4 March 26, 2015 2015 Logan County Farm Outlook Magazine Lincoln Daily News.com
John Fulton is the
U of I extension
director for Logan,
Menard and
Sangamon
2
014 was a year of trials and rewards. The
trials were the weather at the beginning of
the season, and at the end. Dry, followed by
wet, followed by more wet weather taxed
producers time and talents.
The rewards came in the form of exceptional corn
yields. The old record of 198.1 set in 2013 was
blown away by 32.7 bushels per acre in Logan
County. The 2014 crop averaged a whopping 230.8
bushels per acre for Logan County.
The soybean yield was also a record setter at 63.7
bushels per acre, eclipsing the former record of
57.6 established in 2010. This yield was somewhat
diminished by the effects of sudden death syndrome
disease, and to some extent, white mold.
Total production amounted to 46,156,000 bushels of
corn and 8,682,000 bushels of soybeans for Logan
County.
If you think agriculture isn’t big business, apply
a few math skills, and you can come up with
economic impact. Figure soybeans at about $10
per bushel and corn at $3.50 as some average price
guesses, and you come up with some very large
numbers.
Of course, it’s important to point out farming is not
a high margin business in most years. Most of that
income is passed along to suppliers of equipment,
inputs, services, and living expenses. On average
90 percent of the amount farmers take in is passed
along, and the rest goes back into the business –
or toward the family living expenses of the farm
family.
While the larger supply of corn and soybeans
dropped prices for grain farmers, it provided (or will
provide) less costly feed for those with livestock.
The prices often take as much as a year to go
through the chain from one end to the other.
Beef prices are at historic highs, and pork prices had
historic highs and are now headed lower in a hurry.
The supply of beef is at a low level, and with the
prices, many producers are retaining more cattle for
breeding instead of selling. This makes the supply
even smaller for the time being.
Pork producers were confronted with the PED virus,
which killed untold numbers of small pigs. This also
led to a decreased supply of pork for a short period
of time. These good years help negate the effects of
some years where the losses for livestock producers
were enormous.
A few interesting facts were highlighted in changes
of the 2012 Census of Agriculture.
One is the fact farm numbers are increasing.
Contrasted is the number of acres per farm actually
increased this census. That means farm size is
increasing faster than the number of small, specialty
producers for the first time in a while.
The highest number of farms in the county falls in
the 10 to 49 acre group. Second most common
Continued to page 6
2014
YEAR IN REVIEW
