If you had asked me a couple of weeks ago, I would have told you we would be done with harvest before Halloween. We’ve still got about 15% to go, I guess that’s ahead of the state average, but it doesn’t feel like it. Fortunately, everything that is left is corn. It will take us 5-7 working days to finish.

Only light rain early Sunday morning will have us back at it first thing Monday. The next rain is forecast to come through Wednesday-Thursday. The last two weeks, we’ve only been able to harvest on Monday, Tuesday and Saturday. Hopefully we get a couple more days this week.

Last week, we cored the grain bins. What that means is we took corn out of each bin to make sure grain is keeping well. Even with spreaders in grain bins, a lot of the time fines and broken grain end up right in the center of the bin. Taking some grain out pulls these fines. Temperatures have varied greatly the last few weeks, and we haven’t had many cool dry days to run fans and cool the grain.

Steady yields – no records

We also did the calculations to make sure we will have enough room to complete harvest without delays. While corn yields have been steady, they have not been near records. Soybeans were finished this week, and we had some good with some disappointments likely placing us slightly above average. It has been a month since we were able to deliver any grain to the elevator. Even though there has been a 10-day run in the markets, elevators are still dealing with the glut from harvest.

I also took the time to determine our fall herbicide programs last week. I’ve come up with two mixes that will allow flexibility to go to either corn or soybeans. Both mixes are similar, using 2, 4-D and dicamba with the third component being either Express or Autumn Super. While the Autumn Super provides more of a residual application, it costs about 30% more. By label, Express can be applied until the ground freezes, and still does a good job. Each mix runs less than $10 (not including application) and should keep the fields clean thru April. If one wanted, they could swap a glyphosate for the 2,4-D and dicamba for even money or a little less. At this point I’m wondering how many acres we will actually be able to do. We will target the greenest and or habitual problem fields fist, as they are fit.

Typically, we see a season go from wet to dry or dry to wet. This year it has gone from somewhat wet to downright wet.

The opinions of the author are not necessarily those of Farm Futures or Penton Agriculture.