Annual crop show weighs predictions
Kane County Chronicle / KCChronicle.com • Friday, January 11, 2013
| LOCAL NEWS
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By DAVID THOMAS
dthomas@shawmedia.com
Photo provided
Winter often brings outdoor enthusiasts to the St. Charles Park District’s three ice skating rinks and two sledding hills. Such areas must be groomed and readied by park district crews.
St. Charles Park District stays busy during winter Ever wonder what your park district does during the winter months? If there’s no snow, parks crews make progress for the busy spring and summer seasons with interior painting, building repairs and mechanical maintenance. From snow shovels to weed wackers to mowers to the district’s trucks and buses, all equipment must be inspected and kept in working order to ensure efficiency. Staff are checking bearings, sharpening blades and finishing necessary repairs to make sure the district is fully operational when the warm weather returns. Fences, trash/recycle containers, picnic tables, bike racks – all physical property found in and around the parks – are evaluated to determine the type of repair or maintenance required. If the white stuff is coming down, there’s the task of removing snow from St. Charles Park District’s park-
VIEWS Erika Young ing lots and sidewalks – a job that requires three-man crews to be on 24/7 duty for a week at a time. Winter also brings outdoor enthusiasts to the district’s three ice skating rinks and two sledding hills, all of which have to be groomed and readied with fun and safety in mind. Staff work in the evenings since these facilities are enjoyed all day long by sledders and skaters. What would your local parks be without blooming plants and flowers? The district’s horticulturist crew is busy each winter planning flower bed designs, ordering seeds needed for the thousands of plants that adorn park sites come spring, and growing many of these flowers in the greenhouse at the Denny Ryan Service Center
off Bolcum Road. Typically, more than 500 flats of plants are grown during the late winter and early spring months. And all of those programs and special events your family enjoys – camps, swim lessons, trips, sports classes, summer concerts, the Fourth of July celebration and more – are planned well in advance. Recreation supervisors work three to six months before the start of a program or event crossing the T’s and dotting the I’s to offer recreation opportunities that enrich your quality of life. The St. Charles Park District strives to make each park, facility and program inviting and safe for visitors of all ages and abilities. For details, visit the district’s website at www.stcparks. org.
• Erika Young is public relations and marketing manager for the St. Charles Park District.
DeKALB – Brian Basting compared the prediction of crop prices to the fortunetelling scene in “The Wizard of Oz.” In the film, Professor Marvel goes through Dorothy’s basket and falsely claims to have seen the future. Basting said this is comparable to how agencies and experts look at farming conditions and predict future prices. There is no reliable way to predict prices, he said. “We can’t predict price, but utilizing risk management can lead to a happy ending,” Basting said. Basting and Brent Kieser, a commodity research analyst and branch broker with Advance Trading, were the keynote presenters at the 2012 Northern Illinois Farm Show. The show featured presentations and exhibitions for farmers and producers in the Northern Illinois region. All around the Convocation Center at Northern Illinois University, farmers such as Gerald Klein maneuvered among exhibitions showcasing the new tools, equipment and farming techniques. Klein, a farmer from West Brooklyn, said Thursday marked his first time at the show. “It’s interesting,” Klein said. “I wanted to see what it’s like.” Klein said he does not think 2013 will be as good a year for him as 2012 was, where a prolonged drought caused prices to rise. Klein said he didn’t think prices would be as good unless
there’s another drought. Regardless of whether a farmer gets too much or too little rain, companies such as HUB International Midwest can help via weather insurance, which is an addition to crop insurance, said Kevin Allgood, the company’s senior vice president of agribusiness. “It’s a great way to protect yourself if you have a bad summer,” said Allgood, adding that crop insurance only goes so far. Allgood said they had an 80 percent payout this year, meaning 80 percent of their policyholders received money of some kind. Going forward, Allgood said he expects to see more volatile weather, but also more bio-engineered farm seed being used by food producers. “If you get the right seed, you’ll still be able to grow,” Allgood said. The conference featured 250 exhibitors from seven states. Companies such as Allgood’s are making 2012 their debut year. For Renk Seed, an agriculture company based in Sun Prairie, Wis., this is their third year, district sales manager Justin Engelking said. The company sells traditional and genetically modified seeds, which Engelking sees as the future. He said a lot of food today is modified to make them resistant to insects and herbicides. “It has to keep growing and advancing,” Engelking said of the future of farming. “With more people out there and the acreage not going up, the [crop] yield has to get better.”
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