November 3rd, 2018...

Harvest 2018 is all but over for us this year. We have 65 acres of corn remaining, but Mother Nature isn't allowing us to get finished up quite yet. Corn yields were good this year, but not record or better than 2014's. Soybean yields on the other hand were a new whole farm record for us. Fungicide applications on both crops proved to be extremely beneficial for the highest yields. We have a lot of the tillage completed and have not yet started applying anhydrous ammonia.

Harvesting soybeans as the moon rises.

Harvesting white corn outside Pleasant Plains.

Filling two trucks at a time in Greenfield.

Filling another truck at night.

Harvest begins...

Harvest began in earnest on Tuesday, September 4th although admittedly we played around with the machines on Labor Day.  Corn yields have been better than our estimates which is always a good sign.  Corn moistures are not dropping much, with everything we've harvested so far being dried down at our grain center through our continuous flow dryer.  We have not cut any soybeans yet, but localized reports have been nothing short of fantastic.  Tropical Storm Gordon has arrived and has so far dumped 3-5" on the bulk of our farms with our South farm receiving not quite an inch yet. Below are some pictures I've taken so far of our first few days of harvest.  Be safe everyone and watch out for harvest machinery on the roads this fall.

Mid August...

Harvest is quickly approaching and we are working to get all the equipment and grain bins ready.  The corn crop looks good, but will not be a record for us in this geography.  As for the soybeans, the jury is still out on them but they do look really good at this point.  The kids started school today and the time continues to fly by.  Below are pictures of some of the things we've been up lately.  My next update will include harvest photos. 

Dave K from Consolidated Grain & Barge in Illinois brought nonGMO corn buyers from Japan by the farm for a tour of the growing crop. It was interesting to listen to them talk about their concern of certainty of a supply of this grain every year; regardless of a drought as well as what they use this grain for in Japan.

We also had a group of farmers from all over Australia stopped by the farm as well. They gave the crops and machinery a good inspection.  It was a great time visiting with them about farming Down Under versus what we do here.

A Friday evening crop tour from the air with the boys.

Mowing roadsides at our Williamsville farm.  

Late July...

The crops have been progressing nicely since my last blog post.  Our corn is all pollinated and appears it has good potential.  The soybeans also look great, but the verdict is still out on those.  Trade and tariffs have the markets upside down, but hopefully that can be resolved after harvest and give us another opportunity to market the remainder of our crop.  We have been busy cleaning out grain bins, mowing roadsides, scouting crops for aerial fungicide applications, and youth baseball.  Despite starting to plant two weeks later than normal, the hot weather has accelerated our crops to the point where we are actually almost a full two weeks ahead of schedule.  This means there may be a fair amount of corn harvested in our immediate area ahead of Labor Day.  Given that scenario, we have started working on harvest equipment as time allows. 

Loading the airplanes to spray fungicide and insecticide on soybeans at our Elkhart & Williamsville farms.

Hauling lime from the rock quarry and staging it on farms we will spread it on this fall.

Spraying fungicide on corn with a helicopter.

Father's Day...

The crops are off to fast start and the entire countryside is very green.  Corn is now head high and we anticipate seeing a few tassels this week in our earliest planted fields.  The soybeans are slowly closing the rows and soon we will be spraying fungicide on both crops.  We finally received a decent rain a week ago, but unfortunately the rains arrived with severe winds which flattened several spots within our corn fields as well as one entire field.  Luckily, that storm was 10 days or so ahead of pollination and the corn mostly straightened back up within five days of the winds.  We have all the soybeans sprayed with their last pass of herbicide and are now focusing our efforts on mowing roadsides and finishing up putting the planting equipment away.  Summer youth baseball and other activities are also picking up and the days are flying by.  Harvest will be here before we know it...

Spraying soybeans a couple weeks ago.  Using the drone to take pictures.

Corn leaned over from straight-line winds.

Walking beans with the boys.

Planting continues...

We started planting our 2018 crop in earnest on April 20th with soybeans. On Saturday, April 21st we made the switch to corn and never looked back. Nine days later we finished corn. This was one of the most fast paced planting seasons we've experienced in several years. The soil worked up extremely well. While we planted corn we also planted soybeans with another planter which sped up our planting season. The weather turned from cold to hot and windy. These conditions wicked the moisture out of the planting profile quickly and as we turned the calendar over to May we actually became concerned about the lack of moisture in the top three inches of soil. As luck would have it, we received a very welcomed rain on Thursday, May 3rd. This gave the freshly planted corn and soybeans a great start, but it also gave everyone time away from the farm to spend with their families and catching up on office work. We have about 900 acres of soybeans left to plant, but with three planters it should not take longer than a couple days. 

20" strip-till corn at high-speed. It planted beautifully this year.

Planting no-till corn on the University of Illinois farm.

Our April 20th planted soybeans are up and looking good!

Several of our April 21-24th planted corn is already up!

Adding more tile and new tile risers on the University of Illinois Hunter #3 Farm we operate.

Plant 18 has begun!

Despite Mother Nature dropping another Sunday's snowfall on us, the 2018 planting season did get underway at Johnson Family Farms this past week. We went from a couple inches of snow to 80 degree temperatures to over two inches of rainfall by the weekend. This is some of the wildest weather I can remember and from the sound of news the weather is all out of whack all over our country. We hope to be back in the fields planting this week, but the forecast does not look promising.

Snow in April in Central Illinois???

Re-seeding a waterway on the Dunlap Young Farm.

Working ground ahead of the planter on Thursday.

Time to get the soybean planter going. Friday the 13th - why not?