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  • Butch627

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    I haven't heard him recently but when I listen Orien Samulson on wgn radio always talks about 90 day corn and soybeans. I am not being a smartass, I know nothing about farming. I have heard talk about how little of the crops have been planted in the midwest. I get that planting is far behind schedule but when it stops raining and the farmers get in the field what is the issue or issues with the late start?
     

    BR8818

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    Nov 20, 2018
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    Last year I was doing some welding for a farmer and asked him about late planting and why it was bad. He said it could cause lower yields because when the corn starts pollinating the air is hotter and drier, and something about them being more susceptible to diseases and bugs.
     

    Spear Dane

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    Sep 4, 2015
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    Kokomo area
    I haven't heard him recently but when I listen Orien Samulson on wgn radio always talks about 90 day corn and soybeans. I am not being a smartass, I know nothing about farming. I have heard talk about how little of the crops have been planted in the midwest. I get that planting is far behind schedule but when it stops raining and the farmers get in the field what is the issue or issues with the late start?

    Another part of the problem is that only a very small % of the corn crop is grown for human consumption. That stuff can be harvested upon maturation. Everything else is grown for an industrial use of some kind. Feed corn, HFCS, fuel, corn 'oil', etc. This is the stuff you see left in the field long into the fall. It's drying. If the moisture content is too high at least 2 things go wrong. They will quickly start growing mold once in storage and the kernel will not be fit for what ever use it was intended. But all of this has to occur before the hard freezes come because that is also no bueno for the crop.

    WIC424-BLACK-HPOST.jpg
     

    ATOMonkey

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    Jun 15, 2010
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    Plainfield
    My FIL writes crop insurance, and he says if they can't plant by the 10th then they just aren't going to. The losses will be too high.
     

    ATOMonkey

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    Jun 15, 2010
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    I am interested to see how they are going to prioritize corn usage this year. How much is going toward feed, how much for corn meal, how much for industrial ethanol, etc.
     

    natdscott

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    It's all about sunlight.

    Planting too late results in higher daytime temperatures during the critical weeks of pollination. Daytime temperatures and humidity, and cooler nights are critical for pollination because they keep the silks hydrated longer. There's enough pollen in a corn field to fertilize all the kernals 100 times over, but if a silk dries up before that can happen, well...game over for that kernel. Multiply that times a trillion....and keep going.

    Beans love heat, and even a little dry. Corn does not.

    Late planting also increases the risk of frost impact, which we have all seen.

    Late planting is being CAUSED by too much rain, and that same rain has prevented some farmers from applying nitrogen as they normally would, and for those who HAVE gotten some on, they may have lost a great deal of it...wet clay and silt loams do not seal well behind anhydrous knives, and your money steams into the sky, winter blow on is now in the creeks, nitrogen supplied in starter fertilizer like 19-17-0 (applied WITH the seed) may be the best solution (pun intended) this year, but you of course have to PLANT something to have any N on.

    None of the above necessarily affects the market prices, but it DOES affect marketing TIME. Later-to-market means cash flow crunches for longer than usual, late payments on loans, more interest paid on lines of credit, inability to meet deadlines for fall input payments and crop insurance payments...

    This is also coming at a time where probably at least 1/3 of farmers are significantly stressed financially, with negative working capital, and in some cases, legitimate year-over-year losses. Some have been able to burn some balance sheet to inject liquidity, but not all have that ability anymore....and some are actually upside down on farms they bought less than 5 years ago. That'll happen when you pay TWICE what it was worth for your lifetime of produced revenue....but turning in farms to the Realtors and the auctioneers at what are the equivalent of $750-1,250/acre "cash rent" is not a very good thing. They'd never pay that kind of cash rent, but a $9,500/ac farm didn't seem like a bad idea at $7 corn. That, even though everybody knew we were in a commodity bubble.

    Their increasing revenues and the prices they were paying to BUY ground and to RENT ground did go slightly unnoticed by landlords, seed companies, fertilizer/spray companies, and county assessors...but not for long. Farmers built the situation, but the thing is, the REST of ever'body doesn't want to just come right back down to Earth now that things "ain't sa good right now" for yonder farmer. Socilogy can be a bi(*^ when it's not on your side, and people don't forget things very quickly. Like $80,000 pickup trucks.

    The last bit I'll touch on is not applicable to all the farmers, but it was for a bunch. Due to a lot of factors, the largest of which were those mentioned commodity prices, and a near-doubling of many incomes in 2012-2013, their expenditures on family living increased dramatically. Same as the rest of society, it's pretty easy to get used to that standard of living, but it's damned hard to go back the other way.

    Those who have been conservative with their books, have run a sharp pencil on changes they made before making them, have hedged risks wherever possible, and have been paying attention will come out of this alright. But maybe 1/3 of operations won't...and I have tried to illustrate that it isn't just the rain in 2019 that's the problem.


    So that's some of it. Not all of the above is anybody's fault--and there aren't two farm families alike--but for many, the snowball is getting pretty big in the rear view mirror right now.


    Farm suicides are on the way up, big time, and this will do nothing but steepen that line. Do what you can to help, while you can.


