Brown Land And Farm Management | Professional Land And Farm Management Services

1Feb

Plan Ahead For Covers

By Emily Unglesbee DTN Staff Reporter

ROCKVILLE, Md. (DTN) -- AJ Blair won't plant cover crops on his corn, soybean, cattle and hog operation in central Iowa until early fall. Yet the details of how and what he will plant are already running through his mind as he slogs through chores in snowy barnyards this winter.

Cover crops require planning, just like a cash crop. Decisions made this spring on corn and soybean fields will affect what covers you can plant and how they will fare this fall, experts told DTN.

Among the most important things to consider are the maturity groups you will grow, the herbicides you will use, what benefits you're seeking from cover crops and how you hope to plant them.

GET...

2016: Year of the Drone for Farmers

By: Jim Patrico, Progressive Farmer Senior Editor While most farm equipment sales languish in a line-chart valley, sales of unmanned aerial vehicles (drones) are on an upward trajectory.

"Farmers have gobbled up UAVs left and right," Robert Blair, an Idaho farmer who has been a pioneer in UAV applications for agriculture, recently told DTN/The Progressive Farmer. "2016 will be the year of the UAV."

A multitude of manufacturers have launched a variety of aircraft in the past few years -- from hover crafts not much more sophisticated than toys to $50,000 fixed-wing air craft that can buzz along at 50 miles per hour and take near-infrared photos.

New product introductions will continue, but the weeding out process for manufacturers has begun. Some manufacturers have already...

Lower Mississippi River Still Dangerous For Barges; Old Vicksburg Bridge Battered by Tows

By: Mary Kennedy DTN Basis Analyst The Old Vicksburg Bridge in Vicksburg, Mississippi, is beginning to resemble a pinball machine as river barges have bounced against piers under it. Those collisions have also affected rail transportation in the area.

River basis is slowly recovering from the more than one month of flooding, and rail basis to St. Louis and the Gulf overall has been improving a little. If barges are unable to make it to the Gulf to load waiting vessels, rail may be the best way to get it there for now.

Between January 12-21, five tows have been unable to safely navigate under the bridge due to high water and very strong current. Barges have hit the piers as the current pushed them...

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