Beef producers talk feed Monday night
Our February Beef meeting will be held on Monday, Feb. 5 at the Warren County Administrative office building. We?re going to spend some time talking about winter feed for your cow herd and we?ll also talk about weed control and pasture renovation.
Mark your calendars and be sure to come out to the meeting on Monday night. Feb. 5. We plan to start at 6:30 p.m.
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GRAIN CONFERENCE SET FOR FEBRUARY 22
There?s a lot of talk about grain prices this year. The use of corn for ethanol has seen estimates the past few weeks that almost 20-25 percent of last year?s crop will be used for this purpose and even more in the future.
It?s estimated that almost 8 million acres more corn will be produced in the United States this season. Increasing corn prices and higher than expected soybean prices are bidding against each other to maintain acreage.
We?ve already seen increased wheat production this past fall due to higher prices. The question is not only how high can prices go but also will production increases cause prices to fall.
At least there is something to talk about in the grain markets after several years of low prices.
Extension agents in Warren, Coffee, Franklin and Cannon counties have made plans to host the 2007 MID-TENN GRAIN CONFERENCE at the Coffee County Fairgrounds on Thursday, Feb. 22, in Manchester. The program starts at 8 a.m. with registration; the seminars start at 9 a.m.
Dr. Delton Gerloff, UT Ag Economist will discuss the markets and key price risk strategies that producers can use to take advantage of the markets. I?ve got Dr. Gerloff?s current corn report at the bottom of this news article.
Dr. Melvin Newman, UT Extension Plant Pathologist, will discuss Asian Soybean Rust and recommendations for controlling disease problems in corn, wheat and soybeans. Dr. Angela Thompson, UT Corn and Soybean Specialist, will bring us a program on the latest in weed control, seed treatments and bio-technology.
The keynote speaker after lunch this year is Mr. Drew Learner, a Agriculture Climatologist with World Wide Weather Inc. Mr. Learner will offer insights to weather patterns for 2007 and how they will impact crop production in the coming year.
There will also be a trade show set up at the Grain Conference where you can visit with seed, chemical, machinery and other crop suppliers during the day. Pre-registration for the conference is $5 and is payable at the County Extension office until Feb. 19. Admission at the door is $10. Be sure to come by the office or pick up a registration form. The deadline for pre-registration is February 19. Give me a call here at the Extension office (473-8484) for more information.
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CROP COMMENTS
Dr. Delton Gerloff comments on the grain market every week. The comments can be found every Friday evening at http://economics.ag.utk.edu/tnmkt.html.
The website also includes livestock market comments by Dr. Emitt Rawls and a lot of current price information and futures prices on livestock and grain. Just type in the website and have a look. The following information is the corn information posted by Dr. Gerloff this past Friday afternoon.
Corn Comments: Corn: Short Run: Cash corn prices ranged from $3.82 to $4.07 across Tennessee Thursday. The March futures price closed at $4.1225 Thursday, almost 36 cents higher than last Thursday?s close. The price rally from last week?s USDA report continued into this week?s market. Consider selling some corn out of storage on this latest rally.
Long Term: The December 2007 futures price closed Thursday at $3.915, 17 cents higher than last Thursday?s close. Cash contracts for September delivery ranged from $3.65 to $4.06 across Tennessee Thursday. If you have not priced any new crop corn yet, consider pricing up to 35% of expected 2007 production now, using cash forward contracting. Also consider buying out of the money call options on the amount of grain contracted in case prices continue to move higher. A September $5.00 call option traded near $0.19 per bushel on Thursday.