Hello, winter! (Just kidding – but it kind of feels like late November today instead of mid-October). At this time last year, we were done with harvest. On average, we’ve started harvest by now and would be on the tail end, wrapping up in the next week or two. This year, we haven’t even started yet. Yikes. It rained today and there’s a chance for more rain on Tuesday and again late next week. If we miss the rain, we’ll probably start soybean harvest next week. If it does rain…well…you’re probably in for a bunch more #FollowTheField updates. 😉
10/11/19 Update:
Cover Crop Soybeans (151 Days)
Check out the changes from just one week and two weeks ago. Three weeks ago, these plants were still totally green! This soybean pod is located at the top of the plant and was estimated to be about 13% moisture when I took the photo last night before it rained. Because there are leaves on the base of the plant still, we expect that the pods towards the bottom will have a slightly higher moisture content. Which is good – we can’t harvest these soybeans while it’s raining and it’ll probably be mid- to late next week before we can get to them. Soybeans are stored best at 13% moisture and we don’t want them to be any drier than that because we lose that water weight when we deliver to the elevator. The elevator credits us based on weight and doesn’t adjust for the lower moisture level.
You can’t really make it out in this photo, but the straw left from the cover crop is still there under the leaves!
Corn (129 Days)
And here’s the corn! This field is definitely mature – see the black layer at the base of the kernel sitting on top of the ear? Much more obvious than it was last week. Dad’s bite test (where he literally bites down on a soybean or a kernel of corn and estimates the moisture) says that this corn is in the mid- to upper 20s for moisture. Because it’s turned cooler for the season, this field isn’t going to dry down as quickly as when it’s warm out, but it could dry out some. Corn is stored at 15% moisture, so we’ll have to pay by the percentage point to dry each load of corn that we take to the elevator to 15%.
At this point in the season, soybeans are more sensitive to the weather. Soybeans can take on moisture from the rain, whereas corn cannot (remember how the black layer seals the kernel off from the plant?). Corn can be dried to the moisture we want it to be, whereas soybeans cannot. Soybean plants can also get “tough” to combine, so when the stalks get damp from the weather and don’t cut as nicely as drier stalks. Soybeans also have a higher risk of lodging, or the stalks falling down between rows, and that can cause problems when harvesting, too. Basically, if it’s going to be cold and wet this fall, we want to get the soybeans harvested first – it’ll be easier to deal with the corn than the beans, especially if it snows at some point (fingers crossed it doesn’t).
No-Till Soybeans (125 Days)
Same story here – these soybeans are pretty much ready at this point. See how small the soybeans are in the pod shell? And how much rounder they are now? It makes a rattling noise when you walk through the field.
And there’s the weekly update! Watch my Facebook page and Instagram (links at the right of the page or right side of the top menu bar) for any updates on when we’ll be harvesting. I’ll probably have at least one more #FollowTheField update this season, so check back next Friday. 🙂
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