Can a company be too successful?

   Deere & Company - they make those green and yellow tractors out there in Moline, Illinois - released its third-quarter earnings figures this morning. Sales for this year's third quarter were $617 million, compared to $420 million for the same period last year. So naturally the company's stock price dropped by 24-cents a share by 3:45 in the afternoon, just 15 minutes from the stock market's closing. Can somebody explain the stock market to me? Deere spokesmen said their sales improved because American farmers bought more than enough equipment to make up for lowered sales in struggling Europe. But their yearly sales are expected to be up 5-10 percent over last year's. CEO Sam Alllen did say that European sales could be down as much as 20 percent, but strong commodity prices in the US and Canada strengthened the company's income outlook. Which sounds good, but if they make too much money, who knows how far their share price will plummet?

John Pecchia talks about
 Penn State's mushrooms.

     Scientists are still in the dark about some aspects of mushroom growing, but they've learned a lot about bringing those tasty fungi to the table. About two-thirds of the U.S. mushroom supply is grown in Pennsylvania, and most of that comes from Chester County. But Penn State has a 40-year-old research facility where John Pecchia and his crew produce 75,000 pounds of shrooms annually in their 640 square feet of allotted space. That's a lot of fungus. Pecchia brought a bus to Pennsylvania's Ag Progress Days this week, and picked up a load of the curious for a tour of his facility. Lancaster Farming staff writer Chris Torres hitched a ride, and prepared a report for this week's issue. If you can't wait for Saturday's mail, you can read his tour reactions on our newly refurbished website by clicking here: http://www.lancasterfarming.com/APD-mushrooms


     Horsing around on that new website. http://www.lancasterfarming.com/video/Equine-Experience-AgPro-2010-Video