Category: General News

2016 was certainly an interesting crop harvest season.  In central Illinois, we had a very warm somewhat wet season.  We expected to harvest our largest crop ever and we feel just short of that expectation.  When the final bins are emptied and all of the sheets tallied it appears that we will harvest the second largest corn crop and and the second largest soybean crop ever!

The harvest season was longer than our norm.  It really felt like we would be substantially complete by October 15th (45-55 days) and the actual date was closer to November 1 and final date was November 16th.  60-75 day harvest seasons are really hard on our farm operators and their families.  Long hours and short nights are the norm during harvest.  The sooner we are able to wrap up harvest the sooner we can get our friends rested and recovered.  Thankfully we made it through yet another season with no major injuries or major problems with our farms.

December brings planning season where our operators make their way into our office and we plan for the next season.  It is a time I relish and really enjoy catching up.  It is a time we can relax, reflect and put our thoughts and wishes together to present to our clients/owners for the next year.  It is a time where my time is precious and my phone is busy.  Accountants enjoy tax season; farmers enjoy planting and harvest seasons; I enjoy the year-end planning season!

Wishing you all a fun December!

Harvest if off and running here around Central Illinois.   I traveled last week in Iowa and found that they virtually had not started anything but Seed Corn harvest.  I would expect that we will get a good week in here.  Some of the early yield reports are all over the board.  I am hearing anything from 270 bushel per acre corn down to 100 (not here in Central IL) and 40 to 80 bushels per acre for soybeans.  The one constant is the ear diseases in all areas.

The very wet August contributed to the rise in ear rots.  Ear rots typically engross the majority of an ear of corn making it very difficult to harvest and making it undesirable for the end user (elevator or buyer of the crop).  There may be a single ear in a row that has this damage or several ears in an area of the field.  The elevator “grades” the grain as it is delivered, scores it and applies discounts per their schedule.  A severely damaged load was delivered in the south and the discount was $1.40 per bushel for the whole load.  Right now I don’t expect much discount but should harvest be delayed due to excess moisture it could be more of a problem.  I have attached a picture to show what I am talking about.

I will update the blog in a couple weeks as we continue to progress in Harvest 2016.

Feel free to browse and send me back your comments.  I will use this section to update everyone on important issues in respect to crops, farm ownership, farm investment and anything else that I think would be of interest.

This is an opportunity for you the client, the reader to interact as well.  I am very open to discussions on a variety of topics.  If there is something that you think may be of interest to others or yourself, please just ask.

My second post will be early next week as I discuss corn crop potential after this very warm summer.  We are finding some early surprises as we visit fields and estimate yield potential.  I have a couple of thoughts already but want to add facts to illustrate what I believe is going on the farm!