Rain, rain is going away...

Cornbelt planters have seen a lot of shed time so far this season, but you can bet farmers in the eastern cornbelt will be burning a lot of diesel next week.  At least if the weather forecast for the next 10 days or so holds up. Daily forecasts for St. Louis and nearby areas is sunny-times-10, banishing clouds from both the skies and the minds of thousands of guys who just want to get out in the field and work.

Yesterday, the Kansas City Star reported that planting activity has hardly gotten out of the starting gate in many part of the cornbelt.  Illinois, for example, had just 10 percent of the seed in the ground, compared to the usual 80 percent this time of year. Indiana had 11 percent instead of the usual 70 percent. Missouri and Ohio were way behind, too, but farmers in Iowa and Minnesota have had a near perfect planting season.

Futures prices have been inching up since rain stated falling in late April, and by Tuesday had hit $4.50 a bushel on the CBT. Could mean a good deal at the elevator in the fall, but nobody knows for sure. That's why they invented market hedges.

To read the full story, click here:  http://www.kansascity.com/438/story/1196471.html

"An ID system is critically needed," Joyce Bupp told a gathering yesterday in Harrisburg, convened by the USDA to explore sentiment about the National Animal Identification System under consideration by the department. Bupp is a dairy farmer and a corporate board director of Dairy Farmers of America, the giant milk co-op, and also a Lancaster Farming columnist. Her sentiments were echoed by a few and resisted by many at the meeting, according to a report by staff writer Chris Torres in tomorrow's issue. Check it out.

Throw away your pliers, your wrenches, your hammers and your surgical instruments. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OMZwa_WtSo8