As I’ve been around the community the past couple of days, preparations for harvest have started. Several farmers have pulled combine heads from out of storage to the shop for maintenance. Corn is moving along quickly as some of the early planted corn is well into the R5 growth stage. I’m not sure if that is good or bad, but corn should be loving the weather this week. Temperatures have been in the 80’s during the day and dropping into the 50’s at night. Soil is starting to get dry again, but I think there is moisture left in the subsurface.

Don’t feel bad if you’re not ready for harvest. The service tech told dad this week that in one day he had talked to four farmers who were still trying to get their planters put away. I guess we’re straddling the fence as the heads are out and so are the planters! Maybe soon we’ll get the planters put away and start working on the heads.

Irrigation has moved to the forefront again this week. We have watered corn, but the focus has been on soybeans. Plants are podded up and just starting to fill the pods. Sunlight and moisture is of utmost importance now through Labor Day.

As we check pivots this week, we are collecting water samples. It has been a few years since we’ve had the water tested for irrigation suitability. Our soil test consultant made this request to see if we are having any adverse interactions with the soil or crop. There might be more to come on this topic in the future.

As we restart pivots, we are making a list of repairs and updates that need to be done. Some are new items, some are left over from the spring or even last fall. The list will be divided and sent out to dealers who will hopefully get the work done before weather changes this fall. Once fall comes and especially when harvest concludes, the list seems to fall by the wayside until spring, then oftentimes it is too late to get everything done.

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