Latest News From Corn

Planters are Already Starting To Roll in These Areas
Planters are Already Starting To Roll in These Areas

With the impending snowstorm in the upper Midwest and Northern Plains, it may seem like the 2023 planting season will be off to a slow start. However, in states like Illinois and Missouri, planting has already started.

Fresh Farms reports light volume, good quality for bell peppers and corn
Fresh Farms reports light volume, good quality for bell peppers and corn

The company is growing green bell peppers, corn and colored bell peppers in the Mexican state of Sinaloa, with green bell peppers having the biggest increase, says sales representative Marco Serrano.

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Nitrogen Prices Now Seeing a Resurgence For Fall, and Natural Gas Isn't the Only Driver

High input prices continue to be a pain point for farmers planning their 2023 crop needs. Experts say the price of natural gas isn’t the only driver fueling the market as farmers look to book their fall needs.

The Duke of Hazard: How an Unbreakable Kansas Farmer Bore a Lifetime of Scars
The Duke of Hazard: How an Unbreakable Kansas Farmer Bore a Lifetime of Scars

All farmers suffer injuries, but the unbreakable Ward Henry was a breed apart: drill rollover, shooting, anaphylactic shock, amputation, and PTO mangling.

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The Secret Life of Farmland Marbles

The shotgun houses and clapboard shacks are gone, but a child's toy lingers in farmland rows. Time, tillage and rainfall reveal the sharecropper's last testament: clusters of magnificent clay, agate and glass marbles.

Pride and Pain: Farmer-Soldier Sacrifices for Country and Family
Pride and Pain: Farmer-Soldier Sacrifices for Country and Family

Sacrifice: Joseph Sparacio will plant no seed and tend no crops in 2020. Instead, the farmer-patriot has left behind everything he loves to answer the call of duty.

Farmer Welcomes Sesame Street to Promote Agriculture
Farmer Welcomes Sesame Street to Promote Agriculture

When Sesame Street knocked, Casey Cox threw open the door on her Georgia farm and grabbed an opportunity to take U.S. agriculture to a new audience.

Rat Bomb: Farming’s Death of a Thousand Bites
Rat Bomb: Farming’s Death of a Thousand Bites

What sex-crazed, eating machine gorges on a portion of profit from every farm, ranch, dairy, storage bin, hog barn, feed mill and grain elevator on the planet? Guess rat, and guess right.

Corn, Soybeans Take A Hit from Heat but Not Blueberries
Corn, Soybeans Take A Hit from Heat but Not Blueberries

Stover's Farm Market and U-Pic is running in Berrien Springs, Mich. Customers are coming to buy and pick as Stover says the blueberry crop is a good one this year.

Conservation Agriculture Gains National Momentum
Conservation Agriculture Gains National Momentum

Farm Journal and foundational partners introduce America’s Conservation Ag Movement special edition of the magazine.

Larger Farm Journal Initiative Focuses On Conservation, Education
Larger Farm Journal Initiative Focuses On Conservation, Education

The Voice of the Farmer is a new exhibit located on the National Mall. It's just one component of a larger initiative called, “America’s Conservation Ag. Movement.”

Voice of the Farmer Exhibit Now On Display
Voice of the Farmer Exhibit Now On Display

There’s a new nod to farmers, ranchers and growers. The Voice of the Farmer is a brand new exhibit in Washington D.C. which celebrates agriculture and puts it on full display.

The latest edition of Farmer Mac's "The Feed" paints a more optimistic picture for 2019, based on better livestock prices and other factors; however, headwinds will persist.
No Home Runs For Ag In 2019, But A Better Outlook Than 2018

Debt-to-asset ratios are on the rise, working capital is eroding and farmers’ sentiments are on the decline. Despite the negativity surrounding prices and outlooks, Famer Mac is providing a voice of optimism.

Glyphosate a Hot Button Issue in Germany
Glyphosate a Hot Button Issue in Germany

The debate over weed killers containing glyphosate continues to be issue in Germany.

