Harvest 2022...

 

Harvest began for us on September 8th. It was a slower start with corn staying at higher moistures for several weeks. We kept drying corn at our facility and also shipped wet corn to a nearby rail facility who was offering a discounted grain drying rate. After several days of that we were able to begin work on our early planted soybeans and from that point on harvest has been a marathon. Yields and the weather have been excellent and we realize we are truly blessed. We are currently harvesting on our South farms in Greenfield and have just our North farms in Elkhart and Williamsville remaining. Below are pictures from our harvest this fall. We hope you enjoy them.  

Harvesting soybeans on our University of Illinois farm.

First day of harvest!

End of July...

Summer is flying by! We have been blessed with good weather and rainfall when we needed it this summer. Our corn has all been sprayed with fungicide and we have only 480 acres of soybeans remaining to be sprayed as well. Oh, and the sweet corn crop has been plentiful as well! Our crew is mixing in summer family vacations with working on summer projects, hauling lime, hauling rock for the new sheds to be built this fall and getting equipment ready for harvest. It is truly hard to believe it is almost August 1st. Below are some pictures of recent activity on the farm. Enjoy the rest of your summer!

Helicopter spraying fungicide on our corn.

Spraying Insecticide, Fungicide and Molasses on our soybeans right before they really start to set pods.

Refilling the tanker with 4,800 gallons of water which we will use to mix soybean fungicide and insecticide in another tanker.

Cleaning the final corn out of the bins to get ready for next year.

Summertime heat...

The summertime heat has arrived and our crops are off and running! All our crops are planted and the corn has all been post-sprayed with herbicides to keep the weeds at bay. The majority of our soybeans have also been sprayed. As you can see below, we also were able to complete the side-dressing of nitrogen and sulfur on our corn acres before it got too tall. We have been fortunate to continue to receive rains despite the hot 90 plus degree temperatures. Although last night's storms brought with them high winds that have laid the corn over in places. Most of this will return upright, but some will have snapped in two from the wind. The corn grows so rapidly during this time of year that it becomes brittle. And our annual Sangamon County Fair storms usually contain wind because of how hot and humid the weather has been. 

We are cleaning up planting equipment and mowing roadsides for the 4th of July holiday coming up. The focus will turn to spraying corn and soybeans with fungicide as well as stock piling lime for fall spreading. Stay cool!

Applying nitrogen and sulfur to our 30" corn outside Ashland. 

Apply nitrogen & sulfur to 20" corn outside Jacksonville. Thank goodness for tram lines!

Delivering nonGMO, hard endosperm corn to Beardstown from our grain bins. Here we are dumping it direct on to a barge where it will be sent to New Orleans and loaded on a Panamex vessel and later shipped to Japan for final consumption in a variety of products.

Planting Season begins...

 And so it begins....

We started planting soybeans on April 12th and were given one day to get the planters set and figure out the bugs that needed worked out. We weren't able to get back in until Saturday, April 21st. But we missed the big rains on Sunday and were back at it full-throttle Monday through Thursday, April 23rd - 26th. We have made great progress and know that we are really fortunate to have planted what we do compared to others. We are in a pocket where we are receiving rains, but fortunately missing the heaviest storms. We will resume planting in an area that missed the recent rains altogether today. Below are some pictures from our days in the field this spring.

First Day out planting soybeans down the lane from our shop.

Uncle Bob getting more soybeans planted with the 15" row planter.

Loading the planter with more seed.

During our planting delay, I attended a field day for a new crop we will be planting this September. It is called Cover Cress. It is a derivative of Penny Cress, only we will plant this as a pseudo "cover crop" in the fall and let it grow all winter through mid spring. Afterwards, we will harvest the seeds as you can see pictured below and Bunge and Chevron will crush them in Cairo, IL and ship them down the Mississippi River through the Panama Canal and over to California where they will be further processed into aviation fuel. It will be an interesting adventure as we haven't planted a "new" crop other than corn or soybeans since the 80's when we grew a few acres of wheat. 

Preparing for Planting Season...

Preparations are underway for the spring planting season. The warm and dry weather a few weeks ago got everyone into a panic to get things ready, but as of recently the weather has switched to be cold and rainy. A few soybeans in the area have been planted, but none by us yet. 

Unloading a load of Ammonium Thiosulfate into our tanks.

Leveling tile lines that were installed last fall.

Unloading fertilizer at our shop.

Snow Day...

I apologize as it looks like my December update did not load. I went back to republish it, but it's gone so we will skip from Thanksgiving to today, February 2nd. Today is a good day to be in the office with 10" of snow and the kids home for "remote" learning. Gone are "snow" days. Now the kids can work remotely and it not push back the summer dismissal date. We still manage a way to get outside and play in the snow though. 

As you can see from the pictures below, our time since December 1st has mostly consisted of trucking. The trucks have been nonstop since December 1st, but we are two loads shy of being done for the month already. And so far there isn't much scheduled to be moved in March. Otherwise, our time has been consumed with year end and beginning year bookwork as well as finishing up crop plans and making all of our 2022 crop input decisions and purchases. Typically, we don't have to buy everything this early, but with the delays in production, COVID and inflation we really need to plan 6-8 months or more ahead to get inputs in place so we are sure to receive them and are able to apply them to our fields this spring and summer. 

The commodity markets have been on a wild ride to the upside in the last month. Great prices for sure, but when soybeans are up 80 cents in a week it makes you scratch your head. Be safe out there and if you received some snow try to enjoy it! Have a great day!

Brent

NonGMO soybeans being loaded into a truck headed to Decatur for processing.

Uncle Bob hauling more corn to Barlett.

Hauling nonGMO soybeans from a remote bin to ADM in Decatur. We were lucky to get this bin unloaded before the 1" of rain and 10" of snow. 

Loading corn from the middle bin at the shop to take to Barlett Grain in Jacksonville.