By Byron Gilbert
DULUTH, Ga. | In the 1970s, I had hair and lived in the small town where I went to college in Ohio (Ohio Wesleyan). Some of the years I spent working for a 500 watt daytime radio station that carried the Chicago Board and had agriculture shows and middle-of-the-road music. I could tell you the price of corn, soybeans, and winter wheat daily. These were the grain crops in the area and pigs and chickens were popular. Morgan and Arabian horses were bred there. West of town was Select Sires.
The local farmers referred to the rotation of crops as CBF. Traditionally, that was corn, beans, and flour, or winter wheat. The baby boomers following their fathers on the farm were turning the “F” into Florida, mostly because the price of wheat was so low making it not worth planting. It also allowed them to rest a field.
Corn is tops in Iowa, soybeans is Illinois, and wheat is Kansas. Wheat is west of the Mississippi River. It takes huge fields of the Great Plains.
As soon as I saw the outbreak of war in Ukraine, I thought about the price of wheat. Ukraine is the breadbasket of Europe and the crops won’t be planted or harvested. Italy, Turkey, Egypt, and Russia are the primary markets for Ukrainian grain.
American farmers paid to not plant should consider a wheat crop. The price will soar. Russia is another major producer and the world will be turning away from their products.
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