What are the crops like in your area?

The grain markets are going crazy again today. In my area we've had plenty of rain so our crops look good, but it must not be that way all over. Do any of you have pictures you could post or email me?

Our early planted corn this year is toast. We have all but counted it out. Our later planting is just barely hanging on. We have managed to get just enough rain to keep the later planting hanging on. If we don't get some rain and temperature relief real soon though, it will be too little too late. Not gonna be a lot of happy faces on our farm come harvest.

Saw 6 foot high corn today driving to work in Berks Co, PA.

Tall corn does not mean healthy corn.

Just Say'n........

It's been dry up north this year we were lucky and got timely rains, but my buddy up in N Missouri said the crops are toast, and I think a lot of Iowa is dry too

Man the prices have gone crazy beans almost $15, corn almost $7, and wheat pushing $8.50

The years were were raising wheat we were lucky to get $2, maybe $2.50

I would get back in to cattle but it would just ruin the market for every one else, seems what ever we raise, the price tanks

The corn by our gun club was 6' tall the 1st of June , tassled 3 weeks ago and now, since no rain and another 104 degree day is as brown as it gets at harvest time. Hope the farmer had crop insurance!!!

I away from home for the next couple of days, so no pic's available. It's so dry my corn is 4' tall, trying to tassel, and is twisted up like cane. I haven't had any measurable rainfall for 5 weeks now. If I don't get rain soon, I'm not sure the harvest will cover the fuel bill on the combine. My ground is on the halves so I'll have to discuss with him what we're going to do. Had a few acres of wheat that did well, but didn't bother to plant any beans because it was so dry. That may be the only good decision that was made this year.

I knew this spring was too good to be true, and turns out it was.

On a good note. My neighbor is going to make out like a bandit. He's setting on 50,000 bushels of corn because of a cancelled contract for spring delivery. He is in excellant shape finacially anyway so it didn't bother him a bit when the deal went south. Now he'll make double what he would have made and not cost him an extra dime.

ss

We finished planting on May 16, have had one rain since that time, and it was a paltry 1/2". That came 3 weeks ago this past Monday and I'm fairly safe in saying there won't be any corn in my county that makes over 50bpa, most will not be harvested at all. Beans still have a chance to do something, but times running out on them too.

John,

We can always just shoot our sorrows away next month. What better way to deal with a crummy year of crops then to blow a bunch of money at the Grand.

P.S. I thought you guys were getting all the rain up North.

I own a couple of small plots of land that I rent to a couple of different farmers. Both of em are diasters this year. One is planted in corn the other in beans. The corn is tassling but the ears aren't filling out. The beans are 6" high, the same they were a month ago.

I'm in S. Indiana and we've had 3/4 inch of rain in the last 5 to 6 weeks. The temp has been over a 100 every day for the last week and a half.

Blame it on me, I guess. I decided this year to become a part time/hobby vegetable farmer. I kept a couple of acres this year for myself so I would have something to sell at the local farmers market. I'm not going to have anything to sell. Everything has gone to hell. Wilted and dried up. The only thing that did well was my red potatoes, and I didn't plant many. I planted just enough to sell to people whom wanted a few red potatoes with the green beans I was going to sell. No green beans though.

Last year I picked 60 gallons of blackberries out of the patch in the backyard. This year I got 11 gallons, and they were loaded in the spring. I was expecting a bumper crop and they all just dried up.

I lost money on my first and probably last year of vegetable farming. I should of just got a part time job at McDonalds.

If the rest of the country is like it is around here food prices are going skyrocket.

When was the epa supposed to put in 15% ethanol??? Get ready for groceries to spike......

Our corn is about 4' high and tasseling. We've had 2/10's since May 15th. 3 weeks in the 90's (104 today). Some rain has gone North and South of us. We've just been unlucky, but we didn't get the big wind storm last week.

I'm waiting for the popcorn to start popping.

Planted sunflowers in my dove field May 15th. The plants are 6 inches tall.

Bisi, we did the same thing, we planted a little over an acre of sweet corn figured we would sell some around the 4th, we can irrigate it, usually sweetcorn around here sells for about 40-50 cent an ear around the 4th, this year all the stores were selling it as a leader for 15 cents an ear

Just my luck, we had a bumper crop that wasn't worth much, if I really put a pencil to it, it costs more than 15 cents to grow an ear, the hybrid seed we used was about a penny a seed then the fertilizer, labor etc

But we froze about 1500 ears, both on the cob and cut off the cob, bought a vacuum sealer man that thing really works slick

And not one store had briskets on sale, but we cleaned up on some real tasty rib eyes for $5 a pound

Crops look pretty good here in Eastern Washington but are a full month later than normal.Jerry

South half Wisconsin is toast,dryest June ON RECORD !!over 100 degrees today,havent heard a lawn mower in 5 weeks.............

