Its a good thing farmers aren't a big percentage of our business. Yields are starting to come in from the dryland corn. So far the ranges right around here are running from 8-34 bu per acre. Talked to one guy where they got a bit more rain. 50-60 bu range. The soybeans are turning color on the dryland. You can see exactly where the pivots ran, and the yellowed beans in the corners. I guess aflatoxin is definitely a problem this year this year in the corn, with severe docks on price if they find it. I see a lot of combines running, rarely meet a grain truck. Sounds like the irrigated corn will be down as well. Those 10 straight days in July of plus 100 degrees took their toll. The pivots running nearly nonstop on the beans seems to have slowed down. With 103 yesterday and up around 106 today, maybe it just doesn't pay. I can't imagine what bills for pumping water are.
A lot of corn went in for silage that would not have normally. With hay bringing from 200-300 plus a ton in Texas, feeding silage here and shipping hay there makes a lot more sense.
I wondered how things were going in your area Kansas, thanks for the information.
On Tuesday we had a storm move through that started raining at 11AM and lasted through the late afternoon. We got 1 1/2"s which is the most rain we've had since mid June. It will help some of the beans but I have fields that are done for the year no matter. Our corn is half dented so it's too late for it too. Yields will be off 20-30% easily in our area.
What are the yields like in an average year in your area?
The farmer across the road is one of the last to do conventional tillage around here. He is used to 180 bu dryland corn. A river bottom field that he has that would normally yield that, he put up in silage. They figured for crop insurance about 8. I can't tell that there has been any difference between conventional tillage and no till. They shut the pivots off the corn a fair amount of time ago.
Quote from: Kansas on September 01, 2011, 09:17:01 AM
They shut the pivots off the corn a fair amount of time ago.
For us non-farmer types, what's a pivot?
Bruce
Here's wiki on it Bruce.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Center_pivot_irrigation
It's a big irrigator that pivots around a central point which is normally where the well is sunk.
Thanks. That's what I thought it was, but wanted to be sure.
Bruce
about 1/2 the corn here is being baled. some looks like it never even made any ears. just cow filler. the beans are still green and look good but i dont know if there is anything in the pods or not.
with the high cost of fuel and fertilizer, it looks like to me that a fell couldnt make much money on a good year and this year would be a bust. pc
I would really be worried about nitrate levels in that baled corn. In silage its not so bad..In the bale, not good. I kind of wonder if they won't bale some soybeans. Haven't been around that much.
I didn't know they were called pivots either .I do recall going across I-70 on the way to Colorado years ago and seeing the exhaust manifolds of the Ford industrial engines 429's and 300 6's glowing red at about 3 am in the morning just a pumpin the water .
Excuse my ignorance on baling corn...... we don't even see it grown around these parts. Do they cut the corn and lay it in swaths to dry before it is baled up like hay or do they cut and bale right away. I know here when they bale any kind of crops they lay it down to cure for so many days to allow the nitrate levels to drop. Canola, barley, oats.... evry one of them I know they cut it and leave it for 3-5 days for the nitrate levels to receed to certain levels. This is even if they wrap the bales to create silage.
Most times they'll run a chopper of some kind through the field, rake into windrows, and then bale. If it's dry enough to start with they'll pretty much do it in a couple of days. Silage has to cure to reduce the nitrates is my understanding but Kansas has more experience with this kind of stuff so I'll wait to see what he says.
Silage is direct cut (green) into the silo and goes through a curing state to release the heat and gas.
In our area, they are hand cutting the fields knocked down by the wind before they get rained on again and get moldy.
For the record, the no till fields held up to the wind far better than the tilled fields.
I heard the same thing Roxie. We had a bad wind storm (over 100 mph) back in July. The corn was flattened. I was amazed to see that most of the corn that had not been uprooted straightened itself up (they call it goose necking because of the bend in the stocks). They said the majority of the uprooted corn was in tilled land.
We no till directly into bean stubble, but the corn on corn fields get chopped & disced to help break down the stocks.
It's funny how different terms are used around the country, with our silage, we chop the corn green, but mature, and pack it tight in a pile (what we call a silo, just a hole dug into the side of a hill with a concrete bottom) and let it cook the nitrates out. I'll bet what Roxie calls a silo is along the lines of what Norm and Patty shot down on their farm, just saw a link to that thread last night :). Anyway you look at it I'd definately be at least a little concerned of the nitrate levels in baled, drought stressed corn.
You are correct. The silo that I'm referring to is the thing Norm and Patty shot down. :D
Yea, nobody uses them around here anymore; they just dump the silage on the ground or into a cement 3-sided area, that we call a silage pit. That way to can just drive up with your tractor's front end loader and scoop up what is needed.
