More Corn By the Numbers. Did You Know?

CORN....King CORN!   Seeds of Gold!  The bins are full and it actually was another fantastic season in Nebraska farm country.

I mentioned in an earlier blog that Nebraska has 26,000 Farmers producing over 1.52 BILLION Bushels of CORN this harvest season.

Other interesting facts are the reduction in energy used to produce each bushel of CORN.  37% Less energy than 10 years ago.

Soil Erosion is down 44% and goes hand in hand with that energy reduction since most Farmers are now doing a No-Till type of ConservationFarming where they do not plow under the old stalks of the previous crop.

Interestingly, only about 13% of corn grown in the United States receives irrigated water.

One nice thing in America is that approximately 95% of all farms are family owned.

GPS isn't just for driving to Grandma's house or showing homes anymore.

Most farmers are using GPS to plant their farms which make the rows straighter, and optimizing all the acreage possible ...not only for planting but for harversting as well...(You didn't really think those farmers could hold a steering wheel that straight did you?)

The average per acre yield is better than 166 bushels...a 24% increase per acre since 2003.

So how about fertilizer and chemicals?  The CORN farmers of today have increased the amount of corn grown by 87% for each ounce of fertilizer applied.  Todays' Farmer better understands the dangers of chemicals and fertilizers and are much better prepared to be good stewards of the land and with the above and below ground water supplies.

For more information go to www.nebraskacorn.org