Week ending July 30th...

Severe kernel tip-back due to high day & evening temperatures

Goss Wilt is taking over this field

It took two trailers to pick up all the parts & pieces of new chisel plow

Assembling the chisel plow

David mowing along the highway

Hot, humid, and dry weather is causing our corn crop to rapidly deteriorate. We have significant tip-back on ears from not only the hot weather during the day, but also the warmer than welcomed evening temperatures. We have quickly went from 230 bushels per acre potential to 170-180 by my kernel counts. And if the high heat doesn't break soon, we will continue to loose more bushels to the point this will be a very disappointing crop. This week we also discovered Goss Wilt. This is a disease that engulfs the corn plant killing it very quickly. It originates in the residue from the previous year's corn crop. Unfortunately, at this point there is nothing we can do for this field but watch and plan for next year. From what I have read, this will take 60-80 bushels per acre off our yield on this field. We plan to check the rest of our continuous corn fields this week to see if we have any more of these outbreaks.

Around the farm last week we began mowing roadsides again and continued working on shop projects. This past week our new chisel plow arrived at the dealership and David, Ron, & Darin began to assemble it. We also sprayed a few acres of soybeans this week with fungicide and insecticide.