Sunday, September 28th...

Harvest continues to roll on.  After the heavy rains from early September soaked in we were able to get back into the fields on the 17th.  Since then we have been covering acres harvesting corn. Yields are still excellent. Our soybeans are maturing so we will be making the switch over to the platform head very soon. The recent warm temperatures of our Indian Summer have dried corn quickly in the fields and we are now harvesting 16-18% moisture corn with the occasional later maturity hybrid still holding at 20% moisture. We plan to begin our tillage, lime and fertilizer operations this week as well. All our man power of recent has been used to haul wet corn into our dryer site and then haul dry corn back out to our local grain bins or various elevators.  

While we were waiting for the soils to dry and corn to drop in moisture content, we harvested our 20" corn plot. The highest yielding entry made 281 bpa with a plot average of 257 bpa. We were pleased, but hopeful we might have an entry break the 300 bpa ceiling. We also harvested our 20" row vs. 30" row comparison which was planted adjacent to the big hybrid plot. The populations were 36,000 ppa for the 30" rows and 40,000 ppa for the 20" rows. The end result was a 24.3 bu advantage to the 20" rows.  While we are happy to see these results, we plan to replicate this test again next year.  

Unloading the combine "on the go" on the Davin field

Weighing an entry from our plot

Unloading another truck load of corn at our dryer site

Tom operating the combine as it comes to the end of the field

The grain cart unloading into a semi at sunset

Grandpa Tom and Max getting ready to take a combine ride after lunch

Owen wrapping up the baseball season with his Tigers team

Harvest on hold...

Harvest on our farm began on Saturday, September 6th.  Unfortunately, the harvest activity was short-lived as the rains set in early Tuesday morning and did not stop until Wednesday evening.  Over the course of those 36 hours we received six inches of rainfall. As you might imagine, this was not welcomed since harvest had started. 

Prior to the rains we were able to take out a 120 acre field and were very pleased with the yields.  When we began the corn moisture was around 25%.  Two days later the moisture's had dropped almost four points to 21%.  That quick dry down is good for corn and it also means we hopefully can use less propane to dry it down to 15%.  The rain delay will set us back more than we would like because the corn has a variety of stalks diseases and with each and every rain and wind event more stalks collapse.  So the race is on once it dries up to allow for more field activity.  In the coming weeks many of our soybean acres will also be ready.  

Be safe out there and please use patience and caution when passing or meeting farm equipment this fall!

Harvest has begun!

6" of rain in 30 hours provides for a lot of excess water

Aerial view of our scale project

Setting the last section of the scale with the crane

Ed from Southern IL Scale driving the weight cart to calibrate the scale

Ron Brown welding on the auger cart

Labor Day...

The countdown to harvest continues.  We are getting things ready as the corn dries.  Our hope is to begin harvest on Monday, September 8th.  By then the moisture level should be 25-26% which means it's time to start.  In the meantime we are catching up on a few projects.  I've included a few pictures below.  Hopefully, the next time I post it will be harvest photos from our farm.  

41,000 ears of Wyffels Hybrids 6487 in 20" rows will add up to a good yield.

Sudden Death Syndrome is quickly affecting our soybeans.  Hopefully, this doesn't equate to a lot of yield loss.

Trimming trees on our farm on Nortonville.

The concrete for the scale at our grain drying site has been poured and is ready for the steel scale.

Max playing soccer.