Planting Season begins...

 And so it begins....

We started planting soybeans on April 12th and were given one day to get the planters set and figure out the bugs that needed worked out. We weren't able to get back in until Saturday, April 21st. But we missed the big rains on Sunday and were back at it full-throttle Monday through Thursday, April 23rd - 26th. We have made great progress and know that we are really fortunate to have planted what we do compared to others. We are in a pocket where we are receiving rains, but fortunately missing the heaviest storms. We will resume planting in an area that missed the recent rains altogether today. Below are some pictures from our days in the field this spring.

First Day out planting soybeans down the lane from our shop.

Uncle Bob getting more soybeans planted with the 15" row planter.

Loading the planter with more seed.

During our planting delay, I attended a field day for a new crop we will be planting this September. It is called Cover Cress. It is a derivative of Penny Cress, only we will plant this as a pseudo "cover crop" in the fall and let it grow all winter through mid spring. Afterwards, we will harvest the seeds as you can see pictured below and Bunge and Chevron will crush them in Cairo, IL and ship them down the Mississippi River through the Panama Canal and over to California where they will be further processed into aviation fuel. It will be an interesting adventure as we haven't planted a "new" crop other than corn or soybeans since the 80's when we grew a few acres of wheat. 

Preparing for Planting Season...

Preparations are underway for the spring planting season. The warm and dry weather a few weeks ago got everyone into a panic to get things ready, but as of recently the weather has switched to be cold and rainy. A few soybeans in the area have been planted, but none by us yet. 

Unloading a load of Ammonium Thiosulfate into our tanks.

Leveling tile lines that were installed last fall.

Unloading fertilizer at our shop.

Snow Day...

I apologize as it looks like my December update did not load. I went back to republish it, but it's gone so we will skip from Thanksgiving to today, February 2nd. Today is a good day to be in the office with 10" of snow and the kids home for "remote" learning. Gone are "snow" days. Now the kids can work remotely and it not push back the summer dismissal date. We still manage a way to get outside and play in the snow though. 

As you can see from the pictures below, our time since December 1st has mostly consisted of trucking. The trucks have been nonstop since December 1st, but we are two loads shy of being done for the month already. And so far there isn't much scheduled to be moved in March. Otherwise, our time has been consumed with year end and beginning year bookwork as well as finishing up crop plans and making all of our 2022 crop input decisions and purchases. Typically, we don't have to buy everything this early, but with the delays in production, COVID and inflation we really need to plan 6-8 months or more ahead to get inputs in place so we are sure to receive them and are able to apply them to our fields this spring and summer. 

The commodity markets have been on a wild ride to the upside in the last month. Great prices for sure, but when soybeans are up 80 cents in a week it makes you scratch your head. Be safe out there and if you received some snow try to enjoy it! Have a great day!

Brent

NonGMO soybeans being loaded into a truck headed to Decatur for processing.

Uncle Bob hauling more corn to Barlett.

Hauling nonGMO soybeans from a remote bin to ADM in Decatur. We were lucky to get this bin unloaded before the 1" of rain and 10" of snow. 

Loading corn from the middle bin at the shop to take to Barlett Grain in Jacksonville.

 

Thanksgiving...

Happy Thanksgiving everyone! We started harvest on the evening of September 6th and finished on Tuesday, November 9th. We had a great run and were well ahead of our typical progress until rains shut us out for virtually half of October. All in all it was a great harvest with soybean yields setting a new farm record and corn coming in around 10-15 bushels per acre under our three year average. Too much rain in July for the corn and too much disease in August which brought the corn to an early death. In fact, about 150 acres of our last two corn fields up North were flat in places or severely lodged. We had to switch back to our 20' 12 row 20" corn head with the reel all the way across it to harvest much of those 150 acres. We also made the decision to put the tracks back on the main combine as when harvest resumed after the October rains it was fairly wet and we knew we would have several places in specific fields that tracks would be warranted and help ensure we wouldn't get stuck. 

Since harvest wrapped up, we have been completing field activities such as fertilizer spreading, lime and gypsum spreading as well as deep tillage. We were also very fortunate to have a 10 day window to get all our anhydrous ammonia applied for next year's corn crop. We locked in our ammonia price back in August and were worried if we would get it applied. Today's price is almost double what we paid due to demand and lack of production. If we didn't get it applied this fall, our contracts were null and void and would revert back to current market prices. Getting it applied versus what we believe will happen come spring was worth $73 per acre. Crazy!

While several are doing tillage and fertilizer work in the fields, we are also washing, servicing and putting equipment away for winter. We like to take our time and service all the equipment for the next season so that when we get it out of the shed it is "field ready" and doesn't require much time to go through prior to it's next use. 

We have much to be thankful for again this year. Specifically, family, friends, our health, good markets, good yields, wonderful employees and our freedoms. Happy Thanksgiving from all of us at Johnson Family Farms!

Harvesting soybeans at Williamsville.

The last time we took the bean heads off the combines - done with soybean harvest!

20' corn head with the reel on it for downed corn as well as the tracks to combat the mud.

This year we made the decision to plant cover crop wheat in several sensitive areas where water runs during the winter and spring to slow down the erosion and help keep the soil in place. This is a picture of our 15' no-till drill we purchased to seed the cover crop wheat. 

Deep ripping. We just got this tillage tool in the field as it had been too wet to operate it effectively. Now that it is dry, we are running it on end rows and fields that will be planted to corn next year. This tillage tool helps break up the compaction and lets the corn roots grow deep into our rich prairie soils. 

Harvest 21 rolls on...

We are making good progress on our 2021 harvest. The weather has been wonderful with little to no rain days. Soybean yields are surprisingly good, while corn is under last year's results, but still very consistent. Here are a few photos since my last post. - Brent

Harvesting soybeans in Greenfield. 

Filling grain bins with the grain cart and wagons since we were harvesting so close to the bins. 

A beautiful harvest sunset.

Dumping nonGMO soybeans out of a truck and into a grain bin for storage.

Spraying nitrogen and molasses to feed the microbes to help break down corn stalks that will be corn again next year.

Harvest has begun...

4th of July...

Time sure does fly by as I realized it had been awhile since I last posted any activity. I can assure you that things have been busy here at Johnson Family Farms since we wrapped up our planting and replanting activities. We have all the herbicide sprayings completed on the crops, but are starting to turn our focus towards applying fungicides on our soybeans & corn. We received anywhere from 6-10" of rainfall across our farms in the last couple weeks - most of which was needed. We were lucky to have all our roadsides mowed up and looking good prior to all that rain. While waiting for things to dry up we have been busy on shop projects with semis and trailers. Our latest project was converting our 1969 tanker trailer over from Dayton rims to hub and pilot. The Dayton rims had the wedge kit to keep the rim/wheel in place and were extremely difficult to reposition correctly. Most tire repair places will not work on them anymore. This project involved removing the old wheel hubs and replacing with matching hubs. That was a challenge matching 2021 hubs with a 1969 manufactured trailer. But after a couple different trips for parts, the guys got everything converted over and we now sport shiny new aluminum rims on an older stainless steel tanker. The crops are progressing quite well and we should begin fungicide applications on corn with the airplane this week. Soon the first planted sweetcorn will be ready as well. We hope everyone had a good 4th of July holiday!Brent

Loading soybeans headed to the Illinois River to be exported.

Our 4th of July display.

Our corn planted April 7th is now fully tasseled.