From what looked like a deep freeze last half of November is going out like a lamb. That is another two weeks of time to get odd jobs and the last of the field work and 2018 prep work done.
Having 50 and 60 degree temps to enjoy this time of year help us come out with another near average year although the extremes have been very high and quite low.
In summary most farmers are looking at the grain markets and wonder in what year will the prices get above break even. Sooner the better as the bankers may start getting even more nervous with corn prices about a buck under cost of production. In farming the rules of economics don’t seem to apply. If corn prices are low most operators need the cash flow from raising even more bushels the next year, rather than in most businesses production slacks off the supply and demand come into play.
World news
In a headline from the Southern Hemisphere the news out of Brazil was that a large lumber producer is on the run after it was proven he ordered the torture and murders of a bunch of local, small producers in response to their not wanting all the trees cut off of their hectares. Madeireira Cedroarana’s huge lumber company logs and sells lumber to ten major companies around the glove including at least one from the U.S. We may hear more on that development later.
ICM conference
The big update ag conference will be held this week down in Ames. There will be speakers from about five different states covering a number of crop related topics. I read through the list and noted one person that I got to listen to the Pugwash Conference over at Purdue University in 2015. The people who attend his lecture will maybe want to know that after large cash award from a Missouri company went to his place of employment and they used it to construct a $26 million dollar science building.
That is okay by me but I always want so called impartial people dressing like NASCAR drivers where they wear large patches from their sponsors on their uniforms so as to identify who their allegiance is to.
Tillage tips
Being it was a wetter fall where quite a few trucks needed a pull after they got stuck, there is likely to be quite a bit of compaction through the wetter areas of the fields plus on the headlands. It will be beneficial to test for compaction layers and do in-line ripping if any penetrometer readings are close to 300 psi.
Good luck in the new month and have a decent finish to 2017.
Bob Streit is an independent crop consultant and columnist for Farm News. He can be reached at (515) 709-0143 or www.CentralIowaAg.com.