Celebrating a Popular Crunchy Snack

Cathy Isom has a few popping tidbits about the popular crunchy snack you’ll want to get your hands on today. That’s coming up on This Land of Ours. Celebrating a Popular Crunchy Snack Don’t let this day slip through your fingers. It’s National Popcorn Day. A day to celebrate a time-honored treat can be enjoyed sweet or savory, caramelized, buttered …

Maximizing Yield While Not Adding Costs

In corn, yield is still king, but how can producers get more bang for their buck? At the recent NC Commodities Conference, North Carolina State Extension Corn Specialist Dr. Ron Heiniger shared four keys to multiplying corn yields without adding costs. Dr. Heiniger’s first point was proper placement of fertilizers and nutrients around the plant. Placement He adds there’s another …

Returning to the New Era Corn Price Mid-Point

The agricultural economists at the University of Illinois have been championing a new era for grain prices since the rise of ethanol as a major player in the U.S. corn market. Scott Irwin is an agricultural economist from the University of Illinois. He and his colleagues believe grain prices have achieved a new higher plateau era. An era that started …

U.S. Crop Acreage Still Moving to Soybeans

Farmers in the United States have been slowly switching their cropland to just two field crops. Corn is king in the United States. Soybeans have been on a swift move upward. And wheat acreage has been on the decline for about 40 years. About half-way through those four decades two important things happened. Congress passed the 1996 farm bill – …

Less Corn Acreage More Soybeans Predicted for 2018

2018 should see less corn acreage worldwide—that according to U.S. market analyst Mike Zuzolo of Global Commodity Analytics. Acreage Fewer corn plantings and more soybean plantings seem likely to pressure soybean market prices lower. That, as the U.S. Department of Agriculture predicts record soybean acres in 2018 in the United States. Meanwhile, Zuzolo says soybean demand, which has been increasing, …

Wood from Corn Stover

Corn Board Manufacturing Inc. is taking waste from the field and making wood for thousands of products. Lane Segerstrom, founder of the company, explains how the company turns corn stover to an added value product for farmers. Stover Based in Frisco, Texas, Corn Board Manufacturing is marketed as a sustainable company. The company is looking to expand to other areas, …

USDA Predicts Less Corn in Storage in Latest WASDE

The latest World Agricultural Supply and Demand Estimates (WASDE) report released Tuesday by the Department of Agriculture predicts lower corn stocks. USDA predicts that about 2.43 billion bushels of corn will be in storage at the end of the 2018 marketing year, down from a previous estimate of 2.48 billion. USDA expects 50 more million bushels of corn will be …

Corn Market May Need Disruption

A banking official from Nebraska says the market may need “some disruption in production,” to reach higher prices for corn. Tom Jensen of First National Bank of Omaha told the Omaha-World Herald there is nothing on the horizon to increase corn prices, unless something disrupts the market. A disruption of the corn market means, generally, some form of natural disaster, …