Friday, November 1, 2013

Welcome to November on the farm!  November!  The calendar pages flip quickly!

This month can bring weeks of sun and warmth, but it can otherwise bring gray, gloomy, and drizzly days.  We are asking for the warm and sunny ones.  We still have many acres of soybeans to cut.  Soybean harvesting requires dry days.    And since last Wednesday, we’ve received over 2 inches of rain.  It’s pretty soggy out there.  If the sun shines for the whole weekend like it is today, maybe we can get into the field on Monday… but this time of year, it does not dry out like it does when the temperatures are in the 80s.   We knew when we were planting and replanting in mid-July that the harvest would be extended into November.  The good news is that the soybeans are finally ready.  Therefore, when the fields dry the next time, the combines can roll.  Tomorrow will be two weeks since we finished corn harvest.  Waiting is tedious.

Ben is delivering the last load of contracted corn for the week to GPC.  Ross has sold about 15% of what’s stored on recent price rallies.  It is good to keep the grain moving out, for then we can take a little bit out of each storage bin to monitor the quality of the grain.  Ben will be occupied delivering corn over the next couple weeks.  He’ll deliver at morning appointments, leaving the afternoons for trucking out of the harvest fields (at least that’s the plan)!

Baseball ended Wednesday night.  Our favored Cardinals fell short in this World Series.  Congratulations to the Red Sox and their fans.  College basketball season has started.  Purdue won their first exhibition game on Wednesday night.  And our high school team will play their first game in 26 days.  I sure hope the beans are done and the combines washed up long before then!

Good weekend to you all.