It's Been A Good Year For Corn And Soybeans In Southwest Michigan

Oct 31, 2022

By Sehvilla Mann

Eric Anderson of the Extension’s St. Joseph County office in Centreville said that as of Tuesday, 30 percent of the grain corn in the state had been harvested. That’s opposed to silage corn, where the whole stalk is harvested for animal feed. Southwest Michigan doesn’t grow much silage corn, but Anderson said anyone in the region who was growing it had most likely harvested it by now.

Anderson said timely rain, but not too much of it, throughout the season kept disease outbreaks to a minimum this year. And recent warm and dry weather (with the exception of a few rainy days this week) have helped the corn mature for harvest, and made it easier to work in the fields.

“Most of the folks that I’m talking to have either on par with their normal averages, or in some cases well above average. And that’s the case for corn and soybeans,” he said.

CROP

Click here to see more...

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.