I found this article, which I stumbled upon while working on the Farm Side, to be really interesting. First of all corn work is way, way, behind the five-year average this year. Way behind.
And 23% of the entire 2011 crop was planted in one week (the only week of good weather we have had). It is projected that total US corn acreage will surpass 90 million acres. Can you imagine that? That is just plain hard work.
Wow, I guess we aren't doing so well. As of today, we have 0.0% of our corn planted, and it's not looking good for the rest of the week
ReplyDeleteIf you were only able to see the corn fields in the mid west where I am from it is amazing to see the amount of corn fields, fence row to fence row ;)
ReplyDeleteI just heard from my brother-in-law - a farmer paralyzed in a fall - that his son made good progress getting his corn in last week. I was interested in this statistic from that link. Didn't surprise me a bit. It's been a really cool damp spring.
ReplyDelete"Ohio farmers are having one of the roughest planting seasons. As of this week, only 7% is planted, the state’s five-year average is 70% by mid-May."
Jeff, same here...actually we quit putting in corn last year. These rainy years make it impossible to either plant or harvest so we switched to Sudex. So far that has been good to us. Twenty-six bucks for a bag of seed vs whatever corn is now...harvest any time and harvest a lot. There is the danger after frost and all and it is hard as heck to dry down enough for the bagger, but we won't go back to corn any time soon. Our ground is just too yet.
ReplyDeleteLisa,I actually got to go out there when we picked MIke up from college...yeah, back in the dark ages. I was awed by the corn and sunflowers stretching for miles, right up to people's houses. And flat! wow!
Cathy, oh, man, he has my sympathies. Sure is a dangerous occupation. We quit planting corn last year. For the past ten years or so we have either had wet, wet springs, when we can't get it planted, or soggy falls that ruin the harvest. Experimenting with Sudex instead. (sorghum)