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Kentucky Corn on the Rise

Author: Jim Champion, via Wikimedia Commons
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wikimedia commons

National grain specialists are predicting a record amount of corn could go in the ground this spring.  As Kentucky Public Radio’s Stu Johnson reports, a rise in corn yields has been a trend in the commonwealth...

University of Kentucky Extension Professor of Grain Crops, Chad Lee says Kentucky’s corn acreage could go up about ten percent this year.  Lee says the profit potential is partly the result of warmer than usual weather.  He says, in the bluegrass, corn has gone from being the number three crop to number one in the last few years.

"In central Kentucky over the last century really the primary crop was tobacco. Then the second crop of importance would have been hay and pasture. In the last three years corn and soybeans for many of these producers have switched-  being the number one crop that they are concerned about.”

Lee says, over the years, Kentucky farmers have been able to grow more corn on fewer acres.  He says that’s a result of improved genetics, farm management, fertilization, and pest control.

Stu Johnson is a reporter/producer at WEKU in Lexington, Kentucky.
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