Trent Has A Farmer’s Perennial New Year Hope
Trent Brandenburg is happy with the 2022 results of his farming operation. He looks forward to 2023 “if the prices stay up.” “With the cost of inputs going up, there can be a real squeeze. Farmland prices are high and slightly increasing, which means land investors think the prices will stay up long enough to pay for the land purchase.” Trent speculated that if corn were $2.00 nobody could afford a combine to harvest it. “You couldn’t even afford the diesel fuel to start a burnoff,” Trent wryly concluded.
Trent’s long experience with the challenges and rewards of cash grain farming in central Illinois has given him valuable persepctives on markets and weather and cropping, to maximize the profit from land he farms.
Recent rains at the end of the year have pushed December rainfall totals to near-normal. After zero weather over Christmas, temperatures in the 50s have partially thawed the upper few inches of soil, permitting rain and snowmelt to soak in and help alleviate the long-term abnormal dryness affecting the land Trent farms.
Trent Brandenburg and his family wish you a Happy and Prosperous New Year.
More from The Field Report
Replanting Done, Corn and Beans Look Good
Trent Brandenburg has replanted his few ponded field "wet spots" as many as three times. The replanted areas are "thin," Trent observed, because "It has been too wet. But at least [replanting] will keep the weeds down." Trent is now [...]
First Round Of Planting Done, Ponds Need Replanting
Trent Brandenburg is done with his "first round" of planting, as he puts it. The corn and soybeans he planted in April are up and growing in excellent condition. Trent's later-planted crops are germinating but not as far along as [...]
Not Much Field Work This Week
Trent Brandenburg does not plan on much fieldwork for this week, starting April 29, 2024. The huge squall line that extended from Texas to Green Bay, Wisconsin, over this past weekend, was far enough west to spare central Illinois from [...]