Crop Professionals on Early Planting- Day 1

News From The Coffee Shop asked several Crop Professionals across Northeast Iowa to shed some light on the unusually early Spring weather and  discuss the risks and rewards associated with getting seed in the ground early.

Be sure to check back over the next week to read what the local pros are saying! New valuable insight will be released daily!

 

By Adam White, Pioneer Seed Professional- Rowley, IA

      adam.white@plantpioneer.com

      319-325-1421

I am sure we have all heard of people around the state and throughout the Midwest that are already planting corn.  As we look ahead at the next 7 days, the weather still seems to continue the above average temperature trend which will most likely encourage more growers to get into the fields. 

We might not have any problems and this may be the year to get seed in the ground even earlier than normal, but looking at historical data, maybe we should still use a little caution.  Besides the fact that crop insurance will not cover replant on any corn planted before April 11th or beans planted before April 21st, there are a few other dates to keep in mind. In both Cedar Rapids and Waterloo when looking at historical numbers, there is still a 90% chance that we will see temperatures fall to 28 degrees after March 31st.  As for 32 degrees, there is a 90% chance that we will see that after April 10th in Cedar Rapids and after April 17th in Waterloo.

Looking at it another way,  here is an Iowa map that highlights the historical average last killing spring freeze dates across the state (30 year average). 

 I have had conversations with some different farmers that are still cautious, but many of them have made the comment that this year just seems to feel a little bit different with the overall mild weather.Like every year, it will be interesting to see how things turn out between the crops that are planted really early, those planted somewhat early, and the crops that will still be planted on a normal schedule.

I don’t have any answers, but it is kind of interesting to take a step back and look at things on a more historical basis. 

Hy-Vee makes the right decision

RT @ksgrains: HyVee didn't buckle under the media hype & chose 2 listen 2 customers who want choice! http://t.co/2SeY15UT #pinkslime #LFTB -- BEEF Magazine (@BEEFMagazine)

Tama Livestock Auction

Tama Livestock Auction
Wed. Mar 28, 2012
512 Head

Choice Strs: 128.00-134.75
Select Choice Strs: 125.00-127.75
Select Strs:120.00-124.00
23 hd 133.00-134.75
45 hd 131.00-132.75
20 hd 129.00-130.75
13 hd 127.25-128.75

Choice Hfrs:127.00-132.50
Select Choice Hfrs: 125.00-126.50
Select Hfrs: 115.00-123.00
28 hd 131.00-132.50
34 hd 129.00-130.50
17 hd 127.00-128.00
13 hd 125.00-126.50

Choice Hol Strs:117.00-123.10
Select & Choice Hol: 113.00-115.00
Select Hol:110.00-113.00
7 hd 122.00-123.10
14 hd 118.00-120.00
9 hd 117.00-117.50

187 Cows:54.00-83.00
Fed Cows:84.00-98.25
Bulls: 85.00-105.00

Humor

If you think the Moon Landing was fake, but pro-wrestling is real, you might be a redneck. -- Redneck As Heck (@RedneckAsHeck)

Old School Plowing

From Scott Birker- Benton County, IA

FFA coming back to Independence Community Schools

Indee to bring back ag ed, FFA after 50 year absence - KWWL.com - News & Weather for Waterloo, Dubuque, Cedar Rapids & Iowa City, Iowa |

Photo by Jordyn Burco

Our Reply: Pretty cool snapshot!

Independence School Project

Grains Down

CORN MAY 620.25 -10.5s
BEANS MAY 1367.5 -2.25s
LCAT APR 124.2-1.4
LHOG APR 83.575-1.225

Real Numbers

2012-corn's revenue adv (at 162 bu/ac) over soybeans (at 42 bu/ac) topped at $496.44/ac on 8/26/11. Now $322.75/ac. SB buying acres? #pfnews -- Chip Flory (@ChipFlory)

Precipitation Report- Rowley, IA

Precipitation for My Location
Precipitation Totals

Day 0.000"
Current Month 1.188"
Previous Month 1.074"

Nitrogen Applications After Warm Winter

Because of the unusually warm winter, may people who applied anhydrous ammonia last fall are concerned they might have lost some of their nitrogen (N), according to University of Illinois Assistant Professor of Crop Sciences Fabian Fernandez.
"Nitrogen transformations and losses depend on many variables and complex interactions," says Fernandez, "including soil temperature, time of fall-N application, use of a nitrification inhibitor, rate of biological activity, drainage, amount and frequency of rain and soil type."

Click Here for Full Article

As seen in Corn & Soybean Digest

Nominate your public school district for a grant of up to $25,000

The Monsanto Fund is proud to announce America’s Farmers Grow Rural EducationSM which allows you to nominate your public school district to compete for a grant of up to $25,000 to enhance the areas of math and/or science.

The program is available in 1,245 rural counties across 39 states. The Monsanto Fund will award 199 grants this year – totaling over $2 million dollars – to rural public school districts:

• 177 grants of $10,000 will be awarded in each eligible USDA crop reporting district.
• 22 grants of $25,000 will be awarded to one eligible school district in each state and designated region.

Visit GrowRuralEducation.com for a list of eligible states and regions.

Grants will be awarded based on merit, need and community support. The more farmers to nominate a school district, the more community support is demonstrated, and it strengthens the school district’s application. So feel free to share this exciting opportunity with other farmers in your area! Nomination deadline is April 15.

