Week Ending July 20th...

We have wrapped up our final herbicide applications on our soybeans and are just now beginning to make fungicide decisions on our corn.  The recent days have been extremely hot with high humidity, but luckily we received rainfall to get us through much of this hot weather with little damage.  Today the temperatures have moderated and we are again hopeful that rainfall will return to give our corn crop the final push it needs to achieve giant yields.  Our beans have finally shaded the rows and we remain vigilant watching for Japanese beetles which continue to chew on the outside rows, but have not moved into the hearts of the fields.  

We have most of the spring equipment put away and have begun hauling the last of the corn in our grain bins.  In between summer jobs we took off to St. Louis for a little vacation.  The boys enjoyed the St. Louis Zoo, The Magic House, and also took in a Cardinals game.  

Tassels reaching to the sky

Corn really silking in this warm weather

The boys and I out scouting corn

Adding tile to wet holes on a few of our Preventative Plant fields

Friends from Ohio who are also farmers stopping in for a summer visit to check our 20" corn

Visiting the Penguins at the St. Louis Zoo

Max's first Cardinals game

Week ending July 6th...

Summer is flying by!  Despite the later planting dates and cooler temperatures, our earliest planted corn is coming along nicely and a few fields have even started tasseling. We continue to spray the final pass of herbicides on the soybeans and mow road sides so they look good for the long Holiday weekend.  The guys also continue to wash spring machinery and put it in storage as time allows between spraying and mowing.  As those jobs wind down, we will begin working on our list of summer projects which include assembling a chisel plow and also a grain dryer project.  At some point we will get the harvest machinery out and work on making sure it all is ready to go when the time arrives.  Soon we will also start hauling the remainder of our corn out of the grain bins as many elevators are offering free storage which is always a good reason to get the bins cleaned out.

As I mentioned some of our fields are tasseling.  During this time we will ramp up our scouting efforts which means we will physically be in each field at least a couple times a week watching for Japanese beetles and Rootworm beetles clipping silks or mining pollen in the tassels.  We will also be on the lookout for leaf diseases such as Grey Leaf Spot, Goss Wilt, and Anthracnose.  If any of these are found, we will be calling in the air planes to spray.  

We have tassels on our April 30th and May 1st planted corn!

Mowing road banks on the County Line Farm

Adding and repairing tile on our Lehmann Farm

Lincoln Land FS "top-dressing" Urea on a field adjacent to Ashland

The calm before the storm...

Big soybeans

Owen playing in his last baseball game of the summer

Max conquered his fear of the diving board