March 29, 2024

Seeds going into the ground around county

Farmers still monitoring markets, prices while field work begins

While farmers around Jasper County are getting their crops into the ground this month, their eyes are still on the market indicators that help determine what they’ll plant in 2016.

Roger Zylstra, of Lynnville, is the chair of the Iowa Corn Growers Association’s Board of Directors. Despite the rainy conditions Saturday, he was out getting his planting activities done.

“Most farmers in this area follow a corn-soybean rotation,” Zylstra said. “The decision on changing crops is usually made in the late fall or winter.”

Iowa Corn quotes federal sources in predicting the amount of corn planted in Iowa will be slightly reduced this year. In 2014, Iowa corn farmers grew almost 2.4 billion bushels of corn on 13.2 million acres of land, while 2015 projections show the state’s farmers will grow more than 2.3 billion bushels of corn on 12.6 million acres.

Corn-planting season is whenever the soil is warm enough to germinate the seeds, but not so early that the young plants are likely to be damaged by frost. This is generally an earlier time for the southern Iowa counties than it is in the north. Soybeans tend to go into the ground in late April, with corn not far behind.

Much depends on the weather outlook, types of plants and many other factors. Even as farmers are spending a week or so (depending on the size of their farms) getting seeds into the ground, there is still thought going into what seeds to buy for next year. A mid-March report from a Farm Futures growers survey showed stressed margins continue to affect farmer planting decisions this spring.

In addition to planting less corn and more soybeans, producers are searching for other crops to grow to try and make a profit look more plausible — on paper, anyway. Growers also said they’re looking to plant other alternatives to traditional row crops, some 15 to 20 percent more than in the past. Farm Futures surveyed 1,297 growers in 41 states by email from Feb. 27 to March 16.

This time of year, farmers are keenly aware of the cost of planting, from fueling up a tractor to labor costs of farm help. Another expense farmers consider is herbicides. Kansas State University extension weed specialist Dallas Peterson told the Untied Soybean Board the carryover of herbicides is different this year than in 2014 because of a wetter winter.

“I wouldn’t expect it to be much of a problem this year because we’ve had better moisture throughout the fall and winter this past year,” Peterson said. “Fall herbicide treatments applied in 2013 had little moisture for breakdown to occur in the spring. That lack of moisture left farmers planting into fields with herbicide residues, which caused problems with the next (2014) crop.”

When he spoke at the 10-year anniversary of Prairie City’s Green Acres on March 10, Grinnell’s Mike Pearson, host of the nationally syndicated program “Market to Market,” called beans “a riskier market,” and farmers should “really look to get them sold, in the near term.”

Farm Futures’ March total for soybeans was more than one million less than its January survey, after soybean margins eroded this winter.

While soybeans cost less to plant, they could lose more money per acre if prices don’t pick up as the year rolls along. Zylstra said planting costs are certainly a factor in deciding on a corn-soybean balance.

“On many crop farms this year, it is hard to project a positive cash flow because of low prices for corn and soybeans,” Zylstra said. “The biggest factor in deciding what to plant for this year is, ‘What does it cost to plant the crop?’”