What A Difference A Day Makes

Finally, planters are rolling in Iowa. On April 24, Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey reported that 3% of the crop was planted. The same time in 2008, about the same number of acres were planted. But, in 2010 by the end of April, farmers in Iowa had well over 50% of the corn crop in the ground.

What a difference a day makes: According to Iowa State University, farmers in Iowa can plant between 37,000 acres to 1.4 million acres per day. In the fastest planting year in recent history over 1.2 million acres were planted per day during the best weeks. In all, Secretary Northey predicts that farmers can plant slightly more than 20% of the corn crop in one week, based on five year averages.

What a difference a day makes: Technology has spurred the super speed of planting corn if needed. Modern planters are larger than older models and fields are larger with improved drainage. Global positioning systems, planter monitors and well-equipped tractor cabs allow farmers to stay in the tractor a little longer and plant a couple more rows.

What a difference a day makes: David Kruse with The CommStock Report shared an excerpt from an article published in April 1975 making predictions for the year 2175. Then Don Paarlberg, USDA’s director of agricultural economics said that science and technology will drive agriculture as the importance of sustainable practices grows.

What a difference a day makes: Between 1979 and 1986, domestic production of ethanol rose in the U.S., from a mere 20 million U.S. liquid gallons to 750 million gallons and growing. Today, Iowa is the leading ethanol producing state, producing 30% of our ethanol supply.

Growing corn changes day to day with technology, weather, markets and practices. So far, this 2013 planting season, we have seen “what a difference a day makes” and it looks like today is more rain.