Martin Family Farms

Mother nature finally decided to

Mother nature finally decided to get spring up and going this week. 
All of the snow will be gone and hopefully the frost will be out of the ground
by the end of the week. That being said we will be lucky if any field work
gets done before the second week of April. The ground has good moisture in
it which will take some time to dry out, especially if we get some rain along
the way. We still have quite a bit of grain to haul out of the bins if the
roads get in good enough shape to haul on along with getting all of the spring
equipment ready. This week we are putting some pieces back together on the
corn planters and making the “to do” list for the next couple of weeks. 
Anyway we look at it the countdown is on to the first day of 2015 planting to
begin.

Here we are the first

Here we are the first of March is upon us and we are under a winter storm
warning. There is about 4-8” of snow on the ground now with another 3-6”
forecasted, and then 47 and rain on Tuesday. We still have approximately
half of our nitrogen to apply and some field work to do that did not get
completed last fall and it does not look like the weather in March will be very
cooperative. Prices are still in a small range and have not done a whole
lot through the winter. We are still forecasting 2015 to be a break even
or below year unless something changes. Input costs and land costs are not
adjusting like they should which is having a negative effect on all of
agriculture. The biggest hit is probably machinery and equipment
dealers. With good incomes the last few years a lot of farmers have
updated machinery and are now pulling back in these low price years. 
Hopefully we will get a rally or raise another big crop, but either way things
do not look to rosy for a while.

Here are todays USDA numbers

Here are todays USDA numbers
 
USDA 2014/15 Carryout (in billion bushels)
 




 

USDA Feb
2015

Average Trade Est.

Range of Trade Est.

USDA Jan 2015


Corn

1.827

1.879

1.817-2.002

1.877


Soybeans

0.385

0.398

0.356-0.440

0.410


Wheat

0.692

0.689

0.595-0.730

0.687
 
USDA 2014/15 World Carryout (in million tonnes)
 




 

USDA Feb
2015

Average Trade Est.

Range of Trade Est.

USDA Jan 2015


Corn

189.6

189.23

187.6-190.9

189.15


Soybeans

89.3

90.44

88.75-91.53

90.78


Wheat

197.9

195.83

191.4-197.0

196.0
 
USDA 2014/15 South American Production (in million tonnes)
 




 

USDA Feb
2015

Average Trade Est.

Range of Trade Est.

USDA Jan 2015


ARG Corn

23.0

22.54

21.2-28.5

22.0


ARG Soy

56.0

55.58

54.4-59.5

55.0


BRZ Corn

75.0

74.56

72.8-76.0

75.0


BRZ Soy

94.5

94.67

93.0-96.5

95.5

Here is our 2014 Harvest

Here is our 2014 Harvest Video

 

http://youtu.be/h0I8lKJB_cU

Well the 2014 Harvest is

Well the 2014 Harvest is slowly getting under way. This week mother
nature decided to still keep bringing some rain which has slowed us down a
little but the forecast looks good. What yields we have seen appear to be
pretty good. The earlier maturing hybrids 105-107 day look to be a little lower
than the 110-113 stuff so far. Moisture was in the upper teens low 20s for the
earlier season corn and mid 20s on the fuller season. However we have only
picked a little bit and its hard to make any conclusions yet. That being
said it does look like the best corn crop we have ever seen so far and makes it
exciting for the next two months ( if we could only get the price up). 
Funny how things work in farming the last few years. In 2012 we raised the worst
corn crop of our life and had some of the best incomes ever and now the table
has turned and we are having wonderful yields and lower prices and lower
incomes. Hopefully, we can sort it all out after harvest and have a strong
start into 2015.

It is hard to believe

It is hard to believe August will begin this week. Time sure flies
when you are having fun.... right? This crop season has been a success so
far as we are sitting on the probabilities of one of the largest corn crops we
have ever had in our area. As the old saying goes it is not in the bin
yet, but several area yield checks are ranging from 240-280 bushels per
acre. Granted, that could be off 30 bushels either way, but there is
definitely some very good looking corn in the fields as of today. So
raising the crop looks to be the easier part of the job this year as we are
looking at corn prices that are in the tank. Cash fall corn prices
are in the $3.40 range which is not looking good for farm incomes this
year. The way prices have been the last several years both rents and
variable expenses have been set according to those higher levels with no one
really expecting this type of scenario to play out. This is leading to
some very interesting discussions about this fall and 2015 crop year. A
lot of people say wait and it will change, but what if it doesn’t? Farmers
have used money made in the last few years to update machinery and expand,but
with the amount of risk they are taking today they could be out of business in
1-2 years if something doesn’t give. Hopefully, many of the input
suppliers and landlords will understand that with the good comes the bad will be
able to adjust some things to make it work out for this year and next, knowing
that the good times will come again. I am attaching an article from
University of Illinois about the budgets and expenses predicted for 2015.

 

http://www.agweb.com/article/why_you_should_renegotiate_your_cash_rents_for_2015_NAA_University_News_Release/?smartid=GGZZZZG111ZZZ11D21ZZZZZ1DZ000001332125Z1206ZZZZ1206&spMailingID=46552825&spUserID=MTM2MDgwMTk1MjES1&spJobID=483323043&spReportId=NDgzMzIzMDQzS0

Martin Family Farms being honored

Martin Family Farms being honored as a Farm Hero by the US EPA and
NACD

 

http://www2.epa.gov/nutrientpollution/farmer-heroes-manage-nutrients-farm

Our Channel plot got some

Our Channel plot got some signs put on it today.
Looking Good!

Here is our 2014 Spring

Here is our 2014 Spring Video

 

 

http://youtu.be/KU2sxQsbA9I

This past weekend we got

This past weekend we got a taste of spring and boy did we like it. We
were able to get in the field, play in a baseball tournament, wear shorts, and
get some sun. Oh man are we ready to get rid of the cold weather and crappy
days...like today!

If anyone had any field work to do this past week it was very favorable to
do so. We finished applying some anhydrous, put down our no-till soybean
burndown herbicides, planted some CRP acres to prairie grass and finished some
odd jobs such as burning a few more filter strips and trash piles that floated
up over the winter floods. We did get the planters out and made a few
rounds with them to make sure everything was working but held off planting too
much due to the cold wet forecast for the first part of this week. If we
can we do not like to plant ahead of a cold wet rain within the first 24-48
hours after the seed is in the ground. We like to get the plant started
and not shock its system with a cold wet rain as soon as it is planted. 
Early in the year we can make that decision, but if it was May 14 we would have
been planting, so that is one of the big decisions that we have already made
this year and we will see how risky it is in about a month. Hopefully
after this cold weather moves on this week we can go full steam ahead with the
corn planter. It would be nice to get a couple of weeks of work in April this
year.