Memorial Day...

I am please to report that as of the evening of Monday, May 20th we finished planting our 2019 corn crop. We feel very fortunate to have several windows to get these fields planted as we are well aware that many farmers in the Midwest as Illinois haven't been so lucky. We also have approximately 30-35% of our soybeans planted as well. Recent rains have kept us out of the field since last week and our most recently planted corn actually needed rains to help it emerge from the soil which was made hard by 2-2.5" rains soon after planting. The next time we can get in the fields it will be hectic with working ground, planting soybeans and very soon it will be time to start spraying our first planted corn with it's final pass of herbicide to kill the weeds which are growing just as fast as our lawns. Happy Memorial Day everyone!

The soybean planter getting ready to plant on the Quad J farm.

Planting the end rows on the front field at our University of Illinois Hunter #3 Farm outside New Berlin.

Bob chopping corn stalks on Jim Alexander's Lincoln farm.

Our grain dryer addition project is well underway.

Waiting on the seed tender to load the corn planter.

Pulling out of our last field of corn to plant for 2019!

Earliest planted soybeans have emerged and are looking good.

Building new dry dams and installing tile risers on our Williamsville farm.

May 5th...

Spring on Johnson Family Farms finally arrived on Tuesday, April 23rd. After weeks of waiting for the ground to warm and dry up we went to the fields and started planting. We planted a little on Tuesday the 23rd, rained out the next day and finally got back in the fields after a brief shower on Thursday the 25th. Locally, we were in the sweet spot and had missed several of the larger rains. We planted through Sunday evening and were eventually chased out of the fields that evening. Since then we've received upwards of 6" of rain. As we sit today we are 40% planted on corn and a mere 5-10% on soybeans. However, we feel really fortunate compared to a lot of other farmers in Central Illinois who haven't been able to do anything yet. Our fields with pattern-tiled systems or those that just have quite a bit of tile were the driest to begin planting and have the least amount of water standing on them today after last week's 6" of rain. No matter how you slice it - tile pays in many ways; from getting the water off to allowing for timely fieldwork such as planting this year. The forecast is calling for another 3 days of rainfall this week so we don't anticipate getting back in the fields anytime soon. 

We finally got started planting both our 2019 corn and soybean crop on Tuesday, April 23rd. Pictured above and below is our high-speed corn planter. We plant typically around 8-10 mph which allows us to plant faster, but also gives us flexibility to let the soil dry one more day before planting so we don't rush and plant when it's too wet.

Six inches of rain in one with with four inches overnight caused corn stalks to pile up on the roads. The township had to plow them to the sides of the roads with snowplows.

We are upgrading our drying capacity for our 2019 harvest. Here you see the crane getting ready to lift the top of our new stack continuous flow grain dryer into place.