BCR_North Central Illinois Ag Mag - Fall 2022

SCATTERED SEEDS FARM

Scattering seeds and growing hobbies

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Scattering Seeds and Growing Hobbies

When driving through Sheffield, heading west along Route 6, you’ll find many adorable shops and tasty eats. As you keep driving out of town, you think you’ve seen it all, and then you come up to Scattered Seeds Farm – a hidden treasure amongst the corn and soybean fields.

Scattered Seeds Farm is the brainchild of Sheri Litherland, along with her husband and children. They offer pumpkins, Christmas trees, and one-of-a-kind antiques. The concept for the business was dreamed up when her children were young. Sheri remembers she wanted to instill a strong work ethic in her young kids and really enjoyed growing pumpkins, so the idea took root as a way to accomplish both her goals.

“My husband was not in favor of me planting a bunch of seeds that grow into intertwining, elaborate vines in the garden with all of his peppers and other vegetables, so I had no choice but to plant or scatter seeds anywhere and everywhere,” said Litherland. “We had pumpkin vines that covered our patio and some that even prevented us from using the back door to our house. It was then that I became known by my husband as the crazy pumpkin lady.”

The whole family decided the name Scattered Seeds Farm was the perfect name for, at the time, their little pumpkin venture, which is now anything but little.

“First and foremost, I wanted something that we (my family) could do and enjoy to gether,” said Litherland. “I wanted my kids

to learn not only about the growth of seeds but also develop a good work ethic. Every year, the kids help me with the planting, watering, and harvesting. It is a family affair from beginning to end as the patch gets bigger every year.”

In the pumpkin patch, one can find carving pumpkins and a variety of other different types for those who are choosier in their pumpkin selection.

“From year to year, our pumpkin selection changes due to not knowing exactly which type of pumpkins survive the scorching sun, the ruthless bugs, and all of the fungus floating around,” Litherland said. “I have never been one to plot exactly where each type of pumpkin is planted like most farmers do.”

She says too much planning takes the fun out of it when harvest rolls around because no surprises are involved.

“You really have no idea what is hiding in the patch until you start digging through all of the vines,” Litherland said. “It is so much fun as you start to discover all the different kinds, sizes, and colors of pumpkins. My favorite pumpkins are usually the ones that are different or not like all the rest.”

As the interest and excitement continued to build for Scattered Seeds Farm pumpkins year after year, Litherland, who is also a full-time teacher, has now expanded her offerings into Christmas trees and one-of-a-kind antiques, so there is

On the cover: Sheri Litherland decorates the outside of her antique shop at Scattered Seeds Farm with some pumpkins out of their patch�

Story and photos by Katlyn Sanden

Along with her two kids, Sheri Litherland works to fill a wagon of pumpkins for a customer

Seeds

FROM PAGE 6

something fun at the farm year-round.

“We wanted to give local families a chance to pick out the ideal Christmas tree at Scattered Seeds Farm,” Litherland said. “It has been such a joy over the last few years to see so many families share in the tradition of finding the perfect tree or the perfect pumpkin.”

She admits she was a bit intimidated about adding Christmas trees.

“After the first season, we had a better idea of what our customers were look ing for and the different sizes people preferred,” she said. “Some people came looking for a 10-foot tree, while others were looking for just a small 2-foot tree. Christmas trees are a lot like pumpkins in that they come in all different sizes and shapes.”

She says she loves a good Charlie Brown Christmas-size tree, but she always gets outvoted for a bigger tree. For the upcoming season, they will be offering fresh Fraser, Balsam, and White Pine trees from

a family-owned Wisconsin tree farm.

As far as how the antiques fit in with pumpkins and Christmas trees, Litherland said she wanted to build a small business while still being able to teach during the week. She said opening an antique shop alongside the pumpkin patch and Christmas trees was the perfect solution.

“The best part about my shop is that you never know when you might find the perfect treasure,” said Litherland. “Our inventory of most things is not consistent. Friends and family members bring items to my shop to resell in addition to some of the treasures I find when I’m on the hunt or searching the web. I really enjoy finding items that I can repurpose, like the old turkey and pig feeder that you will see as you drive by or stop for a visit. These awesome feeders are now used as planters with beautiful potato vines draping down the side or filled with greens in the winter. In addition to all the wonderful treasures, we offer soy candles and melts.”

Scattered Seeds Farm is open Saturday-Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. and is nestled right along Route 6 on the west side of Sheffield.

