“Ponds are gonna be ponds.”

July 2014 Farm Report

Plenty of Rain in June & July

With twice as much rain in June as last year, and surpassing the average July total rainfall by the 15th this year, Trent knows it’s wet. He has not yet seen any crop disease problems from the wet fields. “The corn looks good,” he said, later expressing some concern about his soybeans because the cool nights are not helping bean growth.

Beans Standing in Water

Trent would prefer a dry July for disease suppression followed by more moisture in August for pod fill. He still hasn’t seen any mold in his soybean field scouting. “Ponds are gonna be ponds,” he remarked about the wet spots, some of which have stayed wet several weeks.

“You usually never have both price and yield [in the same year]. This year we have yield,” Trent observed in a blunt summary of the down markets. The continuing reports of bigger yields have caused the most consecutive grain market “down days” since the 1970s. Trent follows the prices closely in developing his marketing strategies.