Fun for the whole family— or a date night with someone special? just doesn’t get any more affordable than this! Join Latham Hi-Tech Seeds in the Sheffield City Park beginning at 4 p.m. on Saturday Oct. 3, for all-you-can eat barbeque meats and chili plus a host of games and activities.

You can sign up at the even for horseshoe pitching, as well as greased pig and chicken catching contests, plus even minnow races. If tossing bean bags is your game, be sure to enter in advance as registration is limited to the first 24 teams. Registration forms may be downloaded from www.sheffieldiowa.com.

The Killer Hayseeds, one of the Midwest’s best pop country bands, will play from 7:30 to 11 p.m. And, of course, there will be a beer garden. (Seriously, how could it be called “Octoberfest” without a beer garden?)

Admission includes, the barbeque and chili, games and contests plus the live concert. The cost is $10 for adults; $5 for children, ages 6-12; and free for children, ages 5 and under. Gate proceeds will go toward new Sheffield Little League Ball Diamonds.

Northeast Iowa by Nick Benson
The crop is looking very solid in this corner of Iowa. Every customer I’ve been talking with is anticipating a bumper crop and expects to see record corn yields once the combines get rolling. Chopping is getting under way and will be in full swing next week. Some beans will get cut by the end of next week. White Mold is certainly the talk at the farm gate, as there are not too many fields without at least some white mold. Corn will be wet but most all of it will be to black layer by the time there’s a chance of frost.
This is a great time to get out in your fields for one last stand and viable ear count to see where we can improve during next year’s planting season. Once you punch the numbers into the yield formula, it becomes evident the importance of plant spacing and soil conditions at planting to achieve perfect stands and subsequent perfect yields. Having hybrids like LH 5066 VT3 and LH 5448 VT3 / LH 5446 TS with a final ear count in the 32-34,000 range is setting some very high preliminary yield numbers.
Have a profitable and fun harvest!
Eastern Iowa by Brad Beatty
Corn is dying from disease due largely to the amount of flooding our area experienced earlier this season. No corn has been harvested yet, but farmers have been chopping. Soybeans are very close to harvest and some should be ready next week.
North Central Iowa by Kevin Meyer
North Central Iowa remains dry with our last measurable rain falling on Aug. 26. Fortunately, a nice stretch of warm temperatures has moved corn and soybeans closer to maturity. Corn harvest has begun in southern Hardin County where a major hail storm in early August left crops severely damaged. Elsewhere in the area, soybean harvest will begin next week with corn close behind. As I’ve been traveling to field days and plot events, the hot topic has been the new GenuityTM Roundup Ready 2 YieldTM soybeans. Early estimates on corn yields are good considering the less than perfect growing season. Combines are idling and ready to roll.
Central Iowa by Bob Collins
Several bean fields very close to harvest in central Iowa. They look pretty good but are shorter than we would expect. We should have some yield data by next week on the early beans. My corn plot looks like it is going to yield very well. I counted one ear at 16 by 50 – a very long ear. The corn seemed to be drying okay. However, some of my neighbors who have chopped corn for silage think the corn is going to be very wet. If Mother Nature keeps up the nice weather, it will help a lot. It also looks like the corn that was side dressed with Nitrogen is going to yield much better than that with fall-applied NH3.
South Dakota by Bill Eichacker
This week’s weather conditions enhanced the corn and soybean conditions for maturity. We are still about 10-14 days behind normal in crop conditions. Starting Sunday, a cool front is expected to arrive but it doesn’t seem to be low enough for frost conditions. Silage cutters are seen in all parts of my region with a lot of corn in the silage. Round Up Ready 2 Yield soybeans are the subject of most conversations, and I encourage farmers to book some acres now to this new technology. With Latham Hi-Tech Seeds Early Bird Program, you can save most now through Sept. 25.
East Central Iowa by Wayde McNeil
Beans are starting to come off. One Latham® variety went 76 bushel per acre and another field with a different variety went 61 b/a. Early beans on good ground with good management are yielding well. Most corn has not yet reached the black layer.
Wisconsin by Steve Bailie
It was a great week for farmers in the lower part of the state as they were able to wrap up their corn silage. The majority of alfalfa is complete; the weather definitely had an effect on the amount of alfalfa tons that where produced from the fields in the northern part of the state. Beans in the northern part of the state have almost completely turned do to the lack of rain in the past two months. Many of the corn fields that were hit by hail in mid-September are starting to have issues with standablility and stalk rot. A local farmer took a ride in a small plane earlier this week and told me that the stalks on some of the corn are starting to fall, causing the corn to tip over. From the air, many of the beans fields show the amount of white mold we have this year. Many growers are starting to get there combines ready for beans or high-moisture corn.
Northwest Iowa by Bruce Anderson
Things are starting to heat up in the soybean fields. I worked the fair booth this week and received three different reports on yields. Two reports were on sandy soil and one on good ground. The sand soil yields were 41 bushel per acre and 44 b/a, while the better ground in Pocahontas County made a little over 61 b/a when it was hauled to town. Those are good yields for the early varieties, and I’m looking forward to more reports coming in next week.

Southern Minnesota by Jason Obermeyer

Unfortunately, the quality of the crop is not what it was just three weeks ago. Some ears are tipping back primarily due to lack of rainfall since completion of pollination. We couldn’t have asked for better weather during pollination, however, we can’t expect miracles to happen when we haven’t had an precipitation for three weeks. Watch stalk conditions very closely. There are significantly more stalk problems out there than what we tend to see from “the drive by” scouting method, especially where there may have been hail damage. In a couple of fields that I have looked at this week, the ear size is very respectable but the stalk quality is questionable at best. When I did the “push test”, 11 out of 14 stalks snapped off at the first node above the ground. With an ear size average of 16 around and 32 deep, this is an approximate yield of 193 bushel / acre at a population of 34,000. The HARVESTABILITY of this crop will be jeopardized by a wind event when the stalks are leaning at or near ground surface. Even though you may end up paying more to dry the crop by harvesting it sooner, you will ultimately have more of the crop to harvest than if you wait for significant dry down and the possibility of “down corn.”

A bean plot near Colo that does a good job showing the different maturities.