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Previous Weeks
Down on the Farm
October 18 2004
What an exciting weekend!
I trucked corn to our elevator on our farm and watched the golden kernels slide out of the truck, into the auger, and up the leg. We're filling our grain bins to feed our hungry hogs for another year. In the afternoon I was driving the corn combine thrashing 8 rows at a clip. The monitor read 16 percent moisture and 230bu per acre. I have never in my days farming seen anything like it.
The corn stood like trees, straight and thick -- 32,000 plants per acre. I looked out…
The War on Fat
October 11 2004
Is the war on fat going to tum out to be a big fat hoax? Now that the health care industry, the pharmaceutical companies, the media and yes the government have built obesity up into public enemy number one, there are questions yet unanswered.
It was my impression that obesity was becoming an epidemic. However, that may be an exaggeration. The average weight increase ofthe US population has increased about 7-10 pounds over the past 13 years. Thin Americans have not gained at all. And when we…
Ethanol
September 28 2004
It's such a pleasure harvesting a great corn crop. I love to watch hose golden kernels fill the combine hopper. Before you know it the truck is full and headed for the grain terminal to be processed and exported all over the world. Yet I still have something bothering me.
Ten percent of my corn will be processed into ethanol and that fuel demand is adding 30 to 40 cents on each bushel I sell. That is huge!
What concerns me is this. Cargill, one of the nation's largest ethanol producers in the…
The Fox Hunt
September 22 2004
"Tally Ho" -- the hounds, the horses, the red coated hunters blowing horns race over the hills and through the valleys in pursuit of the fox.
At least they used to do that in England. Fox hunting in Britain has been a time honored sport for more than 300 years. But just this month, the British Parliament voted to outlaw the hunt after all these years. Hunt enthusiasts were outraged.
My first reaction is -- why did the government get involved in this? Don't they have something important to deal…
The Energy Bill
September 13 2004
We haven't been able to push the energy bill over the finish line. And, with the few legislative days left before the election, probably nothing will happen before next year.
The bill is important because it provides incentives to increase the use of renewable fuels especially ethanol. If you are from the Midwest, ethanol IS corn.
We will convert more than 1.3 billion bushels into fuel this year. That is double the production 2 years ago. There is reason to bullish on renewable fuels.
We have…
Corn Sweetener
August 31 2004
Alright I know it's true. Too many people are overweight -- and that is a health problem contributing to diabetes, heart disease, etc.
Whenever there is a problem, any problem, people start pointing fingers. They are looking for someone to blame -- someone else of course. Blame fast food restaurants, McDonald and Burger King. Blame Kraft's foods macaroni and cheese. Blame the candy companies advertising that hooks the kids. The blame game goes on. We must fix the blame.
Perhaps the most ludicrous…
Presidential Campaign
August 18 2004
I keep getting the same question over and over again. "What is your take on the Presidential Election?"
In the first place, most of the poles say we have a dead heat -- Kerry-Bush-Bush-Kerry. I know the Olympics were fun to watch, but so is the Presidential race. We are just on the eve of the Republican Convention. If Bush gets the same bounce that Kerry got they will still be dead even after the convention. I don't expect President Bush to come forward with very much that is new. Perhaps some…
Food
August 10 2004
What goes around comes around! If you live long enough, you find that all the absolute truths that you are told are not absolute after all.
For years the FDA was telling us not to consume fat, because clearly fat will make you fat. Don't eat that steak, don't eat that cheese. That was what we heard for nearly two decades. It was a steady drum beat criticizing fat and promoting carbs. Eat more bread ... eat more pasta. So we did it.
But look what happened, we got fat. I remember when consumer…
BSE
July 20 2004
It is time for USDA to move quickly and decisively and change their flawed reporting procedure for BSE. We have had 2 false positives this month. They received headline attention spooking the cattle market, undercutting consumer confidence, and hurting our chances of opening up the Japanese market to our beef. Both of the warnings have proven to be false. I'm glad they were. Although the immediate test was positive, it is also true that when USDA gets a positive on the first test that positive…
Agriculture Today
July 14 2004
I was down on this farn this past week. We may have been afraid of draught, floods and all kinds of production problems, but I've never seen our corn and soybean prospects look any better.
I took time away from the farm to drive down from Galesburg, IL to the Lake of the Ozarks in MO where I spoke on the program of the National Pork Industry Conference. The crops all the way down looked great. I realize the windshield look can hide problems in the interior of the fields but I come away convinced…