Yes, silage does reduce the nitrates. About the only thing you can do to reduce the nitrates in baled corn is cut high. The bottom part of the stalk is often the part that holds the most nitrates. So they cut about 9 inches or so high. But to be safe you have to test the baled corn stover and figure out how much of it you can feed. Cattle can tolerate some nitrates. Grinding that and hay and feeding the appropriate mix is a lot better than just freely feeding it. My guess is there will be a lot of irrigated corn that will be baled up after the combine goes through. I also would bet corn gluten from the alcohol plants will be in hot demand this year. Be a lot of that flowing south from Nebraska and other areas where they got rain. Lot of cattle will be going north. Its cheaper to move the cattle to the feed than the feed to the cattle.
yes they cut it with a hay mower and let it dry(which dont take long right now) then just bale it. large round bales.
the nitrate thing has been on everyones mind here and i know of some fields that didnt get cut fore corn(no ears) and are still standing because of too high nitrate level. it is a big concern.
as far as sileage goes, our corn is too far gone to chop and do much good. all brown and dead looking. they like to green chop it here too and it is anything but green. it is common practice here to set 2 rows of round bales as sides and dump chopped sileage in the middle and cover the whole thing with a tarp. only the folks who use it every year have a pit silo. as far as letting the nitrates cook out of sileage, i dont know. however all the sileage i have ever been involved with had to be put in the silo real wet and packed in tight. that way it would fermint and not rot. the smell of good sileage is about like a brewery smells. pc
The old timers had a way to put a jug in with the silage and make whiskey. Can't remember the exact process now, but it was pretty simple.
Mason jar, lid not screwed on tight, bottom of pit. As a disclaimer, I have not tried it myself.
:D Stone crock hootch .The juice would ooze out the bottom of the silo drains .The chickens would drink the stuff and stagger around like drunken sailors .
Seldom does anyone ensile corn around here any more .The dairy farmers are few and far between these days .
Quote from: Kansas on September 02, 2011, 08:38:28 AM
The old timers had a way to put a jug in with the silage and make whiskey. Can't remember the exact process now, but it was pretty simple.
When a kid, we had a man come out every fall and set glass jugs around in the bottom of the silo before filling, and when it was emptied out after the winter, he'd come out and retrieve them. Don't know how he processed the juice that was in the jugs or if drank it straight, but he would volunteer to clean the last of the old silage and set new jugs (that part I liked).
:D :D I have never heard of corn squeezins made that way, might have to try it this year. Don't think I'm man enough to actually drink anything that might accumulate in the jar though ;D. Paul I know what your talking about, in 2002 we burned up really bad, that year I pulled that poor little 3800 cutter over about 600 acres (with a 2 row head) I've never been so sick of cutting silage in my life. According to the insurance company my dryland corn would've made 2 bu per acre. Right now feed looks to be a good commodity to have on hand.
Quote from: WH_Conley on September 02, 2011, 09:13:37 AM
Mason jar, lid not screwed on tight, bottom of pit. As a disclaimer, I have not tried it myself.
Really! Hmmmmm That's a new one for me too.
I have heard of the mason jar trick but it wasn't the one I was thinking of. Probably same results. Did a little research, and the one I was thinking of was a gallon jug with a corn cob plugging the hole. The corn cob filtered the stuff that went into the jug. What I can't figure is they pack that stuff tight with heavy tractors. How do you keep from breaking them. In the old days, you could have set them in the bottom of an upright silo, and I don't believe they really packed those. Just the weight of the silage would settle over gradually.
I wouldn't mind trying it. Naturally, it would be for scientific purposes only.
Those silos I refered to were not air tight like the "Harvestors " .Just the average run of the mill concrete stave silos that were very common in these parts .
Kind of ironic because yet today those things dot the country side but the big dairy barns fell to ruin decades ago .
I never drank the stuff either but assumed it to be low alcohol like apple cider .The juice itself smelled so bad I couldn't imagine anybody drinking it .Of course a chicken doesn't have much sense to begin with even less when they're snockered on corn squezzens .
Quote from: Kansas on September 02, 2011, 12:53:39 PM
I have heard of the mason jar trick but it wasn't the one I was thinking of. Probably same results. Did a little research, and the one I was thinking of was a gallon jug with a corn cob plugging the hole. The corn cob filtered the stuff that went into the jug. What I can't figure is they pack that stuff tight with heavy tractors. How do you keep from breaking them. In the old days, you could have set them in the bottom of an upright silo, and I don't believe they really packed those. Just the weight of the silage would settle over gradually.
I wouldn't mind trying it. Naturally, it would be for scientific purposes only.
Naturally...... ;)
As far as the corn around here, I don't think they grew much. About all I see this year is patches of sweet corn to sell to market. Lots of soya beans in it's place though and potato acreage is down because McCains cut everyone 30%, yet there is cleared land and new buildings to still pay for after they talked them into investing. That's the way big outfits think you know, it's all about them and who cares about the cost to you. ::) ::) The big feed lot farmer over the hill from here sold his animals and got out. I could tell he was suffering when you see a man liquidate the woods when the price of wood is not so great then you can be sure she's about over. Not only that some farms they were just making payments to buy over time got snatched up by a big processor. I suppose the old lady wanted all her money now, not 30 years from now. Here husband was a farmer and died of a heart attack at aged 55, sad. But he had the sale agreement in the works before he passed. He wasn't even over weight nor a smoker. Stress I suppose. I thinned for him a couple years, probably 50 acres.
Quote from: Kansas on September 02, 2011, 12:53:39 PM
In the old days, you could have set them in the bottom of an upright silo, and I don't believe they really packed those. Just the weight of the silage would settle over gradually.
a neighbor of mine told me that his first job ever was packing sileage. in upright brick silos. he said that he would get in before they started loading it with the blower and stomp dance the stuff down all day. hot and itchiest work he said he had ever done. so i guess they did pack it down. pc
I never knew that. That would indeed be a lousy job.
