This Friday, you can purchase at our office from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m. a 15 cent hamburger. That is right only 15 cents. Our Women’s Committee received a grant though the Illinois Corn Marketing Board to promote the value of corn in livestock feed. After researching, gathering information, and number crunching, and knowing different livestock operations use production practices, we came up with 60 cents is the value of corn in a pound of processed beef. This is using the price of $7.50 per bushel of corn.

Every time corn prices rise, corn seems to get a bad rap for rising food costs. Higher corn prices increase animal feed and ingredient costs for farmers and food manufacturers, but pass through to retail prices at a rate of less than 10 percent of the corn price change. So if corn goes up 50 cents, that is only 5 cents being passed on. Given that foods using corn as an ingredient make up less than a third of retail food spending, overall retail food prices would rise less than 1 percentage point per year above the normal rate of food price inflation when corn prices increase by 50 percent. (www.ers.usda.gov/amberwaves)

So on Friday, May 27 from 11:30 a.m. until 1 p.m., stop out at our office to get a 15 cent hamburger (the value of corn in that quarter pound burger) or upgrade to a meal with chips and a drink for only 85 cents more!

Summer is nearly here and this year we are kicking off the summer with our tractor drive. Yes, this is a change of pace over previous years. The tractor drive will take place on Friday, June 10th. We will be leaving the Fairgrounds in Milledgeville and heading up to Lanark, and then to Mount Carroll to have lunch at our office. We will then be headed back to the fairgrounds after a brief stop in Chadwick.

Some other summer dates to put on your calendar include June 11 the Young Leaders will have their first pedal pull in Chadwick at 11 a.m. The Women’s Committee will also be handing out ice cream at the Relay for Life on the evening of the 11th. Throughout the month of June we will be sponsoring library programs for children. Dates and times for those events will follow.

Then on Saturday, June 25, the second pedal pull of the season will be held at Lanark Old Settlers Days. We have our bus trip to the Chicago Board of Trade on June 27. Then comes July. The Young Leaders will be holding their annual Harvest for All on Saturday, July 9. We will be holding our Annual Membership Appreciation Breakfast on Friday, July 15. There will also be more library programs in July. Before you know it, August will be here!

We still have seats available for our bus trip to see the Chicago Cubs play at Milwaukee on Saturday, August 27. The bus will leave Carroll County at 1:45 p.m. for the 6:10 p.m. game. We will be sitting in the Loge Outfield. Cost is $70 for members and $75 for non-members. Contact our office today to reserve your spot.