Article by Danny Morris, UT Extension Area Specialist – Farm Management

With commodity prices trending lower over the course of the past two years, producers are looking at alternative crops to potentially increase their net farm income. An example of this would be producers planting more grain sorghum, or milo, as they have done here in Tennessee for this crop year. Some West Tennessee growers are contemplating planting canola this year due to a canola processing facility in Kentucky and a few local grain elevators expecting to be buying stations in 2016. Continue reading at Profitability of Canola for West Tennessee Growers.

While prices have declined for grains, they are not that far off from when the crop was planted. Grains and soybean prices for harvest delivery have dropped 2 percent to 5 percent since mid-May. Prices have been volatile in between with some opportunities for pricing. Still, further declines in prices even at record or close-to record yields are not needed. Continue reading at Southeast Farm Press.

USDA National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) recently released publication Farm Computer Usage and Ownership. Highlights for Tennessee include an increase of the number of farms with computers from 55% in 2011 to 68% in 2015; increase of farms that use computers for farm business from 26% in 2011 to 35% in 2015; and increase in farms that purchase inputs over the internet from 10% in 2011 to 17% in 2015. The publication in its entirety can be found at Farm Computer Use – Aug 2015.

As written by Dr. Larry Steckal on UT Crops News Blog , producers in Tennessee in the Mississippi River bottoms are planting ultra-late soybeans on ground previously flooded. Before planting, there may be some crop insurance considerations to take into account. Producers should have already contacted their crop insurance agent and discussed the situation with them. This is critical as this can be a complicated issue and if timely reporting has not been done, there may not be an indemnity payment. Continue reading →