Your turn: Farmers sound off on crops and prices

What is the condition of your corn and soybean crops and what are your thoughts about the grain markets as we start down the homestretch of the growing season and begin to prepare for harvest?

“During planting, the first 60% went in real well and then the last 40% was a little bit of a struggle. It was wet and then it turned from wet to hot in June and then after that it’s been a pretty decent growing season. The corn, particularly the early corn, looks really good. The later crops are a little bit uneven because of the way we put it in. The corn this year looks better than the soybeans, at least in my estimation. It seems like our basis has collapsed relative to Iowa. They seem to have a little stronger basis with their ethanol. Part of it is there was some storm damage at an elevator in Mount Vernon and they’re out of the loop, so we actually have less marketing outlets than we had last year. There won’t be much new equipment purchased at $4 corn and $10 soybeans.”

Bruce Miller

Knox County

“The early season, of course, had some rain delays that slowed us down. But the early beans really, really look good. Right now, the early corn looks good. We’ve got a lot of time yet on the later beans and the rest of the corn. It looks like a pretty promising crop at this point in time — average to better than average, if we continue to get some rain. A dry spell could hurt a lot of things. In our operation, we’ll just get a little leaner. We probably won’t upgrade equipment quite as soon as we’d like. Usually, downturns like this are seven to eight months long. If we raise a good crop without any more foreign trade than we see in this country right now, we’re really going to be hurting. We’ve got to have an administration that desires to sell grain around the world. We do just a little bit of the work. God takes care of the rest of it.”

Terry Hayhurst

Vigo County

“There was a long point in the planting season where we had a lot of delays with rain, but we got it done in a fairly decent time. The corn and beans are now looking pretty good. I think the crops are average to above-average. Pollination on corn is over. We just need some more rains to finish it up. The markets are terrible. I’ve been doing this for a lot of years, so I’m not looking at scaling back. But I think it’s going to make it tough. I’m a believer that if you don’t put the fertilizer on, you’re looking at a yield decrease. I think you’ve got to keep the soil fertility up.”

Terry Perkins

Knox County

Responses made on July 24 at the Shop Talk hosted on the farm of Susan and Mike Brocksmith in Vincennes for the Indiana Corn Growers Association and the Indiana Soybean Alliance’s Membership and Policy Committee.