Speaking of productivity. Crop report time.

Corn is all tasseled and pretty much all pollinated here. Some fields are showing lack of nitrogen. Saw a late field of corn that has not tasseled yet.

Some are flying on fungicides.

Beans are setting pods and looking good if planted before June 10 or so. There is a lot of late planted beans that need a Oct. 20 or later frost in this area.

No aphid spraying but we did spray for Japanesse beetles.

What's it like around you.

Gary

Corn is looking very good in some fields, not so hot in others. Heavy rains earlier leached nitrogen from the soil. Lots of yellow corn. My food plot corn is just starting to tassle, but I don't think it will produce much, especially with cooler nights--mid 50s last night--and cooler days. Haven't seen a sorghum blossom yet either. It's been a learning experience. I need to fertilize more earlier next year.

Larry in Michigan

My beans are looking good, need to check for aphids today, been forming pods for a week or so, I definatly am gonna go with a taller variety next year. These are a maturity 1, and are short-medium, but they are branched out like an oak tree. If it was a level, dirt clof feild I would be fine, lot of low pods. Corn is doing great, lot of cobs/stalk, and big cobs too. Had to put down an additional 100# of amonium and nitrogen mix when corn was 3-4" tall. I will never try and put all the fertlizer down preplant agian, heavy rains took alot away as some else mentioned. Most cobs I cant get my thumb and index finger around. Rye pruduced awesome yeild, and there is ALOT of straw yet to bale on that feild. Oats were dismal, bout 30 bushels and acre, 31.8 TW, only got about 400 bales of oat straw off 12 acres. Now to decide what to do with the light oats. 5-8 miles south of me, just north of Clear Lake MN, non irrigated corn looks terrible.

Corn looks great for now, dark green and tall. There has been a chopper spraying fungicid around here to. Can't figure why they are wasting their money. Beans look good to for now. Pods are starting to fill but we are going to need rain this week or we are looking at -30 bu beans. THe rock piles are burning down with cupping leaves in clay soils. Oats yeilded good 86 bu to 105 bu but tw was low. Lots of straw tho. Pastures are brown and dormate. Going to have to start feeding cows in a couple weeks. Getting real sick of this borderline drought pattern we've been in the last few years.

Anywhere from 2 to 20 bushels to the acre so far for Dad in SW ND. Fairly big area there experiencing a drought. His wheat that he has taken to town so far has been 58 pound (minimum they will take) and 17.5 protein. Most of the neighbors have been sent home with their wheat, some as low as 48 pounds. Some people aren't going to bother harvesting what little is there due to the cost of fuel, etc. Hay crop was quite poor, got about 1000 pounds per acre average.

Sorry I don't keep up on any other crops...





And, of course, now that they want to harvest, it rains - lowering the quality of the wheat even further. Hopefully it will perk up the pastures enough to get a few more weeks of grazing out of them.

Corn looks excellent here. Beans could use a rain. Pastures could too, but not as bad as the beans!

This is a bit off the subject but when does corn get harvested? I am in central Kansas on the Kansas/Nebraska line. I irrigate for a guy and am curious when I will be done... I flood irrigate twice a day and check a large pivot.

I have asked but never seem to get a straight answer or for that matter, a generality. I know there isn't a specific date but isn't it generally the same timeframe every year? We have had a LOT of rain. There was a storm a few months ago that set a record.

What is the long term average yield in his area? Wonder what price of fuel is doing to minimum yield that's cost effective to harvest.

(quoted from post at 08:27:27 08/11/08) What is the long term average yield in his area? Wonder what price of fuel is doing to minimum yield that's cost effective to harvest.

Click to expand...

I think the county average is around 25 bushels to the acre. Most of our land has a proven yield of 32 or better, I know one half section was up to 40 bushels at one time.

The reason some of the big farmers (10,000 acres +) aren't going to bother harvesting is because the grain isn't even marketable anyway - why harvest something that can't be sold? Once they get their seed wheat they will just quit. At least that's what we've heard - it remains to be seen if they actually do that.

