Very well-written blog about Monsanto!

I was researching Monsanto and came across this post. It’s absolutely worth reading!

http://beyerbeware.net/2013/05/what-you-need-to-know-about-monsanto-gmo-food.html

Ask a Farmer- Grain Marketing

Every week I’ll be asking my husband (pictured above) three questions about farming. If there’s something you want me to ask him please post it in the comments below!

1.       Can you briefly summarize what it means to market grain?
Marketing grain basically means selling your grain. This can mean selling before you harvest with a contract or selling after harvest when you haul the grain in to the elevator. Generally it is better to estimate the number of bushels you think you will be harvesting and forward contract with the elevator. This means to have an agreement with the elevator company to sell your grain to them at whatever the price is for the grain at the time when the contract is made, instead of just selling at harvest. There can be several stipulations to these contracts. An example would be contracting to deliver your corn in May when the elevator has had a chance to ship out the corn that came in during harvest. This can get you a better price, but you have to be able to store your grain at your own farm till then.

 

2.        In what ways are prices set for the grain?
Most grain prices are set by the Chicago Board of Trade. Currently under $3.50 per bushel for corn. It can fluctuate with things like changes in the weather to world demand to political unrest to current quantities of grain stored around the country. The local grain buyers then move their buying price up or down from that point based on whether there is a stronger demand or depending on how far they have to ship the grain to its end user. This difference in price is called basis. The basis for corn at our local elevator is 30 cents below Chicago for corn selling right now and 55 cents below for contracts going into fall harvest.

 

3.       What is the biggest struggle for you personally when it comes to marketing your grain?
I have a hard time deciding when to stop watching the markets and just sign a contract. When the price is going up I want to wait until I think it has hit the top so that I can lock in the best price possible. But when it is going down I keep waiting and hoping that it will stop falling and come back at least a little before I contract. I think a lot of farmers struggle with this. Other farmers sometimes hire marketing firms to help, but I just can’t justify the cost and, as bad as I am at marketing, I still don’t want to put my money in someone else’s hands.

 

 

 

So what would you like to ask a farmer? Comment below!

~Leslie

Ask a Farmer- Chemicals

Every weekend I’ll be asking my husband (pictured above) three questions about farming. If there’s something you want me to ask him please post it in the comments below!

1.       What are some of the chemicals that you use most often on the farm? Can you explain what they are for, how much you use, and the general cost of them?
Well, we use Round-Up, 2-4d, Atrazine, and a few other chemicals for control of weeds on our ground.  Round-up is applied at a rate of 1 quart per acre, 2-4d at about 1 to 1.25 pints per acre and Atrazine at 1 quart per acre. Other herbicides, or chemicals used to kill weeds, can be significantly less, such as 2.5 to 6 ounces per acre. A typical weed control application can cost us anywhere from $20 to $50 an acre. We do not spray insecticides unless we know that we have a problem in a specific field. All our seed comes coated with a fungicide to help protect it in its first few weeks of life. We also use an organic compound to treat our hay if we know that we are baling a little before it is completely dry. This keeps the hay from molding while stored in the barn. In general we use as few chemicals as we need to because everything that we do extra costs us more money and takes more time.

 

2.        In your experience, what is one of the biggest misconceptions about the chemicals that farmers use?
I think that a big misconception is that farmers spray crops constantly right up to harvest time. The truth is, we like to get our weed control taken care of within the first couple weeks after planting, because once the crops get big enough to canopy over the ground, the spray has no effect on the smaller weed plants. And as for insecticides, they cost an extreme amount of money and we don’t like to use them unless we know that a particular bug is going to cause enough yield loss to justify the application. In farm lingo that is called the economic threshold.

 

3.       You are personally environmentally verified through the State of Michigan for your cropping system. Can you explain what that means and what you did to qualify for this?
The actual term is MAEAP Verified- Michigan Agriculture Environmental Assurance Program. This is a voluntary thing that every farmer in the state can do. Many really are doing these practices, they just haven’t gone through the process to be verified. A technician from the State of Michigan came to the farm and went through all of my spray and fertilizer records. She wanted to make sure that I was following MSU guidelines for fertilizer rates and that I was certified to spray the chemicals I was using, and following all spray safety guidelines. I also had to show proof that I was not causing erosion or other environmental concerns. Also, I had to develop an Emergency Management Plan, in case there was ever a chemical spill or fire on the farm. I chose to become MAEAP verified because even though I thought I was practicing good crop management I wanted the assurance that I was following guidelines and not missing anything. I am working with my dad to get the farmstead MAEAP verified as well.

 

 

 

So what would you like to ask a farmer? Comment below!

~Leslie