Woodford County field update
EL PASO – When we spoke with Woodford County farmer Rob Shaffer late last week, he was busy putting soybeans in the ground while enjoying the sunshine.
“We’ve got the bean planters running and we are going to try and finish our beans up before the rain comes,” Shaffer said on Friday.
Even though it was too windy to spray, Shaffer was just happy to keep putting the crop in the ground ahead of the big Mother’s Day soaker. He said they haven’t been rushed at all this season, which has been nice.
“A few rain events came through but nothing major,” Shaffer recalls. “When we break something, we usually have a couple of days to fix it.”
Shaffer considers this a “heck” of a year so far with higher corn and soybean prices. He hopes everyone stays safe on the farm and takes the time to get things done right.
“Hopefully, Mother Nature will take care of us and give us the water, heat and rain we need to raise a crop.”
Shaffer serves on the American Soybean Association board currently, after spending several years serving with the Illinois Soybean Association. ASA lobbies both Congress and the White House in Washington, D.C. for soybean policy which impacts the 23 major soybean producing states.
“There are 56 of us and there are eight from Illinois,” Shaffer explained.
The job of ASA is to influence policy – whether it is climate change, carbon credits or the farm bill. They also do plenty of training at the state level.
