Poll Archive

Do you use pre-emergence herbicides?

• No: 20%
• Yes - Pre-emergence only without post-emergence herbicide applications: 8%
• Yes - Pre-emergence followed by post-emergence herbicide applications: 70%

What is your largest yield limiting variable on your farm?

• My soils: 24%
• My agronomic practices: 3%
• Rainfall: 61%
• Terrain: 3%
• Manpower: 3%
• Other: 3%

What is your typical soybean seeding rate?

• 140,000 seeds/acre: 22%
• 150,000 seeds/acre: 36%
• 160,000 seeds/acre: 17%
• 170,000 seeds/acre: 24%

How would you rank your projected net farm income for this most recent crop year, compared to the past 10 years on your farm?

• My net farm income this year will probably fall in the top 25% of the past 10 years I’ve farmed.: 50%
• In the top 50% of the past 10 years I’ve farmed: 31%
• In the bottom half: 9%
• In the bottom 25%: 9%

Who has been your favorite Secretary of Agriculture?

• Robert Bergland: 4%
• Earl Butz: 27%
• John Block: 7%
• Clayton Yeutter: 4%
• Dan Glickman: 12%
• Ann Veneman: 0%
• Mike Johanns: 41%
• Other: 0%

What has been the best farm invention in your lifetime?

• Glyphosate-resistant crops: 60%
• Management information systems: 13%
• Precision-ag technology: 13%
• Larger, smarter tractors: 7%
• Larger, smarter combines: 5%

What would provide you the biggest efficiency/profitability gains?

• Newer or bigger equipment: 27%
• More management know-how: 22%
• Better info technology and the knowledge to use it: 22%
• Additional labor: 0%
• Machinery sharing with other partners: 27%

Do you rotate your soybean varieties based on type of resistance in order to fight SCN?

• I don’t know which type of resistance my varieties use.: 26%
• Yes, SCN is a real problem for me.: 40%
• No, SCN is not much of a problem where I farm.: 33%

How likely is it that you’ll harvest 100-bu. soybeans?

• In the next 5 years: 30%
• In the next 10 years: 35%
• Not likely: 33%

What is the primary reason that you have not enrolled in a voluntary carbon sequestration program that pays you for no-till practices?

• I have enough other things to do.: 23%
• Payments for doing so should be higher.: 41%
• My operation is not suited to no-till.: 34%

Where do your best ideas come from to improve farm profitability?

• Neighbors and friends: 20%
• Farm magazines and Web sites: 24%
• Extension: 10%
• Other Web sites: 3%
• Meetings/field days: 37%
• Other: 3%