NAPI wins corn contest

Navajo Agricultural Products Industry was recognized recently for planting the highest-yield corn plot in New Mexico in 2011. NAPI, the tribe-owned agricultural enterprise south of Farmington, achieved a yield of 270.7 bushels per acre. The U.S. average was 146.7 bushels per acre. The best yield in the nation was 429 bushels per acre by David Hula of Charles City, Va. "We've got a lot of teamwork," said Albert Etcitty, NAPI's corn crop manager. "There's so many different departments that get involved in this. Without them, we wouldn't have done it." The contest is held annually by the National Corn Growers Association, based in St. Louis. NAPI last year planted 18,000 acres of corn. The crop is one of NAPI's major products, along with alfalfa hay and beans. Corn is near record high prices, said Dalene Hodnett, spokeswoman for the New Mexico Farm and Livestock Bureau. "Corn is doing well right now as a commodity," she said. Corn futures for May delivery rose last week to $6.58 a bushel on the Chicago Board of Trade. The high prices are because, in part, demand for ethanol and drought in much of the Southwest that increased demand for feed, Hodnett said. NAPI harvests its corn crop in October and November...more