Corn varieties and tips Modern sweet corn is planted in three stages: early, mid-season and late, with the early varieties being smaller than the later. Botanically speaking, however, it is a little shakier, as sweet corn is technically a type of dry fruit called a caryopsis, which in everyday speech means it's a grain. Sweet corn, on the other hand, has a higher sugar content to begin with, and is harvested at its "milky' stage, before the sugars have converted to starches. Field corn,...

Corn varieties and tips Modern sweet corn is planted in three stages: early, mid-season and late, with the early varieties being smaller than the later. Botanically speaking, however, it is a little shakier, as sweet corn is technically a type of dry fruit called a caryopsis, which in everyday speech means it's a grain. Sweet corn, on the other hand, has a higher sugar content to begin with, and is harvested at its "milky' stage, before the sugars have converted to starches. Field corn,...

Most traders/analysts I talked to this morning want to sell a higher opening in corn, but the demand for corn should keep traders from aggressively selling corn because there will be users to support it, as we saw yesterday. Corn is not the leader of the grain complex, it is a follower, and traders may want to talk about weather in the Midwest being a factor for corn, but corn is really out of the woods in most areas. Many traders I talked to were scratching their head on why corn was...

Crops, pets, gardens and lawns are all threatened by a band of severe drought, which includes portions of Otter Tail County, although areas to the south and east are suffering more severely. If the drought or low rainfall holds on, people will need to assess how much watering they can or want to do and make choices on what gets watered. Eighty-two percent of the state is now rated abnormally dry, while 35 percent is in moderate drought and 24 percent is in severe drought, according to the...

Prices are strong for feed crops such as alfalfa and silage corn. Silage corn continues to be cut for dairy feed. Harvest of mid season peaches, plums and nectarines is in full swing. Deciduous tree fruit, nuts and grapes: Table grape harvest is gradually gaining momentum. Almond tree limbs are being propped to support this year's heavy crop. The domestic market is slow, with occasional air shipments going to Korea. Livestock and poultry: Some ranchers are feeding hay, as rangeland feed...

Maybe they won t realize their taxpayer subsidies to grow ethanol corn instead of feed corn are also driving the price of their daily bread through the roof. As a result of the beautiful US Government subsidies to produce bio-ethanol fuels, and the new legislative mandate, the US refinery industry is investing big time in building new special ethanol distilleries, similar to oil refineries, except they produce ethanol fuel. As a result of the beautiful US Government subsidies to produce...