Spring is on its way. Well, some time. Yesterday (Tuesday) was a nice day...chilly, but nice with the sun shining.
I drove to the WGM shuttle east of Macomb to pick up a check. There were loaded semis pulling in and loaded semis waiting to unload corn, and empty semis leaving. I asked if they had a train coming, and was told they loaded one Sunday and are expecting to do the same thing this weekend. Farmers are at a time when taxes are due, prepaid expenses are to be paid to take advantage of any discounts on early pay, but the grain prices received are not what was hoped for.
However, I told WGM if they ever wanted the bean price to go up, call me and I would sell and the next day they would jump and progressively raise for several days. I was joking because I don’t really have that control, but that’s what happened. The bean price had gone up and stopped, so I sold what was stored because South America’s bean crop would be on the market soon, and would lower the market.
Well, prices yesterday were $11.24 for beans and $4.35 for corn at Beardstown. That’s a lot of change from $10.33 a week ago. However, I just read this morning where they are finding mold in Brazil’s bean crop because of all the rain they have received during the growing season.
Judges are looking into price-fixing by two major suppliers of fertilizer. The story seems to be they could be restricting production of fertilizer to raise prices (which they have done compared to a year ago when prices were anywhere from $100 to $52 a ton cheaper).
I’d like to restrict the number of deer in the backyard.
While I’m grateful they are eating the acorns dropped from the pin oak, I am fearful they are going to be a nuisance this summer when the garden is growing. Last night I looked out the kitchen window to see the shadows of 4 grown deer grazing on acorns. I turned on the patio light, but it didn’t faze them. In fact, I think it helped them find more acorns.
This AI technology scares me. The other day a message appeared on the e-mail screen analyzing what I had written to the daughter of a friend of mine. She was looking through her deceased Mom’s scrapbooks she had kept for years. I wrote and told her that her Mom was really responsible for Dean and I meeting. Well, AI analyzed what I wrote to her and what she wrote back to me. The thing that bothers me was I did not, and I’m sure she did not ask for AI technology to analyze what we were writing about.
“Big brother” IS watching whether you know it or not.
Sharon Chenoweth is a resident and farmer of McDonough County. Her column focuses on rural life and will be featured every other week in the Community News Brief Friday Edition.
