It has been a quiet week on the farm. It was much cooler and wetter. And we saw our first snowflakes.

Office and shop work is the main theme. We’ve got the service tech scheduled for the week after Thanksgiving to do ‘techy’ work on the combines and Quadtracs. We’ve just been keeping a list of non-critical items that need attention. Our goal is to have those machines reasonably clean before the tech shows up.

Basis improves. Demand doesn’t.

Slow grain movement by farmers has led to basis improvement in the last few weeks.

We kept the trucks moving every day. Soon one of our drivers will head south to his winter destination, so we are trying to get as much done as we can since basis has improved.

Unfortunately, one of the grain buyers we’ve used extensively for the last 10 years has had demand fall off and has not been a viable option. This means we’ve been having to go longer distances, which is eating up some of the financial benefit from the basis improvement. We’re spending more on fuel and labor.

Grain quality is good

Grain quality has been good so far with no issues. We have one corn bin left to core, but I need to get the new spreader installed. Hopefully, it will be here in the next couple of days. It’s much easier to work from the inside of the bin rather than take the air pipe loose and take off the lid. It is also much safer than being on the bin roof.

Related:3 pivotal points for holiday grain price moves

The plan for next week is to take things easy and take some time off. Maybe even take a quick trip out of town. The kids started pushing a couple of weeks ago to go get a Christmas tree and put up lights last weekend.

Hopefully, everyone can enjoy the Thanksgiving holiday.