Jul
11
I live in the Mississippi delta, an area several hundreds miles long, very flat and very agricultural. Here it’s ALL about the farming and cotton has always been king, until this year maybe. For the first time, in almost forever, more farmers have planted corn than cotton. I think there might be several reasons, maybe having to do with prices and stuff I don’t always understand! But one thing I’ve heard is that more ethanol (that uses corn) is being produced, so the demand for corn is higher. Another thing I read was that more corn being grown is why our milk prices have gotten so high; farmers that need corn for feed for their cattle can’t get it as easily because more corn is going for ethanol so it costs them more to feed their animals and the milk has gone up. I believe some people are paying more for a gallon of milk than a gallon of gas!
Last time I was on my way home from Stacy’s I took a few pictures of the fields, because in places everywhere you look all you can see is corn. I was standing on my car so I could get a bit above the field.
And my pictures don’t really show it but some of the corn is really, really high!
I should have waited til I could have put hubby up next to the stalks, he’s pretty tall and some of it makes him look small. I rode with him one evening to look at a pivot in a corn field and we drove up into the rows and it was a little scary to me because we were surrounded by nothing but corn and you couldn’t see above it. I know there are plenty of places in this country that grow corn; traditionally we haven’t been corn country before. But it’s been sort of interesting to see so much of it this year.
Now you know just one tidbit of info on why your milk might have gone up!
A different kind of corn for later, if I remember to go take pics!
July 11th, 2007 at 8:46 am
Your corn is higher than it is here in Kansas right now, but all of those cornfields look familiar – it seems that is all anyone grows around here, too! Corn is a very popular crop right now and form everything I have read, the repercussions of all the farmers growing so much corn are not very positive!
July 11th, 2007 at 9:04 am
What pretty pictures! Your comment about spending more for milk than a gallon of gas — someone reminded me the other day that a Starbuck’s latte costs more than a gallon of gas. Yikes. I better quit complaining about gas, or stop drinking lattes. . . . . . nah, I’ll stop griping about gas.
July 11th, 2007 at 11:24 am
That corn looks good. The corn around here is sooo small because of lack of rain. But, I’m glad to know the MS Delta is going strong!
July 11th, 2007 at 12:47 pm
We don’t see much corn. But it’s nice to have a little insight as to why we pay $4.99 per gallon of milk!
July 11th, 2007 at 1:25 pm
Pretty pictures. We have cornfields just down the road. I usually drive through them when meeting with my ex-husband to drop the girls off. I haven’t been through there in awhile, though. Not sure how tall ours is this year. Milk’s gone up? We only use about a half gallon every 2 weeks since none of us are milk drinkers. I didn’t even pay attention to the price the last time I was at the store.
July 11th, 2007 at 3:45 pm
We usually buy our corn from the local farm in June and it’s still not harvested. I did get some from my parent’s out of town trip … love fresh corn on the cob!
July 11th, 2007 at 5:01 pm
Wow, look at all that corn. We don’t have any around here–at least I haven’t seen any.
July 11th, 2007 at 7:48 pm
Wow that’s a lot of corn, I love the pictures Gail 🙂
Looks like you live in a beautiful area!!!
I’m finally back online after the move and trying to get settled in, decided to take a break from unpacking and came to say hi to everyone 🙂
Hugs,
♥Sandra
July 12th, 2007 at 7:25 am
Stacy’s talked before about how expensive milk has gotten. It’s weird, ours has only gone up a little…we’re still paying less than $2.00/gallon. Thank goodness!
July 12th, 2007 at 9:10 am
Girl my mom is putting up corn today and I’m so glad I live an hour away…hehe That is different…corn in the delta. Cool 🙂
Now as far as the milk goes…girl it was $4.42 last weekend. I nearly freaked! I called Patt and told him we needed to buy a cow! Where’s the cow that use to hang out in my backyard now??
July 13th, 2007 at 11:58 am
Great pictures! I’ve been reading a lot about corn and ethanol and prices too. I paid 4.07 a gallon for skim milk in Walmart a few days ago. It’s awful. All of these things are hurting farmers, and I hate that. I hate it that it hurts all of us average consumers too.