Louisiana corn

JerryS · Aug 2, 2012

Some of you asked for more photos. Couple of days ago I went for a drive through the major agricultural area of my parish, which is in the northwest corner of Louisiana, abutting Texas and Arkansas. The Red River cuts through this farmland, and the land shown here is only about a mile from the river---a fact that raises questions I don't have the answers to. Some of the corn shown here is, to my eye, dead and unproductive. Other corn is tall and laden. In some cases (shown in photo) a good field is directly next to a bad field. Apparently some is irrigated and some is not.

Nearly all of these are long-established family farms that have been there over 100 years. Why some have irrigation and some don't, I don't know. As I said, Red River is right at their backs, and the Red River Alluvial Aquifier is only 60 feet down. I wanted to ask some questions, but nobody I ran into spoke English.

SweetFeet · Aug 2, 2012

JerryS,
Thanks for posting more photos.

Beautiful country. The sky in your photos is amazingly blue.

Weird about the corn... some does look ok, some looks flat out dead.

LAA · Aug 2, 2012

The corn looks good to me -- the eighth picture down looks like milo, if it is corn it was probably really late planted, as hot as this summer has been it would not have had much of a chance. I am 100 miles east and my corn has been in the bag for nealy 6 weeks and all the local grain harvesting has been finished for 2 weeks.

JMS/.MN · Aug 3, 2012

It"s dead cuz it"s ripe- late summer harvest is typical there. Also, unlike MN, no drying cost, and since they are close to N.O. ports.......very little freight cost...maybe even positive basis, vs MN price typically 40 cents under CBOT. (farmer always pays the freight). Southern farmers have a distinct marketing advantage over Northern farmers....between drying and freight costs. Plus the possibility to double-crop.

JerryS · Aug 3, 2012

You may have a valid point. I don't know how these farmers ship out their grain, but they have an inland port available to them on the Red River just 20 miles south of their farms. There are five locks-and-dams on the Red between here and the Mississippi River, which of course runs on to New Orleans.

mb58 · Aug 3, 2012

Here in Northeast Louisiana we have went from 25 cents off base price to 45 cents and now 60 cents. The middle-man WILL make his. Most corn is yeilding 150 to 250 b/p/a in this area. The Mississippi river is so low that the port/elevators can't ship. Most local elevators here in Northeast La. have made a deal to haul corn to Natchez where they can still ship out on the Miss. river. They are trying to keep the local elevators from being full of corn when the soybean harvest starts next month. Corn can lay on the ground out in the open-soybeans can't.

LAA · Aug 3, 2012

I would agree southern farmers have an advantage as to growing season length but a corn or cotton grower who is not in a rotation only has one crop per year if if he plants no forage crop to graze or chop. As far as forage production to produce meat or milk it can be done cheaper in the south but few farmers get the grain yields of corn, wheat, oats or beans that are common up north, in addition it all has to be done under irrigation to make a consistent crop and it takes more fertilizer and lime. The warm winters and constant leaching of soil nutrients take a big toll unless there is something green and growing year round.

Louisiana corn

JerryS

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SweetFeet

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LAA

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JMS/.MN

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JerryS

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mb58

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LAA

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