Planting wraps up...

We finished corn planting on Thursday, April 20th.  We immediately started planting soybeans and were rained out on Wednesday April 26th.  Since that time we have received anywhere from 5-9" of rainfall.  We actually feel fortunate with those amounts as some in extreme Southern & Eastern Illinois have received upwards of 11-13".  Our Williamsville farm missed a lot of the heaviest rains, and we were able to get back in the fields on Mother's Day.  We planted the 415 acre Williamsville farm on Monday and Tuesday morning took off on the 4.5 hour drive to Greenfield with a pit stop back at our shop to change out the soybean seed from a 3.4 maturity to a 3.9 maturity.  While the 20" row planter moved from North to South the Kinze split-row planter worked around Ashland and Pleasant Plains and finished up the remaining soybeans.  We had two fields of cereal rye planted last fall as a cover crop that we terminated ahead of the big rains.  Unfortunately, those wilted and created a mat of residue which prolonged the fields from drying out and thus we had to be patient to plant them back to soybeans.  Due to all the rainfall, we do have some areas in local fields that have ponded water in them to the point where it killed the seedlings that had emerged.  We replanted those areas on Thursday, May 18th with our four row planter.  We use this smaller planter and tractor so we reduce the amount of "good" corn we drive over and tear up while replanting these spots.  As luck would have it the evening we replanted those spots it rained another 1.3" and then again the next evening with another 1.0".  Apparently someone has made Mother Nature mad.  Either that or we are severely paying for the 70 degree weather we experienced in February. We shall see what we get to replant the next time it dries out.  Until then we will start spraying post-emergence herbicides on corn and begin mowing roadsides making them look good ahead of the upcoming Sangamon County Fair in mid June.

A view out out the back of the planter tractor as we planted soybeans on our Williamsville farm this past week.

A corn plant the morning after a severe wind storm went through the area. The winds picked up the drying soils and blew them for miles.  When the wind blows soil like this it is almost like sand-blasting corn.  This is not ideal for corn trying to recuperate from multiple inches of rainfall. 

Planting soybeans in Greenfield on the Emerald Acres field.

After nine inches of rainfall on our Greenfield farms, this what the soil looked like after it had dried.  We worked the soil on this farm right ahead of the heavy rains. The soil cracked after it dried out exactly where the rear blades of our Salford tillage tool ran.

Replanting corn in holes that were drowned out from all the recent rains.

Hauling rock from the quarry in Hillview back to the farm for our new grain bin soon to to be built.