2005-9-28
After the rain last weekend, we finally got back into the soybeans yesterday afternoon. Guess what, it rained again today. The forecast calls for possible frost tonight, which would be great. Then we should have a good run on soybeans this weekend and well into next week.
2005-9-24
It finally rained here this morning, so we won't get much done today. The corn had been running 180-190 bu/ac on average, at around 21% moisture. Most of the fields are standing very well, but we do have some hybrids that have many stalks broke over.
2005-9-21
I was over in Chicago on the 17th, nothing had been cut anywhere along the trip there. There were some fields of corn near the O'Hare airport that just plain look like crap. I was over into Moline, IL today, and saw several soybean fields already cut in that area. Very little corn looks to be out already though.
Around here, yields look to be pretty darn good, given the season we had. There are some sandy spots that produced absolutely nothing, but the averages still look good. We have one combine running full out on corn, with the other one on soybeans. There is still a lot of green stems and pods in the soybeans, so we haven't been too serious about them yet.
| YouTube Video Combining Corn |
2005-9-14
So I found out that the guys started in on the soybeans today too. Man it still seams too early.
2005-9-13
We have been surprised by the good yields so far. We had been expecting about 140 bu/ac based on the size of the ears. A yield check today was 176 bu/ac with the yield monitors on the combines showing up to about 210 bu/ac wet yield in places. We hope that the late varieties of corn do this well too.
2005-9-13
Today marked the start of harvest 2005 here in Iowa. The first field we tried was about 28% moisture so we decided to try a different field. We moved to another field that was much greener, but only about 24-25% moisture.
2005-9-10
We have a lot of red, sitting in this shed, waiting for the corn to dry. It was about 90 degrees out today and will remain that way for the next few days. We got a small sample of corn from our first field and shelled it by hand just to get enough to see where the moisture is at on it. What we got was just under 25%. We are going to take the weekend slow and bite into it on Monday. Today we went though the sickles on both grain platforms so they'll be ready when the soybeans get ripe.
I have yet to see anyone around here with a combine going. It still seems very early for the season, but that is what dry weather will do. About 30 miles west of here are a couple soybean fields that will probably be cut this week sometime. It will probably be 7-10 days before soybeans will go in our area.
2005-9-3
What crops we have this year are maturing very fast. We are expecting to start in on corn in about a week. The temperature forecast for this week is hot and mostly dry, so thing will continue to mature fast. Some of the early corn is already starting to drop ears from corn borer damage.
The early soybeans are dropping their leaves as you can see in the pictures. The late soybeans are still mostly green, but turning yellow very fast. It will probably be 2 weeks before any of the soybeans will go. It seems that once they look fit, you usually have to wait another week. '
We have 2 new 8 row corn headers still sitting at the dealer, but they will be delivered this week. Aside from that we are pretty much ready to go whenever the corn gets dry enough.
