Crop Watcher 10/30/09

Todd Easton Coles County October 30 2009: The calendar has turned again this time its saying November but looking across the countryside it is hard to believe. I never thought I would ever see so many crops still out after Halloween and I hope it is a once in a lifetime experience. Progress has been stop and go once again this week. Corn harvesters started back up over the weekend stopped again on Tuesday by rain resuming work on Wednesday and Thursday until once again more rain fell in the area that will probably keep us shut down through the weekend. Corn moisture has been showing a small improvement as many fields are being found in the lower 20’s but elevators are still having to limit wet corn deliveries on a regular basis as dryers are pushed to the limit. The remaining Soybean crop remained mostly untouched through the week as precipitation came at the wrong times. Among all the limited delivery notices from elevators there are many pictures in the e-mail of grain dryer fires at both commercial elevators and on farms. Make sure you closely monitor your dryers and clean them out on a regular basis!

Crop Watcher 10/23/09

Todd Easton Coles County October 23 2009: As Baseball legend Yogi Berra used to say “its deja vu all over again” this week as rain showers came into the area Thursday stopping harvest progress until at least this weekend. Producers started harvesting corn fields over the last weekend. Then on Monday most switched to beans and took out a very large part of that crop ahead of the rain. Soybeans were finally coming in at acceptable moisture levels this weekend with yields all over the board. If we could just get a handful of good days farmers could wrap up the bean harvest and hopefully those will come soon. Corn harvest has been on and off again all season yielding to the bean harvest when ever that has been possible. Corn moistures were still in the 20 to 25 percent range this week forcing elevators to curtail wet corn deliveries at times to catch up on drying already. I’m afraid this will be an on going inconvenience throughout corn harvesting as combine capacity has well out grown drying capacity over the last few years.

Crop Watcher 10/16/09

Todd Easton Coles County October 16 2009: A couple more mistimed rain showers came into the area this week slowing harvest progress once again. We received over an inch in most areas on top of already muddy fields making a bad situation worse. Soybean harvesting has progressed to over a third done in most parts of the county with yields still in the 50’s and 60’s for the most part. Corn harvest has been curtailed by most everyone concentrating on soybean harvest but should pick up over the weekend with beans being too wet to cut for a few days. I finally took the end rows off of some of my Memorial Day weekend planted corn Thursday afternoon and the moisture was a little higher than I was hoping at 26% but that may be what we harvest a lot of the corn at the way this year is going. Yield on the end rows was 192 bushels dry which surprised me after seeing so much compaction damage about everywhere the planter turned around. For those of you who have not been out in the corn yet brace yourselves the compaction damage in the end rows is pretty ugly in places.

Todd Easton Coles County October 9 2009: This harvest is starting out exactly how we did not want it to. Rain showers have been making the bean cutting stop and go for producers and raising worries on how this fall will unfold. Yield reports for beans are coming in at around 50 bushels in the southern part of the county to 60 or above toward the northern part. No fresh news on corn yields as almost everyone is still waiting on the crop to dry out enough to harvest and have been concentrating on bean harvest so far. The Thursday rain storms have almost given us 2” so far which will probably stop any progress until next week.

Crop Watcher 10/02/09

Todd Easton Coles County October 2 2009: The waiting game lingers on here in Coles County as corn and soybean crops seem to be approaching harvestability very slowly. Farmers quickly ran out of April planted corn to harvest if they even had any and still found it to be over 20 percent moisture over the last week in September. Abnormally high amounts of damage (10%-20%) from disease made for an ugly surprise for most producers who had the early corn. May planted corn is far from ready for harvest as I could not help but try some of my May 11 corn and found it to be a very wet 34% and the later May early June fields look much worse. As for the soybeans ripe fields seem to be few and far apart so far farmers are cutting them as fast as they become ready. Yields for the beans are so far in the 50’s and 60’s much better than many were thinking they would be but I will be surprised if the later beans can sustain these levels. Until next week all we can do is have patience and clear our November calendars.