Filled a few silos when I was younger. No stomping. When you went up to make sure the thing was filling evenly, always made sure the blower was running for a few minutes first. Heard of a couple back in the day that died from the gas. Don't know of any personally, just rumors.
Have not heard of anyone packing the silage in the silo. Once the doors were all in and the blower set up, no one went in except to check on how full it was. Otherwise, would wonder after a few wagon loads, if the guy was buried. If a guy was in there, then a door had to be open and silage would blow down the chute. At least it was wet and not so dusty as blowing dry hay into the barn and mowing it back.
Had to climb up the chute and check which door would open, and look in. Or climb up the outside and look down. And right, wise to keep the blower running.
My dad told stories of packing upright silos with ponies. The silos were filled so slow with the machinery they had in those days that it took weeks to fill a small silo. If the corn was not kept packed each day it would rot. The blower pipe was connected at the top of the silo to short sections of pipe that hung down the center of the silo. As the silo was filled sections were removed. That kept the human or animal packers from being covered up with falling chopped corn. It sill was a very hot and dirty job packing the corn. Today, even with medium size machinery, a 20' X 70' foot silo can be filled in two days and the corn doesn't have time to rot before the fermenting starts to take place. There is an adjustable distributor in the top of the silo that makes the chopped corn fall evenly in the silo. Climbing to the top of a 70' silo every few loads to adjust the distributor kept the legs in good shape.
Ok, let's hear about getting those ponies off the top of that silo. ???
Before I was school age, The neighbors traded labor with lots of jobs. One neighbor had a wood stave silo and filled it with a stationary chopper/blower. The corn was cut with a corn binder and hauled to the silo. Us kids were allowed to help pack between loads :D
In spite of a late planting corn arround me looks good. Fellow that rents from me says about an average yield. Would of been a good yield but the cobs are not filled to the end. He blames it on the hot nites we had this summer. I have tried several times this summer to start lettuce in the garden. It did not germinate because of the heat.
marv
Quote from: Faron on September 02, 2011, 08:32:28 PM
Ok, let's hear about getting those ponies off the top of that silo. ???
Maybe the ponies in those days could fly. ::)
Faron, I wondered the same thing. Dad said they just used a rope and pulley to let the pony down the outside of the silo.
went to the corn fields tonight, ears are full to the ends, 40 row ave. just starting to dent. beans all look good. wheat has all been harvested lower than ave. yield.
this coming wed. loading out 2 semi's of hay heading to oklahoma (donated for farmaid) if any others on here have extra hay look into helping our fellow friends down south :)
Quote from: pigman on September 02, 2011, 10:29:27 PM
Quote from: Faron on September 02, 2011, 08:32:28 PM
Ok, let's hear about getting those ponies off the top of that silo. ???
Maybe the ponies in those days could fly. ::)
Faron, I wondered the same thing. Dad said they just used a rope and pulley to let the pony down the outside of the silo.
I'll bet that was one happy pony when he swung out over the edge! :D
We have pretty good prospects in my immediate area, I think. We are needing rain for the soybeans. Temperatures near 100 for the last few days aren't helping out one bit. I scheduled a rain three months ago for Sunday. Really. Guys out west on an ag forum talked about old timers saying a rain will occur 90 to 100 days after a fog. I have been keeping track on the calender on my phone for a couple of seasons. So far it has hit every time. Sunday will be 90 days since a fog, so we will see. Another one is scheduled for Sept. 28. Anyone heard of this?
Up around these parts the old farts say that you mark down the days that you have horror frost on the trees. From there you count 180 or so days (can't remember exactly) and that day there should be rains. I have checked with this and found it to be fairly accurate about 90% of the time.
We are getting close to first frost here. Tonight the lows are supposed to be down to 6 degrees Celcius and tomorrow night down to 4 Degrees Celcius. Hope we don't get it yet though. Normally it happens around either the full moon if it falls near the end of August or the new moon in September. It has also been know to wait till the full moon in September. The New Moon is on the 12th and the Full Moon is on the 27th this year so we will just have to wait and see.
Because of the spring rains everything was about 2-3 weeks late at planting time .Then once in the ground it just kind of quit raining .As luck would have it though there was some rain about the time the corn tassled so it germinted .
Now some of it looks a bit short but perhaps because of the late planting they went with a shorter growing time corn .Other than that most looks pretty good .Harvest time will tell the real story .
Quote from: Coon on September 03, 2011, 02:41:10 AM
The New Moon is on the 12th and the Full Moon is on the 27th this year so we will just have to wait and see.
Other way around coon, the dark circle on the calender is the new moon. Mom gets that mixed up to. ;)
We went out a few days ago to check on the corn. This is a 104 day corn that got planted the 1st of May with very good growing conditions until July. Not a lot of tip back but the ears are smaller than normal even though it has good numbers of kernels. I'm still thinking it will be a 20-30% loss over last year, just enough to not have crop insurance kick in.
scheduled rain and horror frost could use a little explaining for this dumb country boy. pc
Hoer frost I think. ;) It's when the frost crystals come to the surface like snow flakes on tree branches or lifts the soil 3 or 4 inches vertical on the surface. Has the a appearance of broken glass shards. Scheduled rain, I'm not sure there, but probably a prediction based on average rainfall of the growing season of the local climate.
