Farm Talk
As you walk across farm country for ten days and more questions pop into your mind. Where does the irrigation water come from? What happens to the excess plant when the corn is harvested? Who owns the caravans of “combines” passing me leisurely along the open road? Well, to the rescue along comes Miss Vicky of Holdrege, Nebraska. She tells me, “Irrigation water comes from the Ogallala aquifer” I learn too farmers dig wells to get to the irrigation water. “We have problems with the corn borer moth. It works its way into the middle of the stalk. We use “round up” a pesticide.”
As I walked and observed hundreds of acres of soy beans fields, I notice sprinklings of taller green plants towering in height above the bean crop. “We call that rogue beans” Vicky explains. “We need to send folks into the bean fields to cut out this corn which has sprung up. I tell Vicky I read that corn is selling for six dollars a bushel and soybean is higher. “Actually, with the draught corn is now higher than six dollars. Bean fields yield less than corn. You get 210 bushels per acre for corn and only about 60 for beans”