Trent is pleased with the corn pollination. Due to the difficult conditions
early in the growing season, the pollination period is stretched out much longer
than usual, but seems to be going well anyway.
Soybeans are blooming well. The weed burndown is completed, making the
bean fields look much better. The improvement in bean fields you drive
by every day doesn't impress as much as fields you haven't seen for a few days,
according to Trent. Trent now believes the early-planted soybeans "look
pretty good," but the water-damaged fields are "not pretty."
Crop inputs next year are expected to be over $500 per acre, not counting the
cost of land or the interest expense. Careful management will be needed
regardless of what the grain market does.