Rained Out

We got the big rain we didnt want starting on Monday and more since then. We still have 450 acres of corn left and hopefully it will not be too long before we can get to it. Deep tillage has been 50 percent done and may not get completed for the year. Check out the new pictures on the site and the new page coming soon.

Cropwatcher 11/13/09

Todd Easton Coles County November 13 2009: Just concluded another late night out in the field. One of several in the past week which is a good sign that progress is being made. Standing soybeans have been nowhere to be found for the last week as producers are almost completely engaged in harvesting the corn crop. Moistures are running in the 18 to 20 percent range still making the elevator lines long and slow but not as bad as they have been. Tillage tools have been out in large numbers now that soil conditions have improved. Judging from the basketball sized clods rippers are leaving behind them this last year did a lot of damage to the soil structure. After a whole year of weather related complications the last couple of weeks have been a blessing. Hopefully the forecasted rains won’t amount to much and we can get the bulk of this harvest finished before the end of the month.

Crop Watcher 11/06/09

Todd Easton Coles County November 6 2009: Overtime, It comes as no surprise to me that Farmweek has asked us to continue reporting for a few extra weeks its just one of many signs that this harvest has gone well into overtime. The good news that finally at this late point in the fall field operations are in full swing. Looking across the countryside this week it looks like every piece of fall season farm equipment in the county is out working as farmers and fertilizer suppliers are trying to get a long list of work done in a very short time. Soybean harvest appears to be in the last ten percent as many producers have worked down to their ponds and latest plantings. Soybeans seemed to have a very well defined trend of later planting being lower yielding. I couldn’t even venture a guess of what the final county bean average will be but I’m afraid it will be somewhat lower than our five year average. Corn on the other hand is doing surprisingly well as most fields I have been in so far are at or above average with the last two topping the 200 bushel mark even after shrink. As we get farther in it will be interesting to see what the June planted corn does hopefully it won’t show a significant lag like the beans but it might. As harvest moves along stay safe out there.