Kayla Niner
Published: October 29, 2008

Local farmer, Ronald Hartman, describes this past year as a rollercoaster ride, yet somehow he’s coming out on top.

“Whether it was the will of God, luck, or a combination of both, some of it has to do with the weather, we have had a very good weather year, believe it or not,” Hartman said.

Despite the late planting season, Hartman’s crops are okay, but market prices are dropping.

Hartman said, “The Futures (a publication) which you watch for future trends in the markets are telling us that milk is probably going to go down somewhat.”

Hartman expects the dairy prices in the store to go down a few cents, but milk isn’t the only price that is going down.

Norm Weber, of Weber Processing Inc, said “You know a month or two ago you had cattle over a dollar, and now they have gone down almost like gas prices and now it’s down somewhere in the neighborhood of 80 or 85 cents.”

But the question everyone is asking is when are prices going to go back up?

“I’ve been here full time since 57 and part time since 47, if I knew the answer to that I would not have to be working today, believe me,” Weber said with a laugh.

Prices of crops and livestock are changing so frequently, that it is proven to be an interesting year.

“It’s something that no one in this industry has seen in their life time and now we’re seeing it all within a year,” Hartman said.

According to Hartman, it’s still too early to predict what the next few months will bring.

Kayla Niner can be reached at Kayla.Niner@loras.edu

 

The floods of 2008 found its way into Iowa’s fields, making for one tough planting season.

This week, I met with a few local farmers to see just how bad the damage was.

Matt Heitz has been farming since the 1970’s and has seen his share of corn crops.

He said, ” I think with this year’s crops it’s a little different then it normally is. We’re off to a late start with planting so a late frost is going to be extremly important this year.”

Some corn is behind almost a month due to the late planting season.

However, according to a release from the Iowa Department of Agricultural, corn will yield about the same as last year, but for each farmer it varies due to the weather they experienced.

Heitz said, “It’s kind of feast or famine this year and oddly enough in the same field you can have what was typically a wet spot that didn’t cause a problem is a big bare spot this year.”

The wet spring affected more than just the corn fields.

Local gardeners, like Shirley Oberbroeckling, had to wait to plant, but dispite the wait, they have had mostly good turn outs.

She said, “The harvest has been good. Some of our plants like our peppers and onions are doing awesome. Sweet corn is coming in very good, squash is coming in nice, and later muskmelon, so that part is really good.”

Many farmers at Farmers Market said that wet fields prevented them from planting some crops.

Fortunately the ones that made it in the ground turned out well.

They also said, it really depended on what area you were in, so some farmers may have lots of tomatoes, and another may not have any.

The one thing farmers and gardeners alike are hoping for is a late frost and warmer weather for a few more weeks.

Kayla Niner can be reached at Kayla.Niner@loras.edu