We can now see the light at the end of the tunnel! Today we moved to our last field of corn and harvest should be finished by Thursday! We are finishing a good two weeks earlier than the last few years. Partly, due to lower yields but mostly due to the lack of rain. It has been a really long stretch with no breaks. I believe we only had one break due to rain. We had several frustrating days while we were combining beans due to the fog but other than that, the combines have been rolling. The yields were highly variable as expected. Overall, I think it will end up being an average year which is amazing considering the large amounts of rain early followed by no rain late summer.

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Drone video from one of our Montgomery County farms taken 8-22-15

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Hard to believe that we will be starting harvest next week!  The summer flew by.  The ridiculously wet April, May, June and July turned into an extremely dry August.  Because of the dry weather, the crops are turning a little too quickly and stopping any further yield development.  We are still cautiously optimistic for average crops on the whole.  We definitely have some rough looking crops that will not have good yields, but we also have some that are looking very good.  We’ll keep you posted as harvest progresses!

Wishing you a relaxing Labor Day!

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Sunset in Benton County while spraying last week.

It’s Spring! but someone forgot to clue in Mother Nature.  The cold weather just won’t go away.  We did begin planting corn on April 15th in Benton County.  Wet weather since then has prevented any further planting.  In the meantime, the guys have been doing some excavation and tiling work.  Field work should start again today, but we’ll have another rain delay Saturday.  Next week is looking much better.  So hopefully, we can put together a few good planting days.

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Mitchell leaving Randy in his dust!

The end of soybean harvest is in sight!  Fingers crossed and rain holds off, we might get done today!  Yields have remained very strong across the board.  The weather has really been difficult this fall, but we were blessed with a dry, warm stretch last week so we made a lot of progress.  Unfortunately, our guys had to work some really long hours to accomplish this.

We have a good start on corn harvest also.  With the high yields, we still have a long way to go though …

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Well harvest officially started yesterday with us harvesting a field of beans.  Today we are trying a little corn.  The crop looks great and we’ll probably see some record yields.  Unfortunately, the cool, wet conditions have kept the crop from maturing very quickly and the corn remains really wet.  The last couple days of warm temps and a nice breeze should help out a lot.  The guys are anxious to get things rolling but we are probably a week away from doing any serious combining.  Happy Harvest!

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The weather extremes continue as June has brought us heavy rain events and 90 degree temperatures with very high humidity. While maybe not the most comfortable conditions, although no one seems to be complaining after the long cold winter, the crops are enjoying the hot humid weather and are really growing well.

We finished our sidressing in good shape right before the rains came and have been able to run the late season nitrogen bar we had mentioned. Hopefully we will be able to get some good comparison data of applying a late dose of fertilizer.  The old saying of knee high by the 4th of July will again be outdone this year. Most of the corn will be well over head high by then. I would also guess that some of our first corn will start to tassel right in that time frame also. Most of the corn is at about the v9-v11 stage now. On average, the hybrids will tassel at the v15 stage or 15 true leaves. Once the tassel emerges, the plant switches from vegetative growth to reproduction stages. Also when the tassel emerges, the corn plant is about as tall as it will get as its new focus is to produce grain. Most hybrids will use between 40-60% of their total nitrogen fertilizer needs around tassel time. This is the reason we are experimenting with the late season applications trying to ensure we have enough there when the plant needs it. The plants have already determined how many rows around each ear will be (always an even number) but the dominate ear has yet to be chosen. On average, it will be the ear on the 11-12th ear node. Each node on the plant can produce a leaf, an ear or a root, the plant will determine at which node the dominant ear will be. Sometimes there will be two but usually only one quality ear. With the season so far, we should see a lot of 18-20 rows around ears; and at least on the outside rows, some two ear stalks.

The beans had a harder time shaking the cold weather. They are now growing well. We have added some root growth inhibitors in our spray trip trying to aid in the root development to get them growing better. If we can keep them healthy, they will be fine. Slow growth though allows for insects and disease to set in so we will keep a close eye on them. The summer solstice triggers soybeans to start blooming so soybean reproduction cycle is starting. Soybeans can bloom at any height so we could have some short or not so tall soybeans this year (not necessarily a bad thing).

Below is a video of the Y drop nitrogen bar:

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We finished bean planting on May 23rd!  With some 80 degree temperatures and a lot of sunshine, the crop is starting to get good color and is looking well.

We have started sidressing corn and are getting ready to start a new fertilizer application which will allow us to apply nitrogen to the plant later in season on taller corn.  Basically, this lets us spoon feed the crop and give it the nitrogen it wants throughout the growing season. We will also be applying herbicide and fungicide in June to both corn and beans in an attempt to keep them clean and healthy as long as possible.

The last couple days, we’ve received some much needed rain which should make the crops really take off!

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 After a long rain delay, the bean planting started up again yesterday.  We should finish up on Friday.  The corn was not too fond of the cold, rainy weather we had last week but it is now turning a pretty shade of green and growing like crazy.

The picture I’ve included is Randy running the side dresser.

HAPPY MEMORIAL DAY!

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