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| Spring 2005 - Fairfax, Iowa | ||||||||||||||||
| 2005-8-14 A few days ago we got some much needed rain. The corn doesn't look to be anywhere near a great year, but it isn't a disaster either. The soybeans have been aborting the top pods, but the rain will help to fill out the remaining pods. It seems that the area south east of here is much worse off. My unofficial speculation as of now is a 125 bu/ac average in corn, and a 35 bu/ac average in soybeans. 2005-7-30 The last few weeks have been hot and we have not gotten much rain. We figure the corn has already dropped 50 bu/ac from what its potential was. That assumes perfect conditions from now till harvest. The soybeans still have potential to be a great crop if we can get some rain and keep the bugs under control.    2005-7-10
2005-7-6 Both yesterday and today I was in Fairfield, Iowa - about an hour south of here. Probably 25% of the corn fields down there are now tasseling. I haven't seen anything around here that is that mature yet. The soybeans in that area don't look to be much ahead of the beans around here though - most of the 30" row beans still haven't closed the rows. I do know that around here we have been catching some good rains in the past week. We are in good shape for ground moisture conditions. Now if it would just stay cool for a couple weeks while we get through tasseling around here. 2005-6-26 We had a storm yesterday about noon, which is what these pictures are from. We didn't get any measurable from that storm, just cool clouds. However, another storm brewed up for the evening and we got some much needed rain from this one. The upcoming week is forcast to be cooler than last week so the crops shouldn't have as much heat stress. The corn is now 3 to 4 feet tall.       2005-6-23 Yep, still hot and dry. We need some rain pretty soon.     2005-6-22 One word: Hot! It has stayed dry around here for the last few weeks. Temperature is in the 90s, with high humidity. You can easily see sandy spots in the fields because the corn in those places is showing a lot of stress. It is turning a lighter green and all the leaves are curling up. A certain amount of stress on the crops is good, as it will increase yields, but we are very close to being past that now. There is a slight chance of rain in the forecast for this upcoming weekend, but I doubt we'll see any rain. 2005-6-12     2005-6-5 It has been a beautiful week of 80 degree weather. Last night brought some storms and lot of wind, but we also got some needed rain.             2005-6-1 A couple hundred acres of soybeans got replanted today. The forecast for Iowa look to be dry for the next few days, so its likely that most of the beans in these fields wouldn't have been able to push through the crust. I also did a fair amount of driving today. Seems that most of the hay fields south of here have been mowed already, and a couple have been bailed. The corn fields look pretty good, with the corn probably getting close to knee high in places. The soybeans fields south of here also are starting to green up. 2005-5-30 The weather has been great for a couple days and we should be almost done with spraying the corn by the end of the day tomorrow. Then it is time to start spraying the soybeans. The last few fields of soybeans that were planted have had a hard crust on them. Not all of the plants have been able to break the crust to get to the sunlight. We have been entertaining the idea of replanting a couple hundred acres. There are pros and cons to doing this, mostly weather related. We especially don't want to overpopulate the field with a replant if the rest of the beans do break through the crust. At this point, a rain would do that by loosening the soil. 2005-5-25 The past few days have been pretty nice. The last soybeans we planted are now 1-2 inches above the ground. 2005-5-21 The corn in these pictures is in the first few fields that we planted. It is growing slow because of some light frost damage. The last corn that got planted was not hit by that frost and is now about as tall as this is. As for the soybeans, you can see the "crust" of the soil that is in most of our fields. This is caused by a combination of rain and temperature, such as we have had in the past week. The crust is about 1/2 inch thick and the plant has to push up through it to get to the sunlight. In our immediate area, everything is planted. However, there are many people that only 50 miles away from here that still have a lot of soybeans to plant. We have not been in the fields at all for the past 11 days due to mud. Once things dry out a bit, the sprayer will be on the move to clean up some weed problems. It rained again tonight though so it will probably be a few more days of waiting.                