Scattered Seed Farm is located along Route 6 in Sheffield Owner Sheri Litherland enjoys hosting fall festivals and holiday events for the community to enjoy�

Pumpkin Bars

DIRECTIONS

In a bowl, beat the eggs, sugar, oil, and pumpkin until well blended Combine the flour, cinnamon, baking powder, baking soda, and salt; gradually add to the pumpkin mixture and mix well� Pour into an ungreased 15 x 10 x 1 inch baking pan Bake at 350 for 25-30 minutes or until set� Cool completely�

For icing, beat the cream cheese, confectioners’ sugar, butter, and vanilla in a small bowl Add enough milk to achieve spreading consistency Spread icing over bars Store in the refrigerator

Wet and wild

Dwight, was completed over about five days and native plant species were planted on 5 acres surrounding the wetlands to attract pollina tors and wildlife to the site.

By Tom C. Doran AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

DWIGHT, Ill. — It’s a given that wetlands provide “nature’s kidney” for reduc ing nutrient losses into wa terways and provides wildlife habitat, but a unique proj ect in northern Livingston County took those benefits to another level.

Through the diverse col laboration of The Wetlands Initiative, U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Illinois Land Improvement Contractors As sociation and Pheasants For ever Quail Forever Illinois, land not suitable for crop production was transformed into two wetlands that filter about 150 acres of adjacent corn and soybean fields.

Construction of 1.13 acres of constructed wetland for treating tile drainage and about six-tenths of an acre restored wetland at Feather Prairie Farm, just west of

The roots of this unique collaboration that focused both on water quality and a ramped-up wildlife habitat began when Wes and Andie Lehman started Feather Prairie Farm two years ago where they raise game birds and provide a dog training facility.

Wes also works at Spring field Plastics, a drainage tile manufacturing company that has partnered in numerous conservation projects.

“We typically work with landowners and contractors that want to improve the land and ultimately boost yields. My company is very conservation minded, so we were highly involved with The Wetlands Initiative, the federal government, Natural Resources Conservation Ser vice, or Soil and Water Con servations Districts, and we work closely alongside the Illinois Land Improvement Contractors Association,”

Lehman said.

Lehman became aware of TWI’s work in 2019, when he was operating a bulldozer for Springfield Plastics at Il linois Central College for the installation of a constructed wetland.

It was during that work when he met Jill Kostel, TWI senior environmental engineer.

“As we snowballed all of these ideas and threw them around, I had a vision of what I wanted to do. I had built a pond because I always wanted a pond and it just got me thinking on the backside of the pond the water has to go somewhere,” Lehman said.

Kostel visited the former pasture and said the site would be adequate for wet lands. Lehman was then connected with Jason Ble ich, USFWS’s Partners for Fish and Wildlife Program private lands biologist, who also visited the site — and the “snowball” grew larger.

Lehman also contacted Ryan Arch, Illinois LICA exec utive secretary, to discuss the potential project for this year.

“Typically, LLCA tile at the Farm Progress Show in Decatur and this year’s show was in Iowa, so their sched ule was pretty well clear this

Feather Prairie Farm proprietors Wes and Andie Lehman and their daughter, Wren, now have a constructed wetland, a restored wetland and several acres of native plant species planted to attract pollinators and wildlife on their farm

New wetlands benefit water quality, wildlife

AGRINEWS PHOTOS/TOM C DORAN Bulldozers, scrapers and excavators converged on Feather Prairie Farm to install a constructed wetland and adjacent berm Field tile will deliver water from nearby corn and soybean fields to the wetland where the microbial community transforms the nitrate into nitrogen gas The “treated” tile water eventually goes to the creek minus nitrates and phosphorous

year,” Lehman noted.

“I finally said why don’t we all get together, and this project got bumped up to a priority list because I wanted people to see what could hap pen with marginal ground or ground that’s technically not in use.”

“It started with Jill, Wes and I meeting on site to see if it’s the right type of project that fit everybody’s goals. It was and Wes was onboard to go as big and make it as good as possible. So, essen tially, we then got Pheasants Forever onboard, Ducks Unlimited and several other partners,” Bleich said.

“We started working on surveys to design the plan, funding sources. We got all the partners involved to gether. Everybody got to the table, figured out how much we could fund, and six months later here we are.

“It was a really quick turnaround on this project,

especially when you have a landowner and partners that have that much energy and that much motivation. We can do these projects with a pretty quick turnaround.

“We started putting the plans together, and six to eight months later here we are moving dirt, the project will be done, we’ll have a happy landowner and happy partners.”

