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Petersen Farm

Tractor and Planter

Did you know?

• Eighty-eight percent of the land area in Iowa is in farmland
• Iowa produces about 19 percent of the nation's corn for grain
• Iowa produces about 16 percent of the nation's soybeans
• Iowa produces more ethanol per year than any other state - 1.2 billion gallons annually - with more each year
• Iowa's total agricultural exports for 2005 were valued at more than $4.02 billion, ranking Iowa second in the nation
• Most of the crops in Iowa go into animal feed. One bushel of corn converts to about 5.6 pounds of retail beef, 13 pounds of pork, 28 pounds of catfish or 32 pounds of chicken.
• Iowa's corn is processed into starches, oils, sweeteners and ethanol.

Howdy from all of us at the Petersen Farm!
Having heard more and more about blogs over the past year, we decided to "keep up with the times" and add one of our own to this Website. We hope it will help to keep all of you updated on the latest farming news and happenings on our 3,000 acre farm.

Iowa Farm Fun Facts
Farmers in Iowa harvest corn in mid-September through early November. Harvest times depend on the temperature and the hybrid of corn. Even when plants are physically mature, farmers might wait to harvest them until corn kernels have dried further, so that the corn can be stored for longer periods of time.

Corn came from a plant called teosinte which still grows in Mexico. The earliest corn was tiny, only a few inches long. With centuries of breeding, first by American Indians, then by settlers and then modern scientists, the corn has developed into bigger, fuller ears of corn and made corn one of the world's three leading grain crops.