Thanksgiving...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We started harvest on the evening of September 6th and finished on Tuesday, November 9th. We had a great run and were well ahead of our typical progress until rains shut us out for virtually half of October. All in all it was a great harvest with soybean yields setting a new farm record and corn coming in around 10-15 bushels per acre under our three year average. Too much rain in July for the corn and too much disease in August which brought the corn to an early death. In fact, about 150 acres of our last two corn fields up North were flat in places or severely lodged. We had to switch back to our 20' 12 row 20" corn head with the reel all the way across it to harvest much of those 150 acres. We also made the decision to put the tracks back on the main combine as when harvest resumed after the October rains it was fairly wet and we knew we would have several places in specific fields that tracks would be warranted and help ensure we wouldn't get stuck. 

Since harvest wrapped up, we have been completing field activities such as fertilizer spreading, lime and gypsum spreading as well as deep tillage. We were also very fortunate to have a 10 day window to get all our anhydrous ammonia applied for next year's corn crop. We locked in our ammonia price back in August and were worried if we would get it applied. Today's price is almost double what we paid due to demand and lack of production. If we didn't get it applied this fall, our contracts were null and void and would revert back to current market prices. Getting it applied versus what we believe will happen come spring was worth $73 per acre. Crazy!

While several are doing tillage and fertilizer work in the fields, we are also washing, servicing and putting equipment away for winter. We like to take our time and service all the equipment for the next season so that when we get it out of the shed it is "field ready" and doesn't require much time to go through prior to it's next use. 

We have much to be thankful for again this year. Specifically, family, friends, our health, good markets, good yields, wonderful employees and our freedoms. Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Johnson Family Farms!

Harvesting soybeans at Williamsville.

The last time we took the bean heads off the combines - done with soybean harvest!

20' corn head with the reel on it for downed corn as well as the tracks to combat the mud.

This year we made the decision to plant cover crop wheat in several sensitive areas where water runs during the winter and spring to slow down the erosion and help keep the soil in place. This is a picture of our 15' no-till drill we purchased to seed the cover crop wheat. 

Deep ripping. We just got this tillage tool in the field as it had been too wet to operate it effectively. Now that it is dry, we are running it on end rows and fields that will be planted to corn next year. This tillage tool helps break up the compaction and lets the corn roots grow deep into our rich prairie soils.