DIVERSE COLLABORATION

This was the first time the numerous organizations col laborated at this level.

“We’ve been talking to The Wetlands Initiative for several years trying to figure out ways to partner. We just never really had the right scenario where our priorities and theirs kind of meshed until this project came along,” Bleich said.

“It was in similar priority areas for both of us with a landowner that had the same goals as our program and also with The Wetland Ini tiative, so it’s kind of like the stars aligned for this to work

out. We’ve wanted to work with them for several years. We finally had this chance and we jumped on it.

“We’ve done several proj ects around east-central Il linois where we’re either partnering with Ducks Un limited or Pheasants Forever or USDA. This is the first one that really got everybody to the table together and the cool thing about that is we all realized how similar our goals are and I think it’s going to open the doors for us to go to work together in the future.

“The cool thing about it is, so TWI’s main priority is water quality, which is a great sell to the general pub lic, to local communities, it’s something that whether you’re a little kid or you’ve been around the block or you’re a farmer or whoever, everybody should be in vested in water quality. Obvi ously, our Fish and Wildlife Program’s main priority is wildlife habitat, but the great thing about wildlife habitat and water quality is they go

hand-in-hand.

“Then you involve Pheas ants Forever with pollinator habitat and upland game habitat, and all of a sudden we have several partners with all of the same goals.”

WATER QUALITY

Lehman enjoys the habitat side of the project, the oppor tunity it creates for the dog training side of the farm and a way for visitors to enjoy the outdoors.

“But going back to the drainage tile side of things, a lot of people aren’t paying attention to what nutrients are becoming water soluble and going out to the outlets,” Lehman said.

“If you look at what’s going on in the world today and how precious fresh water is, we need to be more conscious about what’s actu ally going on subsurface and cleaning that water prior to it ultimately going to the Mis sissippi River Watershed and getting down to the Gulf and creating that hypoxia zone. It fluctuates every year.

“Illinois plays a huge part in that and we’re farming ditch to ditch, taking out tree lines, shortening buffer zones in between our creek beds, which I get it, every body is out to make a dollar. But we also have to think about saving that black dirt and saving our fresh water sources and that has to be on everybody’s mind because at some point we are just taking advantage of Mother Nature and she will bite us in the butt.

“Look at the Platte River in Nebraska now or the strug gles California is having try ing to find ways to get them water like robbing from Peter to pay Paul. It’s our jobs to be conservation minded to do our part in preserving the black gold we call topsoil or the water that’s coming out of our outlets.”

TWI ASSISTANCE

This is the sixth con structed wetland TWI as been involved with in Illinois and the goal is to install at least two each year.

“We provide free techni cal assistance, engineering and construction grants. We hope to make these very cost effective to encourage peo ple to do them. It is an ex pensive practice upfront, but it requires no changes in the field, low maintenance, and it will last as long as there is water in it,” Kostel said.

“There’s no end of life for this. It’s not a 15- or 30-year practice. It’s actually the most cost-effective practice for removing pounds of ni trogen and also removing phosphorous.

“Compared to our other wetlands, this one is going to take more surface flow coming into it, which is part of the design. With the pol linator habitat, we’re not worried about soil erosion or sediment getting into the wetland.

“It’s nature’s kidney. There is a natural chemical biolog ical system of processes hap pening in the wetlands that are taking care of all of that. We’re just trying to give him the conditions that it works

best at — shallow waters, the right vegetation to encourage the microbial community to transform the nitrate into ni trogen gas.”

“It’s an extremely large team effort. Everybody is running like a well-oiled machine right now. LLCA members were very generous to bring in their own equip ment rather than relying on other dealerships to bring in equipment. Altorfer brought

in an excavator and Martin’s brought in a dozer and a large excavator,” Lehman said.

“Everybody is working to gether and it’s nice to see each different government-based programs able to make a proj ect like this happen.”

Tom C. Doran can be reached at 815-410-2256 or tdoran@shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at: @ AgNews_Doran.

Illinois’ longest operating lumberyard continues to thrive along Peru’s historic riverfront. Maze Lumber has been providing top quality building materials to Illinois Valley contractors and homeowners for 174 years, still owned by the founding fathers (Maze).

Located in a 15,000-square foot showroom and office, we offer building materials for the modern home as well as a full line of the traditional lumber items used in home building, commercial construction, and industrial applications. Our experienced sales staff takes pride in their ability to provide knowledgeable assistance along with prompt delivery at reasonable prices.

