Harvest for North Central & West Central Iowa will be pretty much done by the end of the week. Given what very little rain we received throughout the season, corn and soybean yields were better than expected.
When buying your seed corn and seed beans for next year, remember to spread your risk and plant earlier and later maturities. For example, last year the earlier soybeans outperformed the later maturities. This year is just the opposite. In North Central Iowa test plots this year, we placed a 2.0 maturity soybean next to a 2.5 maturity, and the 2.5 maturity won due to weather experienced in 2012. Last year the 2.0 maturity did better because of weather experienced in 2011. Corn is no different. Diversification is key.
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 