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Farming businesses can benefit from increased Section 179 expense deduction and extension of bonus depreciation. By David P. Webb and D. Nathan Smith President Obama signed into law the Small Business Jobs Act of 2010 on Sept. 27, 2010 (the “Act”). The Act extended or introduced provisions designed to lessen the tax burden of small businesses. Many of these tax-saving ... Read More »

Arkansas farmers switched to a variable rate fertility program to save money and increase yields. By Carroll Smith Editor When brothers Curtis and Hunter Miller and Hunter’s son Clayton made the switch last year to a variable rate fertility program, they decided to use it on all of their 1,200 corn acres as well as their 1,300 soybean acres. “We ... Read More »

To say that commodity prices have been volatile this year is obviously the ultimate understatement. Since marketing is not my area of expertise, I would like to defer to Melvin Brees, who is the market/policy Extension associate, FAPRI, University of Missouri. In his November “Decisive Marketing” column, Brees offers insight into today’s markets. Following is an excerpt from his commentary. ... Read More »

A new product, along with an effort by several universities to align their research, will help remove the fear factor from growing corn. By Carroll Smith Editor For all corn producers, aflatoxin is the “A” word that everyone fears, and no one likes to talk about. Although the toxin can be found in areas of the Corn Belt, the Mid-South ... Read More »

Missouri agriculture business specialist David Reinbott discusses supply and demand, technicals and a marketing plan. In the Sept. 10, 2010 USDA supply and demand report, old crop and new crop ending stocks were lowered from the August report. The 2009-10 ending stocks were cut 40 million bushels to 1.386 billion bushels and the 2010-11 ending stocks were cut 196 million ... Read More »

Check out herbicides, seed treatments and a new corn head New Corn Heads Boost Harvest Capacity Frontier Equipment offers two wide-row corn heads, the CH2208 eight-row (pictured at right) and the CH2112 twelve-row with new design features to increase harvest capacity in the field. “The CH2208 and CH2112 offer wide-row capabilities in 36-inch and 38-inch spacing,” says Tom Elliott, manager, ... Read More »

By Carroll Smith Editor Usually, in the last two weeks of December, it’s inevitable that commentators will dedicate at least one segment of their television or radio shows to discuss some of the highlights of the year that’s about to draw to a close. Just for fun, and in no particular order, let’s take a quick look back at a ... Read More »

This section reflects a partial listing of corn hybrids suited for the Southern growing region. For additional offerings, contact your local seed representative. AgVenture Midsouth RL9858HB (121 RM) • Deep South genetics designed to withstand Southern heat stress • Dual purpose, Southern developed genetics with Herculex I trait • Performance results have been outstanding • Huge ear size potential with ... Read More »

Insects that live in the soil, including wireworms, white grubs, rootworms, seedcorn maggots, whitefringed beetle larvae, lesser cornstalk borer and others, can damage corn seeds and seedlings. These insects cannot be controlled once corn seed has been planted. Rotated, conventionally tilled corn with good weed control generally has the least risk of serious early season insect damage, although insect damage ... Read More »

Will the year 2010 present the risk management challenges that 2009 did? So far, it looks like it could. In less than two weeks, March corn futures prices have ranged about $0.57. Although currently overshadowed by the supply/demand estimates, other factors also impact market uncertainty, volatility and risk. Some of these are energy prices, econo-mic conditions, value of the dollar, ... Read More »