Let's try one more time...
It is called hoar frost (or hoarfrost). Google that.
Yes, your right. A hoer is a hoe. :D
is that hoe used in gardening or hoe as used in street worker? :D
I've always heard the same about fog days, usually 90 days after you either have your "scheduled" precipitation or another fog, I'm hoping for the fog because around here, starting right after Thanksgiving we have a lot of those days coming back and I really don't want snow that early. As for the hoar frosts, I have no idea, that's a new one to me.
Quote from: paul case on September 03, 2011, 08:44:17 AM
scheduled rain and horror frost could use a little explaining for this dumb country boy. pc
It is "scheduled" because I have been scheduling an appointment on my cell phone calender 91 days after a fog. I was intrigued when I saw some western farmers discussing old timer's statements that a rain will fall 90 to 100 days after a fog. I've been tracking it locally for two seasons, and it seems accurate so far. According to my calendar, I should have a rain in the next 10 days starting tomorrow.
Quote from: red oaks lumber on September 03, 2011, 12:21:48 PM
is that hoe used in gardening or hoe as used in street worker? :D
Gardening of course, but some of you hear too much rap music and view too many colored films. :D
Quote from: Faron on September 02, 2011, 08:32:28 PM
Ok, let's hear about getting those ponies off the top of that silo. ???
There is a joke about that, but this being a family forum, it cannot be repeated here. Involves a jack.
Kansas, I stopped in a neighbor's bean field and pulled off a stem to bring in and show her. Lots of bean pods on the stem, but leaves look like you shot them with a shotgun. Lots of holes. I hear milo looks like that too. My wife works at NRCS and she said the farmers are talking about worms in the milo and beans. A few are spraying, but the beans are so close to turning anyway, probably is a waste of money.
Well, the fog- predicted rain came through- a whole .1inch. ::) There is another chance of rain midweek, and again on the weekend, so perhaps one of those will be the one.
Well it's been raining here for 4 days, not steady, but over an inch of rain.
Speaking of crops I saw something yesterday I've never seen before .
One of the farmers double cropped over wheat stubble .Winter wheat comes off about 4th of July give or take .There's not enough time left in the season to grow anything .Low and behold this guy runs a big disc through an 80 acre fied and uses a no til planter to plant corn .I thought he was nuts .Yesterday the corn only 4-5 feet tall was being cut for silage ,not the first ear on it, grass more or less .
There was no sorgum mixed with corn .Now I don't know if this was a special variety or what but it seemed odd to me .Even more odd the guy has no dairy cattle but a silo so all I can figure is he must be storing it to sell to somebody else . The only live stock the guy owns is a bunch of pigs and they certainly don't eat silage .
Al Smith, we had a lot of people trying that around here a few years ago only they were following the wheat with soybeans. On the right year it might have worked but for the most part lack of moisture and an early frost took care of it, I don't think the beans made much but they still harvested them so there must have been something out there. I bet the pigs will do just fine eating silage, lord knows they'll eat anything else ;).
Seen a guy several years ago that had a pig lot down hill from his concrete stave silo. For a few weeks after filling he had the happiest hogs you ever seen.
:D I imagine so .They say porkers have a taste for beer so I suppose corn squeezins would suit them just fine .
Now this guy cutting insilage from short corn is a tad eccentric .He blew in from California some time back and married into about 800 acres of farm land .He does all kinds of out of the ordinary things such as trying to reroute the drainage ditchs on the road sides which is illeagal .Cut in a surface water way across a field that drains the wrong direction .
One thing he did do was trim by trees on the back of my property with a back hoe .We had a little chat about that . I'm pretty sure he saw it my way, if not he certainly will if he ever does it again . >:(
Crops are coming off in nice shape so far with some pretty good yields around these parts. Heard today of one farmer having some 65 bu. per acre canola. Another guy i know is having trouble putting his oats through his JD 9770 STS and it was swathed using a 30 foot header. He claims the heavy spots are averaging 130 bu. per acre and will average overall about 120 bu. per acre. :o
Those are some good yields. We put in oats as a cover crop and to make a little extra when we put in alfalfa. Our field this year came in at 96bu while the neighbors went 112. We use a 20' swather though.
A lot of corn around here is now going down the Susquehanna River. We are having a record breaking flood. I have some dairies that I work with who have lost ALL of their corn. This is bad. :( :(
I have not seen a field of oats in decades .This area shifted from partial livestock to mainly grain farming and as such there is not much of a local market for oats .
An oat field is truly a thing of beauty. I love the waves of pale green when it comes up and then turning golden when it is ready to harvest.
Can you tell I am an Iowa girl? :D
Oats were pretty common when they did a lot of dairy farming .That time is pretty much gone .The cows got sold ,the barns fell down and all is left is the concrete stave solo as a memorial of a bygone era .
We had an old tractor drawn PTO powered manual combine that I rode for many a round. Fill one sack, switch it over, tie that sack up, and kick all of the filled sacks off when we came around to the truck. It had about a 36" cutter. :-\
We combined oats, wheat, rye grass, but worst of all was clover. Dusty and nasty.