FSA chief balances farm, agency duties

By Tom C. Doran AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

SOUTH WILMINGTON, Ill.

— Scott Halpin is well into his first year as the Illinois Farm Service Agency state executive director and enjoys the opportunities the position provides.

Halpin farms in the Gardner and South Wilmington area with his father, Frank, and his brother, Chris. His son, Ty, has also returned to the farm after finishing his studies at Lakeland Community College.

Halpin Farms and Halpin Farms Cattle raises corn, soy beans, alfalfa hay and silage and has an Angus cow-calf herd.

“My great-grandfather mo-ved here in 1916, so we received our centennial farm designation a few years ago. We had dairy cattle here on

the farm from its existence until 2018, when we made the decision to liquidate the herd. We started making the transition to beef cattle a few years before that,” Halpin said.

The Halpins market their beef to local customers and others.

“We’ve really grown the market and since COVID hit, a lot of folks really wanted to buy local. We always did a fair amount of selling our beef locally, but that business has really grown now. Not quite but maybe nearing about half our cattle are fed out and sold locally, mostly by quarters and halves to local folks. We’ll sell the rest of them either to a neighbor or on the open market for other people to feedout,” he said.

The FSA executive director took a short break from his

duties at the state agency and on the family farm for an interview with AgriNews.

You’ve been actively involved in various state and local or ganizations, including the im mediate past president of the Kendall-Grundy Farm Bureau and 10 years on the Illinois Farm Bureau and Country Financial board of directors.

Halpin: My grandpa and my dad have always been on about every board you could be on, and that wasn’t always the path I was headed towards. At a young age I didn’t really see those opportunities out there. As I started to get a little older and started to get more involved, it took a little bit of prodding from the Farm Bureau managers that we had along the way, but it wasn’t

AGRINEWS PHOTO/TOM C DORAN Illinois Farm Service Agency Executive Director Scott Halpin and his family raise corn, soybeans, alfalfa hay, silage and Angus in the South Wilmington and Gardner area

always Farm Bureau-involved activities.

Amy Rochkes (thenGrundy County Farm Bureau manager) prodded me to get on the Soil and Water Conservation District board and that might have been one of my earlier ventures outside of 4-H growing up. She also encouraged me to get involved with the (Illinois Farm Bureau) Young Leader events and that’s kind of where things took off from there.

The Young Leaders provide a lot of activities, contests and a fun way to get involved, but also teaches leadership skills and the ultimate goal is to get you more involved at a bigger level. I took advantage of those opportunities.

The Young Leaders kind of springboarded me into the Illinois Farm Bureau and Country Financial board and that just opens up a whole new world to the commodity organizations. I went through the Farm Bureau Agriculture Leaders of Tomorrow program and in 2020 I went through the Illinois Agricul-

tural Leadership Program.

So, Farm Bureau has kind of been the focus, but it has opened up doors to many, many organizations.

I’m a member of the Illinois Corn Growers Association. I haven’t been so much involved directly with the organization, but kind of on the perimeter of things. There were a lot of boards, a lot of overlapping committees that I sat on when I was on Farm Bureau.

For instance, there was a tax committee that all organizations were on and I was part of the Farm Bureau representatives that sat on the committee with representatives from corn, soybean, dairy, beef and all of the organizations who were on the tax committee.

Why is it important to be actively involved in ag organizations?

Halpin: We can all spout out the statistics that we’re decreasing numbers in ag. One thing we’ve done really well in ag is, I think, we tell our story well and we put forth policies that make sense

Harvesting

Land’s Potential Buy/Sell Land Auction Appraisal

and therefore we can keep on the radar of the legislators.

That’s big right now when we’re talking about climate change issues and energy issues and feeding the world.

We might not think in Illinois that the war in Ukraine affects us much, but they are such a large wheat producer, it certainly affects us. Corn offsets wheat in the global market and when we’re trying to not only feeding our country but other regions of the world needing food, it does affect us locally.

We all have a small part in what we can do for the commodity organizations, but we need leaders to step up and go to those meetings and share our opinions.

You also were among those serving on then-Governor-elect J.B. Pritzker’s bipartisan agricultural transition team.

Halpin: That was another good opportunity I had to get involved and sit on that team with a lot of really good people. You get to share your views on ag and hopefully you make some good points,

and it carries through and you make a difference.

What was the path that led you to your position as FSA executive director?

Halpin: Whenever the administrations change, and it doesn’t matter which one it is, there are two positions in Illinois that change with the administration — FSA state executive director and USDA state director of Rural Development, which now is Betsy Dirksen Londrigan.

