Martin Family Farms

Rain, Rain, Go Away!!!!

Here we go again. We received another 1"-2" of rain on Wednesday night/Thursday morning with more coming tomorrow and next week. I would hope the markets would react to the delays that Illinois is having. We had the same problem last year with planting, but we had perfect weather the rest of the summer. There is no guarantee that will happen this year.

We are trying to make the most of the delays. I took Alec on his first turkey and mushroom hunt yesterday. Then we got out the WC last night for a photo op. I was telling the kids that their great grandpa actually farmed with that tractor.

Just Getting Started

We were able to get started planting corn this past weekend. Soil conditions are getting better everyday, but more rain is coming today (Monday) which will not help. We are about 20% done with corn, however there are still a lot of people who have not even started yet. We had to pick and chose which field to plant. Several fields still have wet spots that need another couple of days to dry. Hopefully we will not get too much rain......

What a month!!!

What a month April is turning out to be for our family. We have managed to get almost 6 inches of rain in the past couple of weeks with more fore casted for this weekend. We have not had a flood, but there is a lot of water standing in the fields. As of this morning the longer range forecasts are calling for some drier weather the end of the month, but it will take a good warm and windy week to dry out the ground enough to plant. We are hoping we can begin planting by the last week of April.

  While it has been raining I have been trying to take care of the family. Luke brokehis collar bone two weeks ago, Erin had knee surgery on the 6th and Luke fell at mom and dads just before easter dinner and had to get 4 stitches. Lots of excitement and doctor bills, but as my grandma always tells me it could be worse!!!!

Interesting Points

The No-Till Farmer magazine listed some of the highlights from our presentation in New York in there latest magazine. I have put a link to the list here.

 http://www.lesspub.com/cgi-bin/site.pl?332&ceNews_newsID=6933

Here we go again.............

Well what was looking like a nice start to spring has once again been halted by mother nature. From snow to rain we have received about 2.5 inches of precipitation this past week with more predicted. Combine this with the cold temps and it is looking like it will be the end of the month before any corn will get planted. We have not had a large amount of rain at one time, but we keep getting a lot of little rains. There is quite a bit of water standing in the fields.

One bright spot is the markets. Both corn and beans have managed to work higher this past week. That will continue if the weather forecast looks wet and cold. Below is the March 31 report from USDA for the planting intentions.

Mar 31 Plantings Estimates (mln ac)

Mar 31 / Avg Est / Est Range / USDA 2008

Corn:    84.986  /  84.548  /  81.4-89.0   /    86.0

Beans:  76.024  /  79.251 /   75.9-81.5  /   75.7

Wheat:  58.638 /  58.856 /   56.7-63.0 / 63.147