2005-5-20 Yesterday was the only nice day we had this week. The sun and heat was appreciated. The weather has been wet, but we aren't flooded. It's just wet enough to keep us out of the fields. 2005-5-14 The wide image at that bottom shows the small amount of standing water we have on the last field we planted. That spot is low and the water just can't drain to the ditch. It hasn't evaporated because the temperature has only been in the 50s. The picture is looking due South. Sometime in the next 5 years, a 4 lane highway will be built here in this spot and the drainage will no longer be an issue.      2005-5-12 Again we are back to what seems like winter weather. It rained most of yesterday and today, and the temperature is in the 40s and 50s. There is still some water standing in the last field planted. 2005-5-11 Yesterday was a big day with the planter running for about 20 hours. Soybeans were finished up in the very early hours this morning. It was none too soon as the rain had moved in by 1:30 AM. As of daylight this morning, there is now a little water standing in the field that was planted just hours earlier.    2005-5-8 The planter has been moving pretty much every day this week and we are well over half done with the soybeans. It has rained a little bit yesterday and today, but not much accumulation. It rains, we quit planting, the sun comes back out, wait a couple hours, start planting again. A lot of the corn is has now emerged from the ground so it can benefit from the heat and humidity we've had the past few days.      2005-5-1 The weather has been cool lately and there is a slight chance of frost in the upcoming days. We are planning to plant some sweet corn with the planter yet before it gets switched over to soybeans. That will probably happen tomorrow and then we'll start on soybeans in a few days. The season is still early so we aren't in a big hurry to get going. 2005-4-26 The corn planting was finished up yesterday, but we won't be starting on the soybeans just yet. Maybe next week, depending on weather. 2005-4-24 We're back in the fields again today, but only for tillage and planting. The spraying will have to wait because it is just too windy. Rain is in the forecast for the next few days. 2005-4-23 Rain has been in the forecast almost day last week, and it finally caught up to us a couple days ago. Yesterday was the first day of being stopped due to rain. It rained again last night, so we won't be planting corn today. Rain is also in the forecast for next week, but we've given up on listening to the meteorologists. The temperatures have also dropped down into the 30s. I even saw some snow flurries last night. This is a good reminder why we don't plant corn at the begining of April - we would have frost damage if we did. 2005-4-17 Scattered showers last night, but not on the fields we wanted to plant.       
2005-4-16 More corn planting.   
2005-4-15 Today marks the first day of planting corn. It seems a little odd, but the wheat harvest will be starting in about 2 weeks in Arizona. 2005-4-9 The treflan and anhydrous were finished up earlier this week before it rained. We now have the planter hooked up and ready to roll. Today we trenched in some tile in a field that needed some drainage. Preferrably we would do this in the fall due to compaction, but it needs to be fixed now. Today was a beautiful day and I think I even got a little sunburn. We'll probably begin planting corn in about a week.    
2005-4-2 We caught a little rain a few days ago and now we're back into the anhydrous and treflan again. The pictures show the CIH 9180 (aka "Big Red") pulling a 42' Great Plains Discovator. Treflan was sprayed onto the ground several hours earlier and this tillage tool incoporates the chemical into the soil for better weed control.        
2005-3-28 Today was the first big day of tillage, both burndown and anhydrous. See http://aric.lefebure.com/spring2005.html for pictures. 2005-3-20 The weather has been great around here the past two weeks. The frost is out of the ground and we have had a couple light rains. No major tillage has been done yet, with the exception of plowing around the border of a few fields and some waterway work. We still have about 1000 acres worth of anhydrous ammonia to apply yet this spring, in addition to the normal tillage for seed bed preparation. 2005-3-19 Farming isn't just field work, sometimes we need to clean up old buildings and such. In this case we are tearing down a old hog building. There is an 8 foot deep pit under the slat floor, so we had to be careful with the equipment not to break through. All the wood will be burnt, while the steel and cement will get buried. The big machinery made quick work out of what we thought would be a long process.        
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