It is spring and soon it will be time for farmers to head to the field and start another year. For over 6 months grain prices have rallied higher, to prices that have not been seen for quite a while. Purchases of corn and soybeans for export to China have rebounded at the same time as production has faltered in Brazil and Argentina. Prices for commodities have rallied and farmers are anxious to plant while the prospects look good for profitability.
It was about 50 years ago that a similar scenario was unfolding with Russia when the Secretary of Agriculture, Earl Butz, told the American farmer to plant fencerow to fencerow. Butz even told farmers to “get big or get out”. Butz felt that as farmers became more productive and efficient, food prices would decline for everyone.
I am not old enough to remember a time when most farms had a diverse mix of crops and livestock. Pastures used to dot the landscape, and they supported the livestock raised on many farms. Those livestock actually became our food. I think it is now safe to say that the #1 livestock in Will County is horses. I do not think anyone is eating them.
For many years now there has been a very tight supply of hay grown in our area. Will hay acres shrink if farmers prefer to plant corn and soybeans on the lure of higher profits? What will other farmers plant? What should I plant?
On my own farm, will I still plant sweet corn, pumpkins and hay? Or will I be lured to go “all in” on corn and beans? Is there enough land for a few other crops? To be truthful here, it would be a lot less hard, physical work if I never planted pumpkins, sweet corn and hayfields ever again. Is it all about making money?
For myself I think that may have been true in my earlier years. Have I softened or become financially secure? I now enjoy the scattered patches of pumpkins and yellow clover on my farm. I have planted sunflowers for enough years now that I have finally learned how to do it successfully, without the patch becoming a weedy mess. A couple of days ago I spread 3# of yellow blossom sweet clover seed on a small field hoping to frost seed the area to become a vibrant patch of flowers for the honeybees later this summer.
My grain drill is already hooked to the tractor and ready to plant more hay fields. I have been asked to plant sunflowers and pollinator patches for neighbors. For the second year in a row I will be assisting with food plots for wildlife.
I think I may follow the advice of Secretary Butz and indeed plant “fencerow to fencerow.” It should be duly noted that Secretary Butz never stated exactly what crops should be planted, or who should eat the crops that I grow.
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