Its not everyday the Governor comes to your farm and brings a few friends. But that happened to Rick White on June 11 and it created headlines around the state. When more and more of the Governor's friends arrived, Rick's farm on Walmsley Road south of the Elwin blacktop was running out of room for cars to park.

With his ever-present smile, Rick welcomed Governor Blagojevich, Senators, Representatives, leadership of Illinois Corn Growers and Illinois Soybean Association, as well as curious neighbors. Counting the members of the press corps was about like counting feeder pigs, but there was at least a good-sized truckload.

The event was a bill signing ceremony for legislation designed to promote renewable fuels in Illinois. Of the bills signed by the Governor, one elevated soydiesel into the tax credit program that has benefited ethanol, and a second bill created a $15 million fund to help build new or expand existing ethanol plants in Illinois.

Non-Starlink Growers Read This!!!

The legal settlement is designed to compensate farmers who did not plant Starlink corn in 2000, but suffered reduced prices caused by the perception of the market. Most Illinois farmers will qualify for part of the $110 million court settlement. The original deadline was May 31, but it has been extended to July 31. This is money available if you complete a questionnaire and mail the paper work.

The operator must fill out the form. All that has to be done is to request a 578 Form for 2000 from FSA. Then download a claim form from the Internet, answer the questions and mail the claim form and the 578 form. It takes about 15-20 minutes to do the paper work. If you would like help obtaining the form or filing out the claim contact the Macon County Extension Unit at 877-6042 to set up a time. Please call as soon as possible. THERE IS NO CHARGE FOR HELPING with the form. We are glad to help.

The form can be downloaded at:

http://www.non-starlinkfarmerssettlement.com/corndownload.php3

How does your farm compare with others of a similar size and type? Cooperators in the Illinois Farm Business Farm Management program receive an analysis of their operation that compares their farm to others. Income and expenses can be examined to determine deficiencies in the operation that can be addressed to improve profitability. Trends can be identified within the farming enterprise as well as for an area in general.

In 2002, several trends continued to be apparent. Lower FSA payments, higher crop input costs, and in most cases lower yields seemed to be the norm in 2002. The average farm size for Central Illinois grain farms with good soil types is approximately 1000 acres and continues to grow. The operator of these acres own 14% of their acres on the average, with the remaining rented. The rental acres are primarily crop shared with 62% utilizing this arrangement and 24% cash rented. Cash rents continue to increase in the amount paid per acre, however most of the cash rent is still rented at a reasonable rate. The most profitable and fairest arrangement for the operator continues to be the crop share lease, since the landowner shares in the amount of risk assumed.

The average farming operation in this Central Illinois group utilized 12.3 months of labor. This includes the operator's unpaid labor and any hired labor that may have been used. Corn yields averaged 152 bu./acre and soybeans averaged 52 bu./acre. Macon County farmers did not fare as well due to weather problems. The average corn yield in Macon County was 131 bu./acre and soybeans came in at 47 bu./acre. The accrual crop returns also reflect the weather difficulties that we faced in Macon County. The Central Illinois average for crop returns was $360/acre while the county only averaged $319/acre. This figure reflects the income from the 2002 crop rather than a calendar year number. Due to the lower crop returns, financial indicators such as interest as a percent of gross farm returns and operating expenses as a percent of gross farm returns deteriorated in 2002. Falling interest rates provided some relief from increasing costs.

As a result of the lower crop returns and increasing expenses, Net Farm Income came in at about $38,300 for these Central Illinois farms. This is substantially lower than we have seen for the last three years. The operator's return to his labor and management abilities averaged $26,869 compared to $12,900 in Macon County. This figure could be equated to a salary as it represents the return for the farmer after an interest charge for his machinery and land investment has been deducted.

So, how does your farm compare? What do you need to improve? What can you change? Without some sort of measurement indicators, you may never know. If you would like to analyze some of your data or compare your farm to others, please contact your local FBFM fieldstaff.

Bob Daggett (875-7196). East Central FBFM.

A New Twist!

Instead of a noon lunch, the Macon County Seed Plot Day will be held on the evening of August 19. It will be located on the Jim Snow farm on Riley Rd. south of Elwin, where it has been for over 20 years.

Plot Day will begin at 5:00 p.m. with a field tour, supper, and speaker. The tour of the varieties will be a self-tour starting with a visit to the corn plot, non-GMO and Round-up Soybean plots. Seed representatives from participating companies will be on hand before and after the supper to answer questions and discuss seed varieties. The seed companies will provide prizes for a drawing during the meal. For more in formation call the U of I Extension office in Macon County at (217) 877-6042. Plan to join us.

University of Illinois Agronomy Day

Agronomy Day 2003 will be held on August 21 at the Crop Sciences Research and Educational Center from 7:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The Center is located approximately a half mile southeast of the Assembly Hall on the University of Illinois Campus; look for the large orange and blue tent.

Four different walking tours will be available from 7:00 a.m. to 12:00 p.m. The tours will cover a wide range of issues including corn and soybean diseases, Nitrogen use, and any more. Agronomy sponsors suggest that you come early if you wish to take all four tours.

The tent will contain educational exhibits and provide an area to talk with company representatives. Near the tent will be some of the newest farm equipment on the market, as well as, the "I and I Antique Tractor and Gas Engine Club". Lunch can be purchased for $5.00, snack and drinks will be available

The Resource Review is now available through the e-mail. The goal is to provide you information faster in a format that will be at your fingertips. The format will be in Adobe Acrobat and the reader program is free on the web, so there will not be any additional cost. To be able to get the Resource Review in an electronic format, please send an email note to Paul Mariman, which will allow us to capture your correct e-mail address. University of Illinois Extension will not sell your e-mail address and the address will only be used to send you the Resource Review. If you would like to get the Resource Review in an electronic format send an email to Pmariman@uiuc.edu.

In the previous article I mentioned that we hope to have grub feeding in at least one of the five local fields selected for the trials. Fortunately, one of the five fields contained high grub densities and exhibited visual symptoms of grub feeding. The data has been collected and analyzed; however, I am rather limited in what I can report at this time. The statistical analysis of the data must be approved before it can be released for any publication.

In the coming weeks, we will be evaluating one field for grub injury at the U of I research farm in Monmouth. While planting a corn rootworm insecticide efficacy trial, we noticed a large number of grubs in the soil. And recently, we observed differences in plant height in this trial. At this time, we cannot be certain that this is grub injury, but we hope that this field will give us some valuable information. In addition to monitoring the field in Monmouth, we will place emergence cages in two fields near Cerro Gordo to monitor emergence patterns of the adult Japanese beetle.

We will also collect beetles in these traps to release in the hybrid attraction study. During pollination, farmers have noticed that the beetles prefer certain corn hybrids over other ones. In the greenhouse, we will release the beetles during the pollination stage of corn development, and evaluate the attractiveness of four different corn hybrids to Japanese beetle adults.

If you observe any interesting Japanese beetle behavior in your fields, please let me know via email at nwentwor@uiuc.edu.

 

- Nathan Wentworth, Graduate Research. Assistant, Un