At some point in a person’s lifetime, they’ll usually hit the “things aren’t like they used to be” phase. You know, “kids aren’t respectful like they used to be” or “people used to work hard in this country.” I never thought I’d hit this stage of my life at the ripe old age of 29. Yet, last week, my wife and I were opining on the way things were. We watched with disbelief as the nightly news reported on the growing number of…

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It seems the volume of ethanol detractors’ voices are directly tied to corn prices. The markets go up, the critics get louder. One of the more recent thrashings has come with the introduction of H.R. 3097 from Rep. Bob Goodlatte (R-VA) and Jim Costa (D-CA). The bill seeks to adjust the corn-based ethanol mandate in relation to the corn ending-stock-to-use ratio. Therefore, as we have less leftover corn, the mandate goes down. On paper it looks like this:  …

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During today's Illinois Agricultural Legislative Roundtable session, representatives from the state's major animal ag groups gave a fairly glum status report.   In a nutshell: 1. Pork producers are entering 20 months of losses. 2. Milk producers are getting half the price for milk they were a year ago. 3. Beef producers saw prices tank with the economy. 4. Lastly, each of the groups are concerned about attacks from animal welfare groups.   Mark Gebhards, Illinois Farm Bureau executive…

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