I was fortunate with my involvement over the years of doing those legislative visits. I really always enjoyed it when we’d go to Springfield or Washington, D.C., to visit with the legislators from both parties and sharing our views.

I guess the recognition that I gained doing those visits put me on the radar and so when the administration changed, I had the opportunity to visit with the Democratic side of the aisle and I was fortunate that I was the one they picked to put my name forth.

FROM PAGE 15

What are some of your duties at FSA?

Halpin: One thing that needs to be clear is FSA is an administrative agency. That’s one thing that’s really different from my role in the past working with the com modity groups and Farm Bu reau is we worked a lot on policy and trying to develop ideas from the grassroots farmers up.

From this side of things, I am to administrate the programs. That meaning, we get the rules, and I am responsible for making sure the rules are carried out cor rectly. That doesn’t mean I don’t have the opportunity if something is not working right to voice a concern, but I can’t actively work on policy.

There are always ques tions and challenges when new policies come out, so whenever those new policies arrive, the phone lines are flooded with calls wanting to know how these poli cies affect them at the farm gate. We spend a lot of time answering phone calls and questions.

A couple of things that have taken quite a bit of time is hiring folks. One thing COVID did to our agency, similar to other industries or private com panies, is a lot of people changed jobs. While work ing from home they found other opportunities and you can’t fault anyone for doing that. We’ve been trying to backfill positions, and we have positions from the county level all the way from the state office.

There are always new pol icies, new programs to work

on and whatever the flavor of the day is that’s what we attack.

How do you balance your com mitments at the state FSA office in Springfield with being part of the family farming operation?

Halpin: With the changes in the workforce, the federal government has found ways to allow some remote work. FSA is a customer-facing agency. So, we have not gone totally remote.

For me, that offers a little bit of flexibility. I am required to be in the Springfield office a few days a week, but I am also allowed to work remote, as well. It’s full time and then some. I can do a few days a week where I can be connected here at home and then at the end of the day, I can get a few things done here on the farm. It’s a bit of a commute for me to Springfield, so I really appreciate that oppor-

tunity given to me.

What

are some of your favorite aspects of this position?

Halpin: Going back to my roots with the commodity groups, I enjoy getting out and talking to people. I have a little bit of leeway where I can speak to groups, and I have had the opportunity to speak to some leadership groups and commodity groups.

All of the commodity groups have been gracious enough to contact me and offer me time at their annual meetings. It’s been a joy. I like talking to people and dealing with people and it’s been really good to get out, keep in touch and keep in the know of what’s happening around the state.

Tom C. Doran can be reached at 815-410-2256 or tdoran@ shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at: @AgNews_Doran.

Harvested hops go directly into brewing process

By Tom C. Doran AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

FAIRBURY, Ill. — The hops grown on the Emancipation Brewing Co. grounds were harvested a few weeks ago and headed toward cans or kegs.

“We harvested enough to brew a couple of things that we always like to brew, but there were no extra hops this year,” said Lincoln Slagel, Emancipation Brewing Co. co-owner and head br-ewer.

“We harvested and brewed on the same day and that beer will hopefully be coming out next weekend. It’s always one of my favorites.

“It’s always been said with grapes and things like that, that go into products like this, that if the plants are stressed, it can sometime create better flavor. These had a really good smell to them, so I’m excited to see how the beer turns out. The day we picked them, when they were just perfect and ready to go, just walking through with the light breeze, you could smell the hops.”

AGRONOMIC PLAN

Slagel is now preparing the perennial plants for the next growing season.

Rather than cutting off the top and bottom of the plants at harvest, Slagel will wait and cut the hop plants off before the first frost.

“They had a pretty hard winter and spring last year, so our hope is that we can give the leaves as much sunlight as we can this fall that maybe the plants will get a little stron ger,” he said.

Emancipation Brewing is now making preparation for its Oktoberfest events.

“We always do our take on German beers using locally grown malt and hops. This year, we have seven Ger man beers. All of them have some locally sourced grain and some, if not all, locally sourced hops,” Slagle noted.

BARLEY PRODUCTION

As is the case with the end-users of corn and soy beans, the brewing indus try’s success and profitability

hinges on supply, demand and subsequent prices of raw goods.

When AgriNews met with Slagel on Aug. 15, he had just received some of the latest data on U.S. barley produc tion and input cost trends for the brewing industry.

The American Malting As sociation reported this year’s U.S. barley yield averaged 66.3 bushels per acre, up from last year’s 60.4, but it’s still down from 2020 and that was down from previous years.

