Rains on the wish-list for August

Doug Miller

Since the dry spring, we’ve had plenty of rain, but it’s been it’s been over a week since it rained and we’re ready for another shot. We missed the round this morning. We got a sprinkle out of it but it all went north of us. More rain is in the forecast for today, so hopefully we’ll grab one. If we can snag a couple of rains here in August, we’ll be in really good shape. Things are looking good. 

We’ve been spot spraying beans for weeds because of all the moisture coming and we wrapped up fungicide application on the beans. We also threw some insecticide in because we had some Japanese beetle issues. We just got that wrapped up and we’re trucking out wheat from harvest, we’re doing grain bin maintenance and when it gets real hot late in the afternoon, we call it a day.

From what I’ve seen, pollination was very good. Ears are pretty well filled to the tip. We had some cooler temperatures and, along with the moisture, it definitely helped pollination. I think the corn is going to be very good, especially if we catch a couple rains here in August.

The double-crop beans are out of the ground and growing, but it will all hinge on how early it frosts. The last few years we’ve double-cropped and we’ve done pretty well with them. We’re planning on planting a little over 100 acres of wheat to do it again next year. We planted a shorter season bean where we want to plant wheat so we can get in there and get it planted in a timely fashion.

Crops seem to be a little behind, maybe because of all the cloudy conditions and the smoke from the forest fires. We just didn’t get as much sun this year.

Lawrence Onweller

It’s not been perfect, but we’ve been getting about an inch of rain at least once a week or so. One time we got two inches. We had a couple of bean fields that got drowned out. We were very dry early, but since then we’ve had really quite ideal rains. 

The corn is starting to look pretty good. The bean fields are coming along too. There really have not been any nice looking, waist high bean fields so far like we’ve normally had, but beans are coming along and they’re starting to pod. The beans were couple weeks behind on starting to flower, but they’re flowering now.

A lot of the corn is pollinated, but it’s uneven. When you look across the field you can see the tile strings. There will be tassels on top of the tile string and then in between the tile strings sometimes there’s not. I would say probably well over half of the corn is pollinated and coming along. It’s just late. 

At harvest we’ll have a wide variety of moisture levels, but it is not the first time we’ve had that. It makes it hard to dry it so it stores better. It’s just something you’re going to have to watch for.

The planes have been quite active spraying for tar spot in corn and you see the Hi- Boys going through doing the same thing.

Jeff Magyar

We got seven tenths last night. Two weeks ago, we got 2.5 inches and things are looking better, though the beans in any low spot are yellow. If you go five miles north of us where they were getting rains all along, the beans are terrible — whole fields are yellow and sickly. It may be Phytophthora. I just can’t believe it goes from one extreme to the other. 

To the north they were getting two inches of rain early when we were getting two tenths. Our crops looked bad and theirs looked good, but now it has switched. I think 40 bushels would be a generous estimate on what those fields are going to yield if it doesn’t snap out of this.

The very latest corn is just tasseling now, but I’d say 80% of the crop is pollinated. It had adequate moisture and good temperatures.

I was peeling back the ears and counting kernels. Rows around were 14 for the average. Normally we’re 16 to 20, so I think this crop is going to have trouble being average. The corn looks good, but I was surprised. Rarely did I find a 16-row cob. 

There are some escaped weeds coming through the Roundup beans. Marestail started to poke through, but it’s not terrible yet. After this rain, I’m curious what it’s going to look like. There’s some common ragweed coming through too. 

The oats were good. They were surprisingly 110-bushels. I would have never guessed that for as dry as it was when they were filling. They were very good considering the year and the quality was good. Test weight was 35 to 36, which is good heavy oats.

We’re looking forward to a nice August with good rains, but not too much rain.

Kyle Nietfeld

 Everything is still looking good. Last week on Friday and Saturday, we received right around an inch of rain. Then last night and this morning we received about eight tenths, so everything is shaping up to be a good year. Within a day of getting rain, it’s dried back up on top at least. But then it seems like as soon as it starts to get to the point where it’s getting dry again, we get just enough rain to get by for a while. 

Around here the corn is probably 90% to 95% pollinated. We had four or five days of really hot weather in the 90s, but it’s been nice ever since, so I think majority of that should be good. And even when it was in the 90s, the evening temperatures dropped down into the 70s, so it wasn’t the end of the world.

The double-crop beans are growing and looking good. If the frost holds off, we’ll have something to harvest at least. That’s always a plus when double-crop beans make it. They’re really coming along. The rest of the beans are setting pods. These rains so far in August have been really helping, and we should be looking at a pretty good crop there too.

We sprayed fungicide on some corn just based the rains we’re getting. There’s just one hybrid we have that showed on the scorecard that it should probably be sprayed.

It has been a good year for spreading poultry litter. We’ve got a few chicken houses left and then quite a few turkey barns to go, but everything’s going well. We’re ahead of schedule.