> There is a shortage of corn because of this year's drought..................
>> Interesting shot Jim, I didn't realise JD was made from pumpkins !
Technically, you can make it from just about anything. Someday, some
genius will figure out a way to make it from recycled tires or baby
diapers.
Jim actually hit on a major concern here in Iowa. The crop is so bad
here in places that the farmers who are under contract with the
ethanol plants or egg factories are needing to buy from other farmers
just to fulfill the contracts. Even in spite of the drought, we're
still going to be able to feed the world and gas tanks, but there
won't be any reserves left. On a positive note, the soy beans have
actually been doing quite well.
BTW, root depth of the healthy fields is simply incredible.
Researchers are finding root depth down in the 12+ foot range. They've
never seen corn do that before on a wide-spread scale. These plants
needed no rain because they were able to keep extending the roots
farther down as the ground dried out.
My brother-in-law farms a bunch of land in two or three different
parts of the state. One field had this one strip running through it
that looked unusually healthy. The entire field yielded an average of
30 bushels an acre, except for this one strip which was running
250-300. Unknown why. For the past 15 years, that strip never did
anything out of the ordinary. But looking at historical aerial
photographs, there was a strip of trees there back in the 1930's.
Maybe there is an underground spring or something. But it was really
strange and they'll be doing core samples to figure this one out.
--
Ken Norton
ken@xxxxxxxxxxx
http://www.zone-10.com
--
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