Oats, barley, wheat, rye and buckwheat are still grown here. If anything the corn acreage is way down. More soybeans. The farmer with the huge feedlot shut his operation down, no money in it. He grew lots of corn for the cows, not a spear of corn to be seen in Knoxford now. Corn takes a lot of nutrients to grow. The neighbors have been bailing straw this year. I don't know what they are going to do with it because they don't have much for animals and I see a brand new tractor and bailing equipment along with an empty tractor van sitting up the road. The grain isn't yet all harvested. All that good weather last week and they sit on their laurels. There is at least 30 acres to cut that I saw left in a 150 acre field. Father always had all his grain harvested in August.
Quote from: Magicman on September 12, 2011, 01:48:06 PM
We had an old tractor drawn PTO powered manual combine that I rode for many a round.
Do you remember what color is was?
I still have an old Allis Chalmers All-Crop pull type combine that I use to cut oats. For my small acreage it does a wonderful job and I don't have to keep another engine running, just hitch it to a tractor and go.
Quote from: chevytaHOE5674 on September 12, 2011, 04:12:01 PM
Do you remember what color is was?
Yup exactly......Rust. :D :D
It was red, probably an IH. It is still parked in the edge of the field where it was last used. And that was over 50 years ago.
Should of seen all the equipment and cars dad's uncles parked out behind and walked off and left. Well over 50 years ago. :D :D Uncle Percy died in 1996 and he was over 100. ;D
I used to keep one patch in oats that I raised for hay. Outstanding starting hay for light calves. I needed to keep one field in reserve if my alfalfa patch gave out. Fall planted alfalfa does a lot better in these parts than spring planted, and oats fit that bill. You could grow some darned good yields with oats for hay.
The verdict is in. My corn averaged about 35 bushel. I sold across the scale to Cargill for about 7.25 a bu. They didn't dock for aflatoxin. Guess the next step is get the scale tickets and head to the crop insurance place.
Ouch! What would you're average yield be on a "normal" year. All my farm ground is dryland, and most is sand, I usually shoot for 135-140 and hope for 100 ;). In 2002 the ins. people said it would make 2 bu per acre, I still have my doubts about that, dragging the cutter through it I can't say I ever saw an ear of corn out there. Things still look pretty good around here, although another rain would be nice, especially for the beans, haven't seen any harvesting yet other than silage being chopped.
Quote from: Kansas on September 13, 2011, 09:26:17 AM
I used to keep one patch in oats that I raised for hay. Outstanding starting hay for light calves. I needed to keep one field in reserve if my alfalfa patch gave out. Fall planted alfalfa does a lot better in these parts than spring planted, and oats fit that bill. You could grow some darned good yields with oats for hay.
I used to plant spring alfalfa on occasion and the best luck I had was to drill in oats first at the rate of 1 bu/A and then cross drill the alfalfa. With any luck the oats provide a "nurse crop" and if they are swathed just before turning, the alfalfa will be high enough to get some of it in the bale too. Cows thought it was candy.
growing season 2011 is history... had 25 deg last night :( time will tell if the corn and bean crop can be saved or if she's junk.
Kind of early I'd think but I don't know much about Wisconsin other than Milwaukee makes some pretty good beer ,most of it .
2 weeks earlier than average
It wouldn't surprise me in the least bit if we don't get an early frost too .Darned funny weather here of late .Odd last year too ,they were taking off beans about the same time they took off the corn .Seldom does that happen .By the middle of Oct it was all but done .Never before had I seen that in all my 60 some years of walking this planet .
Normally in wi we get frost with the full moon in september. Once we get past that the frost should stay away another 2 or three weeks. got my tomatoes and summer squash covered.
Mother nature has had a cold heart towards us around here the last couple of nights. It was cold enough that when I went to use winshield washer fluid this morning that it just made for thicker ice on the windshield.... :D..... it don't help that I have the summer bug juice type still in the bottle. :D Had to stick my head out the window for the first couple of blocks till a patch big enough to see through melted. ;)
Many of the cereal crops still out will now have been downgraded from number 1 to feed grades. The canola and flax and such will for the most part be just fine provided it was far enough along to maturity. 95% of the canola has been swathed now. Still lots of standing cereal grains though but a good percentage will be straight cut.
On another note. This past sunday afternoon when I was on a retrun trip home from sawing I counted 42 combines working in the 100 mile trek. Get-r-done farmers. ;D
September is actually late cutting cereal grains around here. Some of this new bunch is from Manitoba and not used to getting stuff in on time and out before winter. :D Well to their credit they did get it out mostly by the first week of September, but they are an interesting bunch to leave stuff uncut for days in dry weather. They don't have to make money I guess. ::) September is potato harvest time into mid-october. My uncle used to try and dig until Christmas. :D He never grew any more than father did, but couldn't get them boys to work much and the day often began at 6:00 pm. ::)
I notice the beans are yellowing now, I don't know much about them as beans and canola are new for around here. I think the canola started for this biodiesel additive they make locally. And to see the place you would wonder if anyone is even home. Has to be government welfare involved.
