Tuesday, June 17, 2025
We had a rainy weekend, plus rain yesterday and this morning. Still, in spite of all that moisture, we are seeing the heads of wheat curl down, a sure sign of maturity. When I bite into some grains today, they are not juicy, but still a little soft. The predicted heat that’s coming this weekend (90Fº+) should cook out the remainder of the moisture in the grain, and allow us to begin wheat harvest. Typically, we are harvesting wheat on my mom’s birthday, June 20, and we may be doing that again this year. Depending on conditions, we could harvest our 600 acres of wheat in 5-7 days… longer if the yields are high or days are cool or humid; shorter if yields are low or the weather is hot and dry. We are praying for sunny and hot and dry days for wheat harvest.
I pulled a head of wheat this afternoon, and it’s in better condition than I expected. Although the grains are not completely dry, they are drier than I thought they’d be.
The rainy weather has compressed the window of opportunity for spraying the acres of corn that remain untreated so far…about 500. Four of the soybean fields are also becoming urgent to get sprayed. It may happen that John will need to be doing that while wheat is being harvested. “Wheat week” (what we usually call the period of time it takes to cut the wheat crop and plant the DCB) is almost always a complicated time, requiring us to multi-task!
The combines and headers are fully prepared and ready to roll…
… and the 9520R tractor and Demco 1322 grain cart are too.
This afternoon, the sun has poked through the clouds, and the temperature is warming nicely. It’s now 88ºF (31C). Feels good and it warms up that maturing wheat! By the weekend, we are expecting temps in the high 90s, and that will feel pretty hot. It’s not unusual to have 90s at wheat time. I can remember decades ago cutting wheat in an old (well, it was pretty new back then) Massey Ferguson 510 combine with no A/C. Just a little fan up in the corner of the cab, blowing hot air on your face. I don’t miss those days, no siree. If the A/C conks out next week, I’ll be broke down until it gets fixed!
The county fair in neighboring Daviess County is happening this week. It seems much too early for that sort of thing to be going on, but Elnora, Indiana will be a busy place this week. Our Knox County Fair in Bicknell will take place July 14-18. It’s usually a super-hot week, with at least one heavy rainstorm! We will see what comes this year.
Larry Corn is coming to help with our wheat harvest. It’ll be good to have Larry on the team again this summer. He planted it, and he will help bring in the crop!
We are hopeful for a decent yield this year, the rainy weather was not wheat’s friend, but it was also cooler, so maybe it will come through better than the 2024 crop. We are grateful we do have a wheat crop to harvest, and whatever the Lord provides will be a blessing.
