The Rural Voice, 1978-04, Page 10Soybeans will be a more popular crop In the area this year.
-Photo courtesy Monsanto.
SOYBEANS
There has been a lot of interest in growing soybeans this year,
he says, though his office is not encouraging it. The current price
in Chicago is $7 so farmers could likely future contract at $6. The
saying in the southwest part of the province is if the price of
soybeans is 2.5 times the price of corn then plant soybeans. So it
could be a profitable crop (though Pat says it would be better to
use a ratio of 2.6 or 2.7 time in more northerly areas).
There are problems of equipment necessary for soybeans
however both for planting and harvesting. There is a controversy
over weather to use a corn planter or a grain drill for planting,
Pat says and each is better than the other under certain
conditions. It's a question of matching the equipment to the
need.
Harvesting brings problems because the seed pods are only
one inch off the ground and most of the losses occur in trying to
harvest the pods. Special soybean headers are available for
combines and things like flexible knives for the combine are
used.
For those who are interested a special information package if
available, Pat says. It requires a whole new practice, completely
unlike say white bean growing.
CO-OPERATION ON THE FARM
One of the developments that is hopeful, Pat says, is a sort of
sharecropping arrangement being worked out by some area '
farmers. In one case, he says, a farmer growing hogs is renting
out his land to a neighbour and selling the liquid manure to the
man renting the land. The farmer is getting $60 per acre rent,
plus $30 per acre for the fertilizer (at 3000 gallon per acre).
In another arrangement two farmers with livestock rent their
land out for corn production then buy the corn back as high
moisture corn. They get the corn they need and the grower gets
cash for his corn. The deal saves the cost of about 20 cents for
drying, 12 cents for storage, four cents for cleanout and 36 cents
that the farmers would have had to pay if they'd bought the corn
from the elevator, meaning a "dickering range" of 61 cents as
well as the benefit of a fast turnover.
In another case of dairy farmer is buying alfalfa from a
neighbour, thus saving the trouble and expense of keeping his
own forage equipment.
Pat sees both parties in such agreements benefiting and is
encouraged by the breaking down of the old rugged
individualism on the part of many farmers that meant they all did
all the jobs and had all the expensive equipment.
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523-4399
PG. 10. THE RURAL VOICE/APRIL 1978.