Tuesday, September 2, 2014

There’s no going back now… the decision is made.  We will not plant wheat this fall for June 2015 harvest.  No, this is not the first time we have planted no wheat, but it is rare.  Fall of 2009 saw us plant zero wheat acres, and we will duplicate that again.  It’s kinda weird not to have some wheat to harvest in June, and I think the cash flow will miss that income at that time of year.  However, the underlying base of the decision is that the prospect for selling wheat at a profit is not reasonably possible.   With futures holding at <$5.50/bushel, and our costs at near $6.00, the arithmetic tells us, “Don’t do it!”

In other news, we received over 2.1″ of rain today, (54mm), and that’s in addition to the .6″ (15mm) we received just last Saturday.  The fields are saturated, and we could go several days without some precipitation.  Harvest in the mud is not a pleasant or fun activity, but it’s too early to know if the fields will be muddy for harvest.   Presently, the corn and soybeans are more green than golden, so it will be many days before the combines run.  We think they are fully prepared.  It is our preference to begin to harvest corn when it is <25% moisture and it’s even better when it’s <20%.

Sunny, dry days are now on our request list!