I can remember as a teenager when they used row pickers they might be taking off corn in Dec . Kind of neat though ,stand at the end of a field and let the picker flush out the pheasants . Back then there were quite a few .Actually back then it was legal to ride the pickers and hunt .Some of the farmers kept a trusty old 12 gauge double barrel with them .Not a bad deal,pick corn and get dinner all in one fell swoop .They figured since they fed the birds all year they'd just as well eat a few .
I saw them combining the first week of December on one farm last fall. I stopped and asked a couple questions, was told to come bye next week and they would still be at it. At the time the snow was falling from the sky. They had just installed a new dryer on the main farm and if it's like the cost of drying was 20 years ago, that corn was worthless for net profit.
The farmers around here that are still harvesting in November and December don't get the least bit of sympathy from me cuz they generally have way too much land in their possession.... Drying grain is just about as feasable as shoveling snow in a blizzard IMHO. :D
One year these Manitoba transplants cut corn on this farm in December, as they rented it from the new owner that dad sold it to. They hauled it all and dumped it in the field in January. They told mother they lost $100,000 in corn. As I said, they don't have to make money. They all go to the bank every month with a cheque. ::)
We took a drive today, and the combines are rolling! 8)
Early corn is coming out now, and going straight to the dryers. Seed corn came out last week, and the silage is pretty much all chopped.
We are raking the last of the alfalfa this afternoon, and will probably start in on corn towards the end of the week. We have a couple fields that are pretty dry. We might just wait another week so we don't have to pay to dry it down.
That's just how things have changed .Back in say the early 60's 80 Bu per acre of corn was considered about averge .They picked it on the ear .20 percent moisture on the cob would dry in the corn crib if the rats didn't eat half of it .
Lots of time they had to wait until the ground was frozen before they ran the pickers though the field so Dec or Jan wasn't unheard of to finish up with harvest . Now of days by those winter months some of the more well to do farmers are in Florida basking in the sun . Things have just changed .
We still have a few guys that can't seem to get their corn out before December.
Knowing the guy I work with we'll be doing corn by late this week. I was over at his place this weekend picking up some tile connectors and asked when we'd get started. Oh end of the month I guess....yeah sure he'll be calling Friday at the latest. Couple of neighbors are out combining and it would kill him to let them get done before us. :D
Corn crop finally harvested and fortunately I made my book by a few bushels. Far below my average but with the great price I actually came out on the plus side!
Corn in this country must be harvested as quickly as possible less the corn borer damage will cause corn ears and stalks to fall to the ground. Even the CB resistant varieties will allow the borer to eat through the ear husks causing damage as aflatoxin from molds inside the husks.
I got away with no aflatoxin found on the corn on my farm, but they did find it on our little bit of corn on the acreage at the mill. 50 cent dock.
I keep watching the commodity prices and the cash price for corn and beans have taken a pretty good hit during the month of September. Seems like the early bird may have gotten the better price. But, hearing how everyone's yields are down, maybe prices skyrocket and the later harvesters get better prices.
I remember talking to an egg producer a good number of years ago. He said that prices for eggs went up when nobody was buying and went down when they needed eggs. He figured the buyers were manipulating the market. Are grain markets similar?
Yes, it's called USDA.
The latest supplies and demand report is behind the latest drop in the grains market, this is put out monthly by the USDA. They are loathe to bring the stocks to use ratio below 5% so they just massage the numbers to make sure they don't. Even though the crop will be light this year the USDA keeps finding grains to make sure it doesn't go below the magic number. Most of us involved in the industry know this but the market trades on their numbers. Throw in the increased number of contracts traded by non-commercials and you can move the market pretty easily. Of course this time of year brings quite a bit of grain on the market immediately as many of us do not have storage so are left to dump it at harvest prices.
Last year they pulled the same stunt only to reverse themselves in the October report. It gets old.
I don't have much of any faith in the integrity of commodities, or for that matter, anything financial. A private company that forecasts crop yields can move the market. So can the USDA. Someone with advance knowledge can make a fortune. Before every crop or cattle report, or (insert commodity here) there are trade guesses. Markets trade off of these trade guesses before the actual numbers come out. So if someone is "in the know" on what is going to be guessed, they can ride the market up or down before reports ever come out. Then they can ride it the other way when the market report is released. Its a racket. The farmer that farms my ground for me hires someone to market his crop. He pays the guy 25 cents a bushel. Says it pays off well for him, and it may well. But his guy is sitting in a lil local elevator marketing grain, and is simply tapping into someone else telling him what to say. He has no idea on his own what corn or beans is going to do. That farmer has about 1000 acres he farms himself. Under normal yields, if he farms half corn and half soybeans, thats somewhere around 35000 to 40,000 dollars he spends for that marketing advice. Someone is making money off all these marketing ploys, but it ain't the farmer. Brokers, advisory services, to some extent elevators who tell people to hold grain in their elevators and pay storage costs based on marketing advise, are the ones making the easy money.
They do the same manipulation on Wall Street. Rating services such as Moody's are a joke. Its a rigged game.
The people who always make out are Cargill, Central Soya and the like .
Kansas
I was talking about the spot (cash) price. Not the futures price. The cash price for corn and beans has dropped this month. After listening to you guys, I would have thought it would have gone up due to low yields.
How much of a variance is there in price between areas? I remember a few years back when we had really dry weather, it was cheaper to bring corn in from the Midwest than to buy local.
