Cover Crops and Corn Stover Removal

There isn't a lot of corn stover taken off Clinton County fields but there is some. Today I was on a conference call that included Purdue Ag Economist Wally Tyner. Wally has been doing some work looking at corn stover markets and economics and I thought I'd share a bit of this with you.

Dr. Tyner has been evaluating the economics of baling and selling corn stover. I could make a long post out of this but instead I'll hit the highlights and provide a link which you can look over for additional information. The first key point is that in his research he found that around $60 a ton is where it seems to make sense for most producers to sell stover from off the field. Now there are some variables with this and one of the most significant is the distance to market as this substantially impacts profitability. In his research Dr. Tyner is using a removal rate of 33% of all stover produced, about 1.5 tons/acre.

Stover bale. Photo: Greg Roth, Penn State University.

Where things get interesting is when cover crops are factored into the equation. By using cover crops, an additional 1.8 tons/acre of stover can be removed without negative impacts on areas such as soil productivity and erosion. As the cost to plant cover crops is around $40/acre for most mixes, including cover crops with stover removal appears to pay off significantly.

These figures are general and each farmer should run his or her own numbers but it is interesting. If you would like additional information, Purdue Extension Publication RE-7-W, Synergies Between Cover Crops and Corn Stover Removal has much more information including details on assessments of agronomic benefits of various systems as well as the economics. I've included a link to it below.

Synergies Between Cover Crops and Corn Stover Removal

2014 Purdue Crop Cost and Return Guide Now Available

The Purdue Center for Commercial Agriculture has released the 2014 Purdue Crop Cost and Return Guide, based on September price and cost estimates. This document typically is updated from time to time through the fall but this is a first look at what they expect. The most significant numbers from these are that Purdue is projecting a substantial reduction in the profitability of growing corn next year. For example, rotational corn return has dropped from $660 in 2013 to $491 in 2014 on high productivity soils and from $483 to $345 on average productivity ground. Soybean returns have also dropped but less drastically.

This is important information both as you start planning what to plant next year and in case any of you are involved in renegotiating leases. Keep in mind as you look at these that these are not overall farm budgets, just projected numbers for one aspect of a farm operation; getting a crop planted, harvested and sold. There are substantial ownership and overhead costs not accounted for. In this guide, you will not have paid yourself or included family living expenses. Land costs are not included. Costs of machinery ownership are not included.

This guide is handy for looking at trends and projections but to really assess your operation, you should have a budget for your farm using your numbers.

I'm including three links; to the article discussing the 2014 guide, to the 2014 guide, and to the 2013 guide if you want to use it for comparison.

Purdue Article on 2014 Guide

2014 Guide

2013 Guide

Input Costs Down for 2014?

I want to share a news release from the Purdue Ag Economics Department. In it, Alan Miller discusses the prospect for reduced input costs for the 2014 crop year. As has been the trend, with lower commodity prices comes some reduction of inputs. In particular fertilizer costs are down and Miller believes these may continue to drop. Fuel costs should also be down so long as the Middle East is relatively calm.

Of course this isn't true for everything. Pesticide and seed costs look to stay flat or slightly increase and the latest Purdue Cash Rent and Land Values Survey shows no sign of a reduction in the cost of land in the short term.

See the following link for the complete article: 2013 A Transition Year for Grain Farmers

Forage Supply Strategies

This year looks to be better from a forage supply standpoint than last year. Conditions were good for first and second cuttings of hay and there's been some decent third cuttings out there. Still, the late season dryness on top of last year's season-long drought may cause some shortages.

Last year Purdue Extension Agronomist Keith Johnson and Beef Specialist Ron Lemenager put together a paper, "Beef Management Practices When Forages are in Short Supply." It's fairly lengthy and detailed and those of you who raise other livestock or graze horses can adapt it for your species. Here's the link: 2012 Forage Supply Publication

I'm not going to go through this point-by-point but want to stress a couple of things I feel are particularly important, effective, and relatively simple to implement for most livestock producers. At least these are the ones I would have found simplest back when I raised cattle. I'm not going to talk about some of the more obvious ones such as taking a forage inventory, finding other forage sources such as grazing harvested corn fields, or reducing livestock numbers.

