Planting soybeans...

This past week we began planting our 2012 soybean crop.  The soil is working well and the forecast is promising for more welcomed rain.  We wrapped up spraying our corn and have moved on to spraying burndown on our highly erodible land which will be planted to soybeans.  Almost all our corn is up and looks good.  The recent 85 degree weather has turned the corn from it's early pale green color to a deep and vibrant green.

Spraying corn herbicides on the Reiser Cass County Farm 

Our Twin-row corn trials 

Owen's last basketball game of the summer.  He loves sports! 

Last weekend Owen and Max attended the Unversity of Illinois Football Open House.  The team allows kids on the field where they can run around from station to station practicing football drills.  Owen made the Champaign News Gazette with his roar right before he hit the tackling dummy.

Done planting corn...

Corn planting wrapped up Thursday, April 12th. It was an enjoyable planting season with very few nights where we had to plant late because of impending weather. As I type we are receiving a very welcomed rain. Our area of Central Illinois has been very dry all winter and spring. In fact, our farms towards Elkhart and Williamsville had very little soil moisture when we planted them and most certainly had to have a rain to germinate the seeds. The corn we planted our first week in the fields is up and looking good. This past week we experienced evening temperatures that dipped into the lower 30's and in some cases the high 20's, but our emerged corn was not affected by the frost.

We again planted our corn plot and this year we have 42 entries which includes a check hybrid between every company. Thank you to all our suppliers who helped plant the plot in record time. This week we will focus on getting our corn sprayed, having our soybean seed delivered, working ground down ahead of the bean planter, and scouting corn for any spotty stands or cutworm damage.

Working ground at Williamsville - notice all the dust...
It is a good thing we have guidance on the tractor because with all the dust you could not tell where you were going sometimes

Planting the corn plot along the highway outside of Ashland

Planting season begins...

Sunrise FS spreading our Ammonium Sulfate

Mom's journey ends...

On Wednesday evening, with family gathered around her, Mom passed away from her 76 day battle with a brain tumor. She departed this world in comfort and peace and she now looks down on us from the heavens above. Mom was a great lady with an enchanting smile and a personality to match. She will be sorely missed. Thank you to all who have prayed for her and our family these last few months. Her visitation will be Sunday at the First United Methodist Church on the corner of Koke Mill and Wabash in Springfield, IL from 3 to 7 pm. Memorial services to be held on Monday at the church at 10:30 am. To view the slide show that will be shown during her services, visit - http://obits.dignitymemorial.com/dignity-memorial/obituary.aspx?n=Maralee-Johnson&lc=4061&pid=156630298&mid=5041217&locale=en-US and click on the "view photo gallery" below her picture. Love you Mom!

We have not yet planted any corn, but it does appear will we start this week. Above is a picture taken on April 9th, 1981 of our tractor and corn planter. Apparently, 31 years ago April 9th was too early to get started planting...

Below is a picture of ESN "Smart Nitrogen" prills that we have recently spread. We are splitting a few fields to see if the ESN could possibly take the place of side-dressed nitrogen. The ESN is not supposed to begin breaking down until the soil temperatures reach 60 degrees and then breaks down layer by layer giving the corn a continuous source of additional nitrogen through late spring/early summer.

Spring is here...

Despite the fact that is it only the middle of March, it seems as though spring has arrived. We have begun working some of our continuous corn acres, but have yet to put any seed in the planter and head to the field. The soil temperature is already as warm now as it was last year when we started planting corn on April 6th. We are trying to be patient and wait until early April to begin planting. I have seen a few mobile phone photos of planters running in Christian County to our Southeast and a few in the Pleasant Hill bottoms in Pike County. We are making final adjustments and improvements on the planters and we even are getting the lawn mowers out and serviced. I anticipate a few local planters starting next week and the last week of March should be a busy week if the current weather forecast of warmer than anticipated weather continues. We are still very dry and hoping that this weekend's 60% chance of rain will equate into a good and soaking rain. Seed corn is still being delivered as well as our spring herbicides. The chickweed and henbit already have established themselves quite well in the strip-till fields and few others. Our plan is to spray them with 2,4-D soon while they are growing good and not too big. Spring is here...ready or not!

Owen taking his first tractor ride of the spring.

A view out the back window of the Quadtrac working ground.


Bob running the Turbo Disk over fall chiseled corn stalks.

Owen & Max taking a ride in their John Deere Gator. Spring fever hit them early this year...

Week ending February 25th...

Believe it or not, we were in the fields this week. Our area is very dry and recent warmer temperatures allowed us to sneak in the fields to level the tile lines that were installed last fall. Later in the week applied anhydrous ammonia on the field that was recently tiled. Now all our corn fields are ready to be field cultivated and planted when the calendar and weather are right.

We also cleaned out our only bin of beans and hauled them to the Illinois River at Beardstown. We have a few bins left to empty out, but not a lot...

Applying Anhydrous Ammonia (Nh3) on our Lathom field

Loading a truck with soybeans from the bins at Reiser's

Bob disking bottom ground that was too wet to work last fall

Week ending February 18th...

This past week we attended the National Farm Machinery Show in Louisville, Kentucky. It is a great way for us to generate new ideas or just improve upon practices we are already implementing. The five hour drive down and back is not too bad either as we call that our farm's "winter conference." With all the hustle and bustle of farming it's rare to get 10 hours together to make decisions and bounce ideas off each other. Below are some pictures I took of new or interesting products unveiled at the farm show.

The most intriguing item we saw; Gerginhoff's innovative corn head design that DOES NOT require you to follow the rows. It was quite a hit with visitors at the show. Unfortunately, it will not be commercially available until 2015. This is truly pushing the limits of conventional thinking of following the rows...

We don't have a skidsteer, but I thought this was pretty neat. I sent this picture to my friend Adam Ploog who has cattle in Iowa and uses their skidsteer all the time. His comment was that while it looked cool, it would be hard to get manure all over it...


A Husqvarna chainsaw with a six foot bar and chain. Not sure who could operate this by them self, but it was certainly a novelty.