February Update...

We've experienced a bit of spring-like weather this past month which has allowed us to get outside and work on a few projects. 60 degree days in mid February was very welcomed, but as I type this we have 6" of snow outside and it is sub 30 degrees. Welcome to Illinois! See what we've been up to below. Have a great day!

A dry and warm stretch of February weather allowed our local tile company to add additional laterals to a farm we purchased a few years ago that already had tile every 200'. We wanted to reduced that spacing down to every 100' for even better drainage.

Disking down the trenches of the newly installed tile. Hopefully we get another round of cold weather and rain to weather these down so they are nice and smooth by spring planting.

Getting the planter out of the cold-storage shed and moving it to our heated shop so we can work on it ahead of spring. I think it was almost 60 degrees the day we moved planters. Crazy Illinois weather.

Hauling gypsum from the City of Springfield Power Plant. We target our wetter farms that are not tiled with this application. The additional Calcium improves water infiltration into the subsoil. It also adds Sulfur to our soil which corn plants love.

The warm February weather has also allowed us to scratch a few items off our list like picking up rocks and debris in places where tillage or Mother Nature has brought them to the surface. 

Mid Winter Update...

Winter has arrived and it's cold outside! We continue to stay busy working in both the shop and the office. Maintenance in the shop is ongoing as the guys have rebuilt both corn heads and are working on converting a frac tank over to bulk water storage. We have cored all our corn bins with numerous trips to Bartlett Grain in nearby Jacksonville. Year end office work continues and we are also working on finalizing our 2024 inputs and crop plans as well. 

The new farm shop is full of winter projects. While we still have plenty of finish work to complete on the building, we are glad to be moved in ahead of the cold temperatures to take advantage of the in-floor heat and continue our preventative maintenance work.

Our first two semi loads of Wyffels seed corn are in the shed. We have started to take delivery of some of our spring inputs and also still finalizing the last of our crop plans. 

Hauling corn from our bins to Bartlett Grain in nearby Jacksonville. Bartlett Grain sends four to five 100 unit car trains to Mexico every week via the Kansas City Southern Rail line. We are lucky to have them in our backyard creating such a demand for corn locally.