2012
LOGAN
COUNTY FARM OUTLOOK MAGAZINE. LINCOLN DAILY NEWS.com October 23, 2012
26
blueberries.
•
Cut and dried flowers.
Overall, Green considered two practices
favorable anytime, but under the extreme
drought conditions, all the more important:
•
First, this was a good year for
farmers to practice some form of tillage
conservation: no-till, strip-till, any reduced
tillage conserves soil moisture.
•
Second,
the
practice
of
crop
rotation
between
beans and corn.
Usually ground should
have no more than
two to three years of
corn, and then a crop
of beans is needed
to restore nitrogen
levels.
The selection of varieties played an important
role for Green, as well. This year, Green chose
a number of different varieties of seed, some
more drought-tolerant, and 10 different corns.
Inputs
Farming is not a one-year proposition, and
those in it are not looking at just the short term.
“
You don’t necessarily get rich all in one year,”
Green observed.
On the flip side, this year farmers with no
insurance, or less than full coverage, may not
get enough back to pay off the costs of the
annual inputs: diesel fuel, fertilizer, herbicides,
pesticides, seed, etc. At harvest time it was a
guessing game on some crops if it would even
pay the high cost of diesel to bring them in.
“
You rely on faith that you are going to have
enough to pay off one-year inputs, let alone
two years. When that does happen, we just
hope it doesn’t happen again the next year,”
Brown observed.
“
But, you have that feeling every year. You
can have the best-looking crop you ever had,
get a hailstorm in July and have nothing
left. That’s why you carry insurance.
You have to cover yourself somehow,
because everything affects whatever’s
sitting out there.”
Insurance premiums are expected to
go up.
Ancillary agriculture businesses
Grain elevators
sawanearlyseason.
Due to the presence
of aflatoxin, crops
were not stored on
farms but brought
straight to the
elevators for drying.
Grain was moist.
That takes a lot of
drying time, and
the elevator would
make more money on that. While yields
and volume are down, market prices
are up, and there is an advantage to the
early season: It gives the elevators more
control of the crop, so they can sell when
market prices are highest.
Implement dealers are hearing, “I think
I’ll put that on hold,” as farmers wait on
insurance.
“
You know you will need to purchase
equipment sooner or later,” Green said.
“
So you put aside for it. In a good year
you go ahead, and in a bad year you
might hold back.”