Production went from about 165 million bushels in 2020 to 117.67 million bush els in 2021 and to nearly 158 million bushels this year.

“There was a big bo-unceback from last year, but the previous year is what we use up until at least a year after. A lot of these malting compa nies hold on to massive stock piles and bring them out as they need them. Also, across the world there’s been a bar ley surplus and there’s always inventory up until basically last year with that smaller crop, plus the Russia-Ukraine situation, plus a drought in Canada’s south-central region where most of its barley is grown,” Slagel said.

“Our barley growing regions had drought conditions last year which is why our produc tion was so bad.

“Ukraine is maybe the fourth largest barley producers in the world and from what I under stand most of the Ukrainian farmers didn’t even plant a crop this year because they just couldn’t get to the field.”

INPUT COST TRENDS

Slagel also noted new data from Bart Watson, Brewers As sociation chief economist, on rising brewing input costs for paperboard, aluminum cans, general freight and trucking, malt and carbon dioxide.

“Everything started going way up beginning on Sept. 1, 2021, but the key one — malt — has basically doubled in price since a year ago as has carbon dioxide. There have been CO2 shortages. In some cases, CO2 has doubled, tripled, quadru pled in price,” he said.

Minutes after these hops were harvested at Emancipation Brewery near Fairbury, Illinois, Lincoln Slagel put them in this large stainless-steel container to begin the brewing process�

“Our keg washer was bro ken and before we got it fixed this week, we had been taking our kegs to a brewery in the suburbs to wash them. This last week they told us that they can’t get enough CO2.

“When you’re done washing the kegs, they are purged with CO2 to get oxygen out. They said they didn’t have enough CO2 to let us wash our kegs there and only have enough to focus on their own kegs, even though we were paying them a fee.

“All those numbers really point to beer prices sadly going up. Aluminum cans have almost doubled in price since last year, too.”

Slagel said there is a little light at the end of the tunnel with slight decreases in truck ing costs.

“There are also other costs

that have gone up. We make a raspberry beer and when we first opened a 44-pound box of raspberries was $89. It was $250 the last time I purchased it, but other things aren’t af fected. We make a pineapple beer and pineapple is less than half the price of raspberries,” he said.

“The nice thing though is the malting company we use in Indiana hasn’t raised their prices at all and part of it is the weather there has been good, the yields have been good and the numbers on their grains have been good when they send them to the lab.”

Tom C. Doran can be reached at 815-410-2256 or tdoran@shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at: @ AgNews_Doran.

A strange year

Here on this property, it’s been pretty wet. It seems like every time we got rain in the area, we got more than average here.

A couple of the last few rains have been pretty timely to hopefully help. It will be interesting to see. It’s been a strange year in some ways with the cold spring.

The rain situation wasn’t too bad this summer. There were a few dry weeks, but it seemed like every time we’d dig down there was still moisture there, at least here.

We always have the benefit and the drawback of being close to the river. So, if it rains too much it will flood from the river to about halfway here, but then we also benefit because the soil seems to hold moisture a little bit better.

For the rest of the family farms, they said they’ll start harvesting in the next week or two. These fields by the brewery will probably be close to the last ones that they’ll be harvesting.

Lincoln Slagel FAIRBURY, ILL

There were 5�6 days suitable for fieldwork during the week ending Sept� 25� Statewide, the average temperature was 68 3 degrees, 6 4 degrees above normal Precipitation aver aged 0 88 inches, 0 05 inches above normal Corn dough reached 96%, compared to the five-year average of 99% Corn dented reached 81%, compared to the five-year average of 94%� Corn mature reached 47%, compared to the five-year average of 66%� Corn har vested for grain reached 6%, compared to the five-year average of 16% Corn condition was rated 5% very poor, 6% poor, 20% fair, 53% good, and 16% excellent Soybeans setting pods reached 96%, compared to the five-year average of 98% Soybeans dropping leaves reached 63%, compared to the five-year average of 57%� Soybeans harvested reached 2%, compared to the five-year average of 10% Soybean condition was rated 5% very poor, 6% poor, 23% fair, 51% good, 15% excellent Winter wheat planted reached 1%, compared to the five-year average of 3%

Lower production, beginning stocks tighten supplies

By Tom C. Doran AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

WASHINGTON — Data from the recently released marketing year-end grain stocks report and small grains summary, combined with lower production pushed supplies lower, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Here are the highlights of USDA’s world agricultural supply and demand estimates report issued Oct. 12.