Do not leave livestock on pasture beyond the normal date when you would remove them. Point number 2 in the publication touches on the reasons for this. You may be desperately short of forage; even so, one of the worst management practices you can engage in is grazing animals through the fall and taking off all of the forage then. The reason is based on the life cycle of forages in pasture. One of the main reasons we take livestock off forage for the last couple of months of the growing season is to allow growing foliage to recharge or restore the root system of the pasture. If livestock are allowed to graze during this period the root system will be significantly weakened resulting in poorer pasture next year, and in subsequent years. If you absolutely feel you need to get a couple of extra months on pasture in order to make your forage supplies last, pull your animals off it in the fall, wait for it to go dormant(usually late November to early December) and then put animals back on. This still isn't good but at least the root system has had a chance to restore itself and it won't be damaged by trying to grow additional forage. If you do this you should also be careful to pull animals from it if it's wet to minimize physical damage. Keep in mind that this is far from a recommended practice and will likely require some additional management in following years - it's just less bad than leaving livestock on pasture through the fall. If possible, only leave animals on until they graze it down to about 4" in height. And obviously, don't even think about doing this if you have sorghum or sudangrass due to the Prussic Acid/cyanide poisoning risk.

Restrict access to forage. Point number 11 in the linked publication discusses this in more detail. Basically, cattle get all the forage they need to maintain themselves by having access to hay or silage for 6-8 hours in a day, particularly once they become accustomed to the schedule. Most of the rest of the time they spend trampling it into the ground or just chewing on it/playing with it because they're bored. Restricting access can reduce forage use by up to 20%.

Early weaning of calves. When we look at calf growth, it is less efficient for a cow to convert feed to milk and the calf to then convert milk to growth/gain, than for calves to directly convert feed to growth. If forage supplies are short, weaning calves early can save as much as 30% on forage supplies. Point number 4 in the publication discusses this in much more detail. The same principle applies to creep feeding calves, discussed in point 3. If cows did not breed back, this also gives you the chance to cull open cows earlier.

Ear Rots in Corn

The most recent issue of the Purdue Pest and Crop Newsletter has a good article by Kiersten Wise of the Purdue Botany and Plant Pathology Department on identification of ear rots in corn. I haven't heard that there's much of this out there but I think we're all a bit gun-shy after the Aflatoxin issues we had last year. Conditions haven't been perfect for developing any of the ear rots but the growing season has placed some stress on plants and provided conditions where some of these may develop. The keys for managing these are to harvest affected corn as early as possible, dry it quickly and keep it separate from clean corn.

I'd post a picture or two but I'm writing this from my IPad and don't know how. The Newsletter has plenty anyway. I've linked to it below.

September 13 Purdue Pest and Crop Newsletter

Looking for Palmer Amaranth

I'm sure most of you have heard of Palmer amaranth (Amaranthus palmeri). If not, it's an extremely aggressive, invasive broadleaf weed, native to the desert southwest, that is usually very glyphosate- and ALS-resistant. To date it's been found in northwest and southwest Indiana.

I'm not aware that any has been found in Clinton County and I've been keeping an eye out as I've been driving around this summer. However as you'll soon be getting into your fields for harvest, I have a request; if you come across any Palmer amaranth when you get in the field, please let me know. I'll send that information on to Bill Johnson at Purdue's Botany and Plant Pathology Department. Purdue has a longstanding policy regarding pest reporting; when they identify where a pest is located to inform the public, they say what county it's located in, not where in the county.



Palmer Amaranth: Photo from Purdue Extension Publication WS-51, Palmer Amaranth Biology, Identification, and Management

At the bottom of this post I'll include a link to the Purdue publication on Palmer amaranth but for ID purposes, here's what to look for. The main distiguishing characteristic at this point in the plant's life will be an extremely long seed head, up to three feet long. Its leaf is wide and ovate and is not lobed like giant ragweed.

If you come across this weed, please let me know, either by calling the extension office or by e-mailing me at cemanuel@purdue.edu. Feel free to send me some pictures if you're not sure if this is what you're seeing, or yank out the plant and let me know and I'll come take a look at it.

Purdue Extension Publication on Palmer amaranth

Source: Purdue Extension Publication WS-51, Palmer Amaranth Biology, Identification, and Management by Travis Legleiter and Bill Johnson, April 2013.

2013 Purdue Custom Rates

Between the State Farm Management Tour and the County Fair, posting about this completely slipped my mind. Purdue has issued an updated Indiana Custom Rates publication for 2013. Fewer responses were collected for the survey than for last year's so some operations were not included in this year's results. For this reason I'm including links to both this year's and last year's surveys.

2013 Purdue Custom Rates Survey Results

2012 Purdue Custom Rates Survey Results

Ag Outlook Webinar

Purdue Extension Economist Corinne Alexander will be presenting an Ag Outlook Webinar on Friday, September 13 at 8:30 a.m. I won't be able to host a session here as I'll be at the Land Lease Program in Logansport that morning but anyone with a good internet connection should be able to view it.

The link to view it is: Ag Outlook Webinar. You may find additional information on the program at this link.

I will likely have an Ag Outlook program here later this fall as we've done for the past few years but I haven't scheduled it yet.

