Wheat Harvest

Wheat harvest is over. Double crop soybeans are in the ground. The last fields will be sprayed tomorrow. What an experience this was!

I got to the highest point on the farms again yesterday and the breeze kept me alive in the awesome heat. Good thing I left Sable at home, it was not fit for man nor beast. It sure was a beautiful view from up there, though.

Thinking about the crop since I decided to go ahead with it in October, so much has happened yet it seems like yesterday. Pay day finally came, not as good as I had hoped but not bad either. That wet spring hurt the yield then the heat we had the last two weeks killed all the wheat around here prematurely. Usually harvest is around July 4. One year it went into August and that is bad.

I should average 60 lb test weight according to the weigh slips. That would be a new record for me but I would trade it for some of that yield loss. The miller ought to be real happy.

At least this gives us a two week jump on the double crop soybeans but I think the weather is two weeks ahead of the calendar and it really won't matter unless you didn't get yours in yet.

Some forecasters says we will still get remnants of El Nino but Dr. Elwynn Taylor at Iowa State says there is a 70% chance we are in La Nina and it will be hot and dry the rest of the summer. That is reminiscent of 1983, a very bad year for many farmers. Who knows?

We went crop scouting last night and we started to see early fields in tassle so we had to go by ours and sure enough, it had tassles peaking out! That is record early for here, too, I never saw corn in tassle in June before.

It doesn't seem to matter what maturity corn it is, if it is planted before April 26 it is flowering. That tells me it is under some stress from little roots but also reflects the amount of heat and rain it has received.

It's only a portion of the crop in southern Ohio but it feels good to see it. The news we were watching told viewers that local sweet corn is at the markets already and it was the earliest for it, too.

I hope we get a shower tonight or tomorrow to break this heat as predicted and then it will be nice next week.

I am just thankful for everything today and I hope you are, too.

Ed