Planting soybeans...

This past week we began planting our 2012 soybean crop.  The soil is working well and the forecast is promising for more welcomed rain.  We wrapped up spraying our corn and have moved on to spraying burndown on our highly erodible land which will be planted to soybeans.  Almost all our corn is up and looks good.  The recent 85 degree weather has turned the corn from it's early pale green color to a deep and vibrant green.

Spraying corn herbicides on the Reiser Cass County Farm 

Our Twin-row corn trials 

Owen's last basketball game of the summer.  He loves sports! 

Last weekend Owen and Max attended the Unversity of Illinois Football Open House.  The team allows kids on the field where they can run around from station to station practicing football drills.  Owen made the Champaign News Gazette with his roar right before he hit the tackling dummy.

Done planting corn...

Corn planting wrapped up Thursday, April 12th. It was an enjoyable planting season with very few nights where we had to plant late because of impending weather. As I type we are receiving a very welcomed rain. Our area of Central Illinois has been very dry all winter and spring. In fact, our farms towards Elkhart and Williamsville had very little soil moisture when we planted them and most certainly had to have a rain to germinate the seeds. The corn we planted our first week in the fields is up and looking good. This past week we experienced evening temperatures that dipped into the lower 30's and in some cases the high 20's, but our emerged corn was not affected by the frost.

We again planted our corn plot and this year we have 42 entries which includes a check hybrid between every company. Thank you to all our suppliers who helped plant the plot in record time. This week we will focus on getting our corn sprayed, having our soybean seed delivered, working ground down ahead of the bean planter, and scouting corn for any spotty stands or cutworm damage.

Working ground at Williamsville - notice all the dust...
It is a good thing we have guidance on the tractor because with all the dust you could not tell where you were going sometimes

Planting the corn plot along the highway outside of Ashland