If harvest is delayed a week or two this year and you can put off preparations a few days, that may not be all bad. It will give you time to wrestle with decisions that will qualify your farm for permanent disaster coverage for 2008 and 2009 crops.

9/05/2008, 2:46 PM CDT

Machinery Pete receives some interesting requests for auction sale price data but the latest one for chicken nests has him stumped. "We have 75 different categories of equipment we track auction sale price data on. No category for chicken nests though," Pete says. If you have any ideas drop Pete an email at greg@factsreport.com.

9/04/2008, 12:15 AM CDT

Travel out East to learn what machinery sold at an Ohio farm auction.

9/04/2008, 11:30 AM CDT

If the tone of the room at Wednesday's Marketing Talk Meeting is any indication, how this year's corn crop ends up is anybody's guess. That's the tone as farmers shared views of their fields from around the Midwest. Though conditions range widely, there is one constant: Extremes.

9/03/2008, 1:00 PM CDT

Fertilizer prices have a lot of farmers thinking about the choices they have to defray some of the skyrocketing costs. Cutting back on applications in general is the obvious tactic. But, knowing how much to apply by keeping a closer eye on the soil conditions is becoming a feasible option for many farmers.

8/29/2008, 4:16 PM CDT

Grain moisture content and temperature are the primary factors affecting grain deterioration in storage. If these factors are not properly monitored and controlled, grain quality can deteriorate quickly due to mold growth and insect infestation.

8/29/2008, 1:49 PM CDT

Sudden death syndrome, though not a new pest to Iowa, is expanding into areas where it has never been seen before. This year it seems to be appearing in fields planted through late May, crop-watchers say.

8/29/2008, 1:26 PM CDT

The farm bill's newest, big program after the permanent disaster program that started this year may be ACRE, the average crop revenue election that farmers have the option of signing up for on their 2009 crops.

8/29/2008, 12:46 AM CDT

Temple Grandin, a Ph.D animal scientist at Colorado State University, author, consultant and speaker, has changed the way livestock are handled and treated worldwide, Her curved hog loading chutes are on farms in Iowa and in packing plants in Brazil. And half of the cattle in North American packing plants enter on a center track restraining system, a moving conveyer she designed.

8/28/2008, 9:28 AM CDT

The new commodity program in the Food, Conservation and Energy Act of 2008, ACRE, isn't available for crops harvested this year. Those harvested in 2009 will be the first that can be enrolled in the new Average Crop Revenue Election, or ACRE, program.

8/28/2008, 9:05 AM CDT