Friday, October 30, 2009

Rain, rain, & more rain...




The word for the week was "wet..." Inches of rain came down this week and many of our farms now have ponds on them. It has been over a week since we have harvested or done any tillage. Our latest projects have been hauling dry corn out of grain bins to the river to make room for the next round of corn to be harvested and transferring corn from bins with dryers to other bins that have only fans.

Dad, Bob & David have also been working on our latest project to tackle the tornado corn. We decided to add an eight-row corn head to our fleet and install Roll-a-cones across the entire head in hopes that the spiraling tubes would throw the corn stalks up and give the snapping rolls more time to drag them down. We also think this will better handle the "matt" of wet corn stalks laying on the ground and help feed them up through the corn head. We are anxious to try it out, but it will be at least next week as the forecast is calling for better and drier weather...

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Harvest 2009...

Installing the new down corn reel on the head.

Patience...

Hard to tell where we've harvested...

Fuel needed...

After my last post our area experienced another rain which kept us out of the fields around Ashland until last weekend. Saturday we decided that the Williamsville farm was the driest and we headed up there to begin work on our "tornado" corn. Before we left we installed a new reel on the corn head to help aid with the harvest. This reel proved to be no match for the flat corn...

We harvested in Williamsville on Saturday afternoon through Monday evening. On Tuesday morning the weather was dry and warm enough we decided to move back to Ashland and combine soybeans. We are very close to finishing our 2009 soybean harvest. Although, we had to leave a few patches in fields that are too wet and almost caused the combines to get stuck this week.

On Tuesday afternoon Carl Wester started the chisel plow running again and as I post he is still out working; trying to get as much done as possible before the rains.

Wednesday, October 14, 2009

Test plot is out...


Yesterday we were successful in harvesting our corn hybrid test plot. The highest yield was 254.0 bpa and the low was 193.7 bpa. Overall plot average was 227.1 bpa, which is representative of what that field has yielded so far. Due to the wet soil conditions we decided not to chance getting a truck stuck and we pulled the weigh wagon with Bob's tractor.

Thanks to the following companies and individuals for participating:
  • Wyffels Hybrids - Nathan Provost
  • Pioneer Hi-breds - Jeff Cosner & Joe Walker
  • Monsanto/DeKalb - Doug Hobrock & Chris Kallal
It is raining here as I type and the forecast calls for more rain today with an additional 60% chance of rain tomorrow.

Monday, October 12, 2009

Wet weather continues...







Despite a 1.1" rain Tuesday and a 2.8" rain on Friday/Saturday of last week we are back in the fields harvesting. The forecast is calling for rain again on Wednesday and Thursday, thus we are pushing a little harder to keep getting corn out of the field. For the most part, the corn is still standing well but each weather front that moves through brings with it wind. We are starting to see where the wind is taking a toll on some of our earlier plantings. Besides harvesting, Bob is hauling dry corn out of the bins to ADM at Beardstown so we can fill the bins back up with wet corn and use our fans and dryers to help dry the corn down for storage.

We plan is to take our corn plot out tomorrow morning.

Sunday, October 4, 2009

Back to work...




The weekend allowed for more fieldwork to continue. Saturday we harvested corn; completing a few fields and opening more fields up in search of drier moisture's. Today the weather cooperated and we were able to start harvesting soybeans again. The soybean yields have been very good despite we thought back in August. We will continue to harvest soybeans until the next rain event.

We were also able to spread lime and start chisel plowing over the weekend. The ground is pulling especially hard this year due to all the rains throughout the course of the growing season. We are pulling a Krause Dominator which tills the soil and buries the existing corn residue to a depth of ~12".


Friday, October 2, 2009

Grain bin fire...



All of us at Johnson Family Farms would like to say thank you to the following people for helping us with our recent grain bin fire:

  • All the individuals of the Pleasant Plains Volunteer Fire Dept.
  • Cartwright Township Road District
  • Sunrise Ag Service Company - Mark Hobrock
  • David Younkers
  • Kenny Terpening
  • Chris Dowson
After recent rains we are back harvesting corn, however we are planning to switch back to beans as the weather permits.