Matt, That sounds like a great idea and it's just what I plan on doing! Rain in our entire area has been non-existent the past 7 weeks or so, just as it's been down around Sparta. I really don't think anyone south of I-70 has much to be happy about this year.

We've been doing pretty well up in southern Alberta too. Plenty of rain and now some hot weather to help it grow and so hay can be put up. I've never seen Canola crops like this around here before and the winter wheat looks great too. Corn's been a bit slow to get rolling as it's been cool.

Crops in Idaho look great but all farms are irrigated

Southeastern Indiana is very dry except for some very isolated rainfall. Majority of the crops were planted right around Mother's day and approximately 2 weeks after that. So far the corn and beans hanging in there but this constant above 90 degree heat and lack of rain is taking its toll. Most of the corn should be tasseling in about 2 weeks. A few fields of earlier planted corn are in the pollination stage right now and I don't expect that corn to yield much over 50 bu. per acre if that. I have heard that farmers in the Washington and Bedford area of Indiana are chopping their corn crop already as it is basically a total loss.

If the majority of the corn belt is experiencing this type of weather, it will be interesting to see the price of corn in January 2013.

John

I'll probably get blown up for this - but here goes. I was talking to a farmer the other day in central Indiana. He said if he didn't get two inches of rain in the next 10 days the corn wouldn't pollinate and he wouldn't have a corn crop this year. As he was whining I asked if he had crop insurance and he replied he did. I then asked him to explain how that worked and what it cost. He stated it was based on average yield and the market . . . and then said his actual cost of the insurance was only 50% of the total "premium." When I asked why he said "the government pays for the other half." I said "You mean I'm helping pay for your crop insurance since it's my tax dollars that go to the government ?" He got kind of quiet at that point. I then said "And if you don't have a crop to harvest you also save all the fuel costs and wear and tear on your equipment in the fall ?" At the end of this sentence he acted like he no longer wanted to attempt to gain any more sympathy from me for our local drought. When I then told him my well pump just quit and it cost $2,400 to replace it he didn't seem to be listening anymore ! I was hoping he would be willing to pay for half ! OBTW, this is the guy who also shoots a $30,000 K-gun and new shells (throws the STS hulls on the ground ) and drives a new Ford Super Duty to all the shoots.

amboy, at least he isn't anti gun and doesn't drive a GM product. Crops in Central Montana: winter wheat is made and could use a little rain to plump it up. Spring Crops are starting to show some stress. Just another day in paradise.

Then their are farmers who have to deal with this stupidity!

And then there are farmers who don't take out federal crop insurance...

timberfaller, there are more votes in those towns than a few farmers will muster. It's about votes.

I have mixed feelings about crop insurance subsidies. Grain is one of our few exports. After the 70's and 80's our family farms dropped from 6% of the population to less than 2%. Now there's estimates as low as 3/4%.

Corporate farms came to be due to subsidies, but it also lets family farms in some regions survive, while those in the grain belt live fat.

No good answer, but when the gov't gets involved, $ flip flop alot easier.

4' corn tasseling in Central Indiana...and Medical Marijuana is gaining converts by the day!

Timberfaller,,,,,so if I understand the article correctly,,,,,the cities control the water so they can have green lawns, but the farmer cannot use the abundance of water for their crops,,,,,,and then the cities will bitch, complain, and moan about the high price of food,,,,,,do I have that about right......

YEP!!!

Just like where I had to deal with the Feds stupidity! The Pioneers hand dug irrigation ditches back in the late 1800s early 1900's. With the blessing of the Government in order to turn a desert area into a farming community. Turned a valley into a Agriculture "Producing" valley. Worked that way for almost 100 years.

Educated past their intelligence people(mainly Feds) came along, called those that lived and worked there,"Criminals". Decided that we farmers were "stealing" the water from a ESA listed fish!

So over a period of a few years they forces the open ditches to be piped. Now, all the "green belts" the ditches created(underground recharge) are about 75% dead. Some are 100% dead and gone.

All on the assumption, from the "Educated past their Intelligence" crowd(Feds) there would be more water in the local rivers come Fall for the fish returns!

DIDN'T happen, HASN'T happened THERE is less water now at their projected time frame!

They still don't believe that underground recharge took place with OPEN ditchs!

The piping cost you/us taxpayers MILLIONS and there are MILLIONS more slated to be spend in the same area!!

