Week ending July 30th...

Severe kernel tip-back due to high day & evening temperatures

Goss Wilt is taking over this field

It took two trailers to pick up all the parts & pieces of new chisel plow

Assembling the chisel plow

David mowing along the highway

Hot, humid, and dry weather is causing our corn crop to rapidly deteriorate. We have significant tip-back on ears from not only the hot weather during the day, but also the warmer than welcomed evening temperatures. We have quickly went from 230 bushels per acre potential to 170-180 by my kernel counts. And if the high heat doesn't break soon, we will continue to loose more bushels to the point this will be a very disappointing crop. This week we also discovered Goss Wilt. This is a disease that engulfs the corn plant killing it very quickly. It originates in the residue from the previous year's corn crop. Unfortunately, at this point there is nothing we can do for this field but watch and plan for next year. From what I have read, this will take 60-80 bushels per acre off our yield on this field. We plan to check the rest of our continuous corn fields this week to see if we have any more of these outbreaks.

Around the farm last week we began mowing roadsides again and continued working on shop projects. This past week our new chisel plow arrived at the dealership and David, Ron, & Darin began to assemble it. We also sprayed a few acres of soybeans this week with fungicide and insecticide.

Week ending July 23rd...

Another hot and humid week. The crops in our immediate area seemed to fair the extreme heat and humidity this past week better than some areas of Illinois we are hearing about. That being said, we are still taking top-end bushels off of our corn crop. And in some areas of Illinois the damage to the corn crop is going to be irreversible even if they receive a rain. We were fortunate to receive a nice rain around the Ashland area today and I believe the northern farms also received a shower. Unfortunately, according to the radar it did not appear the south farms had any rain at all. And with another round of hot and humid weather starting tomorrow, we are growing concerned about our crop prospects around the Greenfield area.

The first picture below is from a friend of our's over in Eastern Illinois. While his entire corn crop does not look this way, this particular hybrid has been the most affected by the weather and will have significant yield loss.

A hybrid that really doesn't like hot and dry weather - Eastern Illinois

A HUGE yield saving rain around Ashland today!

Week ending July 16th...

The past week consisted of hauling grain from the bins and scouting corn fields to be sprayed with fungicides. The weather seemed to dictate which jobs we accomplished based on the temperatures. We also spent time in the shop tearing down the corn head replacing parts so we can be ready to go this fall.

The upcoming week's forecast is for hot and extremely humid temperatures with little to no chances of rain. While we have been more fortunate than others with a few recent rain showers, we are concerned about how this weather will affect our final yields; more so the corn. The hot temperatures both during the day and at night (plus 70 degrees at night is not helpful) make the corn focus on maintenance of the corn plant (surviving) versus focusing on producing energy or sugars which create bigger/heavier kernels and larger yields. One of the main reasons we are spraying fungicide right now is to help the plant respire at night or give it "air-conditioning." A lot of the thought process behind spraying fungicide is to help slow the plant down so it doesn't have to work so hard during the high temperatures. Think of it as if you were running a marathon and someone threw you a cold and wet towel to put on the back of your neck. We normally like to spray fungicide when we see one-third brown silks. However, due to the coming weather we are pushing our fungicide applications up to once again try to give our corn plants air-conditioning.

Also, another important item worth mentioning is that the first-wave of sweet corn was ready this week. Sweet corn, similar to fireworks during 4th of July celebrations are another right of passage for those of us who farm or were raised on a farm. Eventually, we will all gather as a family to harvest hundreds of ears of sweetcorn and cook it and bag it so that we may enjoy it all year round.

Stay cool this week.

Applying fungicide on the Grand Prairie farm

The last pass of fungicide on the Whiznat farm

Week ending July 9th...

This past week we were able to finish mowing all our remaining roadsides and begin hauling our July contracted corn. The demand for old crop corn in our area is so high that we have an "inverted" basis. That means that instead of bidding "below" the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, end users are bidding "above" the national offered price. Having an inverted basis isn't something that is uncommon for our area, but we were able to lock in plus 30 cents over our contracted price because our delivery location must have corn to fill barges.

We also finished putting up the remaining signs on our corn plot. This year our plot grew to 43 entries with a "check" hybrid between every company entry. A "check" means we put the exact same hybrid in between every company's entries. This allows us to make adjustments to soil types and possible wet holes which could cause entries to yield less. After harvesting, we then average the yields of the checks and then adjust the hybrids' yields next to the check hybrids.

