Corn planting is complete...

After a couple breaks due to rains, we were finally able to complete our 2016 corn planting on Saturday, May 7th. All of our corn planted ahead of this last round of planting has emerged. A week ago the corn went through its yellow stage where is transitions from living off the seed to its own root system. During that time we also experienced cooler and wetter weather. Now the corn has begun rooting down and has turned a very beautiful green color and is off to the races. We will soon begin spraying our last pass of herbicide. We continue to work on planting our soybeans, and if given a five day window we will wrap those up. 

A picture of our National Corn Growers Yield Contest entry on one of our Morgan County fields. This was planted in 20 inch rows at 48,200 seeds per acre. It is off to a very good start.

A close up shot of our V1 corn.

Installing tile on a newly acquired farm outside of Pleasant Plains.

Making a tile riser connection in the new tile line.

Corn planting has begun...

Corn planting began for us Thursday, April 14th. In the course of a short week we are right at 50% planted and are receiving some beneficial rains. We have a few acres left to plant around our home area and then will have to decide whether we go North or South to our farms in those areas. The soil is working beautifully and warmer temperatures have arrived and appear to be here to stay. Our first planted corn should be emerging soon.

Filling up with another load of starter fertilizer.

Filling the seed tender with another load of seed corn.

Corn planting is near...

The farm has been a very busy place since my last blog post. Spring and pre-planting activities have consumed our time. We've been getting planters ready, leveling ground ahead of the corn planters, hauling out soybeans, fixing and installing new tile, and doing some dirt work where the post Christmas ten inch rains eroded some field edges and surface drains. Up until the last 48 hours, we were very dry and growing concerned about how dry we had become. In the last 48 hours we received anywhere from 1-2" of rain.

There has been a little corn planted in Central Illinois that we are aware of, but we are patiently waiting for the next opportunity. Next week they are forecasting more rain on Wednesday, but we may dry out ahead of that and get an opportunity to test the planters on Tuesday. The cooler daytime temperatures concern us and we are keeping a watchful eye on the ever changing forecast to make our planting decision. Today the USDA dropped a bombshell on everyone by claiming the US Farmers will plant 93.6 million acres of corn in 2016. While we disagree with these projections, unfortunately the market will use them to trade the next few weeks until weather is the sole focus.

On another note, we extend our best wishes for a quick recovery for David Younkers and Ron Brown who both work on our team. Between the two of them they broke their leg and had a knee replacement surgery. We look forward to seeing their smiling faces around the farm as soon as the doctor's clear them.

Leveling Fall chiseled plowed ground down ahead the planter.  

Andy Shireman replacing a 10" tile run on our University of Illinois Hunter #3 Farm.

Replacing a tile outlet on our U of I Farm.

Hauling some of the last soybeans we stored on the farm out to the Illinois River terminal.

Friday, March 4th...

We had an extremely rare stretch of warm winter weather that has allowed our soils to dry out from the winter and gave us an opportunity to get our final anhydrous ammonia applied. This past fall we seeded a few fields with a cereal rye cover crop and on those fields we waited until now to apply the nitrogen. We also waited to apply our South farm with spring nitrogen. Typically, we get all our ammonia applied in the fall, but with the current agricultural recession we are experiencing, we decided to wait and let the markets tell us which crop would be more profitable to plant. According to our budgets, corn is still king and thus we switched a few more acres away from soybeans. Now that our preplant nitrogen is complete we will shift our focus towards spring activities and soon corn planting season. 

Applying Anhydrous Ammonia Nitrogen fertilizer in 20" strips on a field that was planted to cereal rye in the late fall. Now that the Nitrogen has been applied, we will kill off the rye cover crop as soon as it begins to green up and come back to life. 

Taking another load of seed corn in preparation for our 2016 corn crop.

Sunday, February 7th...

Time has flown since my last blog post. It seems as though meetings have consumed most of our time since the beginning of the year. Work continues in the shop on winter projects and will soon transition toward spring planting equipment. We have already taken delivery of some of our seed corn and will continue to as the days get closer to planting. Recent meetings have taken us up to Chicago to attend the annual Top Producer Seminar. During this seminar we listen to top notch speakers from topics ranging from the commodity markets, weather, branding our business, to new interpretive data programs that analyze our farms yield, soil, and fertility information. The main weather presenter predicted that the El Nino weather pattern will turn sometime this summer and switch our weather to a La Nina. La Nina summers for our area tend to be hot and dry while winters historically are very cold with lots of snow. Time will tell if that will truly be the case.

Moving a little corn from one of our on farm bins.

Completing repairs on one of our semi's.  New air bags, inside tires repainted and also a fresh coat of paint on the frame.

A new entrance along Highway 125 outside Ashland we worked with the State of Illinois Department of Transportation to get installed.  They also removed two old 12' wide concrete culverts that were installed many years ago and have since filled in over time.

A New Year...

The calendar has finally turned over to 2016 and a new production year is ahead of us. This year looks to be challenging with lower commodity prices and input costs that remain stubbornly higher and more suited for a $4.50 to $5 corn market. We are constantly evaluating our production methods and looking for ways to cut costs. This is a challenge because we want to cut costs, but not limit our bushels of production. Every year we test different "Add-on" products to our existing production methods. Now it is time to evaluate those that worked against $3.50 corn and $8.75 soybeans to see if they return 2:1. If they don't they are scratched from our 2016 crop plan. 

Over the holidays we experienced the largest rainfall I can ever remember for the month of December. We received 6" of rain over three days and felt very lucky as areas to our East and South received upwards of 11 to 13" of rain. Ponds in fields were everywhere. However, it was reassuring to see our fields that are pattern-tiled had little to no ponding within three days after the rainfall. We are now at full field moisture capacity as we start the new year and snow and the coldest temperatures of the year are knocking at our door.

We wish everyone a safe, productive, and financially strong 2016!

Hauling more corn from our bins to the rail terminal in Lowder.

 

Building our new shop - Spring of 1979.
I posted these pictures because by 1979 's standards, this was a very large heated shop and shed being built.  However, now that machinery has grown in size & scope we find ourselves cramped for space in the winter months as temperatures drop as they will this upcoming week.  If only we could build something now in a similar scope for those 1979 dollars...!

Drilling the well for the new shop.

Sunday, December 13th...

What a stretch of crazy good weather we've experienced this fall and early winter! It has allowed us to get more outside projects completed than we ever thought. As the calendar rolled into December we began hauling corn from our bins to the rail terminal in nearby Jacksonville. We've also shipped a few bushels of soybeans. As the soils have dried, that has allowed us to fix more tile holes and do more work outside. Marketing meetings along with end of year tax appointments have also consumed a lot of our time. We have a few more meetings to attend and things will transition toward a little time off to focus on family and the Christmas holiday. 

Have a Merry Christmas everyone!

Installing new tile outlets on our Williamsville farm

Loading soybeans into the grain cart from our grain bins while we wait for a semi truck to return from the elevator