Posted on 05/02/2008 1:59:56 PM PDT by abigkahuna
Food Shortages Growing? An email from a reader in the Midwest causes me some concern: "Last night at the daughter's horse riding lesson the price of horse feed came between my wife & the stable owner/riding instructor. One of her friends in Kansas said that his winter wheat looked great, but there was no wheat in the wheat plant heads (kernel/seed-I don't know the correct term). He reported that the grain miller that they normally use said that they are having trouble getting any wheat to prepare. Same thing from many Kansas wheat growers; plants look great, but no wheat to harvest. This is a family business that has been going since early 1900s. They made it through 2 world wars & the dust bowl. They are not sure if they can survive this year if they can't locate some wheat for processing. Nothing to mill, nothing to grind. That doesn't bode well for later in the year.
I couldn't find anything online about this, but the riding instructor is pretty mainstream & doesn't seem to be a conspiracy buff. She said that the lack of harvestable wheat, when the plants look normal, has never been seen before."
(Excerpt) Read more at urbansurvival.com ...
Well, time to get use to low carb dieting.
seems too early in the year for wheat to be harvested. Winter wheat here in Wisconsin only about 6 inches tall right now, and even though Kansas is way ahead of us weather wise, still seems 1-2 months early at least to harvest.
The winter wheat harvest typically begins in early June in Kansas, with the Kiowa area historically the first place in the state to take in grain.
Genetically modified chickens coming home to roost?
4/30/2008
AgWeb.com Editors
The risk of significant yield loss in Kansas wheat fields due to leaf rust and other foliar diseases has increased dramatically this past week, according to Kansas State University Research and Extension.
Leaf rust was discovered in commercial fields and variety demonstration plots in Sumner County in south-central Kansas on April 24th, wheat plant pathologist Erick DeWolf said in a press release. The leaf rust occurred with an incidence of less than 10% and with severity of less than 2% in both the Jagger and Jagalene varieties.
Leaf rust has also been observed in northern Oklahoma where the disease was slightly more advanced. Leaf rust was observed at trace levels on the Overley variety near Stillwater in north-central Oklahoma, but the disease has not yet been detected in fields planted to Overley wheat in Kansas.
Powdery mildew has also increased significantly during this past week, KSU Extension reported, and was also cited in Sumner county. The severity of powdery mildew in the area was greater than 25%, which can result in significant yield loss.
This is very weird. Might be related to lack of bees.
First week or so of June is when winter wheat harvests start. I call BS.
No news of this here in OHio. Wheat not up enough, I guess.
As far as the farm bill, did congress answer the ag sec’s concerns with the Ug99 concern with funding for more R&D?
Reminder, we only have 2 types fairly resistant to Ug99...
Thanks for that of info. The email was sent to Ure, who can not vouch for the information—that’s why I decided to post the info here to see if anyone has run across this problem yet.
Got Rice?
Don’t you remember — last week they said there was a rice shortage.
I have 60 acres planted and will be full term in about two weeks. It's there for the cows & wildlife and to shoot hogs from.
India says rice, wheat stocks adequate and growing
http://in.reuters.com/article/globalCoverage3/idINIndia-33366420080502
NEW DELHI (Reuters) - India has bought adequate quantity of rice and wheat from the local market and stocks of the staples will swell further, the head of the biggest official procurement agency said on Friday.
India, which imported wheat in the past two years, has banned exports of wheat and severely curtailed sales of rice to shore up domestic supplies and tame inflation, which has soared to a 3-1/2-year high and officials now say the granaries are brimming, ruling out imports.
“As of today, 15.4 million tonnes of wheat has been procured for the central pool,” Alok Sinha, chairman and managing director of Food Corp, told a news conference.
“It is expected that we may mop up 17.5 million tonnes wheat,” he said.
He said India was likely to exceed its target of buying 27 million tonnes of rice in the marketing year to September and had already purchased 23.2 million tonnes so far this year, which is 1.8 million tonnes more than the same period a year ago.
India’s bulging rice stocks offer no comfort to countries that face shortfalls.
Export curbs such as those in India and Vietnam have spooked importers like the Philippines and Bangladesh at a time when global stocks have halved from a record high in 2001.
An official from Thailand, the world’s biggest rice exporter, said producers were also facing higher costs as prices of inputs like fertilisers had risen.
India, the world’s second-biggest wheat producer, buys grains from local farmers for emergency needs and to feed the poor at lower rates. Government purchases also help farmers avoid distress sales.
“Wheat procurement has already surpassed the total procurement made in the last three years. We are going to buy more. We have the capacity to store up to 25 million tonnes wheat,” Sinha said. Lower wheat purchases by the Food Corp of India, the custodian of foodgrains, in the last two years forced the country to import 5.5 million tonnes of the grain in 2006, for the first time in six years.
Last year, India bought 1.8 million tonnes of wheat.
Yup...I was taunting you...
Japan had 45% of their rice crop from last year left over to this year, it's twice as expensive as rice grown in other countries.
Grasses, including wheat, are wind polinated. No bees needed for it.
Need any help shootin those hogs? I have been looking for somewhere to go. If you are in DS county. I am in Quay county. Private message me if you have any that a responsible person would be permitted to shoot.
I have wheat north of Hays, Kansas. I just talked to my brother who is there and he said they are expecting it to freeze sharply tonight and if it does, the there wont be enough to worry about cutting.
If it doesnt freeze, I will be looking for a non traditional market for what I do have. We will cut about the 25th of June.
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