Land Lease Program

The Purdue Land Lease Team will be sponsoring a program, "Farm Land Leases: Finding Balance in Farmland Lease Contracts" on Friday, September 13 from 9 a.m. to Noon at the Ivy Tech in Logansport. I've attached a link to the program flyer below.

To register for the program contact Howard County Extension Educator Paul Marcellino at 765-456-2313 or you can e-mail him at pmarcell@purdue.edu. There is no cost for the program.

Farm Land Lease Program Flyer

Clinton County Locally Grown Foods Tour Summary

On Saturday, August 10 we held the first Clinton County Locally Grown Foods Tour. This program was developed to promote locally grown foods operations in Clinton County (Indiana) and to inform participants about locally grown foods options. We had four host sites for the tour; McWhirt Family Produce, Rule's Golden Honey, This Old Farm and The Farming Engineers.

For this program, participants had the option of either riding a bus which went to each site or driving themselves. Somehow we managed to stay on time. Having good weather that day didn't hurt. I'll mention one item before I get to the tour; Each of the host farms discussed locally grown foods by promoting their operation, what they do, sell, and why they do it rather than trying to talk down or criticize traditional agriculture. For myself, I don't have a lot of patience with people who try to build themselves up by tearing others down. I expected this approach from our host farms so it certainly wasn't a surprise. Unfortunately it contrasts with approaches I've seen elsewhere.


Tour participants at McWhirt Family Produce

The first stop was near Michigantown at McWhirt Family Produce. McWhirt's started selling produce they raised on very limited acreage at a Tipton County roadside stand in 2001. Within a few years they had outgrown their space and purchased more acreage in Clinton County where they developed their produce business. McWhirt's sell all sorts of vegetables throughout the growing season ranging from early season crops such as lettuce and cabbage to fall crops such as pumkins. They sell produce from their home by appointment and have been selling at the Frankfort Farmers Market since it opened. For the past couple of years Rick has been the Market Manager of the Market in Frankfort.

We received a nice tour of their garden areas and afterwards everyone enjoyed looking at the Boer goats the McWhirt children raise for 4-H projects. For their garden they do not control weeds chemically but rely on tillage and hand-pulling of weeds.

Mike Rule demonstrating some of his honey processing equipment

Stop number two was just a couple of miles up the road at Rule's Golden Honey. Mike and Cathy Rule have raised bees for quite some time and began selling honey about 6 years ago once it became large enough that they couldn't just give all the honey to their neighbors. They have also been selling at the Frankfort Farmers Market since 2007. In addition to honey they sell produce and home baked goods. We received a nice tour of the farm including where Mike keeps his bees and afterwards he explained how he does his processing.

From Rule's we travelled to Colfax and This Old Farm, owned by Erick and Jessica Smith. We were served an excellent lunch consisting entirely of local foods. Indiana State Department of Agriculture Director Gina Sheets spoke to the group, as did Erick. Afterwards Jessica gave us a tour of their processing plant.


Jessica Smith talking about This Old Farm's meat processing facility

This Old Farm is the largest local foods operation we visited with 23 people employed in various aspects of the operation. The Smith's raise produce and pastured pork from their own farm. They also operate a federally inspected meat processing plant which they use to do custom processing as well as to process products which they sell from their store and online. As one of only two certified organic meat processors in Indiana they are very busy. They also operate a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). In addition, they have established a farm alliance which allows them to work with over 50 Indiana producers to help promote and market their food products. 


A few of the residents of The Farming Engineers operation.

The final stop for the day involved a long bus ride to the other side of the county, near Pickard, to visit The Farming Engineers, Lisa and Matt Burke. The Burke's raise produce, grown outdoors in a garden as well as in a hoop house. They also raise pastured poultry and sell eggs. While they do sell products on farm, The Farming Engineers' primary business focus is their CSA where you can sign up for weekly delivery of produce and/or eggs.

Lisa took us through various aspects of their operation. As they raise everything to organic standards and the price of organic feed for the chickens is quite high, they are currently studying the effectiveness of raising sprouts as a substitute feed whith the help of a Sustainable Agriculture Research and Education (SARE) grant. This stop involved the most walking as the pastured poultry are truly out on pasture but it was fun.

This was a fun, enjoyable tour. The four tour hosts deserve special thanks for agreeing to allow us to visit their farms. I was unaware until recently that Clinton County has as many local foods producers as we do though once I started thinking about it, we border some communities which provide a good client base for this type of operation. As one of the top agricultural counties in the state, it's not surprising that we would have a strong presence with these types of farms.

If you would like additional information on local foods, I've put up a page on our Extension Office site. We also have a Clinton County Local Foods Producers Directory.

Clinton County Extension Locally Grown Foods Page

Local Foods Directory