Posted on 11/05/2009 6:19:50 AM PST by blam
Crops Headed For A Tough Harvest
by: Jim Delaney
November 03, 2009
Although it appears the prospects for the producers of porcine products have prettied, yes, lipstick included, that cannot be said for all of the ‘ole MacDonald’s in the country.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported recently that due to a late planting season and a cooler and wetter fall than normal, only 20% of the corn crop is out of the fields vs. an average of 58% during the years of 2004-2008.
“It’s getting scarier. The longer we go, the more mold keeps growing and the more ears fall off. Every day you wait, you lose more money,” said Larry Thorndyke, a farmer with 1,400 acres in Piper City, Illinois who usually has all of his corn in the bin by Halloween.
Additionally, only 44% of the soybean crop is in vs. an average of 88% for the previous 5 year span and the harvest, in total, is proceeding at the slowest rate since the Dept. of Agriculture started keeping records in 1985.
“Most of the farmers’ income is still out there in the field. They’re anxious to get it harvested and anxious to know where they stand for the year”, Loyd Brown, president of Hertz Farm Management, whose Nevada, Iowa (I guess they ran out of names going West) company manages more than 430,000 acres split among 1,800 farms across the Midwest.
[snip]
So, the message here is that more Global Warming would HELP?
Somebody is off message.
“The U.S. Department of Agriculture reported recently that due to a late planting season and a cooler and wetter fall than normal, only 20% of the corn crop is out of the fields vs. an average of 58% during the years of 2004-2008.”
You don’t have to have a devastating freeze to cause problems with crops. If you lose a week or two at the beginning of the planting season, and a week or two in the fall, you can be in trouble in terms of overall harvest.
I expect that Obama will blame Bush for this.
Its too bad those idiots believed the global warning crap, now we can all starve.
I guess we can thank Al Gore for solving that obesity problem with another Nobel.
Corn and soybeans have both been down two days in a row because of the bountiful harvest.
I’m not sure we ever had summer here. My cherries came in small and late, but the apples did very well. Most of the farmers I speak to still have crops in the fields.....
Get correct views of life, and learn to see the world in its true light. It will enable you to live pleasantly, to do good, and, when summoned away, to leave without regret. - Robert E. Lee
Now we have hundreds of thousands of dollars in the cotton field that we are hoping to get out if the ground ever gets dry enough. A neighbor of ours buried his cotton picker in the mud yesterday. Then the boll buggy. Almost buried the tractor that went out to pull the others out.
Over thirty inches of rain in 5 weeks. At this point we are hoping to get done by Christmas, which usually marks the beginning of our wet season. Sigh.
If they can get a majority of their crops up we're looking at another record harvest (for soybeans and corn--don't know about the others).
No, actually the message here is that an important part of our food supply is in serious jeopardy. One season of cooler and wetter than normal temperatures does not a trend make.
My corn is in the bin. 230 bushels per acre at 25% moisture.
Wife’s cousins are still in the field in SW Iowa. They said it was one of the most miserable harvests they had done in 20 plus years...
The article speaks the truth, regardless of what the speculators did yesterday.
St.Louis had it’s wettest month in recorded history with 12.38 inches and the 5th coldest October ever.
Some of the state is almost double the normal rainfall.
No farmer ever needs the "thrill" of casino gambling, because he gambles all year, every year (which is why I'm a chemist---couldn't take the stress).
I know here in Arkansas we've had the 5th highest total annual rainfall on record, so far and with only 2 more inches to go and 2 months left in the year, we may very well set a new overall record. The farmer's are gonna lose bigtime on this crop because it's too wet to harvest.
The article made a prediction which was immediately shown to be false.
yes perfect weather for harvesting is forecast for the next week
I can hear the combines running almost around the clock
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