September 21st...

Harvest continues to roll on at break-neck speed in our local area. Corn has rapidly dried down and we have been able to turn off the corn dryer and take the grain directly to the bins for storage. We began harvesting our soybeans last week and those are also drier than expected; despite still having yellow leaves on them. We have had a few rains in the last few weeks, but we were so dry beforehand that the rains usually only kept us out of the fields for a half day. On Saturday we harvested our plot. The high yield this year was 248 bpa. Last year the high yield was 281. And that is very typical of our field yield results from this year versus last; a decline of about 30-40 bushels per acre. We were too wet early on and then too hot with zero rainfall to finish our corn crop. The corn essentially "died" down rather than matured naturally on it's own. But, at this point it is what is and our job is to make sure we get it harvested before any wind storms.

Be safe out there and watch for harvest equipment on rural roads.

Dumping corn through our scale at our dryer site.

Hauling out dry corn to our satellite bins.

Max and Owen cleaning the corn kernels off the scale.

Harvesting corn outside Ashland.

We were using a wagon to directly fill some bins on another farm and the bin got full before the wagon was empty so we had to dumb it at our dryer site before the rains arrived.

Each of our 43 plot entries was weighed and ran through this wagon.

Day two of soybean harvest.

Game on.....

Harvest is officially underway at Johnson Family Farms. We tried a little corn Monday, August 31st and it was still 29-30% moisture which is a little high for us. So we harvested a couple semi loads, calibrated the yield monitor and waited for the week of hot weather to dry the corn. Tuesday was spent touring the Farm Progress Show in nearby Decatur, Illinois. Thursday we decided to try our corn near Jacksonville and take advantage of the half-priced grain drying the nearby Bartlett Rail Shuttle was offering. The corn had dried and was anywhere from 18.5-25%. Yields are extremely variable with yields anywhere from 100-270 bushels per acre a common sight on the yield monitor and often in the same pass. Elevation, tile, nitrogen management, and fungicide appear to be paying large dividends. A few neighbors have also started harvest, but many are saying they will begin the Tuesday after Labor Day. The hot and humid week of recent weather has dropped the corn moisture by at least five points. It appears we are trending towards a fall similar to 2007 where corn went from 30% moisture to 18% virtually in one week. The stalks are not very good and our plan is to keep one machine on corn in the foreseeable future and start another combine on soybeans when those are ready in the coming weeks.

The kids are back in school so please be on the lookout for those yellow buses as well as farm machinery on the roads this fall. Give everyone a little patience and enjoy what will soon be crisp fall days filled with football.