Brandenburg Farms - The Field Report

February 2, 2010
Moving Grain and Watching the Bins

Trent Brandenburg is moving grain and watching his bins. Due to the record-setting wet weather last fall, most grain was put into the on-farm storage bins wet. Fortunately, the continuing cold weather has kept the stored grain cool. By just aerating the bins with blowers, the grain condition has been maintained through the winter. Trent wants to get the grain moved to the elevator (and pay for the drying there) before it gets warm enough to threaten the quality of grain stored on the farm. He estimates that his grain moving is about three-quarters complete.

"Nobody got much field work done last fall," Trent observed, recalling the wet harvest weather. "Now when it thaws, it's just mud," he continued, expressing hope for dry weather in late February and early March, "...so I can get some chiseling done to eliminate compaction from running the combine over muddy ground, to get the crop out last fall."

Trent is optimistic about the new growing season and looks forward to seeing the rows of green corn and soybean seedlings emerging in the fields he farms, as warm spring weather returns to central Illinois, for a growing season everyone hopes is better than last year.

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December 15, 2009
"I'm Worn Out" -- Trent Brandenburg

Trent Brandenburg wonders why three things, finishing a long and difficult harvest, tax time, and Christmas, all have to come at once. Trent's young daughters are anxious for the Christmas tree to be up and decorated, while Trent is figuring taxes, while recovering from the stress and long hours of the harvest.

Happy that the harvest is finally over, Trent is thankful for the good yield, despite the "terrific drying bill" due to the record-wet harvest. "I'll take the yield and pay the bill," he observed. The next challenge is getting any field work done in the wet soil. Trent has done some ripping, even though the freeze from the cold nights last week is "a couple of inches deep". The rains the past few days have thawed the soil some, but made it "very slippery", so more field work will have to wait for some freeze drying. Reminded of the old saying, "let sleeping soil lie," Trent said "The soil doesn't get to sleep until I do."

Trent predicts that the lack of fall tillage due to the wet weather may affect planting choices next spring. Corn-after-corn rotations might not work because late planting next spring will reduce yields and profitability. Some corn-after-corn rotations would get switched to soybeans next year, he believes, to make time for field work next spring, that is done in the fall most years.

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December 1, 2009
The Last Row Of Standing Corn Is In Sight, Sort Of

Trent Brandenburg is happy to be 75% done with his corn harvest and completely done with his soybean harvest. The combination of muddy fields and corn-drier delays at the elevators have stretched out this year's harvest well beyond any of recent memory. The corn is coming out of the fields at about 25% moisture, 'way too wet to store. This has so overloaded the elevator drier capacities that the elevators have often stopped taking corn at noon because they already have all they can dry the rest of the day. Trent has avoided using grain carts in the muddy fields in order to minimize compaction. This also increases the harvest delay because the combine is not combining when it travels to the edge of the field to unload the combine hopper into the semi-trailer.

Trent believes he will complete his corn harvest in about a week. With a hard freeze predicted for the first weekend in December, as long as the precipitation is light snow flurries and not heavy snow or ice, Trent anticipates no further weather delays to this difficult and prolonged harvest, finishing a stressful season which has been near-record wet and weather-delayed since April.

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November 3, 2009
Happy to be Harvesting

Trent Brandenburg is happy to be harvesting after a month of historic rain delay. The second-wettest October in the history of area weather records has kept combines in the machine shed waiting for the rain to stop. The rain delays to planting last spring and the rain delay to harvesting this fall have made this year's harvest the latest in recent memory. Most farmers are just getting a good start at a time when harvest is usually completed.

The fields are still muddy enough that Trent has to "pick and choose where to go" to avoid the wettest areas. Some April-planted corn is afflicted with mold problems, but Trent's corn was planted in May. He says, "I haven't seen any mold yet." His corn yield is running 180 to 210 bushels per acre (dried corn). The yield monitor on Trent's combine is showing moisture levels of 22-23%. The standability of Trent's corn is still "pretty good" despite wet ground and heavy winds last week.

Trent hopes to finish combining soybeans by the end of this week. He is waiting for the ground to dry in some bean fields. Cutting the beans close to the ground, to maximize yield, is difficult in wet ground because the wet bean stalks "ball up under the combine head". The trucks transporting grain to the elevator are taking longer than usual to make the round trip from the field due to lines of trucks waiting at the elevators in this fall's rain-delayed first harvest rush.

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October 12, 2009
It's Really, Really Wet....

Trent Brandenburg, like nearly all of his east central Illinois farm neighbors, is watching it rain when he would rather be harvesting corn and soybeans. He has measured 4 inches of rainfall in less than a week. The corn will not dry down enough to pick; the soybeans are at 17% moisture which is too wet to cut due to the large revenue loss to the producer because the elevator will dock heavily for the wetness.

Trent estimated that in this area less than 5% of the corn and less than 7% of the soybeans have been harvested due to the wet weather and muddy fields. "We're usually half done by now," Brandenburg observed. The corn and soybean stands and yields look "good" at this time, despite the wet weather. Although diplodia fungus has been reported in harvested Illinois corn, Trent has not seen any in this area yet. "It'll get better one of these days," he concluded.