Recent Claims by The Ice Age Farmer... Not all claims are verified..

[Abigayle]

After hearing on The Ice Age Farmer last week, that most of Iowa's corn crop was destroyed we checked it out with a friend, that was An Ag director at Iowa State U.  He had traveled world wide as a consultant and owns a large farm in Iowa.  Yes, the storm was very serious, but in a nutshell, this is what we were told...
Derecho did impact the corn yield for the central part of the state.  There was a good crop before the storm, but now they can not harvest it.  The main effect this year was the drought in West Central and Northwest Iowa. More acreage was planted this year, because of this, the total corn crop was near a record.  Illinois and Minnesota corp crops were very high, so there will not be a corn shortage this year.  It is difficult at this time to get the whole effect of the drought, on Iowa corn, even for the experts.
Sometimes, things are dramatically exaggerated, in order to appeal to an audience, such as ours.
We put up our own corn, and of course had copious amounts of rain (which ruined three beautiful rows of butter beans).  If you happen to listen to that U-tube, take it with a gain of salt and whatever corn you would normally buy at this point.  Now if I only knew someone from Vietnam to see if all their rice has really washed out..  Oh wait, I do...I will have to check on that one.

[Country Singer]

Thanks for the information, this was something that I was concerned with.  I know a farmer in Tennessee that had an excellent corn crop as well (he has been harvesting in excess of 235 bushels per acre), so it appears things aren't in dire straights as was previously reported.

[8greenbeans]

I think it's somewhere in between what MSM/GovAg reports and what IAF reports. What's concerning are the food warehouse, silo, and processing plant fires across the globe and the fact that they are in clusters. And the very strange agriculture terrorism I've heard out of a couple other countries (metal bolts being tied to corn stalks, ruining a harvest if not caught in time - and if caught in time, the extra time it takes to remove the bolts before the harvest can be completed).

Edited to add: a friend drove through corn country on the way to the in-laws' and said everything she saw was devastation compared to what she has seen in previous years. Granted, that is one singular route and not representative of the entire area.

[Abigayle]

We have three sons still living in Iowa.  It was terrible, no doubt.  Two of the boys are near Ankeny/Ames.  Since Delrecho (I know I mis-spelled it) means to "go straight ahead", in Spanish, This type of storm means just that.  Since it would take out the first six or eight rows, it often looked worse than it was, and yes, it was the worst in Iowa history, but it was exclusive.  I hear what you are saying, regarding the attacks on our food supply.  It all started way back when we started thinking hybrid meant better.    It's been going downhill ever since. We can hardly find non-hybrid corn anymore and when we do, it produces one ear to a stock.  We get both seed, just in case, but comment the sin of planting Silver Queen or Silver King.  One of these days we will pay for that behavior.  Actually, thee drought in central Iowa did more harm this year than the storm.  This is fact.  The blessing was in over-planting this year, expecting a big trade deal with China.

[RWS]

I have about 25lbs of Stowell's Evergreen corn seed in the freezer.  I need to renew my supply but toe seed I have is still good and I am lazy.  Does anyone want to try some of this corn this year?  We ate it just like silver queen and let what we did not put up mature on out.  We dried it and shelled it and in the freezer it went.  Several years ago.  It is pretty good corn and it is open pollinated.

https://www.smartgardener.com/plants/1515-corn-stowells-evergreen/overview

PS:  I do have a hand crank sheller....

[RWS]

Just in case you didn’t realize the food supply problem could get any worse, major tractor / agriculture manufacturers are now unable to deliver new equipment to retailers because of the shortage of microchips.
Much like modern cars and trucks, today’s tractors, combines and other agricultural equipment use microchips and software to control everything from fuel efficiency to emissions. Because of the global microchip shortage, these agricultural equipment manufacturers are having to sideline their own production, much like Ford is doing with trucks.
Jones said the reason the massive shortage happened is because at the beginning of the pandemic everything was shut down and the supply of microchips decreased.

The next batch of microchips won’t be ready until June, and they already have enough orders to fill that will quickly use up all they receive, Jones said.
Without new tractors and farming equipment, food production will decline, and that’s on top of the food supply losses already kicking in due to extreme drought in Western states. On top of that, skyrocketing fuel prices and record demand for rail transportation are adding to the costs of food materials and finished food products, causing steady increases in food inflation at the grocery stores.

https://dcdirtylaundry.com/farmageddon-microchip-supply-line-collapse-hits-tractors-and-farm-equipment/