Glyphosate a Hot Button Issue in Germany
Glyphosate a Hot Button Issue in Germany

The debate over weed killers containing glyphosate continues to be issue in Germany.

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Shipping Costs are Surging Globally, Squeezing Grain Traders

Shipping Costs are Surging Globally, Squeezing Grain Traders

Farm Journal
Farm Family Harvests Crop, Life's Challenges Together

Jay and Cara Myers of Colfax, North Dakota are no strangers of technology. Farming in the state can be challenging due to a smaller window to plant and harvest. That’s why these 2014 Top Producer of the Year Candidates want to make every acre count.  As the remaining bushels of the 2017 crop gets shut in the bin, this North Dakota farm family is turning toward more pressing issues. AgDay national reporter Betsy Jibben has the story. 

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Mighty Earth Attacks Crop Farmers to Advance Anti-Meat Agenda

A report last week from Mighty Earth, a campaign of the Center for International Policy, took a break from criticizing farmers and ranchers that raise livestock for meat, and instead turned their attention to the meat companies and feed suppliers (ie. crop farmers), asking them to provide “pollution-free” feed.

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Largest Recorded "Dead Zone" calls for Nutrient Loss Reduction

The Gulf of Mexico’s hypoxia zone, the “dead zone,” is 3% larger than ever before at 8,776 square miles. 

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Increased Interest in Grain Sourcing Creates Positive Change

There was a time when once grain left the farm gate, little was thought about where it went. Those days are disappearing quickly.

Uesugi Farms to offer organic corn
Uesugi Farms to offer organic corn

Gilroy, Calif.-based Uesugi Farms plans to launch an organic sweet corn overwrapped tray in June, said Pete Aiello, co-owner.

Bumper crop expected for sweet corn, green beans
Bumper crop expected for sweet corn, green beans

Plenty of good growing weather this year means supplies of sweet corn and green beans are expected to be very good, grower-shippers say.

A switch to a no till cover crop system provided a booster shot to Johnny Hunter’s weed control, irrigation efficiency and overall soil health.
Killing the Input Beast

The gospel of high yields at all costs has a new apostate. A switch to a no till cover crop system changed Johnny Hunter's entire management dynamic and provided a booster shot to weed control, irrigation efficiency and overall soil health.

Growers expect normal fall corn, bean deals
Growers expect normal fall corn, bean deals

Georgia grower-shippers expect favorable late-summer weather to help produce typical fall sweet corn and green bean harvests.

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The Supply Chain Cares About Sustainability More Than Ever

There was a time when once grain left the farm gate, little was thought about where it went. Those days are disappearing quickly.

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Farmers Get a Bargain on Barge Rates

Farmers may be too distracted by the latest painfully low corn and soybean prices to notice it, but their grain shipments are enjoying a bargain on barge rates these days.

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Rail Fail: How Farmers Got Shorted $570 Million

Farmers continue to be at the mercy of rail service providers in certain regions, particularly in the Upper Midwest.

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OP-ED: Hating Humanity by Opposing Science

They don't want to admit it, but we know it's true. There are countless organizations that hate humanity enough to do everything in their power to put a stop to anything that might benefit it. Their focus is on the use of science to improve and protect our lives.

Lockmasters Worry About Spring Transportation
Lockmasters Worry About Spring Transportation

Millions of bushels of temporary and emergency grain storage have been piled in tarps and the ground this year. Those are bushels that will eventually need to be moved by truck, rail or barge. Lockmasters worry about how smooth moving 2014’s massive crop will be.

U.S. Corn and DDGS Exports

Export to China is having an impact on U.S. corn and DDGS markets.

Midwestern Senators Hammer Railroads at Hearing

Sen. Heidi Heitkamp says farmers have been "tremendously patient" about rail delays, "but that patience is wearing thin."

