If you take a drive through the gravel roads of rural Iowa, as we did this past weekend, you’ll find it striking just how much chaos the June inflicted. A fallow field on one side of the road tells part of the story. Farmers planted on their usual schedule, watched their nascent crop get washed out by floods. Those who planted again saw the floods return, washing out another unborn crop. Many decided not to plant a third time.
On the other side of the road, though, you might see a vibrant green and yellow field, displaying the tenacity of Iowan farmers who planted yet a third time. The wet soil coupled with weather since the floods has been nearly ideal for growing corn. Freshly shucked, the corn is sweet and hearty.
Tomorrow the Department of Agriculture releases what some are describing as “the most anticipated crop report of the year.” This is the Dark Knight of crop reports, on which fortunes will be made and broken. The futures have been all over the place, rising to $7 a bushel and falling, more recently, to $5 a bushel.
The trade turns on a few billion bushels. Last year, following the height of the ethanol corn craze, Midwest farmers reaped a record harvest of over 13 billion bushels. When prices dropped precipitously because of the huge supply bulge, many farmers felt they had been stung by markets. Even before the flooding, estimates of the corn crop were down to 12.2 billion bushels. A recent survey of grain analysts by Dow Jones Newswires predicts a crop of 11.94 billion bushels.
That’s probably an overestimate, according to our informal survey of Iowans. Some estimate that the actual crop may come in below 11 billion bushels. Of course, we conducted our survey by asking a few questions of farmers at the Iowa State Fair, and those who answered our questions had been drinking beer and eating corn-dogs all day.
Who knows what corn dogs do to a farmers judgment. What’s more, we weren’t entirely sure the farmers weren’t just having fun with us. It wouldn’t be the first time a kid from the city had the corn husks pulled over his eyes by country folk.
One local saying in Iowa might indicate why predicting these things is tricky. “What happens in the cornfield,” a popular t-shirt reads, “stays in the cornfield.”
If a guy following Bess around all the time was an Iowa corn farmer, would he be a “stalker”? (Crackin myself up again!)
By the way, IOWA stands for “Idiots Out Walking Around” so I’m told.
iowa corn is pig food. Give me Indiana or even Yankee corn… that’s some sweet corn!
carney, what brought you to iowa?
I’m having flashbacks to a lady dressed up as a Swiss miss, a guy in a gorilla suit, a covert meeting in a parking garage and Eddie Murphy & Dan Akroyd on a beach. “Lookin good Billy Ray…feelin good Lewis”
Who is “we”?
Do you roll with a posse everywhere you go?
@5: Yes. I roll with a posse. Always.
I went to Iowa to go experience some of the American heartland and check out the Iowa State Fair. Everyone should go to the Iowa State Fair at least once in a lifetime.
Also, John McCain was there sizing up an enormous pig. How could I resist?
http://tinyurl.com/624brk
“what happens in the cornfield, a popular t-shirt reads, stays in the cornfield.
A truly special place where the tshirts read, but those who wear them can not.
You can probably make a nice chunk of change by getting an advanced copy of the crop report from Meeks…
Ugh. Guest @2:52 just stole the joke I was about to make.
Except that its Beeks, Clarence Beeks, not Meeks.
Beeks will be at the Hilton Hotel, parking level D, Section 10.
That’s the orange section.
The final payment is due on delivery,
in cash.
Corn is the new rice!
Glad to read you visited Iowa, John. Members of my family were pioneers there, and both parents grew up on Iowa farms. If you haven’t seen it, you really don’t know what a verdant place it is.
Carney, corn futures did not recently fall TO $2/bu, they fell BY $2/bu to $5/bu.
short corn, long ditchweed.
Short Corn, long Shake Shack.
-mrp
Bet 12 is pulling in millions. Clients love those clean cut earnest and sturdy Iowa boys. And here I am, Brooklyn born, Jersey bred. How can I ever compete? Life isn’t fair.
#13: Thanks. We corrected.
fuck iowa and fuck their ethonol. people are starving and we pad the pockets of fucking farmers.
HAM, how can you say that after reading 12. It just brought tears to my eyes. You must not be a true American.
Remember Bernie Cornfield? Or was it Cornfeld.
@ ham – is this heaven?
No, it’s Iowa
Corn needs to merge with oil in order to survive.
i bought AGA at 22. kind of late in the game to be short grains anymore…
fuck HOM 05. You have any idea what fertilizer prices have done in the last year?
and 2, while it is true the vast majority of corn grown in IA is feed corn, you’ve got to be kidding me with that Indiana corn crap. Iowa has the best soil on earth. I can’t really respond to “Yankee” corn, because I’m not really sure what that is. You are aware both Indiana and Iowa were part of the Union, right?
union of what? Teamsters, Farmsters or Hamsters?