Drought Chopping Up Kentucky Crop Yields - Soybeans Worst Since 1999, Alfalfa Since 1936

[hatrack]

They're numbers that farmers and agriculture officials don't want to hear. Drought-reduced yields for Kentucky's corn could be the worst in four years, soybeans' could be the worst in eight years and alfalfa hay's could be the worst since 1936, according to the most recent federal projections.

It's not surprising, but "it doesn't make it any easier at all," said Hardin County corn and soybean farmer Kenneth Hayden, who called this season one of the worst in his 45 years of full-time farming. Earlier this month, drought conditions prompted by one of the driest years in more than a century prompted the U.S. Agriculture Department to declare Kentucky a disaster area, making low-interest loans available to qualified growers.

The drought bears much of the blame in projections released Friday by the U.S. Agriculture Department's Kentucky office of the National Agricultural Statistics Service.

Corn yields are projected at 124 bushels an acre, down 22 bushels from last year. Soybean yields of 28 bushels an acre would be down 16 bushels from last year's 44 per acre, making it the worst year since a 21-bushel yield in 1999.

EDIT

http://www.courier-journal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071017/BUSINESS/710170829

[UncleSepp]

1. Damn. Both are winter feeds.

There was a hay shortage last year, and it looks like there will be another one this year. This will put upward pressure on corn, which already doesn't need any more upward pressure. Besides corn, soy is another alternative feed for winter - and soy as an oilseed is also an alternative product for corn for the production of biodiesel. Soy also being an alternative for the meat that comes from the animals that eat the hay and the corn, it's got pressure on its price from several directions. Oh, and both barley and wheat are up, the wheat due to poorer US harvests and several failed harvests in Ukraine and other wheat growing nations, barley due to its use as an alternate feedstock.

Up goes the corn and hay, up goes the milk and eggs. Beef and pork are going up due to increased cost in feedstock, and some stock will be slaughtered for a temporary reduction in the rate of price inflation rather than being fed through the winter. Up goes bread in all its lovely forms, and not just here: tortillas in Mexico and pasta in Italy are up. Rice prices are following wheat prices. With the dollar where it is, there's more money in export than in selling the goods here - our food stocks in the US are dwindling even as production per acre rises. There's also more money to be made in selling products made from the bulk staples than in the bulk staples, so...

Let's just hope that nothing happens to the potatoes. They're already up: potatoes are up in Ukraine and India, and Australia has a potato shortage that's driven prices up 12% over last season. Damn, again damn.

[fed-up]

2. but, but, but, I thought all that GMO corn and soy were going to save a starving world??? nt