We are in the home stretch of harvest season. We should be done if not by this weekend, certainly before Halloween. It has been several years since that has happened.

Though it feels as though things are being held together by duct tape and bailing wire, for the most part harvest has gone smoothly. I think the feeling comes from the season wearing thin on everyone.

I can tell the season is wearing on those outside the farming family as well. Yesterday I had a car pass the tractor from behind with one side of the car down in a 3-foot deep ditch with an oncoming vehicle less than 50 feet away. I also had a car pass the semi on the right in the exit/turn lane!

We sent a runner in a 100-mile loop to the south yesterday to pick up tillage wear parts. He reported there were still a lot of soybeans out. Farms have been wetter that direction and have struggled trying not to rut things up.

Elevator delays

Now, as fields are becoming fit, the major soybean processor in the area has stopped receiving deliveries for four days. Normally open 24/7 we expect the processor will open again on Sunday morning.

I sure hope everyone has an alternate plan. I have seen some other elevators posted as high as -73 basis. That is more than 30 cents worse than the processor.

We ‘stole’ a few days of cutting beans this year. Using the grain setup at my house we dried approximately 15,000 bushels. Gas cost about 1 cent per point of moisture. If we didn’t have that second grain system, we would have had to wait it out.

The first snow of the season came Saturday. I can’t say I was completely upset. Rachael and I had planned to take the night off. A farmer always hates to take time out of the fields when it is nice. This time there was no guilt as we attended the first ever concert in Notre Dame Stadium, Garth Brooks. (As a Purdue guy, this is the only reason I can think of to go to Notre Dame!)

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