I'll be the first to admit, I didn't grow nearly enough of this precious "grain" (which to me, given my animal inputs, is worth it's weight in gold) in 2010. Even with a bit over 2.6 acres it wasn't enough to keep up with the deman of the poultry or human use this winter. That will be remidied this season with the opening up of 2 previously closed acres and a bio-intensive regime for the other crops on the farm leaving more room for the growth of grain and legumes for long term storage, human and animal feed.
Saturday I made the shot trip to the local mill to pick up some basic feed supplies (I mix my own rations and am working on individual rations for gamebirds and chickens, one of which I posted here a few months back) and was shocked by the rising price of corn. Apparently 6.65 cents was the going rate of a bushel, but considering a 50 lb bag isn't quite a bushel and I paid 6.65 for 50 lbs, someone made a good bit of profit!
Commodity prices are skyrocketing, both due to global shortages in grain production and because of the rampant inflation which we have been softly cushioned from via market manipulation, but that cushion is now wearing thin, and where do we see ourselves in the short term future?
Perhaps this article from zerohedge.com will inform you of the importance of what I speak.
If I and others are lucky we will make it into the harvest season before the enitre ponzi scheme that is the U.S. economy falls through, but China wanting to buy 9x their usual amount in imports doesn't bode well for the coming months in between with the harvest at least 7-9 months out.
I hope this will at least make you think about what the word "sustainability" really means and give you the boost you need to grow your own crop. Of course for those concerned with the dangers Genetically Modified food/feed should already be growing their own or buying from a local and trustworthy farmer.
Make use of all the diverse parts of the corn crops like we do here at Bishop's Homegrown and you will see just how much further your hard labor and "dollar" will stretch. We feed out and eat the grain ourselves, producing meat, save the cobs for bedding, shred and return the fodder to the ground, and compost the turkey and other animal litters to return to the crop. Nothing is wasted.
For those searching for seed stock we still have a ton of Amanda Palmer dent for sale. This is a new synthetic population that we began working with last season that combines the reliability of the Southern and Mid-Western Open Pollinated dent populations with the drough tolerance of a day length neutral tuxpeno and some genes from the old "prolific" lines. Makes a find cornmeal and is prefered by our poultry flock over all other varieties. You can order (in bulk as well) from faceoftheearth.blogspot.com
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