West Central Iowa by Travis Slusher
Again this week more RAIN. We saw 2+ inches across my region.
Before all of the rain, last week and early in the week we were able to do some harvesting. We took out a corn plot in Dallas County that averaged 19.8% moisture on corn ranging from 108- to 115 days. Latham Hi-Tech Hybrids LH 6598 VT3 topped the plot at 280.2 bushel/acre (bu/A) adjusted to check with a 55-pound test weight. LH 5896 VT3 came in at 270.5 bu/A on gross yield at 19.8% moisture, and LH 6068 VT3 looked extremely good with complete plant intactness and superior standability.
For the most part, the northern half of my area has progressed well with bean harvest and has started on the corn. Meanwhile, the southern half of my area has hardly started where moisture has been high across the board and ground conditions are less than favorable.
Let’s hope that Mother Nature gives us a break soon and strings together some good days of weather in order to get the ground conditions adequate for equipment and harvest as the fall season is growing short.
Northeast Iowa by Nick Benson
Follow me on twitter under “lathamcornguy” for up to date information as it comes in this fall.
Right now we’re still in a waiting pattern due to the weather, and many of the farmers are getting very anxious. Now is a good time to get out and check stalks for stalk rot to prioritize for harvest. Areas that hit by hail have smutted up and are infested by mold, so make sure to protect yourself from the harmful mold spores when we do get into this corn. We will be harvesting wet corn, but at least it appears that there will be a lot of grain to handle.
South Dakota by Bill Eichacker
Rains have been prevalent throughout my region, and with continued rain in the forecast, it will be a while before harvest will start again. Ethanol plants are paying a premium for dry corn and most elevators are adding additional dockage on 14%-plus moisture soybeans. A few dryers have burned drying soybeans. Be careful when drying soybeans. Keep the temp below 95 degrees and watch for any buildup on the continuous flow dryers. Also, farmers are finding hot spots in their air flow grain bins and build up on the sides. Pay close attention to stored grain this fall.
North Central Iowa by Kevin Meyer
North Central Iowa again experienced a very wet week. We only had a couple days of harvest with marginal conditions at best. Soybeans are being combined at higher than normal moistures. Caution will need to taken as high moistures soybeans are being stored and air dried. Soybeans treated with a fungicide have shown a 10 bushel increase in side-by-side comparisons. Corn continues to be harvested as conditions allow with moistures remaining higher than normal. Current estimates are soybeans are 50% harvested and corn is 20% harvested to date. Fall fertilization has slowly begun along with some fall tillage as conditions allow. This is shaping up to be one of the wettest and coolest Octobers on record.
West Central Iowa by Bart Peterson
Beans are 80% to 85% done and corn 10% to 15% done. I know corn is wet, but check for stalk rot in your fields. That may determine when to combine your field.
Wisconsin by Steve Bailie
The weather has proven to be very difficult this fall. Many growers were able to harvest only a few days this week. Even then they were pulling beans out at 15-17% moisture and putting them in the bins to dry before hauling them to the river. A few plots were able pulled out and the GenuityTM Roundup Ready 2 YieldTM Soybeans outperformed the RR1 technology. Many growers are excited to see what these new beans will do to increase their bottom line.
In corn this week, a number of growers pulled their high moisture corn out and put it into silos. Many large grain farmers are being pushed to harvest corn at moistures in the mid-20 percent for fear of running out of days without snow. Corn yields in Wisconsin have been very respectable given the challenging year that we have gone through. Many yield monitors in the southern part of the state are reading 180 to 220 bushels to the acre.
East Central Iowa by Wayde McNeil
Beans are 40% harvested and corn is maybe 5-10% done. It’s been raining again, so we had 2.5 days in the field this week.
Minnesota by Jason Obermeyer
Harvest progress is slow at best. With another round of rain the past two days – with no signs of improvement over the next four days – it appears that we could be harvesting corn on Thanksgiving Day. Of the very few bean plots that have come out, L2085R are having a fantastic year again and are leading the charge with L1983R doing well also.
North West Iowa by Bruce Anderson
Not a whole lot of harvest progress to report this week, but I do think 70 percent of the soybeans are harvested and about 5 percent of the corn is out. We had a real soaker Wednesday that will end all field work for this week. Still hearing yields in the mid 50s to low 60s.
Eastern Iowa by Brad Beatty
Soybean harvest is about 50% complete, and corn harvest is about 20% complete. Neither crop will dry down. A lot of people are putting beans in the bin and blowing air to get them dried down.
Nebraska by Brian Banks
Harvest has been nearly non-existent this week as cool, cloudy, wet weather set in. There are still a lot of soybeans to be harvested, and we have only scratched the surface on corn. The northeast part of the state received about 4 inches of snow and central Nebraska has reports of up to 12 inches this week. It feels more like January than October. Guys were able to harvest last weekend and some initial corn yields are looking very good. Stalk rots seem to be showing up more and more. Fusarium seems to be the most prevalent but there are a few fields with bacterial stalk rot. I have not looked at any fields with lodging problems, but I hope the weather dries out so corn harvest can start moving forward.
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