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November 2012

Columns, stories and features from the November 2012 issue of Corn & Soybean Digest.

Think Different

  • Nov. 9, 2012
    Article
    Corn and Soybean Digest

    Think Different: The Tillage Trap

    Most farmers like tillage. Soil really doesn't like it. Too deep or poor timing is simply bad for its health. And this year, given the drought, you lose valuable soil moisture and clog soil pores....More

Profits

  • Nov. 9, 2012
    Article
    Corn and Soybean Digest

    Find Your 360 Review | Take Time to Learn from the Past Using Good Questions

    “I don’t want to think about 2012 anymore!” These are words that have been said many times as we begin to look forward to the 2013 season. However, what we know about the most successful farms is that they take the time to learn from the past – even if it wasn’t fun....More
  • Nov. 9, 2012
    Article
    Corn and Soybean Digest

    Still a Basis Bull | Stocks Continue to Remain Tight Through Current Marketing Year

    USDA reports confirm a poor corn crop. Relative to trend-line yield expectations, I consider 2012 one of the five worst years in the last century. We started the current crop year with the lowest corn supply in a decade. On the demand side, something has to give, and the pace of exports has plummeted. But feed and ethanol demand is surprisingly resilient. The net result is a projection for even tighter ending corn stocks by next summer....More
  • Nov. 9, 2012
    Article
    Corn and Soybean Digest

    The World in Perspective

    For the last couple of years, U.S. farmers have been insulated from the global financial crisis. How much longer can this separation continue, and are we on the verge of sharing in some of these economic “issues?” Let’s take a quick look at some of the long-term trends and who the important players are in the world....More

Brazil

  • Nov. 9, 2012
    Article
    Corn and Soybean Digest

    Brazil Funds Farm Technology

    Planting is almost finished (mid-October) in the western area of my state of Paraná; that represents half of the state crop. Farmers are beginning to plant earlier and are doing a faster job than 10 years ago because it advances the planting of a second corn crop in early February. The frost season begins in late May. And, we also plant faster because of bigger and better machinery....More

Feature articles

  • Oct. 19, 2012
    Article
    Corn and Soybean Digest

    Sensored Soils Boost Agronomics | New Sensor Technology is the Next Management Frontier

    Imagine, or just push the fast-forward button: You activate your sensor network to take soil, root and leaf readings and report data. You receive temperature, moisture, plant hormone levels and more from georeferenced points. Your computer integrates them with already-identified and mapped organic matter (OM), pH and electrical conductivity (EC) zones in those fields, with the specific variety planted....More
  • Oct. 19, 2012
    Article
    Corn and Soybean Digest

    Slow Your Soil | Southwest Iowa Growers Fight to Safeguard Soil Amid Weather Extremes

    Extreme weather finds even longtime no-tillers fighting washouts and erosion. Bill and Babetta Lucke of Persia, Iowa, 12-year no-till veterans, have a stellar soil-saving system, including terraced slopes and miles of grass waterways. “These things help a lot,” Bill says, but with torrential rains and the 2012 drought, “we still lose some soil.” Buffeted by weather extremes like so many Corn Belt farms, their 1,000 acres lie in the fertile loess hills of southwest Iowa....More
  • Nov. 9, 2012
    Article
    Corn and Soybean Digest

    Keep Price Ego in Check | Don't Get Greedy When Marketing Corn, Soybeans

    It was mid-July and corn jumped $2/bu. over early June. That $7.40 would yield a sweet profit. But drought-driven $9 was “guaranteed” around the co-op coffee pot. Your co-op buddies just knew it. So did some pro analysts. When it pegged at $8.40+ about Aug. 10, you weren’t going to be the one who sold too soon. And in late September, when corn was back down to $7.40, you were still unsold. And you still weren't when it rebounded after the mid-October crop report and closed at $7.65 on Oct. 19....More
  • Nov. 9, 2012
    Article
    Corn and Soybean Digest

    Ukraine Poised for Growth | Europe’s Historic Breadbasket is Second in Global Corn Exports

    Ukraine’s black soil is what everyone talks about. “It looks like Iowa,” says Cary Sifferath, a Midwesterner who monitors Ukraine for the U.S. Grains Council. Tim Burrack, an Arlington, Iowa, farmer, is almost poetic about it: “It’s a black, deep, beautiful soil with good drainage, and after perestroika and the breakup of the Soviet Union, it was just lying there idle.”...More
  • Nov. 9, 2012
    Article
    Corn and Soybean Digest

    Soil wealth | Why North America Feeds the World

    North America is blessed with a disproportionate share of the world's best agricultural soil. It is no coincidence that the U.S. is one of the few countries that’s a net exporter of food – North America has 17% of the world's arable land, but less than 7% of the world's population. As the human population approaches 10 billion people later this century, productive farmland will become an increasingly strategic resource as the amount per capita declines by as much as half....More
  • Oct. 19, 2012
    Article
    Corn and Soybean Digest

    A $628,000 Decision | Drought Taught Some Valuable Crop Insurance Lessons

    Let’s examine how a crop insurance coverage decision made a $628,492 difference to one farmer. It illustrates the high stakes of insurance decisions. For this enterprise, it made the difference between choosing $5/acre coverage, leading him to a $523,972 loss, and paying $87/acre and profiting by $104,520....More
  • Oct. 19, 2012
    Article
    Corn and Soybean Digest

    Crunch Your Scenarios | Spreadsheets are Vital to Risk Management

    Roy Wendte, a farmer from Altamont, Ill., remembers the first spreadsheet program, Visicalc, from 1982. His University of Illinois master's thesis at that time focused on crop-production software. He’s built his own spreadsheets ever since then for budgets, crop production and yield analysis. “I don’t know how a producer could track of all of the farm data without spreadsheets’ immense time savings and analysis of 'what if' scenarios,” he says....More
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