Saturday, June 8, 2024
This spring is a marathon, not a sprint. We were able to plant one field of soybeans on Thursday, getting another 240 acres in the ground. No, it wasn’t perfect, but most of the acres were pretty good. I did have to plant around 2-3 acres of water. It felt very good to get another field checked off the ‘to do’ list. Three more fields remain, totaling about 420 acres.
I picked up some soybean seed at Nutrien. Here, they are placing it in one of our hopper trailers that we use to take seed to the soybean air cart.
John helps me load the seed into the air cart. This is a 2-man task. The seed is pink because the seed has a protective coating of fungicide.
…and here I am planting those pink seeds into the soil at the Huey farm…
Relying on the current weather forecast, we are making a plan for next week. Tomorrow, John will put the burn-down herbicide on the Freddie farm. We really don’t want to work on a Sunday, but it feel a bit necessary this week. Then, on Monday, he will spray burn-down on the Commer farm, while I go down and plant at Freddie (our most distant farm location, about 12 miles away). On Tuesday, John will be making some over-the-top herbicide applications on 2 or 3 fields of growing soybeans. At the same time, I will give my best try at finishing soybean planting at Commer and Grubb. Those two fields will have some spots of water for me to maneuver around, but of the 110 acres at Commer, I think I can plant 105 by Tuesday. Time will tell if those spots dry off in time for me to return there after planting double-crop soybeans (DCB, which is planted in the stubble after wheat harvest). If I can, I will. If it remains muddy until July 10, I probably won’t go back there.
Brandon is going to return to the Huey farm on Monday, and he will do some replanting of corn. That is the final day we will plant corn, for after June 10, we think it’s too late to plant corn. He will get done what the conditions will allow, and we will call it good. It will be good to get the corn planter cleaned up and stored away.
On this first week of June, when we could not get into the fields to plant, Brandon has been taking some ’23-crop corn to market in Newburgh, Indiana.
It has been an interesting week here, with some nagging uncertainty about what to do. The forecast was clear about a week ago, but we’ve had sprinkles of rain today. That put off the spraying John had planned for today, moving that work to tomorrow afternoon. Little by little, we are moving forward. Maybe, just maybe, the end of #plant24 is now within sight.
We are thinking that late next week Thursday or Friday will be a time when we can go try to harvest some wheat. It will be worth a trial by then. If the wheat is dry, we will definitely turn on the ‘green light’ and set our full attention to harvest. If it is a bit too wet, we will weigh the advantages of harvesting now against the cost of the drying of the grain. That decision will determine whether we proceed with harvest or wait for the sun to dry it down. Hot days in the mid-90s are predicted for late next week. That will help.
One field of wheat near Wheatland. There are two varieties in this field, and in the upper right, you may notice a slightly different color wheat, which may indicate that its grain is a bit wetter.
Wheat harvest for 2024 is approaching. We are hopeful about the yield potential. But it is a long way from having it in the bin just yet.
Have a great weekend. All the best to all of you.
