Harvest

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Reaping the Harvest

Reaping the Harvest; what started months prior, with soil sampling, seed selection, planting, fertilizing, spraying, and praying for rain, climaxing with gathering the crop that we worked so hard to produce.

Operations Corn

We operate two combines and two grain carts in the harvest field when the corn yield is high. Unloading on the go from the combine to the grain cart creates optimum efficiency. Our truck lineup will vary as well, depending on distance to the elevator and the yield of the crop. Three to four semi’s are usually sufficient to keep the combines moving forward when hauling to the bin or elevator. For extra storage we started utilizing grain bags at the edge of the field.

Bags vary in size, but the ones we use hold around 12,000 bushels. It takes a special machine to load the bag, but it saves time and labor as the cart dumps directly into it, eliminating the need for trucks. Using another machine at a later date, we unload the grain from these bags and haul it to the market end point.

Operations Wheat

For wheat we use shelbourne headers to leave as much stubble standing as possible. Stripper header harvested stubble provides more moisture conserving benefits than conventionally harvested stubble. Research has found that the stripped wheat stubble reflects heat, reducing evaporation. It also increases water infiltration, traps snow and, ultimately, increases soil water storage furthering the reduction of evaporation.

With only 20 inches of annual moisture, we have to do everything we can to preserve moisture. The value of one inch of stored water can equal an average of 25 additional dollars per acre, depending on the crop. The result of moisture conservation is usually quite evident the first week of May, when corn planting begins, continuing through the heat of August. Thus making it paramount to keep moisture in the ground under that blanket of straw.

Technology & Data

The grain cart operators monitor and log the scales data loaded out of each field. One of which is on an ipad, which can also be viewed from the combine via bluetooth to the iphone. Each load is recorded on each field and a summary can be emailed back to the office for printing. The second cart we run in fall crops keep a written record which is added to the electronic record after each field is completed. This final summary includes cart scales weight, time loaded, field, gps location, and elevator account number. This helps keep everything straight when checking ticket errors by totaling loads for each field.

Elevator scale tickets and grain cart logs from the prior days harvest is checked, recorded and filed for future reference. At the end of harvest, data from the combines can be downloaded and printed for the file as well which includes yield from every portion of the field. This data is important to the landlords and the insurance agent who keeps a record of average yield history. This yield data also needs to be recorded at the FSA office and crop insurance team.

Insurance

We carry Federal Crop Insurance and report our yields after each harvest to calculate into a running average for each field. The price of insurance depends on the level we choose. We typically use a 70% – 75% level, picking the point of “Best bang for our buck”. In the event of a loss, the insurance price (obtained from a futures average during the month of harvest) will be multiplied by the coverage percent of our proven yield developed from each year. It is very important to maintain good yield averages to optimize insurance returns.

Wheat Harvest 2024

As wheat come out of dormancy this spring, the dry conditions found this years crop to be quite lacking in moisture. However, God provided adequate rains going into spring that resulted in one of the better crops we have ever raised. Rains during harvest lowered the test weight a couple points, but the yields remained strong.

The price of wheat remains volitile as eyes keep turning to global unrest. This can make for a short window of opportunity to market for a profit. Our whole farm average of 78 bushels per acre doesn’t quite reflect the great year we had for wheat. Two varieties, Ruth and Monument, will be retired as these brought our average down quite a bit with yields 30 bushels per acre under the average and 50 bushels under the top producing variety of Lynk and Wolverine. Regardless, we are very pleased with this years crop.

Wheat Harvest Highlights

Whole farm average was 78 bushels per acre.
Test weights ranged from 56 to 61 pounds per bushel.
Grain moisture content averaged around 10.5%.
The highest yield was 107 bushels per acre.
The lowest yield was 52 bushels per acre
The stubble left for ecofallow is quite thick.

Corn Harvest 2024

This year we began planting once again with a low profile of moisture. However, not long into our planting the rains come. And they kept coming. That delayed planting until mid to late May. During the growing season we were fortunate enough to get some timely rains to keep the yield potential promising. Harvest was very intermittent due to the moisture content in the grain, but that meant good yields. Our whole farm dryland average was 148 bushels per acre and 236 on irrigated. Harvest moisture remained high but eventually dried down enough to put it in the bag for later delivery. Completed in the third week of November.