But the irrigation of our corn has prevented us from doing other work like planting and harvesting other crops. Because of hard grounds, people are starting to irrigate before they make purchases, according to Skorik, who was forced to hire more staff to take care of her inventory. Tower, whose main crops are tomatoes and peaches, said the dry spell has helped him because it means more sunlight for the crops, which is crucial for growing. Farmers of other crops, such as tomatoes and...

Williams bought about one-quarter of the 30,000 cattle being fattened in the feed lot before the price of corn started to rise steadily. You re just gambling that the market is higher when you sell them fat than you ll get if you sell them today as a feeder. Demand for corn needed to make ethanol is soaring and so are the prices, which have more than doubled within the past year. About one-quarter of the 30,000 animals at Lubbock Feeders were bought before corn prices began to soar...

Fueled by high demand and high prices for corn, farmers planted an estimated 92. Department of Agriculture report predicted corn growers would plant 90. Many farmers switched to planting corn at the expense of soybeans. That was well above an earlier government estimate and was 15 percent more than in 2005. Friday's corn numbers exceed even those expectations. According to Friday's report, the soybeans planted area is estimated at 64. That's the lowest planted and harvested area for...

Chargrilled sweet corn salad. Stand a cob on one end and slice downwards with a knife as close as possible to the cob to remove the kernels. Spray the corn with olive oil. Divide the snow pea sprouts, avocado and warm corn kernels among serving dishes. Cook on the chargrill, turning often, for 8 minutes or until golden. Mix the lime juice, extra virgin olive oil, salt and pepper until well combined. Drizzle with the dressing and scatter the feta to serve. Heat a chargrill pan over a...

It showed that US farmers had planted far more corn than previously estimated. Corn prices fell sharply, taking down the prices of wheat and other grains, but soybeans and other oil seeds rose strongly on news of a sharper than forecast cut in plantings. So the move upwards in Nymex WTI was mostly for technical reasons and both markets will now react evenly to market-moving events, such as the weekly release on Wednesdays of figures for US oil and product stocks. A look at the ten major...

But his grandfather had to sell the family farm in the early 1980s to pay off debt, and Bluck is struggling to return to the land in a changing agriculture industry. The opportunities for beginning farmers are dwindling as the cost of farmland goes up - it was a record $1,900 per acre nationwide last year - and established farmers hold on to their property well beyond normal retirement age. To keep farmland from being gobbled up by larger farms or sold to developers, more than two dozen...