Weed, tight margins on farmers' minds

Several Midwest farmers discussed their concerns while they kicked tires at the Farm Progress Show.

Waterhemp threat

For Gayl Wyss of Minonk, prices and weeds are at the forefront in his mind. Both are threatening to cut into the bottom line at his Woodford County farm.

“I would say $3.50 corn and waterhemp are at the top of my list,” Wyss said. “We’re looking at everything and anything that works on waterhemp.”

Last season was the first Wyss had serious problems with glyphosate-resistant waterhemp, which has spread from Southern Illinois throughout the state in the past few years.

“We planted our first Liberty beans this year,” he said. “You can fight it on your farm, but if your neighbors are letting it wash down, you still have a problem.”

Greg Myers, who farms near Fairbury, is paying attention to margins and weed control.

“My waterhemp was worse this year,” he said. “I don’t think they’re necessarily resistant; it’s just a matter of getting them killed. Of course, we had a lot of water this season.”

Input costs

Rodney Crim of Golconda, who grows Roundup Ready corn and soybeans on his farm deep in the Southern tip of Illinois, has issues with inputs, especially nitrogen.

“The main concern would be the cost of fertilizer,” Crim said. “It’s not going down. You see the fluctuation of soybeans and corn, where they’re going up and down. But your chemicals are not going down.”

Crim has been farming since 1975, when he began helping his father. The farm once included wheat, but he has gotten away from that crop, largely because of weather-related quality problems in recent years.

“If you want to grow a good crop, you can’t cut down on the fertilizer,” he said. “You have to have it.”

As with other farmers, Crim is having his share of problems with resistant weeds.

“The chemicals we’re using don’t seem to have the same

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effect that they used to,” he said. “Waterhemp is our main problem, along with fall panicum. Resistant palmer amaranth is also showing up.”

Tight margins

Dave Stephens of Stanford is concerned about slim margins, including crop prices and input costs.

“I’m looking at prices, mainly,” he said. “Also, what’s it going to cost me to put my crop in the ground. This year things don’t look all that good.”

Neil Rich, who farms in Washington County in Iowa, also sees tight margins as a top concern. Like others, he is planning to keep a closer eye on margins.

“I’ll probably just manage costs a little closer than in the past,” he said.

Environmental regulations — especially those such as the Environmental Protection Agency’s Waters of the United States rule — also give Rich pause.

“That’s going to affect the cost of everything,” he said. “We started changing waterways on our farm to combat erosion and for other things. I don’t need someone telling me to do that. Getting a permit to change a waterway doesn’t seem to be cost-effective.”

Evaluating expenses

The drop in commodity prices poses a dilemma for many farmers who are looking long and hard at expenses. Justin Gillespie of Toulon is one of them.

“You just don’t know what to do,” he said. “We’re trying to make decisions on what to do next year. You don’t necessarily want to spend too much money, and we’re not spending any extra money. We’re cutting costs. For example, we didn’t spray any fungicide this year.”

Gillespie, a livestock producer, said he also has concerns with EPA regulations.