Soybeans are in the ground...

We were fortunate to wrap up planting our 2016 soybean crop on Sunday, May 22nd. While most of our beans went in the ground in excellent conditions we have a couple fields that worked up very cloddy and will need continued rains to ensure all the beans we planted emerge. Since completing our plantings we have moved on to spraying the final herbicide pass on corn, side-dressing corn, mowing roadsides, and returning seed boxes. Sangamon County Real Estate taxes along with State of Illinois license plate renewals have also been on the end of the month to do list. Our corn has gone through its usual yellow stage where it transitions from living off the seedling to the new plant roots and is now a beautiful dark green color. It is quickly closing the rows with the recent 80+ degree temperatures we've experienced in the last week. School is out for the year and the boys have started summer vacation. Baseball consumes most evenings whether it be a game, practice or just playing in the yard. The four dollar plus corn market is a welcomed sign that 2016 could be a good year. 

Happy Memorial Day everyone. Be sure to display your American flag to honor those who have served our Country.

Applying Sulfur, Calcium, and more Nitrogen to our National Corn Growers Association Yield contest entry.

The fertilizer on our NCGA yield entry after it is spread on the corn. The rain later degrades the fertilizer and moves it down through the soil into the plant roots.

24" wide tram rows on 120" centers are very tight for machines to get fertilizer, herbicides, and fungicides applied on our corn. We decided to switch to tram lines this year instead of spreading at an angle and running over the corn as we had done in years past.

Uncle Bob side-dressing anhydrous ammonia on his corn today.

Corn planting is complete...

After a couple breaks due to rains, we were finally able to complete our 2016 corn planting on Saturday, May 7th. All of our corn planted ahead of this last round of planting has emerged. A week ago the corn went through its yellow stage where is transitions from living off the seed to its own root system. During that time we also experienced cooler and wetter weather. Now the corn has begun rooting down and has turned a very beautiful green color and is off to the races. We will soon begin spraying our last pass of herbicide. We continue to work on planting our soybeans, and if given a five day window we will wrap those up. 

A picture of our National Corn Growers Yield Contest entry on one of our Morgan County fields. This was planted in 20 inch rows at 48,200 seeds per acre. It is off to a very good start.

A close up shot of our V1 corn.

Installing tile on a newly acquired farm outside of Pleasant Plains.

Making a tile riser connection in the new tile line.