#Plant24 is off to a very good start. For us, it has been a dry planting season. You don't have to get very far to our East, North or Southeast where they haven't missed a rain and have not had the opportunities to plant like we have. We started planting soybeans the week of April 8th and as of now only have 280 acres remaining to be planted on our farms in Williamsville and Elkhart. We are right around 50% planted on corn which we feel puts us in a good position to harvest a few acres of corn early after Labor Day and then really move through the beans during what is typically very warm and dry days of September. Then on to the last of the corn for the month of October where the weather can be more variable. We like to space out our corn planting so the last corn we harvest isn't sub 15% grain moisture and hopefully still has plant integrity and is standing well. The corn market is starting to come back while the soybean market is still a dud. Oftentimes we will see the markets get stronger from planting season through June based on weather delays and forecasts for hot and dry summers. We will see if those marketing opportunities present themselves again this year. Below are pictures of some of the activities that have been happening on the farm in recent weeks. Have a great day!
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| The first planter fill of the year. Here we are loading the planter with soybeans to plant our first field of 2024 on April 8th. |
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| Planting corn with the 20" planter on the Butzow farm West of Prentice. |
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| Tag team planting the last field of nonGMO soybeans at Alexander before an impending rain. |
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| With the good weather we were able to sneak in some waterway reshaping and reseeding on the Ashland Farms LLC Prentice farm. |
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| Planting corn on the pattern-tiled Gooden & Mae 120. |
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| Refilling the planter alongside the highway outside Ashland where we were planting nonGMO corn on the Lathom field. |
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| Hauling corn to Bartlett Grain in South Jacksonville on a day where it was too wet to plant. It seems like every year there is a good opportunity to sell some of last year's corn from our bins during the next year's planting season. |