Corn: The 2022-2023 season-average price received by producers was increased by 5 cents from last month to $6.80 per bushel. Why?

• U.S. corn production was forecast at 13.895 billion bushels, down 49 million on a reduction in yield to 171.9 bushels per acre.

• Corn supplies were forecast at 15.322 billion bushels, a decline of 172 million bushels from last month, as lower production and beginning stocks were partially offset by higher imports.

• Exports were reduced 125 million bushels reflecting smaller supplies and slow early-season demand.

• Projected feed and residual use was increased 50 million bushels based on indicated disappearance during 2021-2022.

• Corn used for ethanol was lowered 50 million bushels.

• With supply falling more than use, corn ending stocks for 2022-2023 were cut 47 million bushels to 1.172 billion bushels.

• Foreign corn production was lowered as declines for the European Union and Serbia were partly offset by an increase for India.

• Foreign corn ending stocks were down, mostly reflecting reductions for China and Ukraine.

• Global corn stocks, at 301.2 million tons, were down 3.3 million from last month.

Soybeans: The U.S. season-average price for 2022-2023 was forecast at $14 per bushel, down 35 cents from last month. Why?

• Soybean production was forecast at 4.3 billion bushels, down 65 million on lower yields. Harvested area was unchanged at 86.6 million acres.

• The soybean yield was projected at 49.8 bushels per acre, down 0.7

Supply and demand

CORN

(2022-2023 marketing year)

Total corn supply: 15 322 billion bushels

Exports: 2 15 billion bushels

Feed, residual use: 5 275 billion bushels

Food, seed, industrial use: 6 725 billion bushels

Ethanol and byproducts: 5 275 billion bushels

Ending U S corn stocks: 1 172 billion bushels

SOYBEANS (2022-2023 marketing year)

Total soybean supply: 4 602 billion bushels

Seed, residual: 122 million bushels

Exports: 2 045 billion bushels

Crushings: 2 235 billion bushels

Ending U�S� soybean stocks: 200 million bushels

bushels from the September forecast.

• With lower production partly offset by higher beginning stocks, U.S. supplies were reduced 31 million bushels.

• U.S. soybean exports were lowered 40 million bushels to 2.05 billion with increased competition from South America.

• With lower exports partly offset by increased crush, domestic ending stocks were unchanged from last month at 200 million bushels.

• Foreign production was increased 3.3 million tons to 519.7 million mainly on higher soybean and rapeseed production.

• Soybean production for Brazil was hiked by 3 million tons to 152 million, reflecting higher area reported by Brazil’s National Supply Company.

• Global 2022-2023 soybean exports were raised 1 million tons to 168.8 million with higher exports for Argentina and Brazil that were partly offset by lower exports for the United States and Paraguay.

• China’s soybean imports were increased 1 million tons to 98 million with higher global supplies.

• Global soybean ending stocks were raised 1.6 million tons to 100.5 million, mainly on higher stocks for Brazil.

Wheat: Based on reported National Agricultural Statistics Service prices to date and futures and cash price expectations, the season-average farm price was raised 20 cents to $9.20 per bushel. Why?

• Supplies were reduced on lower 2022-2023 production based on the NASS small grains summary that indicated reductions in both harvested area and yield. This lowered production by 133 million bushels to 1.650 billion, leaving production only minimally higher than last year.

• Partially offsetting the production decline were higher projected hard red spring imports which were increased by 10 million bushels to 120 million.

• Annual feed and residual use was reduced 30 million bushels to 50 million, based on first quarter disappearance, as indicated in the NASS grain stocks report. This is the lowest first quarter total disappearance since 1983-1984.

• Wheat exports were lowered 50 million bushels to 775 million on reduced supplies, slow pace of export sales and continued uncompetitive U.S. export prices. This would be the lowest U.S. wheat exports since 19711972.

• Projected U.S. ending stocks were lowered 34 million bushels to 576 million, which would be the lowest since 2007-2008.

• Global wheat consumption was reduced 0.9 million tons to 790.2 million on lower food, seed and industrial use more than offsetting higher feed and residual use.

• World trade was lowered 0.6 million tons to 208.3 million on reduced exports by the United States and Argentina more than offsetting higher EU exports.

• Projected global 2022-2023 ending stocks were lowered 1 million tons to 267.5 million mostly on a reduction for the United States.

Tom C. Doran can be reached at 815-410-2256 or tdoran@ shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at: @AgNews_Doran.

