The benefits of cover crops are well known. However, few Mississippi growers use cover crops in corn because of nominal monetary return and the challenges it presents, says Erick Larson, Mississippi State University Extension agronomist.
Corn is the first crop...
Perdue University’s Center for Commercial Agriculture conducts a monthly survey on farmer sentiment called the Ag Economy Barometer. The most recent poll is rife with producer concerns going into the season.
“Rising farm input costs and ongoing supply chain disruptions...
Within a day of signing the 2018 Farm Bill, a government shutdown went into effect. Questions swirled as to how the farm legislation would be implemented and when, of course. Once the government opened back up, Farm Service Agencies...
Although corn prices are increasing ever so slightly, ag economists forecast that the U.S. corn acreage is likely to decrease again in 2018. With Congress passing the supplemental disaster bill that restores cotton’s eligibility for Title I ARC/PLC programs...
This was another year of record crop production in corn. But as usual, a big crop means that producers can expect lower prices the next year. That is the message from ag economists across the country, including Clemson agricultural...
Whenever a country with 20 percent of the world’s population makes a policy decision, the rest of the world takes notice. Recently, China announced plans to blend 10 percent ethanol into the nation’s fuel supply. According to Mark Welch,...
Summer gardens here on the farm have rows as long as some of your corn rows, if not longer. Peas from A to Z, (White) Acres to Zippers, are planted and the bounty fills the freezers of many families,...
Well, isn’t this an interesting turn of events — that’s what I said to my parents when I stopped by their house the morning after Election Day. Over our respective cups of coffee, we shared stories about election night,...
What goes up, must come down. There’s no two ways about it, and what is coming down now and has been for a while, is farm income. For the fifth quarter in a row, farm income has declined, according to a recently published survey by the Federal Reserve Bank in St. Louis of agricultural banks, some of which were located in the Mid-South.
In 2015, some crops were drowned out, and some acres were never planted at all. The result will be a reliance on crop insurance and a scaling back of spending.
“The lower projected farm income will likely reduce loan demand for capital expenditures for both machinery and farmland,” said one Missouri lender about the expected continuing decline in the last quarter this year.
People are moving from the farm to better-paying jobs in the cities. The tightening of the rural labor market is shifting traditional backyard farming operations into larger-scale systems. Why is this move newsworthy? Because it is happening in China,...
You might say that writing about Southern row crops is what I am all about. After growing up on a farm and being really into FFA in high school, I went to college at the University of Florida and majored in Agronomy and Agriculture Communications. What I do combines these two subjects perfectly, and I have thoroughly enjoyed my career choice.
Mark Welch is a well-respected Texas AgriLife Extension Economist who publishes the “Feed Grain Market Outlook.”
Following are highlights from Jan. 13, 2014:
“On Jan. 10, 2014, World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates reported a decrease in corn supply and an...
I’ve always been intrigued by quotes that contain the words “dawn” and “dusk.” Just a personal quirk, I suppose. I lean more toward dawn, with its promise of a new beginning, although dusk does not necessarily signify the beginning...
By Carroll Smith
Editor
When corn prices shot up in 2007, farmers across the South were anxious to join the Gold Rush. Corn acres increased from 1,920,000 in 2006 to 4,035,000 in 2007. In November of 2007, we published our first...
Timely Tips For 2013
Southern Hybrid Selection
By Carroll Smith
Editor
A successful Southern corn crop starts with the seed you plant. With that in mind, it’s important to put a lot of thought into hybrid selection for the upcoming growing season. Following...
