StillwatersIowa

Taking advantage of opportunities is essential in the farming business. Although the weather wasn't always perfect it did give us opportunities this past week to harvest. With the month of November arriving and with rain and snow in the forecast for this coming week, this past week was the time to work hard on combining corn and beans. Below is a Heartland Coop facility just east of Fairfield. Last weekend was wet with most areas in our community getting from a half to an inch of rain. So the focus switched to corn harvest early. Since Cargill/Eddyville was closed for it's annual weeklong shutdown our corn bushels went to the bin with grain moisture slowly coming down. Field conditions were borderline. However by late Tuesday we switched a combine to soybeans and Wednesday decided it was time to totally focus on soybean harvest. We moved south and combined BJ and Karl's crop east of Blakesburg delivering the soybeans to Fairfield. Southern Iowa has it's own...

It's the middle of the day. Things are going well. You get the urge to call somebody and just catch up. To let them know how things are going. To tell them some info you have. To ask them some advice. These are your "go to" friends. Folks you are totally comfortable with. Yesterday was kind of a "catch up" day. We had combined soybeans well into the night before. We were up early hoping for another productive day. However the air was damp and radar promised showers soon. I had broken down the night before combining for our neighbor and friends, Melvin and Joan. Matt and his son Jacob helped me repair a hydraulic reel drive hose and we finished up Melvin's soybeans just as rain drops started hitting the combine cab windshield.  Jan had snapchatted our Saturday farming crew she was planning on early lunch in the office so we hung around putting summer machinery away. I would again like to thank Jan, Cassia, Kristin, Emily, and Brent and Russ for takin...

The weather, the workload yet this fall, and the shorter days are all saying it's starting to feel like it's getting late. One of many Yogi Berra quotes is, "It's getting late early". Below Karl and Malaki are watching soybeans unload Tuesday night with the help of new LED lights that Karl recently installed on the bins.   We continue to harvest, often on multiple fronts. Yesterday we combined northeast of Peoria on some of Andy and Amara's crop. About midmorning we moved northeast of New Sharon and worked on some custom work for Jon. Gideon and his friend Emily helped Brad by running graincart south of Oskaloosa and Kurt was in a graincart by Eddyville helping Brent. Soil conditions are barely dry enough and the corn moisture continues to hang around that 22-25% range.  I've been driving semi and enjoy listening to the different instructions and conversations on the 2-way radio. Yesterday morning Mark and Stacy's Ethan was givi...