meal). ;)
ReplyDeleteOf course, almost none of it is sold as meal or polenta/grits, and consumers pay highly processed corn syrup about 20 cents a pound in soda form, not much above your selling price. I suppose there is a lot of subsidizing for these HFCS factories to keep the prices low, I know there is even more for the ethanol factories.
So, will you dress all in purple in the fields for Spirit Day tomorrow? That'd be a sight! ;)
Nope, no puple here,hopefully a calm and peaceful spirit. I just got clocked at 68 MPH in a 55 again and got my second warning. I think I better slow down.
ReplyDeleteYes what we sell in mass is cheap but I tried the farm market deal and that was too labor intensive for an old man with not even born grandchildren yet. Turns out they have busy lives, too.
I did buy a beautiful head of cauliflower at the Amish store for $2 last week and it put the grocery store veggies to shame.
E-85 is back to 3 bucks as Obama makes his last ditch effort to get re-elected. I have no idea if these things correlate, I just notice them happening.
Ed
Good luck selling industrial crops such as corn grain and soybeans at the farmers market! ;)
ReplyDeleteYou probably need to grow organic products if you want the highest value and reach a greater number of direct customers, so it's a whole different enterprise, and there are other opportunities too, like transformation/processing and online sales, or niche markets, like making masa meal if you have Hispanics around.