Harvest has arrived and by the time you receive this newsletter we will have a good handle on how 2017 turned out. The second half of our growing season was a study in variability. July was warmer and drier than normal throughout our trade area of west central and northwest Iowa. Since July is the critical month for determining corn yields, we were concerned with how adverse weather would affect our crop. Field checks prior to harvest have eased our concerns somewhat. In the driest areas ear size is smaller, but pollination problems that result in barren plants were very limited; most plants produced an ear.
We count on September and October to bring in cooler temperatures and more land sales. This year is right on schedule as land sale activity for the last four months of the year is expected to provide plenty of opportunities to gauge the market in many neighborhoods, or to add to your current land holdings
The history of farm bills has included many extensions of the old bill while Congress hashes out details of a new program. The 1996 bill was considered historic in that it “de-coupled” base acres from planted acres. It was called Freedom to Farm, meaning that crop base acres did not restrict what or how much you could plant. The next five-year farm bill was passed in 2002, the next in 2008, then again in February 2014. Note the five-year sequence!
Mason Troendle graduated from The World Wide College of Auctioneering shortly after joining Stalcup Ag Service in 2014. Mason is the auctioneer for all of the real estate auctions that Stalcup handles. He also provides auctioneering services to local service organizations for fundraising activities.
