Farmer hasn’t experienced supply disruptions, is making planting decisions

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Farmer hasn’t experienced supply disruptions, is making planting decisions

Central Indiana Farmer Mike Beard says he hasn’t experienced any supply disruptions on his farm so far despite the coronavirus pandemic.

“We’re making sure we have inputs on hand and that seems to be going according to plan as no suppliers who have indicated any less than what we’ve already ordered,” he says. “We’ve ordered all the chemicals and all the seed we need, and the seed has been delivered.”

He says ethanol plants are being forced to idle or shutdown which is impacting corn growers.

“It’s impacting the value of our corn going to market and we really need a big export of corn to China to lift this market a little bit,” he says. “I think it’s a possibility and I’m going to hold my corn based on that.”

Beard says the date they would ideally begin planting is April 15th or 20th, but the haven’t been able to do any fieldwork yet.

“I’d like to have some burndown on before then, but if not the first thing that’s going to happen is burndown,” he says. “The second thing apparently this year is going to be to plant soybeans. We’ll start the soybean planter and then get the corn planter going.”

Beard, president of Indiana Corn Growers Association, raises corn, soybeans, and hogs in Clinton County.

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