Eastern Iowa by Brad Beatty
Soybean harvest is 95% complete. Corn harvest is 50% complete. The corn has dried down surprisingly well, dropping about 5 to 8 points in the last 10 days.
Wisconsin by Steve Bailie
Many growers in the southern part of the state are wrapping up both their corn and soybean harvest. The last 12 days of warm dry weather has allowed many of them to harvest early in the morning and go late into the night. In northern Wisconsin, it’s a different story. For example, in the New London area, 50% of the beans and more than 80% of the corn are still in the fields. Many of the grain elevators are not able to take the wet corn in because their drying system simply cannot keep up with that amount of wet corn. Many growers are very pleased with their yields this fall but where not expecting to spend the large amounts of money on their propane bills.
East Central Iowa by Wayde McNeil
Bean harvest is complete, and corn harvest is 70% done. Moisture is running at 20%, and average test weight is 52 to 57. Fields are drying up nicely for fall field work.
North Central Iowa by Bart Peterson
By the weekend everything should be combined and done in North Central and West Central Iowa. Anhydrous is going strong and tillage also.
South Dakota by Bill Eichacker
Most of the soybean acres have been harvested. L2085R and L2440R2 finished strong in the super strips taken out in my region. Corn harvest has been going strong this week, but field conditions are wet to say the least. Yields are coming in higher than most farmers expected, but the moisture content is also higher than expected.
Minnesota by Jason Obermeyer
The last week provided some beautiful drying weather, so harvest is full throttle ahead with the race to get tillage done before the next round of wet weather. Corn moistures have come down approximately 4 to 6 points on some varieties since last Thursday and test weights also have been inching their way upward. Soybean harvest is nearing completion with only some extremely wet areas, which were unreachable last week, still remaining. While traveling the Highway 212 corridor from Granite Falls to the Twin Cities, it looks like a demilitarized zone with ruts in the fields everywhere regardless of slope. It will take an extremely cold winter to break some of that compaction loose, but when mother nature gives you an opportunity of sunshine…. you take it.
North West Iowa by Bruce Anderson
Things are moving right along now that the weather has cooperated. Soybeans are finished and the corn is well under way. I’d say 50% of the corn is out and is still rather high on moisture, ranging from 19 to 25%. Yields continue to be fantastic, well over 200 bushel/acre in most cases. Soybean yields were also quite good, considering the less than desirable weather conditions we faced throughout the growing season. Most fields were in the 50s and lower 60s. By this time next week, tillage should be underway. Elevators are closing at 1 p.m. daily to keep up with the drying.
North Central Iowa by Kevin Meyer
What a difference a week can make! Soybean harvest is all but complete. It’s amazing the amount of acres that can be covered when Mother Nature cooperates. Overall, yields and quality remain good. L2085R’s, L2082R’s and L2285R’s have had a great year in my area. The RR2’s (2182R2’s & 2440R2’s) did very well in a Super Strip near Geneva. This looks to be awesome lineup for Latham Hi-Tech Soybeans in 2010!
Corn continues to be harvested at a steady pace. I’m estimating corn harvest at 66% complete as of today. Moistures are moving downward and are a little more manageable this week. Quality seems to be good with a few scattered reports of mold. At this time, I have not heard of any elevator discounts but caution needs to taken when working with this corn crop. Yield data is a little slow to come in this year, but early indications are that yields are similar or a little better than last year in the North Central region.
Northeast Iowa by Nick Benson
We have made a lot of progress since the last report. Only 10% of the bean harvest is left, and we’re taking out the corn harvest like never before. Most of the growers in my area are feeling Old Man Winter breathing down their backs and are aggressively getting the corn harvested. The biggest talk in the field has been dry down. We’re having an unprecedented late dry down of this year’s corn crop. I’ve seen moistures drop by 5 to 10% which is extraordinary for mid- November.
Latham Hi-Tech Hybrids like LH 5228 VT3 have done an outstanding job at drying down. Other hybrids that have been performing well in northern Iowa are: LH 5033 GT3000, LH 5228 VT3 and LH 5372 RR / LH 5376 VT3. On the bean side, L2440R2 has shown astonishing yield gains – 10 to 15% – when compared to plot checks. It’s all about yield with this line and it’s very impressive!
With the low amounts of sleep and high amounts of pressure to get this harvest in, it’s a good time to remind everybody to keep safety at the forefront.
Follow me on www.twitter.com under “lathamcornguy” for up to date information as it comes in this fall.
When I sit down to write articles for our blog, I feel like I'm sitting down with my family at the dinner table, ready to talk about 