Farm

Soil moisture levels are falling from the highs seen last week due to storms across the state, according to Jennie Atkins, Water and Atmospheric Resources Monitoring (WARM) program manager at the Illinois State Water Survey, Prairie Research Institute, University of Illinois.
Rains last week caused increases in soil moisture levels across the state. On June 11, statewide levels at 2 inches averaged 0.36 water fraction by volume, the field capacity of most of the soils monitored.

A new study finds that increased corn yields and more efficient use of corn ethanol co-products will greatly decrease land needed for ethanol production, flying in the face of conventional anti-ethanol criticisms.
The research indicates crop land attributable to ethanol production will drop from the current 25 percent to as little as 11 percent of U.S. corn acres.

There are now 3.2 million farmers operating 2.1 million farms on 914.5 million acres of farmland across the United States, according to the 2012 Census of Agriculture, released last week by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
The agriculture census presents more than 6 million pieces of information, which provide a detailed look at the U.S. farm sector at the national, state and county levels.

During the next several weeks, the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Agricultural Statistics Service (NASS) will conduct two major mid-year surveys – the June Agricultural Survey and the June Area Survey. The agency will survey 4,000 producers in Illinois to determine crop production and supply levels in 2014.