In this area [lower bootheel of Missouri on the Mississippi river, elevator noon spot price for corn $6.37bu. which was down 21cents today and down from about $6.91 a week ago. Soybeans $12.37 bu., down 26cents so far today and down over a dollar from last two weeks.
Stronger dollar..less grain costs, plus harvest pressure may have affected prices recently. Markets now have to find a support or bottom...how far will she go? :-\
Quote from: Ron Wenrich on September 21, 2011, 05:41:52 PM
Kansas
I was talking about the spot (cash) price. Not the futures price. The cash price for corn and beans has dropped this month. After listening to you guys, I would have thought it would have gone up due to low yields.
How much of a variance is there in price between areas? I remember a few years back when we had really dry weather, it was cheaper to bring corn in from the Midwest than to buy local.
Ron, there is a lot of difference between elevators in the same area. There is a lot of difference between geographical areas as well. The two part loads that sold off my farm were about 30 cents difference between the local elevator (Coop) and Topeka (cargill). They did sell on consecutive days, so that could have been part of the difference. I checked a few places on Cargill's website. From Colorado to Illinois, there is a difference of .43 per bushel. The farther east you go, the higher the price is. That is why so many cattle get shipped to western Kansas, Nebraska, and Colorado. Cheaper to finish cattle out there because of cheaper grain. I believe most of it has to do with freight getting corn down to the Gulf of Mexico for overseas shipment. The unit trains always move grain from west to east (California being a possible exception). Its also why so many dairies in California have relocated to western Kansas. A lot cheaper land and cheaper feed costs.
I just noticed in the last few days the beans getting a little yellow and some of the corn browning up at ground level .With the late start this spring it will be a late harvest .
Some earlier beans are all dry and brown, no leaves. Others are half way there and the later stuff is still pretty green looking. The green stuff, I doubt will be anything unless October is warm and dry. But I don't know much about soybeans.
The way things are looking around here the harvesting is 50% or better done. The yields are varying from area to area depending on when the crops were put in but on a whole are looking to be fairly decent.
Things around here are starting to pick up, a few people are picking wet corn, from what I've heard moisture is still averaging around 30, and there are a few bean fields out but not many, most beans are still pretty green. I'm still trying to get going on silage, hopefully tomorrow :-\.
We combined about 35 acres today just to check moisture and yields. Moisture was around 14 and yields were far better than we had hoped. We figured no rain for 2 months this summer and terrific heat would have hurt us more. Of course we are just getting started....hate to get too cocky just yet!
Patty , you watch those steps now ;D
We've hit pretty much into a dry spell here for awhile. We've had mist or sprinkles, but nothing to soak everything down. I suspect a lot of taters will be dug and some farmers about done by another 10 days. It's also been 75 or so for a few days and for a few more to come.
You folks up Canada way either have shorter growing types of crops or it wasn't as wet there this spring as it was here . I thought for minute there they'd have been better off to grow rice this spring .
I dunno, we begin planting the end of April, first of May about most years. ;D The processor wants mostly gems for the fries and they are at least 120 day variety. Seed is always harvested first. This was the wettest summer ever, but our ground isn't heavy clay, lots of gravel in it to dry within hours with the sun. I've seen father dig by noon the next day after a 2" soaker.
I have seen the first peanuts being dug today. Terribly dry here. Cotton yields will be bad.
This spring was fairly wet still from last years monsoons and last years above average snowfalls but most of it ran off rather than soaking in. Farmers were in the fields the first part of May and some never got finished until late June due to rain. Then we had an above average summer with lots of heat and little rain. The crops were lucky as there was plenty of subsoil moisture to feed them. I took a little better assessment today while out looking at crops and such. I talked to one of the big farmers today and he has just over 1,000 acres left to harvest and will be done in the next couple of days. He tells me that quite a few guys are very close to finishing up. Just the later crops to be taken off still.
Quote from: isawlogs on September 23, 2011, 06:45:56 PM
Patty , you watch those steps now ;D
Oh that is just too funny Marcel!
I have a feeling I will never live this down. I expected the guys at the coop scales to come running out to help me when I pulled in. But I fooled them, I was able to reach my weight ticket without ever stepping down from the cab. ;)
They just started taking off beans about 3 days ago .It looks like some fields though might be another couple of weeks .
I did see a couple passes though a corn field but it looked to me at least to be a tad too early .Evidently it also did to the farmer too because that's all that was done .
Potatoes have priority in the harvest here, so a lot of dry beans have been sitting for weeks. Most farmers only have so many resources to dedicate in the harvest. If he's combining, he can't be pulling a potato harvester. ;)
Cotton crop is excellent here this year, as was corn...nit sure about soy...but they look good...problem is...sox inches if rain in the month of september...not counting the hurricane...seeing some deterioration in the cotton boll, and they tell me some peanuts are molding in the shell...not that we are raising many nuts....the free trade crap has all but killed the virginia peanut...
We finished up with corn on our place yesterday afternoon. Yields were very poor as were our soybean acres but with 2 months of no rain and very hot weather I'm surprised they did as well as they did.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=189ffFDxxnk
Steve and Diane running while I moved grain with a tractor and wagon to town for us. We have 180 acres of corn on their place to do starting Monday and then we'll be finished. Luckily they do not work on Sundays so I can get some other things done on our place. Felt good to sleep in this morning.
