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Indiana farmer isn’t making major planting changes

An Indiana farmer says even with the drop in corn prices he’s decided to stick with his typical corn and soybean rotation.

The USDA’s planting intentions report shows that U.S. corn acres in 2015 are expected to decline for the third straight year.

But, Randy Kron, who farms in southwest Indiana says he’s not making any major changes.  “We’ve looked at it and we like the corn and soybean rotation,” he says.  “We’ve put a little bit of wheat in there, but for us, we’re going to stick with our normal rotation for right now.”

He tells Brownfield while commodity prices have declined, input prices have not and that is putting additional pressure on his bottom line.  “Our seed costs have changed very little, but our fertility, or nitrogen prices are up a little this year,” he says.  “It’s kind of concerning when we’ve taken several dollars out of the commodity markets and our inputs are flat at best – and in some cases have increased.  It’s going to make the margins really, really slim this year for us.”

Even if the weather stays warm and dry, Kron says he’s still at least a week away from getting a start in the field.