Monday, September 22, 2025
The rain started in the wee hours of this morning and continues through the afternoon. As of 3 pm, we have received 1.64″ (42mm). We have had a prolonged dry spell, a few weeks long, and the effects of it were showing on our double-crop soybeans (DCB). Today’s rain should stop the fire danger in the area and bring relief to everyone’s brown lawns. It will also put moisture into the soil that will help the wheat get off to a good start once we begin planting it. Normally, we begin wheat planting on the 25th of September, but this rain event will likely delay that.
We had a great first week of harvest, one day in corn and 5 in soybeans. It all went fairly well, with few problems. Brandon had a filter leak on the MacDon header on Saturday afternoon. The dealer was closed, but he was able to locate a replacement at our local NAPA store. He was only stopped for about an hour. Saturday morning, I picked up a chunk of wood that had floated into the edge of the soybeans. It took John’s big muscles to get it pulled out from under the feed accelerator. The blockage also burned a thin place into the belt that drives the feed accelerator. We bought a replacement belt…just in case…it is still working okay, but we’ll be ready if it gives way.
John used multiple different sizes of pry bars, a chop saw, and his big muscles to get the chunk of wood pulled out of the underside of the feed accelerator. Larry and Bob assisted.
This was the culprit.
We harvested the 4 fields at the Harry farm on Saturday. After cutting the Harry field, John came over with the JD 6145R tractor and R15 rotary cutter to mow the new waterway along the west property line, adjoining the Evans’ corn field. This conservation structure was built by Shepard’s in the summer of 2023, and we have been mowing it each year since then. It has a nice growth of fescue sod protecting it now. This structure diverts the water that drains from above it, keeping it out of the valley in the field below. The soybeans were the best ever to be harvested from this field, much attributed to the functioning of this waterway. Check this website for September 7th and 14th, 2023 for the story of how this waterway was built
New waterway, in good condition, good sod, and functioning as designed and constructed.
Today, we are catching up some office work, collecting for the delivered grain, and giving the combines their 50-hour service and lubrication. Mostly, we are just watching it rain. So far, this rain is quite welcome. If it stops today, that will be good, but if it rains through Wednesday evening like predicted, that may be too much! We have experienced the ‘too much’ rain most of the 2025 planting and growing season, until August. Then it got a bit too dry, and now maybe too wet again. Are we just fickle? I think we have learned over the years that it is not helpful to fret about it. No, we may not get started planting wheat exactly on September 25, but we are confident there will be an opportunity to do what we need to do. We just have to be ready when that opportunity comes.
Have a great week.