I could watch that all day! 8)
We still have a few days of silage to cut for our neighbors yet :(, I was really hoping to get that done by yesterday but we couldn't run for three days due to the wind. A lot of beans are out around here and some corn, most people are talking average yields, nothing special. Should finish patching up the old combine today, say a few prayers for her, and hope she makes it through one more harvest :D.
Roxie, watching the harvest is truly a sight to behold. Diane & Steve have worked together doing harvest for so many years (around 30) that they can really maneuver the equipment around. IT is like watching an elaborate dance. I am happy just to haul the grain to town. Diane keeps wanting to trade jobs, but no one wants to do what she does, driving the cart back & forth from the combine to us waiting in the tractors. This year we are running one semi, and two tractors pulling 600 bushel carts back and forth to the coop. Even this year when yields are way down, we can barely keep up with the combine when doing corn.
We went almost three months this summer with no rain and extremely hot weather which really hurt our yields. IT rained once at the end of September a little, and we have been dry ever since. I am very worried that the drought they are experiencing down south is moving up our way.
Neighbor stopped by today and said a lot of his beans were from 10-17 bu dryland. He said someone in the local farm paper is advertising wanting to buy baled soybean stubble. Guess a bunch of it is getting rolled up in the area. I think wood mulch would have as much nutrition as that stuff.
Hmm.
We are seeing the same up here Kansas. Hay is in short supply and we see the guys with cattle baling bean stubble, water ways, and even the ditches when possible. I am sure we'll see alot of corn stubble baled too after the corn comes out.
I am not participating in the harvest much this year. Can't afford the doctor bills!! :) Instead I am doing the work around the farm while Norm is in the fields. Last week I got the tile lines back filled, ran lunch to the field, took soil samples in the fields we want to knife pig manure into, and all the general farm stuff that we both normally do. Fall is so exciting and so busy. We try to get 6 months worth of work done to the fields as soon as crops come out and before the ground freezes hard, which is usually about from mid-October to the end of November. Next week I hope clear trees from a creek line so we can till it up for corn next spring. I have alot of fun listening to the radio while ripping trees out of the ground and throwing them into a pile. Farming is alot of things, but it is never boring.
I don't know what I'd do without my right hand man this fall. Patty was kind of feeling bad as we have a full time semi driver this fall which frees me up for just driving tractor wagon. That was her job last year so most times she's filling in for me instead of driving full time. I can't begin to tell you how much I appreciate having her do all of the stuff that just plain doesn't get done otherwise. Now that she knows how to run the big excavator, skid steer and all of the other heavy machinery we get twice as much done. :)
:) Absolutely nothing compares with having the right partner. ;)
Gotta do what needs done. ;D My mother and father pretty much ran the farm here except during digging and processing of potatoes dad would hire as many as 15 men and women, more so during processing. But there would be 10 on the harvest. Dad pretty much harvested all the grain himself, just needed mother or one of us to move a truck to unload every once in awhile. Usually my brother was around when I was in college and getting summer experience work. The folks never pushed farming on us much, just there to help when we was able.
I heard on the radio that the government claims there is a larger crop of corn than expected so food prices will go down in about six months. ????? I haven't seen any bumper crops in and around my area. How about you ?
I still have a few posage stamp patches of soybeans to harvest . They were the third planting of drought/drownded spots. About one hundered acres of corn that is a bit wet to combine just yet.
I did finish picking my pumpkin pie crop today . had enough to give some away.
It's been pretty much the same around here Don, a good yield for the most part but nothing special. There is still a lot to harvest around here yet, I'd say beans are about 1/2 to 2/3's done and a lot of corn to go so I guess we'll see what the final tally the USDA puts out, I'm in no hurry to sell though. DISCLAIMER I'm usually wrong. ;) Enjoy the pie :)
They're pretty much in full speed with the beans .The corn will be late because of late planting .It wouldn't surprise me if it's into Dec before they get done .
Potatoes are about done here, if they aren't it's going to be a long time before they go at it again with rain this week. Some corn and beans still stand. The only reason I can comprehend the beans not being cut around here is they were tied up with potatoes. But there are others reasons that I'll not mention. All I know is you'd wonder to. :D
We've gone from harvest to fall tillage. I got myself a new JD disc ripper and am waiting on the pig manure haulers to finish up so I can take it out to play with.
(https://forestryforum.com/gallery/albums/userpics/10427/212/IMG_1389.JPG)
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Nice looking setup you got there norm. ;) You should bring that up here so I can play with your toy er i mean tool. Do you do like the good kids do and share? :D I only have about 10 acres I'd like to get done. ;D
Here in northwest Ohio the beans are about off but some of the guys cut terrible ruts getting them off and even driving around some areas. Still alot of standing corn but there working on that also. The last three days it has dried pretty good. Just finished a job northwest of me seven miles and it was wet up to yesturday afternoon and I got one load out, then last night it rainned a few tenths but I went back this morning and got the last two loads out. Tomarrow morning I will pick up the skidder but will run the lane a few times to get the groves smashed down.Sounds like the weather is going to go down hill this coming week.