Week ending September 22nd...

My apologies for not posting since September 8th.  The hard drive on my computer crashed and thus, I wasn't able to update our blog.  Yesterday, we wrapped up our 2012 corn harvest.  Yields were slightly better than we expected (+5-10 bpa), but still very poor for our usual 200 bpa standards.  We have combined 120 acres of beans so far.  The two fields were very green, but surprisingly tested quite dry.  Yields on the beans have ranged from disappointing to pretty common.  Not many farmers in our area are bragging about their yields this year. 

We continue to work on tillage operations, make fertilizer applications and mow roadsides and waterways for the final time this year.  All the while we try not to watch the markets as they have plummeted in recent weeks...

Last pass of corn for the year

Very green beans that were testing 10.5%

Week ending September 8th...

 

Another great week of harvest.  We received 3 to 6" of rain from Hurricane Issac which helped replenish some of our dry soils.  Just one day after the rains stopped, we were able to resume harvesting our corn crop.  We are now 62% completed with our corn and 0% on the soybeans.  The soybeans are still somewhat green which we hope will result in more bushels.  We are 10-14 days away from even thinking about combining our soybeans.  That should allow us time to wrap up our corn and even get a jump start on the deep tillage. 

 

This past week we made the trip up to our north farms at Elkhart and Williamsville.  As anticipated, the yields were very poor.  Surprisingly, the moisture's were also much higher than anticipated but one field had significant wind damage.  Thus, we elected to take it out so it wouldn't get worse with any later storms or winds.  The weather has cooled down and it is now starting to feel like fall around here.

 

 Harvesting on the Quad J Farm South of Prentice



 

Week ending September 1st....

Hurricane Issac arrived in Central Illinois mid Friday afternoon.  Along with it came a much needed 2.3 to 6" of rainfall along with cooler temperatures.  Going into the Labor Day weekend we sit at 45% completed with our 2012 corn harvest.  Numerous corn fields in our area have been harvested and a few of the smaller farmers are even done with their corn harvest.  Yields still remain variable, but we did find some better corn as we went South towards our New Berlin farms, however the moistures were also higher which slowed our progress. 

This past week we also spread lime on a few fields and worked that in with a disk.  Our hope is that churning the soil with the disk and Issac's rain would allow the lime to begin working in our soils immediately.  Not much tillage has occurred in our local area, but I imagine after these recent rains, many will begin.  We should have enough moisture now to allow us to apply our fall anhydrous ammonia which we use as nitrogen fertilizer for our 2013 corn crop.  If soils are too dry, the anhydrous will not bond to the soil particles and therefor leach into the atmosphere which is not good. 

No soybeans have been combined in the area yet, but I anticipate some will be ready the end of the week.  Enjoy your Labor Day holiday!

Disking corn stalks and incorporating lime into the soil 

Spreading very dry lime and no wind - looked like the field was on fire... 

Harvesting corn on the Reiser Cass County farm 

Minor set back... 

 

Filling the truck

 

Week ending August 25th...

Harvest is now fully underway in our area.  We are nearing 25% completion with our corn harvest.  Moisture's have been as low as 17% and as high as 22% on the acres we have harvested.  We have other fields that are much higher in moisture and will wait on those to dry further before we combine them.  Yesterday's 90 plus degree temperatures and 25 mph winds blasted the corn and surely removed two entire points of moisture.  It also snapped the tops out of the really dead corn and made them look worse than they really are.  Our yields have been all over from poor to better than expected.  Our continuous corn acres are hanging in there and we cannot say there is a penalty.  That being said, the big differences are hybrid and planting date from what we have seen.  We have harvested a couple Poncho/Votivo 500 seed treatment trials and so far the PV500 is 2-6 bpa better which certainly pays for the added expense with these commodity prices.  We also had a Urea vs. ESN trial and measured virtually no difference. 

We continue to carve out our remaining fields at a rapid pace.  Rumors of aflotoxin in corn have been around, but we have not seen any in our fields yet. 

Be safe and please be patient with all farmers this fall as we move our farm equipment along on the back roads and highways. 

Harvesting corn on the Stelte field just East of Ashland along Rt. 125 

Max & Owen waiting for their first combine ride of the season 

Unloading into a wagon

Harvest begins...

With corn planted the end of March and hot temperatures to bring it to maturity quickly, we began our 2012 harvest this afternoon.  The corn pictured below is Wyffels 7997 (114 day VT3 Pro) sprayed with fungicide.  Moistures bounced between 19-22%.  We had planned to begin harvest next Monday, but with the forecast calling for "severe" storms and chances of high winds, we decided it was time to start harvesting.  There are only a few neighbors running, but next week most all will get started.  We are still dry, which means we will continue to welcome showers if they keep us out of the fields.  We have never started harvest this early...

Week ending August 4th...

Not much action to report since my last entry.  A few neighbors have started corn harvest, but many will wait until the 13th or even the 20th.  Initial yield reports have been poor to very poor and grain moisture's have been all over the place.  We have received a little rain since last week which will help the soybeans although more will be needed to bring them along to normal maturity and yield.

The picture below is of a corn plant our neighbor has in his driveway.  It was just a kernel that found a crack and planted itself.  And it's planted in gravel no less.  I'm not sure if they have been watering it or not, but it has NINE ears on it!  That is hard to believe, but the yield potential of a corn plant is really impressive when the right conditions exist.

Week ending July 28th...

Not much new to blog about.  The temperatures and humidity have moderated, but still no rain.  At this point, the corn is as they say "what it is."  The beans may have a little more time to wait for a rain, but the recent heat and lack of moisture is taking it's tole.  Rumours of a few farmers in Illinois starting harvest have made the rounds, but we still think we will begin our harvest around August 13th.  It will be interesting to see how harvest goes as we have corn that is already black layered (~32% moisture remaining in the kernels) and we have corn that the milk line is only half way down all in the same row.  This makes setting combines and drying corn in the bins or in a dryer even more of a challenge. 

We continue to work on harvest equipment and on fall fertilizer plans as well as 2013 cropping plans.  Part of the the process that allows us to keep things moving is stock-piling lime during the summer so that when the fields have been harvested, the trucks can immediately begin spreading lime which allows the tillage equipment to begin soon thereafter. 

We are cheering for our Olympic athletics during their games in London!