No major moves in USDA balance

By Tom C. Doran AGRINEWS PUBLICATIONS

KANSAS CITY, Mo. — The U.S. Department of Agricul ture’s supply and demand es timates and crop production reports featured a mixed bag of many moving parts for the trade to digest.

Arlan Suderman, StoneX Group chief commodities economist, gave his insight on the USDA reports in a webi nar Oct. 12.

Were there any surprises in the crop production report?

Suderman: The thing that re ally sticks out right here is the soybean yield — 49.8 bushels per acre. That is the lowest of the trade guesses going into this report. The average trade estimate was 50.6.

When you look at changes from the previous month, most of the Midwest, outside of Minnesota and Illinois, saw declining yields this month.

The corn yield of 171.9 bush els per acre was essentially at

the average trade guess. In the states where we saw corn yield decreases in this report, those areas that had more moisture that helped filled kernels saw a yield increase from last month.

Those states that had the lack of moisture in the plains saw a decrease in corn yield. There was no change in Iowa or Minnesota.

Turning to the crop supply and demand balance sheets, were the 2022-2023 ending stocks in line with trade expectations?

Suderman: Soybean end ing stocks stayed right at 200 million bushels. The average pre-report trade estimate was 248 million.

On the corn side, USDA’s ending stocks number of 1.172 billion bushels was al most identically to where I was at (1.174 billion bushels) and about 48 million bushels above where the trade was at.

That’s why we saw the mar ket react to that, first going higher on the lower yield and

then coming down when they really looked at what ending stocks were already priced in.

Wheat ending stocks came in higher than the trade ex pected by 22 million even though we saw a sharp drop in production of over 130 million in the small grains summary report that came out Sept. 30. Why, because USDA assumed a much smaller wheat feeding and exports.

I don’t think that’s neces sarily a correct assumption on wheat, but I’m not going to argue with USDA. Its numbers are what are going to be traded.

My estimate of 477 million bushels ending stocks is as suming that feed usage did not stay the same. I actually had a higher feed usage number prior to the Sept. 30 stocks report because we were seeing wheat being fed in the feedlot district because of the extremely high corn basis because corn simply wasn’t there.

It doesn’t matter what we see. USDA is either wrong on their feed usage for wheat

or they’re wrong on the pro duction number. They’re not going to back down on their production estimate, at least not for a while.

So, therefore, we have to as sume what USDA says that the wheat feeding is not there, and I will adjust my balance sheet and my estimates accordingly.

USDA increased 2021-2022 soybean ending stocks by 34 million bushels from the previous estimate to now 274 million. That carried over into the new crop beginning stocks. However, new crop production is down by 152 million bushels to 4.313 million bushels.

Suderman: Our yield at 51.3 bushels per acre from our cus tomer survey puts our produc tion 129 million bushels above USDA. That’s going to make our balance sheet come out a lot different.

My ending stocks are 305 mil lion and USDA 200 million. So, we’ll continue to monitor this.

Maybe USDA will come up to it, maybe our customer

survey comes down, probably some combination, but we re ally don’t know yet.

The bottom line is we’ve got enough soybeans to get through the next four months and then the Brazilian crop will be available. They’ll start harvesting in late December.

The first soybeans from that will reach China by Feb. 1. So, our export season is going to be curtailed this year if that continues on that path.

That’s why my export target has been 2 billion bushels and that could come down a little bit more yet as we go forward, as well.

My crush number is consid erably higher (at 2.315 billion bushels). So, if we see exports come down I do think crush will go up.

What are some take-home points from this latest USDA data and what’s happening overall in grain trade?

Suderman: The reports had a lot of moving parts, factoring in what we saw in the change in production, the stocks re ports and the small grains summary report — all of that are in this report.

The major feedlot states saw a drop in corn, milo and wheat production approach ing 1 billion bushels this year. So, we still have a major feed deficit in that area.

The strong dollar and river barge freights are rationing exports for both corn and soy beans. That’s a break for do mestic users.

I don’t want to make it sound like things are easy for domestic users, but at least they’re not having to battle the export market as hard for these limited supplies.

The focus now is increasingly going to be on South American weather from a fundamental standpoint, but we’re still going to be subject to headlines.

That includes what’s hap pening in Ukraine and includes what’s happening with inflation and the Federal Reserve.

High prices do eventually cure high prices by stimulating demand. Right now the place to most benefit from that is Brazil.

Tom C. Doran can be reached at 815-410-2256 or tdoran@shawmedia.com. Follow him on Twitter at: @ AgNews_Doran.

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