We are running out of dry corn in the fields to harvest. (And dry is still a relative term, I’m talking 25% moisture and under.) So, Saturday afternoon we let everybody go home early.

We decided to harvest our hybrid variety plot and pick on a field where we didn’t need somebody to run the grain cart. We have a few fields like this that are close to home. One truck driver (me in this case) can keep up. These fields provide an opportunity to give the guys a break, but we can also use these fields to do start-up or testing.

We were okay with a day or day and a half of slow time. We needed time to make final preparations to cut soybeans. We also needed time to make some repairs we found out about after harvest began. Tuesday evening we began soybean harvest. The beans were still a little wet, but we wanted to make sure machinery was working correctly, so we filled a semi truck. We also took the opportunity to calibrate the combine and grain cart. Wednesday spit at us a few times and though there was a nice breeze, it was cool and damp. The beans didn’t dry down enough to continue harvest.

The way the rest of the week is looking, it isn’t going to be good for harvest progress. With the possibility of showers every day or two, the crop just won’t dry much. We probably won’t even get the ½ point a day (in corn) I talked about in last week’s blog. The change in weather serves as a reminder that time will soon be of the essence.

Related:Corn harvest full speed ahead

No storage mistakes please

Friday will mark the end of hauling corn to the mill. When the premium dries up, we stop hauling and focus on harvest. The guys have hauled 41 loads of corn so far. The only other grain we have to haul during harvest is some soybeans. That was purposefully planned so I could ship GMO soybeans straight to the processor.

Simply put, this harvest movement is meant to help prevent anything stupid from happening. Stupid being finding a way to put beans in the wrong bin and contaminate the non-GMO crops. We will still have to do a combine, cart, and truck cleanout, but we won’t have to worry about dumping into the wrong grain bin.

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