Figure wheat is around $8 per bushel right now and just the fuel cost of running a combine is probably around a gallon of diesel per acre, plus running a truck, plus paying the help, plus wear and tear...

When the kernels are fully formed and filled out. After that it's just drying down and more waer doesn't help.

In NE AR irrigated crops look good. Dry land corn is not too good. Beans over all look very good the rains hit them about right. Rice looks very good. Corn is about 2 weeks late because of the flood but harvest should start in about 2 weeks, rice about the same time. I haven't seen the cotton but have been told it is about average.

Beans in central Iowa are being sprayed for aphids, lots of aphids. I found about 50% surface coverage of aphids on stems in my beans last Tuesday. Had them sprayed Wednesday with insecticides and Headline fungicide. At least last year, the odds were in favor of increased bean production from fungicide, not nearly so clear an advantage for corn, except for corn very susceptibe to gray leaf spot and those shouldn't have been planted.

My beans (planted notill June 15 and 16) have begun to bloom, some are knee high, some are ankle high (last fill planting July 16, 0.9 maturity) and some of that last planting have already drowned out.

Saturday I drove from Gilbert to Albert City and back. I saw one field of tall bean, all the rest were no more than half a fence or smooth brome seed stem tall. SHORT beans everywhere.

Lot of tasseled short corn too, and not all with a deep green color.

The worry word with farmers I talked to at the show at Albert City is FROST. Even a normal frost may hurt these crops, a bit early (and how come its comffortable temperature for the Iowa State Fair, is that a hint of early cooling?) will hurt these crops a lot.

Gerald J.

Corn harvest time is based on kernel moisture and how the crop is standing. Used to be (cheaper fuel and corn prices) that optimum moisture was about 21%. Corn has to be dried to 15% to store at the elevator, but can go in a bin with air only drying at 16%. Corn has to be dried to 14% to be sold at the elevator. You pay for shrink (loss of volume and weight) and for drying fuel plus handling to dry corn.

It can be nice to pick corn at 14.5% like mine came in last year, but as corn dries in the field the stalks and ears get weaker day by day and there is a definite trade off on ears fallen vs cost of drying. I'll have a day of walking beans soon to break off the volunteer corn in them.

With different corn and fuel values, and different corn breeding, I don't know what the optimum corn picking moisture is. My guess its probably 16 or 17% with good corn resistant to corn borer. And with corn that doesn't completely sacrifice the lower stalk to finish filling the ear and that can depend on how much nitrogen was applied. I didn't apply lots of nitrogen and my end of season stalk nitrogen test was low and my corn was begnning to fall over when it was picked at 14.5% but the yield was still good. Some varieties begin to fall over at 18 or 19% moisture from stalk rot. And stalk rot is also increased by late summer rains.

There are those who will start combining at 24% just to be first, they don't look at the cost of drying very close. There are those who will wait for 14% to not have to pay for drying. Both sacrifice some profit for their viewpoint.

And then some farmers have so many acres to harvest that they begin at high moisture and finish at low moisture just because it takes them a month or more to harvest every field.

Gerald J.

Should have waited to ask! The guy said no more irrigating... Guess I got my answer! lol

Southwestern Ontario corn and soybeans look good to excellent for the most part. Some dry beans and other speciality crops are showing the effects of too much water. Winter wheat harvest is pretty much done in the are with yields between 65 and 100 bu/A. To the north and east of me, considerable wheat is still out due to persistant rains and quality is deterioting. In addition to excessive rainfall the last month, there have been some very viscious hailstorms that have destroyed crops completely in some areas. Most crops are a week to 10 days behind "normal".

In a nutshell I cant imagine things looking any better here in cen. IL. Rain makes grain and we are surely blessed with plenty of moisture. Looking forward to harvest, going to be another good one.
bill