Tuesday, July 30, 2013

The temperature certainly has been pleasant for several days now… the sticky, hot days of July that we normally experience have disappeared into some cooler, comfortable, September-like days!  I have heard no one complain about it!  The crops would prefer mid 80s temperatures, but the people are happy.  Surely the heat and humidity will return, but we will enjoy the low-70 temps while they last.

Maintenance tasks continue around the farmstead.  Painting of buildings, and waxing of tractors and trucks are the norm.  Nearly every day, someone can go out on the Gator and spray some field borders and roadsides.  There are a couple ditches that still need the suntan machine.  The bush-hog needs to go out for some roadsides.  Ross sold 10 truck loads of wheat that must be delivered to Newburgh, Indiana soon.

The grain markets are headed downward, in what appears to be a response to current weather conditions.  The market leaders may be ignoring the delayed planting and water damage, which seems to be widespread across the corn belt.  The current corn price is near or just below our per-unit cost of production.  Our forward contract sales should allow us to sell off the bushels we don’t have room to store.  And hopefully, the storage will get us to more favorable market prices next winter.  Ross will monitor the markets very closely and react with sales when appropriate.

We will go out to perform some field inspections of the progress of the crops, especially the DCB.  The cooler days have slowed their growth.  But the pollination of the corn took place in good conditions, and appears to be completed and very thorough.   Just think, it won’t be that many weeks until harvesting will be on our plate.  About 6-7 weeks will put us into the thick of harvesting!  Boy, that’s enough to make your head spin… the weeks go by very fast.