Martin Family Farms

Summertime......

Well it is the last week of July and it is finally starting to feel like summer here. The baseball is over, vacations are over, the corn crop is moving along nicely and it is still hot. This has allowed Erin and I to get the house in order and actually realize that baby #4 will be here within a month. YIKES!! 

On the farm we have started mowing ditches and waterways and making sure all of the bin sites and farmsteads are cleaned up for fall.  We are also getting the 2011 "rough draft" cropping plans in order. As of now it does not look like input costs are going to come down any. Nitrogen sounds like it will be higher along with DAP . I have heard rumors that seed costs are coming down. That would be nice. Rents and lease terms are the only other big item to finalize. Hopefully, we will be able to get prices back to a good level where we can have a nice profit margin, but we have a little way to go to get to those levels. Rents have not come down much the last two years, even though prices have. I think  a lot of those decisions will be made as we get into harvest.

Drew and Alec in front of the Stan Musial Statue

hot...hot...hot...

As the hottest day of the year is baking us right now we are very thankful for the 3+" of rain that we received this past week. We managed to miss all of the heavy storms and got a nice rain that lasted for several hours and soaked in well. Some of our last planted fields are in the final stages of pollination and are ready to start filling the ears out. 

All of this hot weather is making it a little easier to stay inside and get our chemical and nitrogen billings done along with a lot of  other paper work. Our goal right now is to have everything ready to go for harvest by the end of August.  We have had some nice rally in the markets that last couple of weeks, but we would still like to see corn get closer to the $4.00 cash area. We made it to $3.70, but not quite where we want to make some more sales. Right now we have sold about 1/2 of our expected production for fall delivery of corn, and about 75% of our expected production on soybeans.  With cash beans over $9.00 we thought that was a good place to make some more sales. 

Time for a raindance...

Since we had the flooding a few weeks ago we have not had any significant rain, and after the hot weather the past 10 days and what is forecast this week we could use a nice rain. A lot of the crops are holding up pretty good,but that is going to change quickly if mother nature does not give us a drink this week.  On a brighter note we are getting a lot  of growing degree days built up with all of the warm weather. With a lot of growing degree days it will cause the corn plant to reach physiological maturity on or ahead of schedule. I have included a link that better explains growing degree days and how they are calculated if anyone wants to learn more. http://ohioline.osu.edu/agf-fact/0101.html

Nitrogen loss.....

As we continue to monitor fields we are still finding a lot of nitrogen loss in the areas that had the heaviest rainfall. Everytime I look at these specific fields I get more worried that they are not going to be very good. With all of the warm dry weather I am predicting these fields will be ready to harvest in the early part of September if not earlier. Hopefully some of  the naturally occurring nitrogen will offset some of the nitrogen loss, but I do not think I have ever seen corn plants "fired" this high up this early in the growing season. It does not matter whose field or what type of nitrogen or how it was applied, ther was just too much rain.  

This past weekend my family enjoyed our summer vacation to Starved Rock State Park on the Illinois River. With Erin only 7 weeks from having baby #4 we stayed kind of close to home this year. We had a blast on the trails and in the water park at the hotel.

Not so optimistic.........

As pollination begins to wind down we are starting to see the effects of all of the recent wet weather. A lot of the corn plants are starting to show nitrogen deficiency 3-4 leaves up the plant. Although the plant uses a lot of the nitrogen it needs prior to and during tasseling it is still not good to see that much of a problem this early. We have been dry for several days now and a lot of the leaf diseases have slowed down from these conditions. There are still things to watch for, but I am not as worried as I was earlier. I do think that with the uneven plants, nitrogen loss, and wet spots we will be lucky to have and average overall yield.

On a brighter note Derek, Renee, Erin and myself managed to pull of the big surprise party for mom and dads 60th birthday and 40th wedding anniversary last week. We managed to get them out of the house for a few days so we could clean the shed out and prepare for the party. We would like to thank everyone for coming and hope a good time was had by all.

Sweet corn is ready.

For the first time in a few years we have sweet corn ready on the 4th of July. With the the exception of the heavy rain the weather we have had has been great for crop development.  This past week the hot dry weather has been very beneficial for slowing down a lot of the leaf disease in the corn and it has been perfect conditions for pollination. We have not found any heavy infestations of insects in the fields (except for mosquitoes), and it looks like we are on track for and early start to harvest. That means the "to do" list for summer projects will have to get prioritized in case a few of them do not get done by September.

Boys getting some sweet corn ready for supper.