Week ending July 21st...

Week ending July 14th...

Another week without rain.  The corn crop continues to deteriorate, while the beans seem to be holding their own.  A week ago we thought our corn crop could still average over 150 bpa, now we have lowered that to 110 bpa and it will get worse without rainfall soon.  The corn on our northern farms is either dying or dead.  One farm even received 2" of rain last Sunday and it still is going to die.  We are out of time and out of moisture.  Hopefully, the beans will receive a rain soon or they too will begin to die.

While experts argue whether or not this is a repeat of the 1988 drought, we believe yield levels on our farm could rival or come in below that of 1988.  Here is what our farm averaged in 1988 - Corn 86 bpa; high of 101 and low of 54.  Soybeans - average of 34 bpa; high of 38 and low of 29.   

Wind damaged corn on our Elkhart farm 

 Poor pollination at Elkhart

Corn starting to die on our Williamsville farm.  This is on very good, black dirt soils...



Week ending July 7th...

100 degree temperatures were the norm this past week.  Luckily, cooler weather has arrived today.  It also brought with it some much needed rain on our North farms, but nothing around the Ashland area or our southern Greenfield farms.  After checking the over-night markets, it seems as though they are again responding with higher prices since rainfall was disappointing over the weekend. 

We continue to haul corn from our grain bins and when it's not too hot, we are working in the shop on our planter.  Our corn crop continues to look very good considering the circumstances.  With the help of an adjacent well, our sweet corn crop continues to produce.  Today, our family cut and bagged an entire truckload of sweet corn and then later froze it so we can enjoy it all year long.  Below are a few pictures of the event.  The boys call it "Sweet Corn Day." 

 A good ear despite the lack of water and rolled up leaves in the background

A view of our lower corn canopy.  We want as much sunlight interception as possible.  Our stalks don't look bad, but are starting to deteriorate. 

Working on the planter in the shop 

A view of our plot along the highway 

Owen and John washing sweet corn ears 

Max and his Uncle Ryan bagging the sweet corn 

What a work crew!  And what a mess!

Week ending June 30th...

Drought.  Commodity traders have taken notice and responded with much higher prices.  Daytime temperatures over 100 degrees are starting to take their tole on our corn.  While their is little we can do about the weather, we have been doing our best to keep the Japanesee beetles at bay.  Last week we sprayed our southern bean fields with insecticide to keep them from chewing more holes in the soybean leaves while we wait on the next rain.  We also sprayed a few of our bean fields around the Ashland area for a late flush of waterhemp that made it through our last past of RoundUp. 

Enjoy your 4th of July holiday!

Post-spraying waterhemp on soybeans 

Japanese beetles chewing on soybeans 

Owen really worried about the drought...

Week ending June 23rd...

No rain again this week... Time is running out for a rain to save our corn crop.  In addition to the dry soils we also have Japanese and Corn Rootworm Beetles clipping ear silks off in a couple fields. If you allow the population of beetles to become too severe, they can clip silks back to the point where the they will not be long enough to intercept the grains of pollen falling down from the tassel; thus having an ear of corn that is not pollinated which yields zero.  Once we scouted our fields and inspected our beetle pressure, we decided to call in the plane to spray them with insecticide.  Within five hours of our phone call, the plane arrived.  The product mix we are using contains two modes of actions; one for immediate "knock-down" and another for residual which should last us 14-21 days depending on how hot temperatures get.  We did not have the beetle pressure in many acres, but rather in our first two fields that we planted.  Beetles tend to congregate in the earliest planted fields in the area.  We will continue to stay vigilant and watch for more beetles in later planted fields.

Besides scouting corn this week we also hauled more corn from the bins and began mowing our roadsides in preparation for the Ashland Community Days and the 4th of July Holiday. 

SEND RAIN...!!!

Loading the semi from one of our grain bins 

Japanese Beetles clipping corn silks 

Spraying insecticide with the plane to kill the beetles

TASSELS....

Tassels are here!  On Wednesday this past week we began to see tassels in the tops of our early planted corn fields.  This is the earliest we have ever seen these by 10 days.  We are still very dry in our area, but at least the evening temperatures are dropping below 70 degrees which helps the corn plants respire much more efficiently.  Along with the tassels and silks, our annual friends the Japanese beetles have also arrived.  They like to chew on the tassels and clip the silks.  We will continue to keep an eye on them in case they get bad enough where we have to call in the airplane to spray them.

This past week we hauled more corn from the bins - we are almost empty.  We also attended the Sangamon County Fair in New Berlin.  Our plan this week is to sign our seed corn hybrid plot as well as finish hauling corn.  40% chance of rain this evening so we are keeping our fingers crossed... 

Happy Father's Day wishes to all you Dad's out there!

Tassels just starting to show 

Silks emerging from the ear shoots

Since wheat harvest has begun in our area, I thought I would include a picture of the wheat harvest on our farm - cira 1923.  Pictured is the late Rev. Goodsell who was the pastor at our family's church at the time.

Week ending June 10th...

Another dry week.  We have been hot and dry for many weeks now.  Sometime very soon, the weather will decide if we are going to have a big corn crop or a bust - we are quickly nearing that point.  Our soybeans look good compared with areas to the north who planted later and into soils that quickly dried out.  Soybean stands to the north are far much more spotty. 

I've included a picture of our first planting of sweet corn.  This would have been planted on March 27th.  It is tasseling right now, but unfortunately will be less than 4' tall and in most cases is 3' or less.  It doesn't appear that the sweet corn will be a bumper crop.  Their are a few fields of commercial corn that were planted earlier which have begun to start showing tassels.  Most of the corn in our area should start shooting tassels in the coming weeks.

This past week we wrapped up our last pass of herbicides on our soybeans around the Ashland area.  We continue to clean up equipment from spring planting and work around the shop.  Our county fair begins this week so many will be attending that.  Bring on the rain.

Corn closing the rows at our Elkhart Farm

First crop of sweet corn is less than 4' tall