Martin Family Farms

Getting Frustrating....

Well we have managed to get about 100 acres picked and everything else is still too wet.  The two fields that we have harvested had average moisture of @23%. Since then we have opened  up a couple of different fields and have found nothing under 26%.  Hopefully it will dry 2-3 points this week so we can get rolling. The yield has ranged 80 bushel between the two fields we have completed.

Our last planted corn still needs 2-3 more weeks before it will black layer. I have never seen corn this green going into October.

I heard the editor of the farmers almanac call for snow on Thanksgiving this year. Something tells me I might get my first chance to pick corn in the snow!

Still too wet....

Well we finally decided to let the combine figure out how wet the corn was. We picked our first two loads of the year today and we had to quit. The first was 28% and the second was 32%.  It was pretty discouraging because we were hoping to get something done this week. There is one more field that might go later in the week, but it looks like we are still a good week of drying away from getting anything harvested.

We would also like to thank the folks at Farm Credit Services today for the lunch. Mom was a winner of the meals in the fields program. We had a wonderful lunch (in the shed) today with our friends and neighbors.

Mom with the first load of 2009

Still Waiting.....

Here it is the third week of September and we are still waiting for mother nature to dry down the corn for us. I tested some corn today and the driest we have is 24%. A lot of the April planted corn is still in the 28%-32% range. I think we will try and harvest on field next week, but i do not think we will have a whole lot ready. All of the equipment is ready all we can do now is wait.

This past week we were able to attend the Kenny Chesney concert. WOW!!! What a show he puts on. We had a wonderful time. Our middle son Alec also celebrates his 4th birthday this weekend so we will be having the big party on the 19th.

 After a beautiful week of weather lst week we had 1.5"-2.0" of rain on most of our farms this past week followed by damp, foggy days. The rain was beneficial to the crops, but did not help the disease situation we have been seeing on the ears and stalks. We have been seeing a lot of diplodia on the ears which could make for some quality issues at harvest.

It sounds like the week of the 21st people are going to start looking for fields to harvest. However, the big decision will be at what moisture do we begin. With low prices and a possibility for lower than average yields it will not be economical to harvest high moisture corn, but with the late growing season it is possible that the corn will not dry down and we will have to harvest all of it wet. I heard the saying today if it gets to the middle of October and the corn is not dry then "forget it and get it". We will see.

We have managed to get in some dove hunting with my two retrievers (Drew and Alec). Our youngest also started his first day of preschool this week.

If you are on TWITTER sign into tweetchat.com and type in "on the farm" Thursday afternoon at 3 pm. I will be doing my first twitterview about our operation and Illinois agriculture with Nick Webb from Monsanto.

 

The countdown begins

 After a gorgeous week of weather in our area the countdown begins until we can get the first combine in the field. This past week we have had some warm dry air which has allowed us to finally see some change in the appearance of other corn and soybeans. In a typical year we usually begin harvest during the first week of September but now it is looking like it will be the third or fourth week. Hopefully some of our early planting will begin to reach physiological maturity (black layer) which usually means the moisture is in the low to mid 30% range.

We also visited the farm progress show this past week and was truly amazed at the display of agriculture products and exhibits. The kids and us had fun checking out the new and exciting things coming in the future.

This next week we will be getting the harvest equipment ready and making sure everything is ready to go, because it will be a late finish to the 2009 growing season.