We are about 35% done with corn planting.  Progress has been relatively slow due to the cold, rainy weather.  This week has been brutal outside with high temps in the 50’s and 25-35 mph winds.  The forecast for next week is looking really good!  Should see a lot of progress in the next 7-10 days.  Bean planting will also start.  So it should be a crazy week!

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We can see the light at the end of the tunnel!  We need a few more nice days to finish up. Hopefully we can get done before the next rain/snow event.  We were extremely please with our final bean yields and continue to be amazed at the corn yields.  This is definitely our best corn yields ever.  It makes harvest take longer, but definitely will be worth it.  We think we are seeing benefits from the drought of 2012 (there is always something good) both on loosening up the soil by being so dry and also freeing up fertility in soil. We feel that we are also seeing the benefits from our farming practices, variable applications, cover crops, and conservation tillage.

We have started spreading fertilizer on some of our cover crops and most of them are growing well.  The clovers are a little slow growing, but I think as long as we get some growth they will continue next spring. The remainder of fertilizer will be spread soon after we get new soil test results and variable rate spread recommendations. Also we will be applying fall herbicides trying to hold back winter annual weeds, as well as, trying to fight weed resistance in some of our hard to control weeds and get a jump on the spread of Palmer Amaranth which is a new species of the pigweed family moving in from the south that is extremely hard to control.

Thanksgiving was our goal date for harvest completion; hopefully we will be finished well before then.  Happy Thanksgiving!

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Randy kept his word and started combining on September 10th!  He expected to be combining corn but ended up  harvesting the beans here at our house.  Since then, we’ve combined a few more beans fields but so far it’s slow going.  Most fields just aren’t quite ready yet.  We did combine some corn also last weekend.  Mainly, we were just trying to get to get the bugs out of the grain drying system so we’re ready to go when everything does get ready.  Everything is working well now so we are ready to go hard whenever conditions allow.  So far yields have been good and we are hoping they stay at the levels we’ve seen so far.

Happy Harvest!

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We were blessed with plenty of rain in the month of June.  The crops are looking very good at this point.  Hopefully the corn pollinates well despite the ridiculous heat this week.  The weather is supposed to break this weekend with another chance of rain so if that happens we will be in great shape.

The picture below was taken recently up in Benton County at the original Geswein farmstead started by Randy’s grandpa, Clem Geswein.  It is now owned by Randy’s dad, Joe, and farmed by Geswein Farms.

Rick, Randy, Joe & Mark

The wheat harvest went well and the straw is baled.  The guys have been busy spraying bean fields again.  Once that is caught up, things should slow down for a month or so.  There are always tile projects to work on and other small jobs that get pushed aside during the busy season.  The main task this week is trying to stay cool!

Our annual landowner supper is Thursday, August 15th!

Randy and Mitchell taking a break from the family pics

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We are done planting! (at least the first time around)   We finished up on Monday, May 20th.   Things went smoothly once we finally got started and we missed a few rains to finish up in good time.  The guys always amaze me with how many acres they can cover in a day! Now we are hoping for nice rains spread evenly throughout the summer … dream on right?

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It’s been a beautiful week!  Yesterday in the 80’s and a brisk breeze! More of the same today except rain in the forecast again.  We would love to have another week or so of this great weather. We only seem to get three maybe four days of good weather before another weather front slows us down. If the rain holds off for another day, we should be able to finish corn planting.  Bean planting is well under way also.

The pictures above are of Mitchell and Randy in the corn planters.  They are able to run in the same fields using their ipads and 20/20 app, Randy can see exactly what Mitchell has planted.  Technology is amazing! It’s getting harder and harder to keep up with but it’s definitely worth the effort.

Rolling on …

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What a difference a year makes!! During the last week of March last year, we planted a field of corn. This year, 10 inches of snow! I think we have finally gotten the snow melted off, but the soil is very, very cold and very wet. The weather station is showing 38-39 degrees at 2 inches. We need 50 degrees soil temperature to get corn to germinate, preferably a dry and warming 50 degrees.

Our new planter finally arrived on Friday. If you have ever seen the CMT show “Trick my Truck”, that is what will be going on to the planter this week. We have pallets of parts and extra help lined up to get this done. The pictures above show the beginning stages of our version of “Trick my Planter”. With the week’s forecast for rain, we should have plenty of time to get this job completed.

As the weather starts to warm, we will be spraying to terminate the cover crops we planted last fall, as well as, get some pre-plant herbicide down. We also will be finishing applying some fertilizer and top dressing wheat as it starts to green up. So things are coming together as we prepare to put the crop in. Ideally we would like to start planting April 20th; however we will be ready by the 15th just in case conditions are right.

Happy Spring!

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We are so thrilled to be finished with the 2012 harvest!  What a year it has been!  Yields ended up being pretty much what we expected considering the severe drought we experienced.  So we count ourselves lucky to have good crop insurance and we eagerly move onto 2013.

November turned out to be great weather for getting fertilizer spread and getting some fall drainage projects completed.  We recently purchased a tile plow that we feel is going to be a great asset to us and our landowners.  It’s a very interesting process to watch.  I included a video below to give you an idea of what we are up to.  Another big project we completed this week was Indiana’s first bioreactor which we installed on our farm near Romney.    This was a project through NRCS.  A bioreactor is basically a huge filter.   The existing field  tile is tied  into the bioreactor which is filled with wood chips.  The wood chips  filter  out any nitrates before it empties into waterway.  It was an exciting project to be a part of.

We want to take this opportunity to wish you all a very happy holiday season!  We continue to count our blessings as we are so fortunate to work with such great landowners, employees, processors, and suppliers.

From our family to yours … MERRY CHRISTMAS AND HAPPY NEW YEAR!

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Now that we are ready to begin harvest and move past this miserable crop year, the rain won’t stop!  We’ve harvested a couple fields of corn so far and results are pretty much as anticipated.  When the rain gives us a few days break, things should really get moving pretty quickly.  At least the rain will keep the fire hazard down during harvest and it will allow our cover crops to get a good start.

We had a wonderful time at our Annual Landowner Supper on August 16th!  What a great group of people we work with!  It actually rained that day and we were afraid some would decide to just stay home, but we were delighted with the great turnout.

Thought I’d share one of Mitchell’s Senior pictures taken out at the farm.  Happy Harvest!

Mitchell's senior pictures

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