Podded Up

Arkansas Plowboy posted these pictures on Crop Talk. Now this is what I am after!

Granted they are a month ahead of my first beans and two months ahead of most of them but look at those pods! These are actually his neighbors picture and he said he won the Arkansas soybean yield contest last year with 95 bu per acre. USDA numbers around here are 43-44 bushels per acre.

I wonder where he is located and if his neighbor is Hinkebein or one of those other famous southern growers? Profit is my main motive but it takes affordable yield to get there. Big yields aren't bad!

Every soybean grower like me wants all the details. We want to know the field history, tillage practices, lime and fertilizer, variety, crop rotation and the list goes on and on.

I have my own philosopy and I have shared it at National NoTillage Conference and many other places. This coming week I get to rub elbows with the best at Memphis, Tennesee. I know I will learn something, I always do.

You see this whole thing goes with the hungry planet I posted yesterday. Thanks for the positive email. One farmer said he printed off pages of the you tube to hand out to friends. Some of us are continually educating our non-farm friends and neighbors.

Marketing these beans are a whole different story. Our price in the states has stayed above anyone's projections as the South America crop has been slow to impact us and that hungry planet is hungrier than we thought.

Marketing is a key to the game of farming. Some of the most profitable farmers do not raise the best crops. You can take 10 bushels off and sell for a dollar more and make more money.

It is raining right now, Praise the Lord! The beans are flowering and podding and the corn is filling ears. Thankfully we have the weed and insect control caught up. Disease could rear up yet but that 90 degree heat killed a lot of disease.

Won't be long we will all be driving by fields that are all podded up, some will have more than others.

Ed