This is Wednesday, August 12, and the world supply and demand report of grain is to be broadcast at 11 a.m. Could be good or could be bad for the market. I was surprised to read where both Dakotas are predicted to have average or above yields this year. Iowa is predicted to be the leading state for corn and soybean production.
There is a rainy forecast for today about 11. We have missed several rains that were forecast, but we sure haven’t missed the humidity and heat that was predicted. Yesterday I was spraying some weeds around buildings early in the morning because there wasn’t any dew. It didn’t take long before I was soaked to the skin not with weed spray but with old fashioned hot, high humidity sweat!
Kids are headed back to school this week. I was at McDonald’s for coffee with friends one morning which ended close to noon.
Some young men came for food after football practice, and we asked them if they were high school or Western players. They were so polite with a response of “Yes, Maam, we are high school.” Crops continue to look good. It is not uncommon to see big drones flying over fields instead of a machine spraying fungicide on crops. The first time I saw one was early spring when a truck was parked beside the road opposite a wheat field. I stopped to see if he needed help, then I saw what he was doing. He was spraying the wheat field with a drone.
You can take a drive in the county and see the solar panels going up west and south of Laverdiere and Commercial Rental on 136. Windmills are growing like mushrooms in the Industry area. Some already have the blades on. I can’t imagine working on them...huge cranes and the people that work putting them up and attaching the blades. The landscape has changed.
The other day a reporter on one of the ag radio stations read a list of land being sold in the state for data centers or solar or wind construction. The data centers sounded like they would use up hundreds of acres at each place. It’s a different world, and I always remember the “joke” about the person who said, “I’ve seen a lot of changes in my lifetime, and I’ve been again’ every one of them.”
On a funny note, Julie had taken Jordan and Reagan to Ipava to the Camp Ellis museum and the one room restored country school. I think I’ve got it straight...Julie told the kids,”Grandma Sharon went to a one room country school.” Reagan’s reaction was, “Well, she’s sure old enough!” Gotta love those stories.
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.