The most important thing we can grow is the next generation. Nominate your rural public school district today at GrowRuralEducation.com.

Entrants must be 21 years or older and actively engaged in farming a minimum of 250 acres of corn and/orsoybeans and/or cotton, and/or 40 acres of open field vegetables, or at least 10 acres of vegetables grown in protected culture. Entrants must reside in eligible counties where a minimum of 30,000 acres of corn and/or soybeans and/or cotton and/or vegetables are planted each year. Visit GrowRuralEducation.com for a full list of eligible counties and school districts. ©2012 Monsanto Fund.

More NH3 going on!

We got back in the field yesterday afternoon! Pulling NH3 as we speak. Its great to get going again. -- Kyle Mehmen (@mbsfamilyfarms)

Twitter Feed

It's a big day, Tweeps! The Mega Millions jackpot rolled to $476 MILLION, the highest lotto jackpot in history. Get your tix!! -- Iowa Lottery (@ialottery)

Twitter Feed

I love life!! -- Landon Kane (@LJKane_10)

Applying NH3

From Scott Hingtgen, Jackson County IA

Grain Marketing Wisdom

Morgan Stanley advocating buying new-crop #corn or #soybean contracts on any weakness following Prospective Plantings report Friday. -- Tregg Cronin (@tmcronin31)

From John Holst

A cowboy named Bud was overseeing his herd in a remote mountainous pasture in Montana when suddenly a brand-new BMW advanced toward him out of a cloud of dust.

The driver, a young man in a Brioni(r) suit, Gucci(r) shoes, RayBan(r) sunglasses and YSL(r) tie, leaned out the window and asked the cowboy, "If I tell you exactly how many cows and calves you have in your herd, will you give me a calf?"

Bud looks at the man, who obviously is a yuppie, then looks at his peacefully grazing herd and calmly answers, "Sure, why not?"

The yuppie parks his car, whips out his Dell(r) notebook computer, connects it to his Cingular RAZR V3(r) cell phone, and surfs to a NASA page on the Internet, where he calls up a GPS satellite to get an exact fix on his location which he then feeds to another NASA satellite that scans the area in an ultra-high-resolution photo.

The young man then opens the digital photo in Adobe Photoshop(r) and exports it to an image processing facility in Hamburg, Germany ...

Within seconds, he receives an email on his Palm Pilot(r) that the image has been processed and the data stored. He then accesses an MS-SQL(r) database through an ODBC connected Excel(r) spreadsheet with email on his

Blackberry(r) and, after a few minutes, receives a response.

Finally, he prints out a full-color, 150-page report on his hi-tech, miniaturized HP LaserJet(r) printer, turns to the cowboy and says, "You have exactly 1,586 cows and calves."

"That's right. Well, I guess you can take one of my calves," says Bud.

He watches the young man select one of the animals and looks on with

amusement as the young man stuffs it into the trunk of his car.

Then Bud says to the young man, "Hey, if I can tell you exactly what your business is, will you give me back my calf?"

The young man thinks about it for a second and then says, "Okay, why not?"

"You're a Congressman for the U.S. Government", says Bud.

"Wow! That's correct," says the yuppie, "but how did you guess that?"

"No guessing required." answered the cowboy. "You showed up here even though nobody called you; you want to get paid for an answer I already knew, to a question I never asked. You used millions of dollars worth of equipment trying to show me how much smarter than me you are; and you don't know a thing about how working people make a living - or about cows, for that matter. This is a herd of sheep.

Now give me back my dog.

AND THAT FOLKS IS WHAT THE PROBLEM IS ALL ABOUT.

Cattle Market Highlights

Overall the feedlot inventory showed that we continue to have more cattle on feed but high break evens on those cattle will continue to make feedlots reluctant in aggressively marketing cattle.

April will be critical for feedlots as retailers and food service operators get in gear for the start of the grilling season. It remains to be seen if all the negative stories about LFTB have any lasting impact on ground beef demand. Ground beef accounts for between 40-45% of all beef consumed in the US. Cattle carcass weights are now record large for this time of year and on Friday USDA pegged cattle carcass weights at 792 pounds, about 23 pounds or 3% higher than a year ago.

As seen on marketwatchonline.com

Beans Gaining Acres

The U.S. soy/corn ratio has been moving in favor of soybeans in an effort to encourage producers to allocate more of the acres to soybeans versus corn, Brugler Marketing said Monday morning. The bean/corn ratio for new crop finished the week at 2.37:1, just above the traditional tipping point for acreage shifts.

As seen on marketwatchonline.com

Independence High School Construction

Frye Farms, White Farms, & Burco Farms donating their equipment, expertise, and time shaping the building site!

Justin Temeyer's Facebook Photo

SNAPPER!

10 HALF-SIBLINGS BORN ON THE SAME DAY

Farm Bill

Working 2 shape farm bill debate w new leg to put hard cap on farm paymnts & close loopholes -- ChuckGrassley (@ChuckGrassley)

Could do with out that!

Last time we hit 80s in March we saw snow in April. It happened on April 17th, 1983... 8.2" fell. -- Jeriann Ritter (@JeriannWX)

From Scott Hingtgen

Watch "baling hay 3-17-12" on YouTube

@mbsfamilyfarms, 3/20/12 10:58 AM

Kyle Mehmen (@mbsfamilyfarms) 3/20/12 10:58 AM Started with NH3 yesterday! Rained out last night.

Our reply: Kyle's up by Plainfield, IA