Tuesday, October 30, 2012

There is a stiff, chilly wind blowing today, with gusts 40+mph!  I think it may be the outer band effects of Hurricane Sandy.  And it is overcast and cold today.  However, we have no rain or snow, so it is not nearly so bad as it is out east.  We have prayed for the people out in the vast area affected by the storm.

The Pete and the Vision are on the road today as John and Philip deliver soybeans to market.  We will be empty of beans by evening, John and Philip cleaned out bin #10 yesterday, moving them into the overhead load-out bin.  We are eager to move the beans to market for a couple reasons.  We have them air-dried down to the proper moisture content, but still the quality has been diminished from the effects of the drought.  So it is for quality reasons (will they ‘keep’ properly in storage?) that we ship the beans out fairly soon…plus the fact that we have fall forward contracts to fill.   Ross normally sells about 50 t0 60% of our production for fall delivery.  But with the reduced yields this year, we will be very close to having just enough bushels of soybeans to cover our obligations to deliver!   We won’t know for sure until we harvest the double-crop beans (DCB) in a couple weeks.  Those are not maturing very quickly now that the temperatures are lower.

The Pete is loaded and ready to go to Robinson Grain, just across US 50 from the farm. You can see the peaks of soybeans in the trailer.

I was getting weary of driving a dirty pickup, so I brought it into the shop this morning and gave it a wash.  Sure looks better!

I prefer a clean pickup. Wonder how long this wash job will last?