Rather than rotating corn planting with soybeans to replace soil nitrogen, many farmers are planting corn year after year and adding large amounts of nitrogen fertilizer.
Along with school, there were plenty of chores: cutting hay, pulling corn, planting vegetables, feeding chickens, slaughtering steers.
The Colombian Coffee Federation said its country's high-end growers have begun planting corn and other crops as a way of diversifying incomes, and that most have been reinvesting by replacing old coffee plants with newer, more productive ones.
Not only is planting corn typically more profitable, but ranchers are wary of permanently adding cows from the southern Plains to their herds since the animals are bred for a warmer climate and tend to be smaller than those typically raised in the Midwest.
To capture higher prices, farmers worldwide are planting more corn, which requires seven times as much nitrogen as, say, soybeans, notes AltaCorp Capital analyst John Chu.
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Jeff Scates, a farmer in Southern Illinois, said about 75% of his family's farm was underwater last spring, and he didn't finish planting his corn crop until early June.
The cool, wet spring in the Midwest delayed planting of the corn and soybean crops and that means pollination of these two crops is happening later in the summer.
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This sterile desert has nothing to offer -- except perhaps a tiny bit of the thousands of tons of agricultural pesticide applied to the corn, way back at planting time, that makes its way to the pollen collected by the bees, which is stored and eaten later.
Instead, they are diversifying their incomes by planting crops such and corn and launching side businesses such as coffee tours and shops.
Many new initiatives in the bill fund research and programs for farm-based biofuels, including everything from making methane out of cow manure to planting switchgrass and especially, growing corn to make ethanol, which has been promoted as a means toward energy independence.
At another village in Lesotho a logistical glitch prevented corn seeds donated by an aid organization from arriving in time for the planting season.
As for corn, farmers who were able to get into the fields during a soggy planting season in late March and April are seeing their crops in some cases under several feet of water.
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