Crops Look Good!!
June 2015 Farm Report
Trent Brandenburg is happy with the early performance of his corn and soybean crops this year. The corn is a vigorous dark green color and well beyond the old “knee-high-by-Fourth-Of-July” benchmark. Trent thinks the recent rains have helped the soybeans get going.
“The beans now have some color,” Trend said. Trent now is mowing the rapidly-growing grass. He’s waiting for the soil to get dry enough sohe can get into the fields to spray his soybeans with weed control chemicals.
Trent is not planning to use any insecticide or fungicide on his corn and soybeans this year. He doesn’t see that the increased yield will cover the application cost, due to the low market prices. The input costs have not followed the markets down. “We don’t need another big crop to depress the markets,” he said. Trent looks for larger yields than last year anyway, because this year the production will not be lost from many drowned-out field areas which were non-productive last year.
More from The Field Report
Not Quite Harvest Time Just Yet
Trent Brandenburg's earliest-planted corn is "about a week away" from drying below 25% moisture. At that level, he could lower his drying expense at the grain elevator. "Now, if there's an incentive..., " Trent indicated that an elevator offering a [...]
Replanting Done, Corn and Beans Look Good
Trent Brandenburg has replanted his few ponded field "wet spots" as many as three times. The replanted areas are "thin," Trent observed, because "It has been too wet. But at least [replanting] will keep the weeds down." Trent is now [...]
First Round Of Planting Done, Ponds Need Replanting
Trent Brandenburg is done with his "first round" of planting, as he puts it. The corn and soybeans he planted in April are up and growing in excellent condition. Trent's later-planted crops are germinating but not as far along as [...]