    -Nate
     
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    natdscott

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    I see this every year. We have a good couple days to plant and most don't take advantage of it. Change my mind.

    You're wrong, and you sound kinda ignorant.

    You have NOT seen this every year. You may not have EVER seen it as late/wet as this, and it's the worst since the 1980's at least. There are usually weeks worth of days to plant that are better than almost ANY of the days (hours?) this year.

    Sure, there are definitely guys that continue to be lax about being on the "Start" line every year. Dickin around in the field working on equipment...getting up at 10 am...staying at the bar until midnight.. that sorta thing.

    But there are a WHOLE BUNCH of really good farmers across the entire grain belt that are sitting watching it rain...

    Facts:

    ---We are currently less than 60% planted on corn, nationwide. The US 5 year average right now is 90%.
    ----Indiana is currently about 22% planted. Hoosier's 5 year average right now is 85%.
    ------The majority of productive corn acreage in the whole country had to have been planted by May 31st, or here, by June 5th, to be eligible for Crop Insurance coverage.


    June 5th... 22% planted as of May 26th... Rain in the forecast... At least a week of dry weather before it would be "good" soil conditions....


    So how does that make you feel?

    -Nate
     

    Sigblitz

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    I'm hearing it every year and I'll hear it next year. This year it was dry when it was above 60 at night (central region). It's best to plant corn early. It loves water and would be doing fine. I do remember a few years ago it didn't dry up enough to get a second harvest in, but there was still a minute to get the first one in.
     

    Sigblitz

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    I see this every year. We have a good couple days to plant and most don't take advantage of it. Change my mind.

    I'll restate.

    I hear this every year. I really do. There's some dry days before the rain comes in, and the rain sticks around and it's too wet to plant. There's been some rainy seasons and flooding, but not every year. In northern Indiana, they got a lot of rain and I'm not sure if they had a window between thaw and rain.
     

    ghuns

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    Nov 22, 2011
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    ...In northern Indiana, they got a lot of rain and I'm not sure if they had a window between thaw and rain.

    They did not.

    Since the last full week in April we've had over 10" of rain. Spread out just enough to never let even the best drained fields dry out.

    Most of those who took a chance and planted corn early have already cashed the check from insurance because their corn was flooded out.
     

    d.kaufman

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    Mar 9, 2013
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    They did not.

    Since the last full week in April we've had over 10" of rain. Spread out just enough to never let even the best drained fields dry out.

    Most of those who took a chance and planted corn early have already cashed the check from insurance because their corn was flooded out.

    I agree. The fields around my area have never been able to dry out. We had 3 snowfalls in April and may is now the wettest in recorded history up here. There has just been no window of opportunity.
     

    ghuns

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    The guy who farms our land came out a couple weeks ago and tried to plant beans. The ground was firm enough to drive the tractor in the field, but his new Kinze, no-till drill was not coving up the seeds properly. They sold him new rollers, designed for wet conditions, with a $5K price tag, they didn't cover the seed either.:rolleyes:
     

    Herr Vogel

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    Jun 10, 2018
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    Rossburg
    Not sure if it has anything to do with the conversation, but the last couple of years I've been seeing everyone putting in field tile like it's going out of style.
    Is it just damage control at this point, or are there other factors at play?
     

    ghuns

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    Not sure if it has anything to do with the conversation, but the last couple of years I've been seeing everyone putting in field tile like it's going out of style.
    Is it just damage control at this point, or are there other factors at play?

    There is still A LOT of old, red clay, field tile out there that has outlived its usefulness and must be replaced. Other times, even with modern plastic tile, the tile is so close to the surface that newer, larger farm equipment will crush it and it has to be replaced. And some time, you just need more.:dunno:
     

    Spear Dane

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    Kokomo area
    There is still A LOT of old, red clay, field tile out there that has outlived its usefulness and must be replaced. Other times, even with modern plastic tile, the tile is so close to the surface that newer, larger farm equipment will crush it and it has to be replaced. And some time, you just need more.:dunno:

    I have some of that old stuff running about 5 feet off the back of my house and 4 feet down. That is how you discover your neighborhood used to be a corn field.
     

    ghuns

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    I have some of that old stuff running about 5 feet off the back of my house and 4 feet down. That is how you discover your neighborhood used to be a corn field.

    My grandpa used to have a ditching machine and tiled many, many fields. I wish I had a use for those tiles, because I still have PILES of them in my barn.
     

    natdscott

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    I'm hearing it every year and I'll hear it next year. This year it was dry when it was above 60 at night (central region). It's best to plant corn early. It loves water and would be doing fine. I do remember a few years ago it didn't dry up enough to get a second harvest in, but there was still a minute to get the first one in.

    It seems you have your mind made up already, so I guess I won't bother wasting my time to try to moderate your lack of perspective.

    I am no diehard pro-farmer. I think I have illustrated that there was a fair amount of hubris and materialism there for awhile that should have been replaced with gratefulness and savings.

    That begin said, it's a real blend of people, and it's a real BLEND of reasons that have gotten the situation to this point.


    You don't seem to grasp that, due to what I think is just prejudice. Please hold on to your hate with both arms, so that nobody else gets infected.

    -Nate
     
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