By DOUG SCHMITZ
Iowa Correspondent

WEST DES MOINES, Iowa — Recent averages of agriculture commodity prices, expenses and yields indicate that an Iowa farmer would have to raise 12,136 feeder pigs, 5,000 yearling cattle or grow 610 acres of corn and soybeans (50/50 split) to earn the estimated median household income of $48,908 that the U.S. Census Bureau posted for Iowa in 2007.

What’s more, even with this summer’s historic flooding and record rainfall in the spring, 2007 was actually the fourth wettest year on state record.

“Despite those conditions, Iowa farmers were able to respond with record food and feed production,” said Zach Bader, Iowa Farm Bureau Federation (IFBF) communications specialist, about the newly released 2008 Iowa Agricultural Statistics book, published by the IFBF.

Compiled by the USDA’s Iowa Agricultural Statistics Service, information in the 139-page book consists of five sections: general information, county data, crops, livestock and economic data, and it also lists several agriculture-related websites on the back cover. Bader said public funds are never used, with the proceeds from the sale of the publication used to cover its production and printing.
“This is the 32nd edition,” he said. “It was first published in 1975. There were a couple years in the early 1990s when it wasn’t published.

“The overall mission of the book is to provide statistical information about Iowa agriculture compared to the rest of the nation, (and) to provide county, state and national statistics on agriculture.”
Weather wasn’t the only challenge Iowa’s 88,400 farms faced.
Rising expenses – including fuel, fertilizer, land and feed – cut into farm income, with the price to purchase farmland rising 22 percent in 2007, the highest increase since the 1970s, Bader said.
“As profit margins have tightened over the years, farmers have grown their farms to generate the income necessary to support their families,” he said. “Despite those efforts, many livestock farmers encountered rising feed costs that pushed their margins into the red in 2007 and 2008.”

Other statistics compiled for the book indicate why growth has been a necessity for modern farms.

“The average farm in Iowa is 356 acres,” Bader said. “If a farmer planted a 50/50 mix of corn and soybeans on 356 acres, he/she would earn less than $28,600, which is nearly the poverty threshold for a family of six.”

An Iowa State University report of predicted corn and soybean acreage this year, based on USDA’s plantings intentions report, stated Iowa producers had planned to grow 13.2 million acres of corn (a 7 percent decrease from 2007) and 9.8 million acres of soybean (a 15 percent increase from 2007).

“Although corn acreage for 2008 is less than in 2007 (14.2 million acres), it is more than in 2006 (12.6 million acres),” the report read. “Soybean acreage for 2008 follows the same pattern, but in reverse; with more acreage than in 2007 (8.55 million) and less acreage than in 2006 (10.15 million acres).

“Iowa corn acreage this coming year is expected to be 1 million acres less than in 2007 and it appears that this, along with other ground (CRP, hay and small grains), is being directly switched over to soybean (increase of 1.25 million).”

In fact, the ISU report stated Iowa corn acreage nationally is projected at 86 million acres, with soybeans projected at 74.8 million, which is an 8 percent reduction and an 18 percent increase relative to 2007, respectively.

“The corn and soybean rotation is important for many agronomic reasons, such as yield benefits related to the rotation effect, disturbing pest cycles and decreasing the use of nitrogen fertilizer,” the report read.

“Maintaining Iowa corn and soybean acres is important for industry to support the strong demand in the state from livestock producers, but also from the biofuels industry.”

Bader said the latest figures outlined in the book, which can be purchased for $11, show Iowa harvested the largest corn for grain crop in state history – approximately 2.37 billion bushels – along with nearly 439 million bushels of soybeans in 2007.

“The state also saw record pig and chicken inventories and egg production in late 2007, while the cattle inventory rose for the fourth straight year in early 2008,” he said.