Weather

In western Washington County, 90% of the crops are in and up. There’s a little bit of replanting going on in the western part of Washington County.

Nitrogen is among the costliest and yield-limiting inputs in corn production, and there are three pathways that investment can be lost during the growing season.

Winter wheat acreage is up in Illinois and Indiana and farmers are checking their fields for yield-robbing diseases.

The USDA’s most recent World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates report confirmed that a freight train of grain is barreling toward 2023-2024 markets and farmers everywhere need to prepare for the rockier prices sure to follow in its wake.

USDA analysts forecast record soybean production worldwide of nearly 410.6 million tons, up nearly 11% from last year. If realized, this would be the largest year-over-year production increase in nearly two decades.

In mid-February, my weekly column was entitled “Grain prices living on borrowed time.” Because a wide array of markets collapsed this week, including the grain complex, I wish to repost portions of that column.

Much needed rain fell on our farm a couple of weeks ago, bringing us out of the “extreme drought” category and back to “severe drought.”

The number in the headline was practically unbelievable: “About 18,000 cattle are killed in fire at dairy farm in Texas,” reported the New York Times on April 13.

Seems like our pasture went from a dormant brown to lush green overnight. The spring rain was timed perfectly to spark the growth. The sheep took off running through the tall grass as soon as I opened the gate.

Hello from Graze-N-Grow. This past month has seen, as usual, a frenzy of farm activity with most farmers finished or nearly finished planting. But not here at home. Our organic corn and beans are still in the bag.

Well, it’s shearing time and this year has been the hardest one I’ve ever had. When my regular shearer retired two years ago, he gave me a list of names of five guys that sheared.

This week was noticeable in my view with one news story that received precious little coverage and another that is being touted loudly by the media to the point of ad nauseam and beyond tiring.

One of the oldest sayings on Wall Street is “sell in May and walk away.” The old adage is based on what the Stock Trader’s Almanac claims is the best six months of the year — namely, November through April.

Winds stirred up a wall of dust from farm fields that engulfed a stretch of busy interstate highway in a matter of minutes. The brown cloud’s intensity caked even the insides of vehicles in dirt.

Over the past few weeks, and now that we are into the second quarter of the year, a number of commodity markets have been chopping around with a downward bias, or simply remained bearish.