Corn, wheat come on strong but soybeans still rule

There are many reasons soybeans will likely remain the most popular grain crop in the county, Matthew Vajnar, Ottawa Co-op grain buyer, said.

Soybeans routinely command higher prices than other grains because they are so valuable in food and feed production and have many industrial uses, he said.

Experts say that soybeans will become even more prized with the development of a biodiesel industry in the U.S., in which soybean oil would be mixed with diesel fuel to create a mostly renewable fuel for diesel-powered vehicles and equipment.

Futures prices for soybeans are at historic highs, Vajnar said.

Prices for soybeans tend to remain stable so the higher prices will likely remain high, although South American farmers are planning to gear up soybean production to take advantage of the higher prices, he said.

More acres in Franklin County are planted to soybeans than any other crop, David Hornung, director of the Franklin County office of the U.S. Farm Service Agency, said.

Hornung expects about 65,000 acres in the county to be planted in soybeans this year.

Although the amount of corn has sharply escalated, Hornung said he doesn’t expect the preeminent position of soybeans to change.

Not only do they command a high price, the “input costs” — fertilizer and tillage — of soybeans are much less than that of corn, which is more expensive in terms of fertilizer, Vajnar said.

Corn has become more popular in the area because of the historically-high prices for corn and because of a more stable market because of the Garnett ethanol plant, he said.

However, the price of corn is more volatile than that of beans — the last comparable spike in corn prices occurred 12 years ago, after which prices tumbled, he said.

Nevertheless, many Franklin County farmers plan to increase the number of acres they’ll plant to corn this year, Roy Dunn, a county commissioner who farms in northern Franklin County, said.

“Our acreage depends on the marketplace,” Dunn said.

In years past, county farmers planted 10,000 acres of corn, Hornung said.

Last year, 18,000 acres of corn were planted, he said.

This year, Hornung said he wouldn’t be surprised if farmers plant 25,000 to 28,000 acres of corn.

The higher price for corn has created friction among farmers, Dunn said.

Although the prices have been good for corn farmers, it’s caused hardship for ranchers and cattle growers for whom corn is a major part of their feed, Dunn said.

“The price of grain has definitely impacted cattle growers,” he said.

Now some cattle raisers have publicly called for an end to grain subsidies and subsidies for ethanol, a position that would have been unthinkable a few years ago, he said.

“It’s unusual to see farmers take sides over ethanol,” Dunn said.

Although grain farmers are receiving record prices for their produce, they’re also paying record prices for fertilizer, fuel and other supplies, he said.

Without federal grain subsidies, it would be difficult for medium-sized grain producers to weather high costs and stay in business, he said.

It would also accelerate the consolidation of big farms at the expense of medium-sized farms, he said.

“It’s the only way to compete in the marketplace because of the tremendous increase in production costs,” Dunn said. “You need to have more and more acres to be more efficient.”

The increase in corn has come at the expense of Franklin County’s third crop — grain sorghum, also known as milo. Milo is usually used as livestock feed and most farmers keep their harvest for their cattle. Milo can also be used for ethanol and for food production but it hasn’t been as fully developed for those purposes.

As farmers plant more corn, milo acreage plummets Hornung said.

“Years back, you would see 15,000 to 20,000 acres of grain sorghum here,” he said.

This year, there will be less than 2,000 acres planted to milo, he said.

Hornung said it’s likely that milo will virtually disappear from the county in the future.

At one time when it was much smaller, Ottawa Co-op dedicated one 350,000-bushel tank at LeLoup to store milo, Vajnar said.

It was always full, he said.

Although the co-op expanded, so much less milo is grown in the area, “we can’t fill that one tank from milo we get from all of our elevators combined,” Vajnar said.

Traditionally, Franklin County has been a three-crop county. That won’t change, but it won’t be milo.

In the past, wheat hasn’t done well in east central Kansas and remained a secondary crop. Normally, the wetter climate in Franklin County isn’t conducive to wheat.

If it was planted, wheat in Franklin County was mostly used as a “rotation” crop, planted to regenerate crop fields normally used for other crops.

But because of drier weather in past years, those in Franklin County who have planted wheat have been rewarded by record wheat harvests and it’s increasingly figured in farmers’ plans, Hornung said.

Because of freak late frosts last April, another promising wheat harvest was ruined and last year’s harvest wasn’t good, he said.

Undeterred, Franklin County producers planted a unusually-high number of acres to wheat, he said.

Hornung estimates that 25,000 to 30,000 acres of winter wheat were planted last year. That wheat will be harvested in June or July.

Most of those farmers hope to “double-crop,” he said.

In double-cropping, farmers harvest the wheat and then  immediately plant soybeans in the newly-harvested fields.

Many times, double-cropping represents a calculated risk for farmers.

Late-planted soybeans tend to have smaller pods and lower yields than soybeans planted early and grow to full maturity.

There’s more of a chance the late-planted soybeans will get soybean diseases and without the correct application of herbicides have to compete with weeds and “volunteer wheat.”

Because they’re planted immediately after the wheat is harvested, the late soybeans are planted in early summer at a time of high heat and low moisture and without timely rains the new plants could be ruined.

An early freeze in the fall could also ruin the crop.

However, this year prices for soybeans are so high that if farmers get any kind of harvest from late, double-crop soybeans, their gamble may very well pay off, Hornung said

And in its own right, wheat could be a winner as just a stand-alone crop for Franklin County farmers.

Prices for wheat have also skyrocketed, Vajnar said.

Wheat futures prices have reached unheard of levels, he said.

The premier wheat-growing areas of the world — which includes central and western Kansas — had bad harvests last summer and surpluses disappeared, he said.

“There’s no more milling-quality wheat to speak of anywhere,” Vajnar said.