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South Dakota Gets $12 Million to Fix Rail For Grain Shipments

The state now has the final piece of funding needed to rehab a stretch of railway that will open up grain-shipping opportunities for farmers in south-central South Dakota, officials announced this week.

Minnesota Farmers, Propane Suppliers Prepare For Winter

Minnesota officials and propane suppliers say they're better prepared to avoid repeating the shortages that hit much of the Midwest last winter.

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Midwest's Railcar Shortage Debate Shifts to DC

Midwestern lawmakers and farmers are shifting the attention of a locomotive and railcar shortage problem to Washington this week with legislation, a committee hearing and meetings with decision-makers.

Officials Ask Federal Board to Help on Rail Delays

North Dakota Gov. Jack Dalrymple opened a federal hearing in Fargo about rail service delays in the upper Plains by reading a letter from a grain elevator that said Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. was 525 cars behind in its service.

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Corn Heists and Crime in Argentina Port

Truck drivers in Argentina, the world’s third-largest exporter of corn and soybeans, say theft and extortion are on the rise at the main port, Rosario.

Minnesota Governor Asks Feds to Intervene in Grain Delays

Gov. Mark Dayton is urging the federal government to step in on railroad delays hitting Minnesota grain farmers.

DuPont Pioneer Sued by Migrant Workers in Michigan

The lawsuit, filed in federal court in Grand Rapids, accuses Johnston, Iowa-based DuPont Pioneer and two recruiters of violating federal wage and migrant labor laws.

Too Much Corn With Nowhere to Go as U.S. Farmers Plan for Record

The ripening corn and soybean fields stretch for miles in every direction from Dennis Wentworth’s farm in Downs, Illinois.

No Room at the Bin for U.S. Grain Amid BNSF Rail Jam
No Room at the Bin for U.S. Grain Amid BNSF Rail Jam

BNSF Railway and Canadian Pacific Railway Ltd. struggled with "greater-than-normal" demand from shippers of coal, oil and Midwest crops, USDA said last week.

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Basis Hit Hard, Driving Corn Prices to $2.50/bu. in Corn Belt Fringe

Producers on the northwestern fringe of the Corn Belt are feeling the squeeze as transportation bottlenecks cause basis to widen.

California Drought Transforms Markets as Growers See Dry Future

Such crop switching is one sign of a sweeping transformation going on in California--the nation’s biggest agricultural state by value--driven by a three-year drought that climate scientists say is a glimpse of a drier future.

Cargill Earnings Decline on Effects of Drought
Cargill Earnings Decline on Effects of Drought

The company posted a 12 percent drop in fiscal fourth- quarter profit as its trading and processing business continued to feel the effects of drought in the U.S. and a shortage of railcars.

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BNSF Railway Chairman to Discuss Backlog of Grain Cars

Commissioners say they are "confused and troubled" by reports that more than half of the grain hoppers from both railroads are offline.

Sediment on Mississippi River Could Delay Barge Shipments of Grain

The delays have stretched dangerously close to grain harvesting season, when barges need to carry wheat, soybeans and corn from throughout the Midwest down to the Gulf Coast for export.

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Rail Woes Hammer Basis

The most severe rail car shortage in history caused backups, sky-high leasing costs for cars and grain shipments that ground to a halt. Ultimately, farmers bore the cost in the form of lower grain prices.

7 Agriculture Headlines Not To Miss, June 20

Spies in the furrows. Rat smells a cig. Golden banana agoniste. Water salvation from a slingshot. Cattle rustlers and AK-47s. A pig's life. Turning milk into beer.

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Canada’s Climate Warms to Corn

A warming climate along with the development of faster-maturing seed varieties is pushing the Corn Belt north of what was imaginable a generation ago.

The Next Generation of Bioplastics

Bioplastics and biochemicals made from the sugar and sometimes protein of corn, soybeans and other crops will likely never replace ethanol as one of corn’s key markets.

Showcase Your Stewardship Skills

New NCGA Good Steward Recognition Program will highlight best management practices in sustainable farming.