We also started scouting our first planted corn fields for diseases and pests. So far we have not seen much disease due to our early fungicide applications. However, we do have significant infestations of Japanese beetles in certain areas. These beetles chew on both the silks and tassels. This can cause kernels to not pollinate, thus reducing yield significantly. Also, by them clipping the silks on the ear they open up the tips of the ears and allow other insects, birds, diseases, and rots such as diplodia to enter and cause yield damage as well. Thus, we called in Holzwarth Flying Service to come in and spray the infested fields.

This week we plan to haul corn and begin work on rebuilding the corn head. We also plan to attend the Wyffels Hybrids Corn Strategies seminar in Dixon, Illinois. Check it out at www.wyffels.com/cornstrategies.

Our 43 entry corn plot along Highway 123

Japanese beetles feeding on fresh corn silks

Week ending July 1st...

The past week was great for the crops' development. Hot temperatures along with adequate moisture have both the corn and beans gaining height at a rapid pace. Earlier in the week our first planted corn began to tassel. As of the holiday weekend, their is a fair amount of corn that is tasseling in our area. The recent drier weather allowed us to wrap up spraying our final pass of herbicide applications on the soybeans. We also got the majority of all our road banks and ditches mowed and looking good for the 4th.

On Thursday of this past week we hosted our local McGillicuddy Corrigan Agronomic Focus Group. This group is comprised of farmers from central Illinois who have the desire to improve their cropping practices and share ideas with other farmers in order to achieve higher yields. The majority of this meeting focused on late season nitrogen management and fungicide applications.

Enjoy your 4th of July weekend!

Knee high by the 4th of July, no tassels by the 4th...!

Tassels showing on our April 6th planted corn outside of Ashland

MC Agronomics meeting held at our shop this past week

Spraying our last field of soybeans

Mowing roadsides at our Williamsville farm

Greensnap damage from recent winds on our farm Northwest of Jacksonville

Week ending June 18th...

Not much to report this week other than the wet weather. We did manage to haul the last of our soybeans from the bins to Sunrise Ag at Havana. We also put away the planters and are now working on other shop projects.

We also took in the local Sangamon County Fair this week. Owen had a great time riding all the rides and playing in the local Farm Bureau's "Hayloft." Ok, I had fun playing in there too...

Featured below are also some pictures from Gary Martin who is friend of our's that farms about 10 miles south of us. For him, the real rains began Friday evening and did not stop until late Saturday afternoon. According to his rain gauge, he received 7.25" in total. The pictures speak a thousand words as to the damage and sheer power this much rain created. Thanks to Gary for allowing me to post these on our blog.

To all you dad's out there - Happy Father's Day!

Owen driving the combine simulator

Owen and I playing in the "cornbox"

The water washed the entire base of railroad out

A foot of oil and chip road completely washed away

Week ending June 11th...

Early greensnap damage from winds that accompanied a recent rain storm. Estimated to be 3-4%. Corn was brittle from growing so fast due to recent high temp's and moist conditions.

Another application of nitrogen (Urea) on the corn at Ashland.

What the ground looks like after the urea has been spread. It will stay in this form until we get a rain to dissolve it into the soil.

Spraying post herbicides on soybeans near the Ashland reservoir.

Another great week of crop growing weather! The extreme hot temperatures were broke Friday evening with the welcome of a cold front and a few showers. Earlier in the week we noticed three to four percent greensnap in our Elkhart and Williamsville corn from last Saturday evening's storm. As I've mentioned the corn in our area is growing rapidly and any winds at all can cause damage, especially when it's brittle.

On Tuesday, we completed our last post herbicide applications on corn and later in the week we switched over to spraying soybeans. We are trying some "Warrant" herbicide on the beans this year which is supposed to give us residual control on waterhemp and small seeded broadleaves. We hope the Warrant combined with glyphosate will keep the fields clean until the beans can shade the row.

With all the rains and recent hot temperatures we have had recently, we decided to apply another 35# of nitrogen to certain fields. We are targeting poorly drained and corn on corn fields with this application. The form we are using is Urea (46-0-0). The urea is also treated with Agrotain which keeps it from breaking down for 10-14 days. Fortunately, after all applications we've had good rains to incorporate this additional nitrogen into the soil profile for the corn roots to access. Other areas we are targeting are our two National Corn Growers test plots, our 40,000 and 44,000 ppa population trials, and a few fields in areas that appear to have tremendous yield potential.