Archive for the ‘Suber, Jim’

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    Hard red. The View from Route 8.
    Jim Suber A lot has changed in agriculture in Kansas and everywhere else in the last 50 to 75 years. Here in the Wheat State, corn and soybeans have made inroads into wheat acreage. Minimum tillage, better plant varieties more suitable to Kansas and more scientific farming in general have contributed to the national trends of fewer farmers and higher yields, even as the...
    by at May 14th, 2012 at 02:05 pm
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    Inputs. The View from Route 8.
    Jim Suber A lot of people are now looking at farm machinery and equipment as a place to assign property taxation to broaden the tax bases that support state and local governments. The current exemptions are there for reasons. Until fairly recently, farming was rightfully adjudged to be such a risky, perilous way to earn a living that its participating producers needed...
    by at May 6th, 2012 at 02:05 pm
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    Checkered. The view from route 8.
    Jim Suber Most weeks in agriculture are checkered, indeed. Some news is good, some is not so good. The standing down by the U.S. Labor Department on its new regulations forbidding most children of all ages from even looking at farm animals and farm machinery and farm anything, was great news, and they promised to keep their debasing program on hold and off the table until...
    by at April 30th, 2012 at 07:04 am
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    Decisions. The View from Route 8.
    Jim Suber One question of the week is whether farmers will shift acreage from corn to soybeans on a large scale. This was prompted by a downturn in corn prices and uptick in soybeans. However, there are lots more things to consider than just relative prices, even when in some areas the cost of production may actually now be outweighing corn prices. Some switching to soybeans...
    by at April 23rd, 2012 at 08:04 am
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    Foul. The View from Rural Route 8.
    Jim Suber Fair or foul? Environmental groups are suing once again the Environmental Protection Agency to force the EPA to limit introduction of elements found in fertilizers into the Mississippi River basin so they won’t wind up in the Gulf of Mexico “dead zone.” That’s the territory below the mouth of the river where hardly anything grows because the elements,...
    by at April 16th, 2012 at 07:04 am
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    Exciting. The View from Route 8.
    Jim Suber If one is but half alive, spring is exciting in the middle of the United States. Mushroom hunters last week reported literally being covered in ticks, thought to be mushrooming themselves in numbers in the warm weather of the past month. The mushroomers were rewarded, generally, with big bags of now-valuable ‘rooms, which are said to be commanding $35 to $45...
    by at April 8th, 2012 at 11:04 am
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    Suddenly. The View from Route 8.
    Jim Suber Things rock along for a while, you get used to conditions or circumstances, perhaps even thinking this is the way it’s going to be from now on…then BANG! Everything is suddenly different. Even this spring, the treacherous time of year as wise men used to say, has brought an eerie quality that is a distinct shift from our usual up and down, back and forth...
    by at April 1st, 2012 at 08:04 pm
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    Good. The View from Route 8.
    Jim Suber Good news (hooray) from old reliable Bill Spiegel of Kansas Wheat. Bill is from a Jewell County farm family and is noted for his good sense and honesty. The good news he shared is that rain fell on much of the new wheat crop and it is in very good condition. That is even better than it could be, given the fact that wheat has traded sideways for a while, and is...
    by at March 25th, 2012 at 09:03 pm
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    Ga-ga. The View from Route 8.
    Jim Suber Nearly everyone is ga-ga over the ultra-early spring and the escape from a real winter with its snow-plowing and ice-sliding and fuel gushing into home and office furnaces. Howsomeever, as an old hired man I used to know would say, we is not out of the woods jest yet. Any freeze now of any magnitude in hours or degrees below freezing, will be disastrous to gardeners...
    by at March 18th, 2012 at 10:03 pm
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    News-blues. The View from Route 8.
    Jim Suber Another week gone by and about the only good news for farmers is that maybe this summer won’t be as hot and dry, now that the federal watchers are claiming that the effects of La Nina weather should be over by the end of April. Other than that suggested change that might bring more rain, but with perhaps more violent spring storms, nothing looks very rosy when...
    by at March 10th, 2012 at 06:03 pm
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