Monday afternoon, October 23, 2023
Brandon is up at the Ross farm, cutting some double-crop soybeans (DCB). He must ‘patch around’ to find the ones that are dry enough to harvest. I went out in the pickup this afternoon, and I think I found 2 more fields that we can work on tomorrow. It’s a little frustrating to have a super-nice day like today and not be able to be fully engaged in cutting DCB. But the yield is a tiny bit better than we expected with the really dry August weather. They are by no means a record-breaker, but okay.
John used his day to wash down the grain dryer. It is a massive post-harvest task to clean it all, and he is meticulous about making sure it is cleaned correctly. Doing this wash down is important to extending the service life of that expensive machine.
I took the JD combine this afternoon and cut a small patch of soybeans left at the Cox farm. There was about 11 acres that needed to be replanted there after some spring/summer flooding. Those came off today, and now the regular-planted soybeans are officially “done”.
Tomorrow could be another step on the way to concluding #harvest23. We sure hope so. After tomorrow’s 2 fields, it may be next week until we can find another field (or major portion of a field) that is dry enough to cut.
Our earth-moving construction contractor Dustin Hatton is making progress on the conservation work at the Waldo farm. He has the waterway shaped and will soon put down a netting mat in it to hold the seed in place until the rye and fescue can get established. He is building 5 new WASCoBs to improve control of water erosion. It’s looking better each day he in in operation there.
We got the report today that our entries into the National Wheat Yield Contest conducted by the National Association of Wheat Growers ((NAWG) earned 1st and 2nd for Indiana. Although the overall yield for our 2023 wheat crop was down from 2022, that one field at Leser was exceptional. We are grateful to our crop advisor Greg Anthis of Nutrien and our DynaGro wheat consultant Landon Taylor for their assistance on this yield test. It is important to note that we don’t choose one spot and ‘doctor it up special’ for the contest, but all our fields get the same management program. It’s just that the Leser farm had the best conditions for 2023. Of course, we give most of the credit to the Lord for providing the growing conditions that made for this successful wheat field. Without His blessing, our efforts are just not enough.
We are taking what seem like baby steps now to inch our way toward a completion of the fall harvest. And little by little, we will get there.
