Thursday, October 22, 2026

This has been a great week to harvest double-crop soybeans (DCB).   Yes, the morning dew delays the start of harvest to noon or so, but once we get going, the sunny and dry days have been great.  We did no harvesting last week… the DCB just were not quite ready to cut, and we got 2 days of rain and storms (we even had tornado warnings Thursday night!) late in the week.  Over the weekend we had a couple nights of light frost, too.  All those factors helped the DCB to get ripe enough to harvest.   We’ve seen moisture levels this week of about 14%, but also some at 11%.  It feels good to cut dry soybeans.  Plus, the forecast is for more of the same for the next seven days!

Good conditions during the afternoon

We cannot cut very late into the night, the beans get ‘tough’ soon after sunset.

The DCB have been disappointing yield-wise.  It is definitely showing the effects of too much rain in June and July.  There are areas of very thin stands of soybeans.  But, when you think of what might have been, we are blessed to have beans to bring in, even if the yield is not what we thought might have been.

We’ve been sending loads of soybeans to ADM in Newburgh, and those contracts should get filled today.   We can cut 7-9 loads of DCB during the short daily window of opportunity, with 3 of them going to ADM, the rest come into our storage.   With the ADM contracts complete, all the beans will come into our storage here at the farm.  Those will be delivered later as the market offers opportunity and as we are affected by cash flow needs.

I had a visitor to the combine on Tuesday.  Ben brought his 22-month old daughter Emmy to the field to see grandpa. Needless to say, I was a happy grandpa!   It is important to Ben that his daughter experience a bit of what his young life was like… for her to know and appreciate her heritage.   He’s a pilot for Delta, but he still values his farming history.   And, he says it is a rare thing for a child to have a farm experience these days.

Ben and Emmy visit grandpa in the combine.

We have about 25 acres of replanted soybeans in fields near White River, and those are not quite ready to cut.   This will drag harvest on into at least next week.  It is a goal to get done this month!   We hope we can.