Martin Family Farms

It is hard to imagine that summer is almost over, but with the school starting next week we are also in the last week or two before harvest starts. Last week we had some corn testing in the upper 20's and lower 30's. As we continue to examine some of our fields we are finding decent corn where there was rain. This past weekend there was some rain in the area, but other areas did not get anything. I think we will have 100 bushel swings between fields this year and they could be within a mile or two of each other. Mt. Pulaski was hit with a pretty good hail storm which left a lot of the crop damaged in that area. We will have to meet with the adjusters to see how much it actually hurt the crop. We are also putting together our cropping plans for 2012. We are still not sure how many acres of corn we will have, but will probably keep the same percentage as we have in past years. The rest of the week we are putting the final touches on equipment, trucks and making sure we have all of the mowing done and maybe the honey do list!

One extreme to another...

Well after two weeks of no rain and 25- 30 days of extremely hot days and nights it has really taken a toll on this years corn crop. In our area we had been expecting a pretty good crop but now we are hoping for and average crop. Right now I am guessing we have lost 40-60 bushel per acre off of our yield potential. This is mainly from kernels that did not pollinate or aborted kernels after pollination. A lot of fields look pretty decent still, but there are some that look horrible and will not produce much. Several of the fields are really starting to change in appearance and it looks like harvest will be sooner rather than later. With all of the hot weather we are now busy trying to get summer jobs done and get the fall equipment ready so we can be ready for harvest. Right now I would guess the last week of August or definitely the first week of September we will be able to start harvest. This past week we also became the proud owner of a new addition to the family. Drew caught a goat in the 4-H scramble at the Logan County Fair. This will be his first year for 4-H and he will have to show the goat at next years fair. Alec also caught a chicken but we did not get to bring it home.