Claypool Biofuel Plant Opens

The summer has been hard on farmers and crop stress continues, despite the recent rain. It doesn't help the weather, but perhaps having the world's largest soybean, biofuel processing plant just down the way in Claypool (near Warsaw) will help our local farmers in years to come.

Update: Record Rainfall

Update 2: Tropical Storms Could bring Soybean Rust to Indiana

Note: January, 2005: Sevens member Tim Baker vs. Soybean Rust:

The threat of Asian soybean rust should not change the way a producer farms, according to a recent article in the Fort Wayne Journal Gazette. At a recent meeting of northeastern Indiana farmers, Purdue University agricultural economist Chris Hurt said that soybean rust could narrow the profit margins of farmers in the area, but planting different crops to avoid the disease would likely cost more. Hurt was among the speakers at a soybean rust workshop held in Fort Wayne recently, attended by about 120 farmers. "It could be devastating, we don't know, but the fear of the unknown may be bigger than what the reality of the disease really is," Hurt said. Tim Baker, who farms 2,500 near Ossian in Wells County, said he attended the workshop to develop a plan to deal with a soybean rust outbreak. He said he learned the best ways and times to apply fungicide in order to protect crops from the disease. "It's pretty devastating if you get it," he said.