Amboy, you're free to go out and plop down $5-10,000,000 to start a farm to get all that insurance money

And if a drought comes along, you can still almost make the payments

The gummit manipulates the commodity prices so they should share the risk

Something not mentioned in the whole crop insurance discussion is input costs. Up here in Alberta, Canola can cost up to $160/acre just to get in the ground. Our crop insurance is a provincial/federal deal, not tied to any "farm bill" legislation (we don't have "farm bills" per say up here). Most of us with irrigation just take out hail insurance. Dry land crops (the majority of acres on the prairie aren't irrigated), to it's a craphoot, especially on a year like this one with wild weather (hurricane force wind storms, tornadoes, lots of hail, etc.). I'm always amused at non-farmers voicing an opinion on crop insurance and how the farmers have it so good. I just know that in the 37 years I was actively farming I paid out more in premiums that I ever got back in claims. Just glad I'm not starting now...as irrigated land is selling for $1M+/quarter section up here (with pivots), and equipment coats are 500% higher than when I started.

Ron Burr

Lethbridge, Alberta

Ron, I got out of farming full time in 1980, the last economic turndown, but I still have friends and family that farm in NW Iowa, up there with rent and inputs it can run $1,000 a acre easily to plant corn

Hell I planted an acre of sweetcorn here in Texas, and it wasn't far from that

Like I said if they want to get rich of the crop insurance, buy a farm, they will learn real fast

Sorry you guys are having a hard time.I thank God everyday I farm irrigated land.On the other hand I prey to God that someday I won't have to do it in California.

Darr

Glad I didn't buy the corn pellet stove.

I read the Military is going to be required to use a % of green fuel at 8 times the cost of fossil fuel. Brilliant!

Walked the fields today and it wasn't pretty. Silks are turning and the ears are maybe a 1/4 full. In all my days, I've never seen it like this!

I'm sure the dairy farmer down the road is in bad shape as he won't have enough sileage to feed his cows through the winter. Maybe I'll go see him tomorrow to see if we can help each other out.

ss

This is what my grass looks like out the back window. We have not had any rain since June 1st, along with seventeen 90+ degree days, and two in the 100's. This week we are forcast to be in the 90's the rest of the week. No rain in sight. One day we had some drops you could see on the concrete for maybe 10 seconds but then nothing. Everytime a line of rain comes through, the line breaks up right before it gets to us and separates. We get nothing. The field next to us has beans and corn in it. The beans are green, but very short. The corn suprisingly is growing, on what I don't know. The humidity has been dessert dry here. The trees are starting to dry up also. I heard that the dryness is now at least three feet down. It is going to take a long time to recuperate from this drought. Now we are getting into the dry season.

Boy its amazing that everyone knows what crc insurance is. You pay big money for coverage. Based only on past yielding of crops.

Nothing is free!!!!!! How long before everyone realizes that.

I live and farm in central Washington. Thank the lord for insurance. Don't know if we are going to seed this fall.

Our corn looks pretty good yet.

Rick, you're a show off.

My sunflowers are 6" high. Planted May 20th. 15 miles away, my friends are 4' high and headed out. They were planted May 15th.

They were planted one week earlier, and they have had 3 showers we never got.

15 miles away!!!

I have a good friend who buys crops and had commented that so many people had planted corn that there would be such a surplus that it would drop down to $3.75 a bushel. Now with the drought they are forcasting $8.00 a bushel. The corn in my general area is good but out west it is terrible. I have another friend in Nebraska that is a dairy farmer and 1500 acres of corn are all but lost. Jackie B.

USDA lowered the corn crop 20 bu per acre this morning. Biggest report to report drop in history.

I have sweet corn in my garden which I have been watering and the last two nights the coon have got it all. Seem to be an abundance of them in northern Indiana. I wish they were worth something so the hunters and trappers could keep them thinned out. Anyone know A good way to keep them out?

Roy

Mr. Fishburn's corn at the Cardinal Center didn't look so good 2 weeks ago.

blade819

ramen39,

A flashlight and a 22 rifle. You'd be real surprised at how quick a coon dies given the proper dose of lead poisening. If you don't want to wake the neighbors, use CB Longs in the rifle and nobody will be the wiser.

ss

What short shucker said. The CCI CB Longs are the perfect pill for the urban coon. They do not have great range but at shorter distances the 29 grain bullet has more than enough to do the job. The sound is at or less than a lot of modern pellet guns. They do need to be fired from a single shot rifle like a lever action or bolt action rifle as they do not have enough pressure to work the bolt on most autos.

Seems like a good time to take the ethanol out of gas and use the corn to feed livestock. I get 20% better gas mileage when I get gas without ethanol!