July 4, 2023

We are happy to be celebrating Independence Day.   It should be an easier day, and although it will be a hot one 90ºF (32C), the only thing on my agenda today is to mow the yard.

Wheat week was eventful, for sure. As we began the wheat harvest, I must admit to being a little disappointed with the yield results that first couple days.  But as we moved through the crop, the yields started to improve.  Finally, on the evening of Wednesday, June 28, we harvested our best field of wheat.  In fact, that field gave us our best yield of wheat–ever–to be entered into the  National Association of Wheat Growers (NAWG) yield contest.   149.6 bpa!  The entire crop average was a tick under 100, so that is below the average of the past two years, but that final field gave a boost to our spirits.

Here, I am harvesting in that final field of wheat.  It was so thick I had to slow down the combine to get it to feed properly into the combine.  This was fun!

We had to work extra late that Wednesday night to get finished.   The forecast was pretty certain that rain was coming, so we wanted to complete that field (and with it, the entire wheat harvest) before the rain.  We didn’t get home until 130 am!   Just like in the fall with soybean harvest, if there is a rain coming, the dew does not gather and make the crop too damp (or “tough” as we call it) to cut.  It will stay dry right up until the rain starts.  That allowed us to remain cutting wheat until we finished.  We moved the equipment home, and ended our day.

Sure enough, the rain came the next morning as predicted, and it was a big one.  At the 9am rain event, we got 2.7″ (69mm), and that afternoon we got 2″ (50mm) more!   With it came some strong storms, and stiff wind.  This was an additional reason to rejoice that the wheat was in the bins.   The next afternoon, June 29 at 4 pm, we were hit with a ‘derecho’– a rare weather phenomenon of super-strong straight-line winds.  That derecho began in central Illinois, and swept across SWIN too.  Sure, we had big tree limbs in the yard to cut up and remove, but PTL!– the corn crop remained standing.  Many farmers across the two states suffered with buildings and bins and their corn crops flattened.   Please remember to pray for those so affected.

This is the derecho as it approached on Thursday afternoon.

In a typical June, we are able to harvest our wheat, and soon after, get the double-crop soybeans (DCB) planted into the wheat stubble.  Then, it comes a rainy spell.  Not so this year.  I did get 3 small fields of DCB planted, but the bulk of the acres remain to be done.  This extended rainy period has delayed that now into July, and it will take a few more days of hot sun to dry the soil enough to plant the DCB.  The soil surface must be dry for the air drill to work properly– you just can’t plant beans in the mud.  If you stir the soil when it’s wet, then when it dries, it turns concrete-like hard, not healthy to establish a newly-planted crop!  With more rain forecast for tomorrow, I’m not sure when those DCB will get planted.  Once it gets to July 15, it’s nearing too late, but surely we will get them planted before then.

Here, I am planting DCB on one of the first-cut wheat fields.

John is looking ahead soon at getting across the soybean crop with the sprayer.  There is some johnsongrass peeking through the beans in several fields, but right now, it’s too muddy to be out there.  We are grateful for the rain, but it is also delaying some of the work that needs to be done.

So, on this 4th of July 2023, we are grateful for our nation, for our lives as farmers, and for the eternal hope we have because of the promises of God.  Have a blessed day!