The CoffeeShop Talk


by Dave Yaeger


Friday and Saturday were a couple of interesting days weather wise. Well, the dog days of summer were interrupted under one big cloud burst here in the township. It seemed like route 88 was the dividing line between the real heavy rainfalls and the moderate rainfalls. We did need the rain.
This past week did some traveling around the state and into Iowa, Indiana, and Michigan. The crops in the areas that I traveled looked pretty good with very few uneven spots in corn and soybean fields. Hot weather continues. Rain around the doom of hot air is continuing in bucket fulls.
There have been several articles pointing out the need to scout your soybean fields for aphids. With this heat they can multiply rapidly to the point where spraying will be economically feasible.
What a beautiful evening. Sunshiny and bright. Warm but not too humid. Excellent growing weather. Started picking sweet corn for the stand. The earliest in several years. Seeing I am partial, the taste was delicious. The ears were a little short but it was an early season variety so you have to expect the smaller ears. This week has gone by fast I guess only because I have made a couple of trips. One to Davenport Iowa and the other to Eau Claire Michigan. The fruit season has begun in Michigan. Blueberries and Sour Cherries are in season. They are plentiful and tasty. In about three weeks Michigan peaches will be ready and I expect that Illinois peaches will be in much sooner. This is the season to enjoy the home grown fruit and vegetables of this area.
Lots of tassels showing up which means pollination season is also upon us. So far the weather around here has cooperated. Of coarse there is at least three or more weeks to go of pollination. After that there will be only one more hurdle to go -- filling.
The government report on Crop acres is out and as usual it effected the prices as every government report does. With less corn acres then predicted in March and more soybean acreage you can easily guess what happened to prices. Both crop's acreage is higher than last year. It will be interesting to see how it will effect the World Estimated Supply and Demand Report coming out next week. With the holiday weekend coming up have a safe one and becareful of fireworks use. Too many injuries are caused by carelessness. Happy Birthday United States and many more!!
With the onset of summer and it's weather, our growing conditions up to now have been ideal in most of DeKalb County. A little excessive moisture in some townships have dampened the prospects of a growing season that can only lead to an outstanding crop outcome. Granted we still have the most important part of our growing season coming up. I think we all have heard the saying "don't count your chickens before they are hatched." It does apply here. Wednesday we will be getting a new projection on our acreage of our crop production. It will effect the price of our products, one way or another. Those that grow crops or raise livestock will be effected. For those farmers that raise both it may not effect you as much but if you raise either crops or livestock there may be some pricing opportunities for one or the other of you.
I think back to the time I was a youngster when living along route 38 there was livestock on every farm from county line road at Maple park to the farm adjacent to DeKalb. Now there is not one farm along the same route that has any livestock. We didn't have to differentiate between a farmer growing crops and one raising livestock. Today we do.
The government delivered their quarterly report on the Hog and Pig production. You can read the report above. It shows that hog producers are responding to lower prices - the red ink they have been facing for the past year ++. Unfortunately, the pain of having to get out of the hog business for some farmers is a reality. They are not as fortunate as large banks that were too big to fail.

======================================================================================================================================================

I am asking anyone wanting to take part in any discussions on this blog to do so by e-mailing me at dyaeger@mchsi.com and please include your name and address. You may ask to have your name withheld. I ask that you please do not liable anyone. Your comments will make it into the CoffeeShop Talk.