Saturday, January 11th...

It is hard to believe that 2019 is already gone and we are almost two weeks into 2020. The winter weather for us has been extremely mild and at some times downright warm for December/January. We have been busy working outside cleaning up equipment, trimming tree lines in the field borders and hauling grain out of our local bins to river or rail terminals. We even snuck a few days of "spring" tillage in between Christmas and New Years as the ground in our area has been dry up until last night's 2.5" of rainfall. Overall, we were extremely blessed with the results of the 2019 crop despite the turmoil it caused a lot of other farmers throughout Illinois and the US. We hope 2020 brings the end of tariff wars with our largest trading partners throughout the world and starts to begin some stability in the world grain markets. Here is to hoping you and your family have a great 2020!

A load of corn coming out of the bin headed for nearby Bartlett Grain Company in Jacksonville where it will be loaded on a 110 unit train and shipped to cattle lots in Mexico. 

Trimming trees along a field border - a common thing we tackle every year after harvest. 

Leveling ground between Christmas and New Years that will be planted back to corn. We call this "stale seedbed" and will not be running anymore equipment over this field until the planter in the spring. These opportunities are rare to get a weather window like this to work ground down in December. 

Emptying a small bin of soybeans.

Another semi load of soybeans heading for the Illinois River where it will be put on a barge and shipped down to New Orleans for export to somewhere in the world.