Missippi Delta Corn

[TNhobbyfarmer]

I was driving through the Mississippi delta earlier this week. First time I've been there in quite some time. It used to be that most of the crop land was in cotton. I noticed a lot of corn starting to germinate out of the ground. Has the price of grain changed the cropping habits of farmers in that area? Are they changing to corn and getting away from cotton because the profit potential is better in grains? If so, I wonder how the yield of corn in the southern climates compares to the corn belt. Can a farmer expect as many bushels/acre in the hotter southern climes as the upper midwest guys get, i.e., IA, NE, IL etc? Just curious.

 

[kneedeep]

due to the Feds pushing ethanol production, corn prices have risen. Lots of reason corn is high but ethanol seems to be a major reason. A friend of mine raises cotton and the contract price seems to get lower every year so he only contracts some. He seems to do better after harvest but it is a gamble. The seed sales from cotton always put him over the top every year. Lots of the Delta acreage is in contract grain now, but that will change if too much is planted and harvest is good. It is also risky raising corn on non irrigated land where cotton and beans will produce ok on dry fields but corn will not.

 

[newbury]

Another factor may be that with the recent droughts in the "cornbelt" and Mississippi seeming to escape the drought it looks like a great place to plant.

 

[kneedeep]

Newbury, your right! This has been a wet year in the Delta!
With all that groundwater, if it ever stops long enough to plant and the weeds don't get too tall, gonna be some big yields this year.

 

[stuckmotor]

When I see the words, Missippi Delta, I think about Johnny Cash singing how Missippi Delta land robbed him of his youth, and thinking it was strange to hear someone complain about having rich soil.