Corn A Year-Round Business
(Conttnuad from Paga 1)
ice-melter for roads and side
walks, liquid windshield
washer, packaging “peanuts”
materials, and laundry deter
gent. Because of their corn
based origin, these new pro
ducts are all biodegradable and
more enviromqentally-friendly
than much of their competition.
Sometimes the com growers
even find themselves defend
ing development of new uses
for com. One such instance
came when a television news
show a few months ago cited
the increasing use of ethanol
fuel as raising the cost of
canned com to consumers.
With com prices currently
higher than they have been in
several years, Wolf anticipates
increased plantings for the
1996 season. An avid reader of
ag magazines and educational
materials, he speculates from
what he has read and observed
that com acres are likely to
increase from two to five
percent.
“Some will probably come
from retiring present conserva
tion reserve acres,” Wolf said.
He foresees increased plant
ings in the South and South
east, where ho;; production is
growing and the com market is
deficit.
Cotton prices have been
high, he explains, and drew
many acres into that crop,
ground not really suited to pro
duction of the fiber. Now, Wolf
sees those marginal cotton
acres likely to be diverted to
com.
And while soybean prices
remain high on the charts, the
ratio to the com price is still
not enough, Wolf believes, to
entice large acreages from com
to beans. His rule of thumb is a
2.3 to 2.5 com-bean ratio —
com is profitable so long as the
per-bushel com price multi
plied by the 2.3 ratio, is com
parable to the price of a bushel
of soybeans.
Wolf and his farming
partner brothers Steve and
Dave grew up working on the
George and Hazel Wolf-family
crops and poultry farm. A
fourth brother, Jim, also
farmed with the family during
the years when Wolf Farm
Eggs was one of the area’s
largest producers.
Though he originally had no
strong intentions to return to
farming after college, Dan
Wolfs agriculture roots drew
him back to the home farm fol
lowing his graduation from
Penn State.
“I guess my heart has always
been in the field woik,” he
said. Wolf began helping with
field crops early in his child
hood years, when the family
cropped a large acreage of
potatoes. One of his first
responsibilities was piloting a
tractor and wagon hauling bags
of potatoes in from the fields.
The Wolf brothers team up
to man equipment when the
heavy planting and harvest sea
sons are under way. Steven
handles much of the planting
and combining, maintains all
the equipment, and fabricates
machinery improvements and
changes as needed. Dave keeps
the tracks rolling, from moving
supplies during planting, to
hauling the harvest to storaee.
and to the commodity markets
year-round.
Marketing plays a large role
in Dan’s rcsponsbilities. Part of
every day is spent scanning and
studying commodity price
movements and the news and
trends that impact planting,
harvest and pricing worldwide.
A satellite system hooked into
the farm office originates in the
Midwest and is updated several
times each trading day. He also
works with a market advisory
in structuring the year’s mark
eting plans.
“We make a lot of our mark
eting decisions for the rest of
the year about early November,
when we have an idea of the
national market and our own
crop,” he said. Factors impact
ing the Wolf’s marketing deci
sions include historical price
trends, strategies that have
worked well in the past years
and cash flow needs for the
farm.
Even while the com seed
lings are poking through the
ground, Wolf is thinking ahead
to the next planting season.
Varieties, planting techniques,
chemical, and fertilization
results are constantly watched
for successes and areas the
Wolfs want to change. During
the “off season, equipment
and property maintenance,
conservation program changes
and marketing keep the Wolf
brothers busy.
Of all the cropping concepts,
Wolf has tried and observed,
he sees no-till as the most over
whelming change in recent
times to the business of grow
ing com.
“We used to come home
from school and go to the Helds
to till ground—plow, disc, har
row. Tillage was a big deal;
now it’s a very small item in
Corn Talk,'Lancaater Farming, Saturday, Febnnry 10, 1996—page 3
mm mi miwo
Scanning the satellite service in the office at Wolf
Farms Is where Dan Wolf can be found several times
every day, checking the commodity markets and plan
ning marketing strategies for the grain operation.
the overall program,” said
Wolf, an avid, no-till advocate.
“Once you get to thinking no
till, it’s hard to go back. You
leant the things in no-till that
woik for you,: jrd you like the
results.”
Complementing the no-till,
the Wolfs crop their rolling ter
rain to contours and include
conservation practices like
diversion strips and water
ways. Cover crops are utilized,
though this past year’s fall
weather, with early November
snow and cold, limited top
growth.
One development on the
corn-growing horizon being
closely watched by Dan Wolf
is narrower rows for grain
com. Among the reported ben
efits of narrow rows—ls
inches to 22 inches—are better
utilization on sunlight, mois-
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ture and fertilizer, along with a
quicker and more intense shade
cover which provides a better,
natural weed control.
A step farther is “grid” com,
with plants spaced evenly in all
directions. One producer Wolf
has read about seeds com at
7-inch spacings with a drill,
then harvests slowly with con
ventional equipment.
“One drawback could be if
you have to re-enter fields to
sidedress or to spray,” Wolf
said. “But if you can distribute
plants more equitably, you can
get better yields. It could be
very beneficial to those
harvesting for forage use.”
Another hurdle is that
narrow-row equipment is not
generally available on the com
mercial market, so growers
must adapt their own. As
(Turn to Pogo 7)