Brandenburg Farms - The Field Report
December 29, 2011
Next year won't be the same as this year
 Trent Brandenburg makes a safe prediction for 2012 as he reflects on 2011. Trent is finishing his year-end bookkeeping and tax work, and hauling grain for January delivery as muddy conditions permit. Trent is happy for the rain, because the ground is not yet frozen, so the rain will soak into the soil and not run off as it would if the soil were frozen. Thus the groundwater supply will be recharged after the very dry late summer.
Trent said 2011 contrasted the wet spring with a severely dry late summer. The drought during corn pollination kept yields at the average level, but very strong market prices supported good financial returns overall. Trent sees 2012 being a challenge as market prices trend lower and farm input costs--seed, fuel, and crop protection chemicals--"are quite a bit higher." The probability of volatile market prices next year will require careful attention to marketing strategies and the timing of 2012 crop sales.
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October 21, 2011
A Decent Year But Not A Home Run
 As the first frost of fall appears in the Brandenburg fields, Trent looks back on a season which dealt some adversity, but ended with about average yields overall. Trent has completed his own fall harvest and tillage, but is still doing some custom work for other operators. The fall tillage has been made easier by some little rains "that should have come three months ago" Trent observed.
The serious drought in this area has caused the level of Lake Decatur to fall 2.5 feet since July; the City of Decatur has prohibited car washing and watering lawns, among other things. Trent hopes that his completed fall tillage will aid in capturing rainfall to recharge his ground-water supply.
Trent's yields were highly variable because of the very wet June being followed by months of drought. Crops in the low areas were damaged early by waterlogged soil. The conventional wisdom is that crops on the higher ground would be damaged by the drought but plants in the low areas would do better. Trent discovered that the early-season root damage kept the low-ground plantings from developing good root systems, so those plants were doubly-damaged by wet and drought, while the best yields came from plants on the high ground. These high-ground yields were in line with the high yields of recent years.
Trent is making crop insurance claims on the low-yielding acreages. The insurance payments will raise the net financial return on the land, "but I'd rather have high yields," Trent concluded.
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September 19, 2011
Trent Is Harvesting The Downed Corn First
 This picture of wind-blown corn in mid-season illustrates the problem with getting a combine and its corn head through a field of corn downed by wind damage. Trent Brandenburg has several of areas of fields like this from a windstorm this summer. Because it's slow going, Trent is harvesting these first, while waiting for the undamaged majority of his corn to dry down some more in the field. Trent says his moisture percentages are all over the place, from 15% to 26% at the extremes, but mostly in the upper teens-low 20s.
The USDA says about 5 percent of Illinois corn is harvested. The crop was 93 percent dented and 46 percent of the corn was mature, compared to the five-year average of 41 percent. The serious drought in central and west-central Illinois continues. Topsoil moisture was estimated at 32 percent “very short”, 39 percent “short”, and one percent surplus. Only 28 percent of topsoil was deemed adequate for growing. Field fires have been a problem in west central Illinois.
Trent has revised his corn yield estimate downward from "average" to "average with some below-average." It's too early for Trent to make a comprehensive estimate because the downed corn he has been harvesting is in only parts of fields, so the yield per field won't be known until the standing corn, expected to be better-yielding, is harvested as well.
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September 2, 2011
Every Different Color of Tractor...
 ...and every kind of farm implement you can imagine, were on display at the Farm Progress Show this week in Decatur. Seed and chemical suppliers had elaborate displays to explain their latest developments.
Trent went. "It's great that they have it," he said. Trent sees the show as more to educate the general public than farmers. "We live it every day. If our suppliers and sales reps are doing their job, we will already know about the latest developments." Trent liked seeing new things and the technology changes on display.
Trent took a day away from his corn harvest to visit the show. His corn is too wet to harvest, running from 18 to 25% moisture in the field. Although he has started harvesting, he is now waiting for more field drying until after Labor Day. "It's a cheaper dry than the elevator," Trent observed. The severely dry July has impacted corn yields but the test weights are are better than expected. Even though the corn yield is down from last year, the number is still at the average level, due to the greatly-improved corn genetics.
Trent will not begin harvesting soybeans for about a month. The earliest-planted beans are also hurt by the dry season. "They've done all they will," Trent said, noting that timely rains the next two weeks could still help pod fill on the later-planted stands of soybeans.
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July 19, 2011
Corn Tassels, But Not All At Once
 Trent Brandenburg is happy to see all the corn tassels but he would prefer that all of his plantings were tasseling at the same time. Due to the "water stunting" of plants which were in wet ground during the the protracted wet weather in May and June, the crop maturity progress is uneven. Trent foresees average to better-than-average yields. He's expecting some yield loss from the "hurt areas" that were too wet for too long.
Although the corn leaves are "rolling up" every day due to increasing dryness, Trent still sees his corn and soybean crops "looking good if we get some rain later this week." Trent is now spraying for control of water hemp and other weeds. Although some aerial spraying of corn fungicide has begun in the area, Trent tries to avoid that expense by planting varieties less susceptible to the common foliar diseases. Unfortunately, the remarkable progress in development of better corn genetics in recent years is still lagging in some foliar-disease-resistance traits.
.............................................. June 14, 2011
Corn and Soybean Planting Completed... Almost
 Trent Brandenburg has completed his corn and soybean planting, except for about 5% of the acreage he farms, which is either ponded or too wet for good crop growth. Unfortunately, a big part of that 5% might be found in half a 40-acre field that doesn't drain very well. In order to get maximum returns for all his landowners, Trent is still trying to replant some soybeans, especially where the ponded area is near the road so that the planter doesn't have to be driven over a significant area of healthy plants to get to the replant. Crop conditions can range from excellent to very poor in the same field due to the ongoing rains.
Trent has completed side dressing his plantings and is now spraying corn. The rainfall has been variable across the lands Trent farms, ranging from two-tenths of an inch in some places to two inches in another, from the same rain event. 95% of Trent's crops look excellent, with remarkably fast early growth.
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