The Most Best Time of the Year
5:21 AM – September 5, 2017
Good Morning. It has been a while. I felt that you needed a break to know how much you missed my thoughtful prose. (Insert Laugh) I simply knew I could not compete for your attention during Summer vacations or the time leading up to the eclipse. Glad we all survived that event and the world continued onward. Now that all the celestial bodies around us are done pulling on us so hard, we can focus on September.
Yesterday, I marked the end of Summer with a sunrise fishing trip with my family. It proved successful as we landed a few rock fish even amidst the tangled lines. Seven and nine year olds don’t always pay perfect attention to their lines. Right, news flash…
On the Eastern Shore, this next ten weeks offers the best of everything as the rock fish bite comes on, dove hunting, early season wood ducks, deer season, and the beach is amazing with a coastal wind (not a buggy westerly), as the OSV becomes less populated.
This period of transition takes our children back to school and the days get shorter. We all monitor photoperiod and I start looking for my Trapper Keeper and my backpack. I know many parents will leave tire marks dropping the kids off today! It was a great Summer but now is the time to look forward.
With the rainy Summer, our farmers are going to have a bumper crop if the beans finish strong and the corn starts to dry. Grain prices continue to be low but there are signs of change in that department; however, I won’t comment on that as it is like picking stocks, and I realize “I know nothin about nothin”.
While grain prices have made profits limited, it has not impacted the regional land market grossly. The recent USDA land value report demonstrated little change in land values in Maryland and Delaware. In Maryland the per acre value of farmland is $7,060 and in Delaware $8,400. This is a small increase in value, for Maryland it’s up 1% and Delaware it’s up 2.7%. These metrics should make any farmer or landowner feel good about their holdings, in that the principal land use of agriculture has not greatly influenced land values, as commodity prices have been soft. As we have said in this venue several times before, it’s not all about commodity prices. A range of economic factors go into the value of our dirt here on the Shore.
This is truly a great time of year to evaluate your land by taking a buggy ride to check your roads for access issues from summer storms and evaluate what land improvements you may want to make this winter when crops are off or cover crop is in. You have certainly had plenty of evidence of how water is flowing off your farm recently.
Clearly, I have been gone from writing for nearly a month and I have rambled on for far too long. I can see the Eastern sky lightening up, but it was good to catch up. I wish you the best for the coming Fall.
Be Well!
P.S. If you are an English teacher please don’t call me, or take offense about the title of today’s blog. It is simply a way to celebrate the silly way my daughter Aurelia talks and I do correct her (sometimes).
