Martin Family Farms

Were getting there....

After a good weekend of harvesting we are beginning to see the light. As of today we are almost 75% done with harvest. If we can have 2 good weeks of weather (no rain) we would pretty much be finished. However, we can not afford to receive any more rain as we are going through standing water and lots of muddy fields and are being very cautious of where we take the combine. Our auger wagon did fall victim to the wet field this week as it did not quite make it through the wet spot with out getting stuck.  Almost everyone I know has had something stuck in the field this week. LInes are still long at the elevator forcing them to still close early from the high moisture corn. Most of our corn is still running @ 20%-24%. Yields are still doing well. The low lying black ground is the worst with the rolling lighter soils producing some really good yields. Below are a couple of pictures of what we have seen the last couple of days.

Happy Thanksgiving.....

As we enter on the holiday season we want to give thanks for all of our landlords,business partners, family members and all who help us on and off the farm throughout the year. If we did not have the relationships and support from those people we would not be able to enjoy farming and our way of life.

With that said, we would really be thankful for some dry weather as we have been harvesting the past 2 days in very unfavorable conditions. As you can see in the picture we have been taking the combine through several areas of standing water and muddy conditions. We are not doing the ground any good, but we are out of options and have to try and get the crop out ASAP.  There have been numerous reports of people getting their combines stuck as they try to harvest.

View from the combine ladder as we go through a field.  

Not a good feeling...

After a very wet week with most farms receiving another 3-4" of rain and more predicted for Tuesday we did try harvesting some corn on Sunday.  The field we started in was very muddy and the corn had fallen over in the past week due to the wet weather and wind. We are out of time in regards to waiting for the ground to dry out so we are trying to get the crop out ASAP.  There are still several fields with large ponds of water that we will not be able to get to for quite a while. I just hope the majority of the corn stays standing and we do not get any heavy snowfall.

With all of the wet weather we were able to take part in the shotgun deer season which was a major bust. No one in our families was able to harvest a deer. We did see some, but not the big ones that we know are out there. With all of the corn in the fields still I think that is where most of the deer are.

Just when you thought it could not get any worse.....

With a lot of rain coming down and more predicted, I borrowed a wagon from a neighbor to hold the last few bushels off of a field Sunday. I got two blocks from the elevator this morning and the wheel broke off and spilled the wagon on the main street in Latham.  I want to thank everyone who helped clean it up especially the guys at the elevator.

As of now we are about 60% done with harvest. Very little field work is done and there is a long way to go. With heavy rains predicted we might have to wait until it freezes to get some of the fields out.

Short Days...

We are finally having a good stretch of weather, but we are having to shut down the combine early everyday because all of the elevators are having a hard time drying all of the wet corn.  Closing times vary from day to day and between different elevators, but it is usually between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. This means that harvest will last even longer.  When the elevators do open in the mornings it makes for some very long lines. The picture below was taken today in Latham before the elevator opened. There were probably over 30 trucks in line down the street.

Slow but sure.

With harvest getting into full swing we are starting to see a major bottleneck at local elevators. Several elevators are being forced to close early because of the high moisture content of the corn. A lot of elevators in our area have been closing between 10 a.m. and 3 p.m. the last few days. As you can imagine it is really going to slow down harvest progress. We are just getting into our May planted corn and we are seeing moisture in the low-mid 20's and pretty good yields. I think that our harvest time will double if the corn does not dry down anymore and every bushel has to be dried. That means we are looking at late November or December before harvest is finished, and that is with no weather delays. We are hoping this weekend we can begin fieldwork and anhydrous application.

What is that bright thing in the sky?

Well we have survived another flood. After the torrential rains that we received again last week we have water where we do not want to see it. However, we do have a good forecast for the next 10 days so hopefully we can dry out and make another dent in the 2009 harvest. Virtually all of the creeks and streams were out of there banks and it will be at least 7-10 days without rain before we can harvest some of the wettest fields. We are hoping by the middle of the week we can get into some of the drier fields with the combine.

With all of the wet weather we have been able to get some hunting in. For the first time in my life I was able to get in on opening day of duck season. I was able to take my oldest son (pictured) for his first time which was a neat experience for him.